THE DO-FOLLOW PHILOSOPHY

The simple fact is that there are times when the internet degenerates into a wholly worthless environment. This becomes very clear when the only thought in the mind of many is making money. Every word becomes a commercial, spam and advertising crowds out humanity and no one has time for anything that doesn't have an agenda attached to it.

We were excited when the Do-Follow (or No No-Follow) movement began some time back. It held some promise of giving people "permission" to socialize a bit as part of their work. However, the needed support mechanisms didn't exist at the time. Now, all that has changed.

With the release of plugins like CommentLuv and KeywordLuv, it's possible to get some visibility for your own blogs/sites while contributing valuable content to the sites of others...AND to be able to converse using your actual name (instead of being forced to refer to yourself as "Home Mortgage Loan Guy" when commenting).

BACKLINKS VS PAGERANK

Google PageRank (PR) is best ignored. Not only is it inconsistently applied, but PageRank clearly has very little relation to ranking in the SERPs...and sadly, no clear relation to the actual value of a web site, either (sadly, because that's what it was supposed to reflect... once upon a time). Those who clamor for "high PR" posts where they can comment are, for the most part, looking to artificially inflate the PR of their own site so they can sell links. Look...if you're gonna do that, that's your business...but it's a pretty stupid philosophy. The internet doesn't need more junk...there's plenty out there already!

Instead, forget about PR and instead pursue backlinks from quality blog posts... whatever their PageRank. A backlink is what affects your ranking for the most part. And most blog posts won't earn their own PR for awhile, anyhow. By contributing some additional value thru your comments, you raise the profile of the page, making it more likely to be trafficked and linked to...a win-win situation.

Pursuit of PR is a fool's errand. The only way we ALL win is when folks refuse to be so shallow and step forward with a commitment to creating community and increasing value.

ADDING VALUE, BUILDING COMMUNITY

If you truly add value to a blog by visiting and commenting with your personal opinion or experience, then (in our view) it's completely legitimate for a blogger to share some of that value with you in the form of a valid, followable link back. CommentLuv takes that a step further, by linking to the latest post from your own blog! And KeywordLuv allows you to use your own name for the benefit of conversation, but also preserves that oh-so-precious "anchor text".

Please use this resource the right way. Help crush spam by joining the crowd of those who are using this tool the right way!