Comments on your blog...

[bornstein75]

Hi guys,

Is it important to allow commenting on your blog, or does it depend on what you want your blog to be...eg...either just informative or you an to create a community atmosphere?

If commenting is important, should my blog be DoFollow or NoFollow?

[amibr]

Do you want to interact with the readers? Interaction is normally an important part of a blog. I personally find it extremely annoying when you go to a blog and can't leave a comment. (Even worse is when there is no email to email the person behind the blog as well)

Have you read up on nofollow or follow? This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow) might help.

[StephenT]

I agree with Linda. I hate it when I can't comment. I think the comment section lends some authority to a site. When I go to a blog and see no comments, I begin to wonder about the worth of the blog. Just my opinion.

[webmann]

It's almost an expected feature for a blog to have comments and I agree that it is disappointing to get to a blog and they have comments turned off. Usually I will just leave the site and make a mental note to not bother returning. There are plenty of blogs that have similar content that do allow us to comment.

I had one of my blogs set to DOFOLLOW but in no time I was getting so much spam I had to re-think that idea and now they are all nofollow.

What I do on blogs, even though they are nofollow, is to try and be the first to comment and to leave added value comments so that people actually take the time to read and even follow through on my link.

[lindastacy]

Personally, I wouldn't stop reading a blog just because I couldn't comment. But I also wouldn't present information as a blog if I wasn't going to use and encourage the community/social media aspect of it. There are blogging platforms (including self-hosted WordPress) that can take full advantage of the other benefits, but be presented more like a static site and look nothing like a traditional blog.

[webmann]

Personally, I wouldn't stop reading a blog just because I couldn't comment. But I also wouldn't present information as a blog if I wasn't going to use and encourage the community/social media aspect of it. There are blogging platforms (including self-hosted WordPress) that can take full advantage of the other benefits, but be presented more like a static site and look nothing like a traditional blog.

I guess I have too much on the go, that never seems to change, so I only spend time on blogs, other than in my non-business hours, that allow me to take part in the conversation.

I suppose if I couldn't find the info I was looking for elsewhere I would not leave the site. :)

[bornstein75]

Can someone tell me how to set your wordpress blog to NoFollow or DoFollow?

Also if you are seraching blogs and you want to find out if they are DoFollow, I have installed a plugin that highlights the links as Do Follow/NoFollow links, but how do you know if the actual blog in DoFollow by the color coded links?