NoFollow, DoFollow, and CommentLuv

Recently I made a post about CommentLuv. I received some comments on that post that mentioned that a DoFollow plugin should be used along with the CommentLuv plugin. I knew that and use a DoFollow on by blog. Just didn’t think of it at the time I wrote that post. Comments are always appreciated by anyone that is involved with blogging. They gave me an idea for another post.

So, I thought I would write a post about NoFollow. What’s going on here? Why use another plugin? Many times when a person makes a comment on a blog a reference will be made to another blog, and a link will be provided to that blog. By default this link will have the NoFollow tag attached to it since it is in the comment section of the blog.

Let’s define these concepts first.

I’ll start with NoFollow. NoFollow is a bit of HTML code that is included with a link so that the search engines will not use that link in determining the rank of the link.  In other words, the web site or blog targeted by the link will get no credibility or influence in the search engines ranking process.

In case you are curious, it looks something like <a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.website.com/”>website</a>

When the search engines see this code, rel=”nofollow”, they will not use the link to determine the rank of the referenced website or blog.

This does not mean that the search engine will not necessarily follow the link, it just means that they will not count the link as an inbound link to the website that follows the NoFollow tag.

The different search engines apply the NoFollow tag in the way that they want to. For example, Google will follow the link but will not attribute any credit to the link as an inbound link to the targeted web site.

NoFollow came into existence in an attempt to stop spammers from using multiple links in comments as a means to artificially increase the search engine rankings of their sites.

When the NoFollow code is used anyone can still click on the link and get to the website. In addition search engines can still get to the site also. However, the presence of the NoFollow code will keep the search engines form increasing the rank of the referenced website.

The NoFollow tag, which is generally the default, is a problem for people who want to comment on blogs. It discourages the use of commenting as a means of participation and interaction on blogs.

The purpose of the comment section is to add value by making legitimate comments about the content of the post or maybe a comment left by someone else. The comment section can also be use to start a dialog with the blog owner.

But since the NoFollow tag is used there is no value gained by using a link to your website since the search engines will use the NoFollow tag as a code that tells them not to reward the referenced site with any so called link juice.

If someone takes the time and effort to leave a good comment on your blog, why shouldn’t they get some link juice for it, i.e. search engine reward.

That is where a DoFollow plugin comes into play. It disables the automatic NoFollow tag attribute. Now links in the comments section will receiver consideration for ranking by the search engines.

By using one of the DoFollow plugins, you will be able to allow your visitors to comment on your blog and get link juice, or Luv, to their blogs. With CommentLuv they can even select a particular post from a list of current posts on their blog that want to receive the Luv.

By a like token, if you comment on a blog that has CommentLuv activated, you will receive link juice, or Luv, back to your blog.

SEM DoFollow and Wordpress Plugin: NoFollow Free  are two commonly used DoFollow plugins. These will allow you to give and receive true link Luv. You give LUV to those that comment on your blog and you receive it when you comment on someone’s blog.

It’s a good thing to reward people that comment on your blog and to receive rewards when you comment on other people’s blogs. Therefore, adding the CommentLuv plugin and a DoFollow plugin to your blog should just be a natural thing to do – maybe even a priority action. Add these to your blogging efforts now and start sending and receiving Luv.

To Your Online Success,

Lonnie Minton

Technorati Tags: blogging, CommentLuv, DoFollow, Nofollow, plugins

Want More Comments For Your Blog? Try This Free Tool.

Are Your Using CommentLuv? A Review.

CommentLuv is a plugin for blogs. I use it on a WordPress blog, but it is also available for other blogging platforms. Why would you want to use it?
One reason is to help you get more people to comment on your blog.

It’s kind of implied in the title, but CommentLuv starts to work when someone starts to comment on your blog. You can watch the action by following along and commenting on my blog.
When you go to the comment area you will find some boxes or input areas that you will need to fill out in order to leave a comment. The number of boxes that are displayed depends on how the blogger has set up his blog.

You will always find two input boxes that are required. At least I have not yet run across a blog that does not require your blog visitor to enter their name and email address. The email address will not be displayed so it is ok for your visitor to enter these two items.

The next box that I have always seen is optional – it is generally titled:  website. You visitor will enter his website/blog URL here. This produces a clickable link to his web presence. This is an opportunity for someone to click through to his site.

However, as you will see later, more than that happens if you have the CommentLuv plugin activated on your blog.

There may be other boxes that your visitor can fill out – like entering his Twitter username.

However the next box that is required in order to leave a comment is the comment box itself. This is where CommentLuv comes into play.

As soon as someone clicks inside this box to start entering a comment, CommentLuv starts working. It will start looking for the website associated with the URL entered into the website box.

When  CommentLuv finds the web address that was provided, and if it finds that it the website is a blog, CommentLuv will check the feeds of the blog and collect the titles of a selection of the last few blog posts on the blog. I think it will select all the posts that are on the home page.

It will list the title of the latest blog post below the submit button as the default post. However, there will be a little arrow beside the post name and the person commenting on your blog can select another post if they want to send the Luv to some post besides the default post.

There is also a checkbox there that can be un-checked in case the person making the comment does not want to sent any Luv to his site for this comment. Don’t know why he would want to un-check this box, but the option is there.

What is happening here is that CommentLuv is going to generate a link from your site to a post on your visitors blog. This link will appear under their comment after they hit the submit button. Someone has commented on your blog and CommentLuv has produced a link to a post on their blog,

How cool is that? Very, and it is very beneficial to the person making the comment as the search engines will detect this link to their blog.

You can see this process in motion by leaving a comment on this blog post and you will see the link back to your blog post.

So, as you can see your visitor will get rewarded when they leave a comment on your blog if you have CommentLuv installed. Same for you if you comment on a blog that has the plugin installed and activated.

Thus, a good reason to install CommentLuv on your blog is that it could increase the potential that someone will comment on your blog. And you do want people to comment on your blog. This is a win/win situation for both parties.

An addition benefit comes to you if you register your blog with the CommentLuv site. The owner/developer of CommentLuv will provide you with several benefits. These include rankings, tracking, and more.

So, Want More Comments For Your Blog? Install CommentLuv and that will encourage more of your blog visitors to leave a comment, because it also helps them by giving them a link back to their site. In the end this will enhance your blogging efforts.

To Your Online Success,

Lonnie Minton

Technorati Tags: back link, Blog, blogging, CommentLuv, comments

Should You Use Twitter or Your Blog?

That’s an interesting question. Many have defined Twitter as a micro-blogging site. You just post up to 140 characters; whereas on a blog you generally make posts of 400+ words. If you are involved with an online business, affiliate marketing, internet marketing, etc., the real answer is that you should do both.

You should not use one to the exclusion of the other. You can use twitter to communicate with your followers as often as you want and with short 140 or less character messages. You can announce new things that are happening in your affiliate marketing business.

You can use your blog to make more detailed posts about something related to your business. Then you can use Twitter to let your followers know about the blog post. That way you can provide them with lots of information and still stay within the 140 characters.

So what can you do on Twitter and how often can you do it. After you have joined and setup your profile page, you can start tweeting about your business or anything else you want to. And except for your time there is no constraint on how often or how many tweets you can make. So you can tweet away to your heart’s desire. But beware; you don’t want to neglect your affiliate business. You will not benefit your affiliates if you spend all of your time on Twitter.

You can converse with you followers and start building relationships. Provide them with useful information that will help them to find success with their online endeavors.

You can help with the relationship building by uploading a picture of yourself to the Twitter site. It will appear with your tweets. Many users make a mistake here and don’t use a real image of themselves or at least an image that connects well with their online efforts.

Remember that you want people to trust you and you want to build solid relationships with those that may be your potential customers. If you are using Twitter to build your affiliate internet business online you should use an image of you.

Also don’t send an excessive number of impersonal tweets – once in a while is fine and never spam. Stick to the topic of your business. That’s what your followers expect. They want you to provide information that will be useful to them.

You should provide a lot of this information yourself. But don’t forget that many others in your market area also have useful information; so, use the retweet capability of Twitter often. This will also help you to gain more followers. More followers means more exposure for you business as well.

Micro-blogging on Twitter is great for people who want to write short posts. Just make sure that when you are telling people what you are doing that it relates to your business. Doing so will make Twitter a great tool for making money online.

You will be communicating with your followers on a regular basis and you need to reply to the messages that you receive, especially those in your close circle of business friends. There are ways to isolate those so that you will get a chance to see them and reply.

Twitter is a social marketing or networking site but it is also a business tool and can greatly enhance your affiliate internet marketing efforts online. Any tool that will help your business needs to be a part of your online efforts. So, get Twitter set up and start applying it to your affiliate marketing efforts. And follow me at http://www.Twitter.com/AffiliateBus

To Your Online Success,

Lonnie Minton

Technorati Tags: affiliate internet business online, affiliate marketing, blogging, internet marketing, micro-blogging, Twitter

2 Free Things For Your Online Business

Anyone that has an affiliate internet business online needs to be aware of potential problems with their attempts to make money online. One such problem is the many attempts to inflect your computer with viruses. Here is a test for one of those worms.

Conflicker Plus

It’s important that you check this out.

You have very likely heard about the Conflicker worm. Conficker (aka Downadup, Kido) is known to block access to over 100 anti-virus and security websites. It has started to emerge and looks like it could be bad.

Hopefully you have been running regular updates from Microsoft and have kept your programs updated. If so chances are you are OK. But, just as a double check here is a Conflicker Test that you can run.

Just go to that URL and unsure that you can see all 6 images, if you can you probably do not have the worm.

Feel free to pass that URL around to anyone you like. The more people know if their systems are infected, the better.

There is an explanation on the page in case you do show a problem – don’t see all of the images. if that is the case then you should disconnect from the internet and run the Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool. You can get a copy here.

Once you have run that tool you can reconnect to the internet.

Second, you can get my free gift for the Easter 2009 giveaway here: The Squeeze Page – A List Building Tool.

In this free report you will discover The Squeeze Page Method To List Building and if you are not building your list you are not building your affiliate internet business online and likely you are not making money online either.

If you would like to join the Easter 2009 giveaway and receive lots of other free gifts join as a member here: Easter 2009 giveaway member

You can join and contribute you own gift at this link: Easter 2009 giveaway contributor.

Guido Nussbaum has a rock solid reputation for putting together the most wildly successful giveaways on the planet. He features SUPER HIGH QUALITY products, software, and services at no cost.

Join now and you will find real tools and information that will provide a boost to your online efforts.

Third, if you are not currently publishing a blog, here is an excellent product that will show you exactly how to get started.

And please note, this is not just for seniors. It is for anyone interested in getting started with blogging.

Discover…
“    The great potential that blogging provides for making money online each and every month.
“    The first and a critical step to blogging success – finding the right niche for you.
“    Why putting the right content on your blog can mean the difference between making lots of money and just getting by….

You will find that this is a great blogging guide whatever your age.

Blogging  For Seniors

To Your Online Success,

Lonnie Minton

Technorati Tags: affiliate internet business online, blogging, blogging for seniors, Conflicker, list building, make money online

Blogging For Seniors

This is a great new release for those that it targets, specifically – seniors. However do not let the title cause you to overlook this resource if you are not a senior. If you are in any kind of affiliate internet business online to make money from your efforts or you want to be, I recommend that you obtain Blogging For Seniors and get started now.

Mike Paetzold has targeted this product toward seniors for a couple reasons. He says:
1.    I am old and bald
2.    With the current economic climate lots of seniors are hurting economically from losses to their retirement plans

I am old also, but not yet bald. However, the key here is the second reason. Now only have economic conditions hit the seniors but people in all other age groups are also hurting economically during these difficult times.

That is why it is important to recognize that this product is applicable for anyone regardless of age group.

Blogging For Seniors will supply all of the information (basic, specific, and advance) that you need to know about blogging. You will learn how to set up your blog and how to maintain it.

You will find expert tips and techniques to help you along the road to getting a blog established and you will also find just how easy it is to implement these techniques. Blogging For Seniors will not leave you wondering how to get it done; it shows you exactly how to do it.

In the process of following this guide you will find that success and extra income will be a part of your venture. Blogging can provide a steady path to making money online as time goes along.

Everything you need to know is contained in Blogging For Seniors. This new ebook is now available to you. It includes the complete and easy process for creating a blog and turning it into an income source without going through any complicated, difficult, or expensive steps.

Senior citizens, just like anyone else, can implement Blogging For Seniors and make extra money online. The process is quick and it is not difficult to implement the stepd and thus provide a supplement to your income.

This new resource provides all the information that you need to get started as soon as you read Blogging For Seniors. Well, there is one more necessary step – you must implement the process.

You will also find that this resource is not very expensive. It is very low priced for a resource that will provide you with the potential to start making extra money online by using Blogging For Seniors. Check it out today.

To Your Online Success,

Lonnie Minton

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogging for seniors, make money online, mike peatzold, senior citizens, seniors

7 Aspects Of Blog Content

First, let’s look at what a blog is. Basically a blog is a website where you can place your content. Actually that is what any website is. But our subject is blogs.
You have to decide what you content will be, that is what you will place on your blog. This is really a critical choice. If your blog is to be a successful part of your plan to make money online then your must consider your content – anything that you place on your blog.

For example, you might consider articles, images, videos, text ads, banners, opt-in box for your newsletter, etc. It’s all content and probably most of your content will be text. However, all of it is important in your efforts at generating traffic and making money online.

So let’s look at seven aspects of content.

1. Subject Matter.

Whatever your subject matter it must have traffic potential. It must be something that others will be interested in enough to return to your blog for more of your content. Also, remember that you will be changing it, adding to it on a regular basis. Even if it is something you know a lot about you will be researching the topic for more and more information that you can write about.

2. Quality And Uniqueness.

The success of your blog and its potential for making you money online, acquiring opt-ins, etc. rests on your ability to attract repeat visitors. Quality posts will help to insure that your visitors return. If lots of uniqueness is also a part of your blog, you will have a combination that will take you down the road to being a successful blogger.

3. Updating Content.

If people like your topic and you constantly update your content, then they will want to see more of what you have to say. People search the web because they are looking for information. They like to visit sites that are updated on a regular basis. If they know that they can find fresh content on your site, they don’t have to go searching for it. They know where to find it.

Not only are you improving your chances of getting repeat visitors, but updated content will help to gain you better ranking with the search engines.

4. Keywords And Content.

What do keywords and content have to do with each other? Well the whole concept of search engines is keywords. Search engines depend on people using keywords to search for information. If you use keywords that people are searching for in your content, you will increase the chances that someone will stumble upon your blog post.

Use keywords and phrases in your blog posts but be careful not to compromise the integrity of your effort to provide quality content.

5. Use Controversy.

Have you ever noticed how your attention is increased when you read something that is controversial? Putting something controversial on your blog will make some people take notice and likely increase your traffic.

Find subjects in your topic that are controversial and make posts about them from time to time. Just don’t overdo it. Some readers may take exception to your controversial posts and stop reading your blog – so go easy with this type of content.

6. Useable Content.

Blog readers scan a post quickly trying to make a decision about moving on or spending more time on your blog. Make sure that you give them a reason to stay put. Provide them with useful content – something that gets their attention and says, “Stick around, you can use this.”

Another aspect of usability is presentation. Make your blog easy to scan. Use short paragraphs and use white space. Make your blog easy on the eyes – select readable fonts and sizes

7. Write Down What You Think Of.

As I mentioned you should update your blog frequently. If you are like most people, at least me, you will sit down before your computer some day and not be able to think of a single think to write about. But you will say to yourself, “What was that I was thinking of yesterday that would make a good post?”

When a good thought for a post comes to your mind, write it down, else you will forget it. Writing it down when you think of it will decrease the number of times that you experience writer’s block. A new term is emerging – “blogger’s block.”

If you will keep these things in mind when you are working on the content for your blog, you will improve the quality and the appeal of your blog and this will help you establish your affiliate internet business online. It will also help you in your attempts to make money online.

To Your Online Success,

Lonnie Minton

Technorati Tags: affiliate internet business online, blogging, content, make money online

Are you Ready To Be An Affiliate Marketer – Do You Know The Secrets?

What does it take to be an Affiliate Marketer? Mindset!

It seems that everyone wants to be an Affiliate Marketer. If you want to be involved in Affiliate Marketing you must have a mindset:

==> To Study
==> To Work
==> To Focus
==> To Believe

Let’s take a closer look at each one of these.

Study:

You may be a newbie or and expert, but either way study is necessary if you wish to succeed or if you wish to continue to succeed in affiliate marketing.

You need to study what others have done and what they are doing. You must learn the basics and then you must learn where affiliate marketing is moving. You must stay up to speed or the market will pass you by.

You must develop the desire to learn, if you don’t have it already.

Learn Affiliate Marketing
Learn List Building
Learn Blogging
…
Learn all aspects of the industry

Work:

If you don’t do this, you will not have a business and thus no income. This is where most people that get involved with Affiliate Marketing fail. They want to get involved in making money online, but they don’t want to work.

They get involve and then they find out that work is involved. They find out that this is not an “I join, I get rich enterprise”. It requires effort. Many are not willing to change their mindset to accept that work is involved.

Affiliate marketing requires application of all the things that you learn. You must learn and be able to
distinguish how, or if, what you have learned will improve your business.

If it will improve your business, you must work to get the knowledge applied to your projects. Just knowing that a new concept exists will not help your business at all, you must put forth the effort required to implement the concept.

Focus:

You must focus on the tasks that are required. If your studying and research efforts have resulted in a new concept as noted above, stay focused until you get it implemented.

If you really want to make money online, you must set goals and stay focus. As an example, let’s say that one of your goals is to find your niche – your marketing area.

You start studying and researching. Then you get an email that says that the way to build traffic to you site is with Google AdWords.

The email offers you a product to help you get setup. So, you start looking at that product. Why? You don’t have a marketing area yet, much less a product. You don’t need advertising yet.

Stay focused. Find your niche, your marketing area, and then move on to the next step. If you do not stay focused, you will never be ready to market a product, because you will not have one.

There are many secrets to affiliate marketing, and staying focused has to reign close to the top. I’m not sure that is a secret, it’s just common sense.

Believe:

You must believe in yourself. You must believe in the process. Your attitude toward your efforts to build your business must be positive. Know that you can do it. Others have and if you apply yourself you can too – that you must believe.

Commit to the efforts that are necessary to make it happen. Be optimistic. Everyday determine to accomplish something that will build your business. Believe it.

If you will make a strong determination to Study, Work, Focus, and Believe in yourself and the process, you will find success in you Affiliate Marketing endeavors. That’s the secret.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, blogging, list building

Blogging – A Necessary Tool For Making Money Online

Chose your topic, with blogs you can write about just about anything – politics, economics, photography, affiliate internet marketing online, pets, etc.

Blogging has become so popular that it might be called the next great phenomenon on the internet. The whole world, at least those on the internet, has flocked to blogging. The numerous opportunities that blogging has created has resulted in the creation of millions of blogs.

There are personal blogs, business blogs, blogs on just about any topic under the sun, and most of them can be monetized in some way.

At first blogging was used for putting a person’s thoughts online, sort of like an online diary. They still are. But, today blogging is much more complex and has branched out into the business world. Every web page can express the owner’s imagination, interests, wit, business ideas, or anything else he wants to express.

Because blogging started with attempts to write about one’s personal life, people tended to call themselves journalist or diarists. People began to find an experience of belonging to an online community. Now they are just bloggers.

Bloggers started using a combination of text, pictures, and videos. They transmitted live images with the help of various portable devices, like iPods, etc. Then, all of this, and more, moved to the efforts of making money online. This move brought great success for many online businesses. For example, check out this post.

The most important ingredient to being successful with your blogging experience is to publish quality content. This will make your experience in the community more enjoyable and more profitable, if you are involve in trying to make money online.

Quality content will quite possibly entice your visitors to return to your blog. Over time they could take the actions that you desire. They might become a regular reader, start leaving comments, subscribe to your feed or newsletter, become a customer for one of your products, etc.

By being creative and innovative, you can be a part of this blogging phenomenon. Anyone can. That’s what makes it so wide spread.

In the area of making money online blogging provides a tremendous opportunity to promote your products and affiliate products. Thus, many affiliates have turned to blogging to enhance their internet business online and their profits.

For anyone that has an online business, blogs should be a regular part of your internet marketing strategy. You should use it with your online advertising campaigns, your relationship building efforts, etc.

For the affiliate marketer, blogs are a great tool to enhance your online affiliate internet business. The growth and subsequent popularity of blogs has made blogging a necessary tool for anyone trying to make money online.

If blogging is not a part of your online business, it might be time to investigate what you are missing out on. Find out how you can make blogging a part of your efforts to make money online.

Technorati Tags: affiliate internet business online, blogging, make money online

My Review of Bogging To The Bank 3.0

Probably everyone, or at least almost everyone, is familiar with blogs – at least to some extent. blogs have been around for a long time. Many people use blogs to express their thoughts and lives, but more and more blogging is being use to make money online. Many people use their blog to promote their affiliate internet business online.

Using blogs is a relatively inexpensive way to make money online. This is a secret that many people have not yet realized.

In 2005 Rob Benwell was struggling to make any profit online, had dropped out of college and was getting deep into debt. He was trying all the techniques that the gurus tell you about and still wasn’t making any headway. Then he started using his own techniques and started making more and more money online using simple blogs.

He decided to expose his secret to the world. In 2006 he started reveling tips and tricks to making money online using blogging. He produced the Blogging To The Bank system. It was very successful and so was version 2.

However, as is the case of most everything, sometimes blogging methods become obsolete and new techniques are required. So Bob has produced a brand new, fresh off the press Blogging To The Bank 3.0 system. Click Here to check it out.

Version 3.0 is full of great new techniques and these will work online right now! Bob explains everything in simple, plain English. Getting right to the important things, he leaves all the fluff out.

I got my copy of this blogging system right after it came out. The techniques that he presents leave me with little doubt that I will be able to follow them and be creating new profitable blogs in short order.

Using a step by step blueprint, Bob teaches you how to create highly profitable long term niche blogs using the newest optimization techniques. There’s even a section on advanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Most people think SEO is difficult but Rob explains this in a simple way so that even the blogging newbie can understand and implement it.

Blogging To The Bank 3.0 is a breath of fresh air and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to make easy money online.

Click here for more information about this blogging system.

Bob has come up with 5 blogging commandments for 2009. These are must do things if you want to insure the greatest success in your blogging efforts. Don’t miss these. You can start using them now and not wait for 2009.

I highly recommend Blogging To The Bank 3.0. Starting with market research, Bob covers everything that will help you solve any online issues concerning blogging and shows you how to make money online the easy way.

Discover new techniques that are easy to implement and that will make your blogging efforts easier and more productive. You will be able to take your affiliate internet business online to new levels and enhance your efforts to make money online.

Here are some of the benefits of Blogging To The Bank 3.0. These should help you to make a more informed and well balanced decision about this new product.

• How to decide between Adsense advertising vs Affiliate program advertising
• How to maximize your blog revenue
• How to make a list of products to promote
• 3 ways to optimize your blog
• The very first thing you need to do optimize your blog for the search engines
• The main ways to monetize your blog
• The most important monetization technique to use on your blog
• Ways to obtain content for your blog – total unique and 100% free method
• How to promote your blog
• Key Web 2.0 strategies

Knowing all of the things that are covered in Blogging To The Bank 3.0 system should provide a significant boost to your affiliate internet business online efforts.

Technorati Tags: affiliate internet business online, blogging, make money online