As a follow up to our post Technical Tidbit- What Does rel=”nofollow” Mean to You? we wanted to share with you our very generous policy on comments.   There are 2 fundamental principles that guide us in creating this policy:

1. Where feasible, we prefer to regulate the quality of our blog through involvment and interaction, not through automated tools.
2. We are ecstatic to let people who add value to our site simultaneously add maximum value to their own site.

Here’s how we accomplish those goals.

1. YOU MAY USE YOUR KEYWORDS AS YOUR NAME WHEN COMMENTING.  Most sites frown upon this, but we see no good reason why we should prohibit that practice.  If you own a massage parlor in phoenix, then enter your name as Phoenix Massage.  If you own a mortage company in Quebec then enter your name as Quebec Mortgage Company.  It doesn’t matter to us what you put.  What does matter to us is that you get top search engine placement.  If you didn’t already know, the text of the links back to your site are very important for helping your site rank for those terms.
2. WE DO NOT PUT THE NOFOLLOW ATTRIBUTE IN LINKS BACK TO YOUR SITE.  The nofollow attribute kills much (if not all) of the value of a link back to your site.  We see no reason to do that to you.
3. Because of the above 2 policies, we anticipate many people will be interested in spamming us.  First, we automatically block comments that appear to be generated by robots.  If this happens to you (which it probably won’t), contact us and we’ll fix it.  Additionally, we moderate all comments, and they will not appear until after we have approved them, which will generally take a few hours, but could take a few days depending on the circumstances.   In order to pass our moderation process, your comment must add value.  Your comment will not be approved if you simply agree, disagree, or repeat what has already been said.  Examples of things that add value include citing additional evidence for a particular position, citing new evidence for a counter argument, or sharing an experience as it relates to the topic.  Additionally, you may not be overly promotional with links or the actual content of your comment.  Generally, aside from your keyword name, you should not put an additional link back to your site, unless it is EXTREMELY relevant.  However, it is ok for you to put a linkless, promotional sentence about your business at the end the end of an otherwise valuable post.

So come by our blog and comment frequently!  Doing so will help you rank your site, and will help you network with all of the creative entrepreneurs who read our blog.  If you have a dofollow blog, or if you know of other dofollow blogs, please share them!