Reader Challenge #1
Posted by Dot Com Dud on
October 17, 2008
A lot of blogs about making money online are full of advice and tips on how to improve your earning potential, I try to include these sort of posts because great advice can be really helpful. However, I’ve decided to post some challenges for readers that aim to encourage some more practical results. Taking part in these challenges is totally optional, there are no prizes to win, just the opportunity to promote your own blog as I promote DotComDud.com.
For the first Dot Com Dud Reader Challenge, we are going to start off with something simple - blog commenting! It is widely acknowledged that commenting on other blogs, particularly blogs with topics related to your own, is a great way to build traffic, both from direct clicks and by increasing your back-links for higher standings in the search engines. This first reader challenge will last for 1 week and the challenge will be to make 5 blog comments per day. I’ll post my own results for this challenge next Friday, October 24th.
Guidelines: Over the next 8 days, make 5 comments on blogs related to your own. Try to use DoFollow blogs to get yourself some back-links. 8 days with a goal of 5 blog comments each day equals a total of 40 blog comments.
How can you find the blogs? I will be using the Entrecard blog listings to find related blogs (in this case I’ll use the Make Money Online category) but there are also sites like the Do Follow Blogs Directory where you can find more related blogs.
How can you tell if the are Do Follow? There are different ways, there are a few Firefox extension that will highlight NoFollow links but here is a quick bit of Javascript that will do the job too. Just make a new bookmark and set the location as;
javascript:(function()%7Bvar%20links=document.getElementsByTagName('a');for(i=0;i%3Clinks.length;i++)%7Bvar%20theLink=links%5Bi%5D;if(theLink.getAttribute('rel')=='nofollow')%7BtheLink.style.backgroundColor='red';theLink.style.color='white';theLink.style.fontWeight='bold';theLink.style.textDecoration='none';%7D%7D%7D)();
Then, when you are on a page and want to tell if the comments are DoFollow or not, just click on the bookmark (I like to leave it on my bookmark toolbar for easy access) and it will highlight any NoFollow links, so if the URLs on other comments are highlighted you will NOT get a back-link from making a comment.
The image above shows the highlight effect of the NoFollow bookmark
So good luck to everyone who takes part. You can set your own goals if you like, maybe 10 comments per day or if you are a part-time blogger make it 5 comments every second day. Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy the first Dot Com Dud Reader Challenge!
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24 Responses to “Reader Challenge #1”
Our blogs aren’t topically related, but I think this is a great idea. I think supporting each other is ALWAYS a good idea.
And it’s great blog karma, too, right?
Good luck in your goal!
Eryns last blog post..It’s sound logic…
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Dot Com Dud Reply:
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:29 am
Exactly. Even if you don’t get much traffic from commenting, you might at least get some comments on your own blog in return.
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By Eryn on Oct 18, 2008
As you mention leaving comments on do-follow blogs is a great way to gain some valuable backlinks for your site.
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By Steven Wilson on Oct 18, 2008
Hi There,,
Blog commenting is really cool. Anyway, don’t focus only on dofollow blogs. You can stil lget traffic from blogs that are nofollow
Husseins last blog post..The Motive Network — Advent 2.0
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By Hussein on Oct 18, 2008
I set up this goal some months ago, to leave 5 comments per day…. I did the the first days but then I was too busy and I couldn’t anymore =(
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By Mr Javo on Oct 19, 2008
I am on the blog commenting one for sure. I think it’s a valuable trick to get some traffic and long term readers.
Johns last blog post..Contest at Winningtheweb.com Includes Ranksense.com Free Trial
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By John on Oct 19, 2008
Good tips, I’ll have to get that Firefox extension and start commenting. Thanks.
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By Online Marketing Newbie on Oct 20, 2008
Yep, good tip for everyone- Thx
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By Maureen on Oct 21, 2008
Thanks for the comments everyone, it’s really awesome to see people are interested in this sort of thing!
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By Dot Com Dud on Oct 23, 2008
I’m not sure if I can keep up with the challenge but I will try..Nonetheless, thanks for sharing the dofollow directory. I think this is very helpful.
I’m not too familiar with nofollow and dofollow and I’m still learning how to make use of these two on my blog. In fact, I do have a question. Do you put nofollow in all your links including the sponsors and referral links? I’d really appreciate if you can give an answer : )
Yale Zeuqsalevs last blog post..Franchising
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By Yale Zeuqsalev on Oct 24, 2008
Follow up question : )
If dofollow decreases the blog juice of a blog or website then why others still dofollow? And as I’ve seen in the dofollow directory, those blogs still carry rank of 5, etc., even if they dofollow.
Yale Zeuqsalevs last blog post..Franchising
[Reply to this comment]
Dot Com Dud Reply:
October 25th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Thanks for commenting!
To answer your first question - everything on my blog is DoFollow (You can get the plug-in from http://www.semiologic.com/software/wp-tweaks/dofollow/) but it’s up to the individual what links they want to make NoFollow or DoFollow. I know some bloggers charge advertisers extra for DoFollow links.
As for DoFollow decreasing a blog’s juice and PR, I don’t think the penalty is as harsh as some people make out but I don’t have any solid proof one way or the other (but I’ve never had any problems).
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By Yale Zeuqsalev on Oct 24, 2008
Commenting on blogs that have posts with interesting or relevant content is always something I do as a matter of course. It’s not as much to “get link love” as it is to voice my opinion or share ideas with like minded people. The link love is icing on the cake.
I’m not going to spam someone’s blog just to get that nor do I want it on my blog which is a dofollow blog.
I guess you could say that your premise kind of irks me because it encourages people to spam sites just for the back link. While I can’t argue with the fact that commenting on sites that are dofollow gives this result, I can promise that people who spam my site with one-liners that show blatantly that they have not read my post are going to be consigned to Askimet.
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Margarets last blog post..Veggie Tales
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Dot Com Dud Reply:
October 25th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
I can see why the idea of encouraging blog comments might irk you. However, if you check out my other posts this week, you will see that I am as much against SPAM as anyone and I promote people to only make worthwhile comments. I probably should haveemphasised it more in this post though instead of the follow up ones.
Thanks for your comment!
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By Margaret on Oct 25, 2008
I have this new blog and I want to get links to it. Your post is really great.
I have been trying the Firefox extension but I can’t make it work. Any other suggestions?
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Dot Com Dud Reply:
October 28th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I don’t use a Firefox extension, just the bookmark I mentioned above. However, I think the SeoQuake entension might do it - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3036 or this one - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5687
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By Richie - Idiot Box on Oct 27, 2008
Some great ideas here..I think I’m close to meeting this goal with my regular commenting but I’ll try to step it up! Thanks for the directories too. Those are a great tool.
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By Kara on Nov 18, 2008