Finding Do-Follow Blogs the Easy Way
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Recently, I was talking to Gab of SEO Roi about a good way to find do-follow blogs, amongst the ideas given was one so simple and effective that we were both amazed that neither of us had thought of it before. Using each method in this(including the different permutations in the alt text section), there are several thousand available; much more than are available via services like CommentHunt.
Introduction
The easiest way to currently identify a blog that has do-follow links in their comments is the presence of an image that says “U Comment, I Follow”, like the one pictured below.
Now, the catch with these has historically been that there’s been no central repository of participants. Since it is an image, you cannot simply search Google for it either, as Google cannot read the text.
The Method
We discovered that a lot of the blogs that use a relatively static “alt” text. Now, while most search engines themselves do not search alt text in their standard results, image searches are entirely different matter.
By searching Google Image Search (or other image searches) for “U Comment I Follow” (with quotes is more accurate, but without quotes gives more results), we can pull a substantial list of do-follow blogs. By appending your given keyword(like “seo”), you can get more targeted blogs.
In addition, searching for “U Comment” or “I Follow” separately bring up a lot more results.
It’s More Accurate Than You Think
For whatever reason, most of the images Google returns for the above searches are not the images of the “U Comment, I Follow” project. However if you visit most of the sites listed, they actually DO have the image showing they’re a part of the project, Google just doesn’t return that as the search result. Odd, I know
Other Variations on the Method
Alt tags are not the only footprint available for this. It also uses relatively predictable image names.
You can search for these either using the inurl: command, or searching for the filename itself.
- ifollowblue.gif, ifollowgreen.gif, ifollowpink.gif, ifollowpurple.gif, ifollowltgreen.gif, ifolloworange.gif, ifollowwhite.gif,
- ifollowmagenta.gif
- ifollow.(gif/png/jpg, take your pick)
- utrackback_ifollow.gif
- ifollow-red.png
- inurl:ucomment
- inurl:ifollow
There’s a million more, so try and find them. They’re worthwhile if found within your niche. This entry is more of a tip than a complete guide.
Enjoy Kids!
-XMCP
December 30th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Ooh the poor guys - you have just exposed them to hundreds of comment spammers. Ouch!
December 30th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Nah, spamming them is not practical. Do-Followers moderate like crazy.
December 30th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Another option is to use http://www.dofollowblogs.com
Nice write-up non-the-less
December 30th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Thanks Glen! Good resource. Haven’t seen ya online in a bit.
December 30th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Speaking of do-follow blogs, how about making the switch on this one. I’m sure you moderate the comments anyway.
December 30th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Appreciate the link :). Second the motion on adopting dofollow; I’ll be doing it myself as soon as I pick a plugin and find a minute to install it/cut the footprints ;).
BTW, nice list/find on the footprints. On a related note, something we talked about has led me to find something that could be a huge security breach/identity theft issue. Message me to talk about it some more.
December 30th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
@Gab: I will as soon as I see you online
@JamesDunn: I’m considering it, but first I’m going to dump akismet and get myself a replacement. Just been really busy lately. Also, I’m going to be directing PR a bit here, and I have to figure out how to factor that in(certain internal pages I want to push harder than others, and I have to figure out how to manage a lot of external links while still achieving that goal)
December 30th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
[…] Comment I Follow”, podemos encontrar los blogs que no tienen no-follow. En este blog, nos cuentan otras maneras de localizar sitios en los cuales no tengan el atributo no-follow, es decir, como encontrar blogs con i-follow de una forma más rápida. Aunque supongo, que […]
December 30th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I haven’t tried the method you have just described… But do you think that the SE’s are eventually de-index and make most them of less value and not worth the time to post?
I read jennifer laycocks hide and speak series on not allowing the big SE’s in http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/hide-and-speak.php
I know that blogs and such can survive without them. But at my guess is most of these blogs will die without them. Your thoughts?
December 31st, 2007 at 2:28 am
Why do you think this returns more results than using commenthunt? Did you just do a couple straw samples and see more results? Comment hunt still has useful sorting capabilities.
December 31st, 2007 at 2:53 am
@Chris: I doubt it. Most people that do-follow their comments are VERY diligent about editing their comments, and make sure nothing spammy gets through. Beyond that, Google doesn’t really de-index due to crappy outgoing links. Otherwise, there’d be no guestbooks left!
@Jack:
I say this because in my tests, I found several more blogs within my selected niches than I have ever found using commenthunt. Commenthunt, 90% of the time for me, returns the same few blogs. As soon as I have time though, I may make my own commenthunt like site for these.
I’ve tried something similar before, but had people bitching at me for my crawler. I have a host now who doesn’t care if they complain, so I may give it another go.
December 31st, 2007 at 9:52 am
I rhetorically wonder if “do follow” is even an issue outside of the techy sphere we all inhabit…if your sphere is non-techy, can you just do a normal course of blog commenting knowing that a you will be getting enough do-follow links to make the process worthwhile.
December 31st, 2007 at 10:48 am
Someone posted this link on SitePoint a while ago that uses Google Custom Search Engine with searches through 800 (I think the number was) sites with dofollow:
http://www.commenthunt.com/
December 31st, 2007 at 11:04 am
I’m reluctant to say this because I don’t want too many people knowing that I’m smarter than I really am
Proof is that Gab was kind enough to contact me to warn me about my site showing up for this search.
I don’t mind “comment spammers” - most of my commenters are not of that variety but I don’t mind them. I try to create my operations so that EVERY SINGLE LITTLE ACTION COUNTS. If someone visits my blog, it triggers something somewhere else that then triggers something somewhere else and so on… almost exponentially.
So ANY visitor showing up at my site helps. And frankly, if someone wants to hand comment spam at my blog, there’s a good chance it could look a world more intelligent than 90% of the comments one finds at a problogger’s blog.
But thanks, I like the way you think.
December 31st, 2007 at 12:40 pm
good post about do follow blogs bez in this way your cost is nothing
January 1st, 2008 at 3:19 am
Happy New Year 2008 everyone! There is another product “Comment Kahuna” that is free and runs on your PC. It’s been useful and you can save the results (although I haven’t done that). As a side effect of sorts, I found many blogs that I’ll return to, to read new posts.
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 am
It might be worth it to refine this technique a bit by not clicking through the search results of your footprint query. Instead, just make a note of the domain name, or better yet, its title and other meta data, then craft another query that will yield the target site as a result.
Example: Let’s say that your do-follow image search query yields http://www.example.com as a result. It’s probably a do-follow blog, but you don’t want the webmaster, John Doe, to see “U Comment I Follow” as a referrer when he examines his logs.
Instead, try searching for “John Doe East Podunk” or “John Doe blog” until you can find http://www.example.com as a result of a less suspicious query.
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
It’s such ironic that some guys have those “u comment i follow” badges but they still have the “nofollow” tag.
January 7th, 2008 at 12:27 am
[…] on these blogs helps you to take a defensive position on your own sites. Knowing how a spammer finds dofollow blogs to spam, for example, helps you to keep these spammers at […]
January 7th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Thanks for the great tip! I was wondering about how to do that, and I had never thought of a Google image search. There has been lots of times that I have been wanting to search for something and the regular serps hasn’t really returned anything relevant.
I guess I’ll give this a try, and thanks!
January 9th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
good tips for doing htis, is there a way to track in google what is popular for videos of the day? something like a trends for the videos?
thanks.
January 9th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
@Google Music Man:
Yes. There is.
http://video.google.com/videorankings?type=movers&range=d2008-01-09&cr=usa
^”Movers and Shakers” for the day. Includes a few sources, but also youtube. Links at the top will also show most viewed, blogged, etc.
Good for anticipating a viral effect.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I had never thought of doing image searches to find nofollow blogs, you learn something everyday. I see people referencing commenthut when dofollow blogs are mentioned, and from my understanding of commenthut, unless its changed recently, that it does not return dofollow blogs only, its a mixture of no and do.
I did however a few weeks back come across a great little script for finding dofollow blogs at http://www.dofollowblogs.net
and it can find the dofollow blogs by keyword, just my 2cents on this all.!!
February 6th, 2008 at 7:56 am
[…] on from yesterday’s post I came across Shady’s view on dofollow via a drunken thread at […]
February 7th, 2008 at 3:40 am
Great tip…just concerned of wasting effort going over blogs I already did…I used bumpzees list originally but that has turned to crap with all the blogspot, etc still in the list
February 20th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Hi have created a site with over 750 do follow blog links at http://www.dofollowblog.info sorted into different custom google search engines.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
[…] Whatever you do, don’t do this. […]
March 19th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Good tip as I can see it will be useful to me. Too bad there isn’t a Dofollow Directory yet that lists these blogs. There are directories for just about everything else under the sun now days.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:12 am
[…] This might also be of interest. I’m not sure I agree with the idea of creating your blog login name as some useful anchor text. Sooooo spammy and obviously so. Also, if you are on the link spam trail don’t forget building 43. d __________________ Red Evolution - Website Optimisation | SEO Blog | Web Design & Development and Something Different […]
May 7th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
[…] Finding the badges of dofollow blogs via image search. […]
May 10th, 2008 at 1:06 am
i don’t think that comment spammers work nowadays. so far.. you could easily filter blog spammers. plus with the no follow blogs. its kind of useless.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Good post and good idea, very useful; it’s the first time i eard it, thanks.
May 27th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I of course love the do-follow as much as anyone else, but I really don’t buy into the whole hype about no-follow not counting. I think the big G still keeps track and adds them into the equation. I think it all helps, follow, no follow, even just text with your url name, I think google is slurping it all up and packing it all away. Carefull what your thinking, google probably reads minds now!
June 5th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Thanks, the dofollow movement has helped me a lot both in viral marketing and link building. Very useful info on how to find dofollow blogs. Check out this post on getting on the dofollow bandwagon — this will help you and your readers.
Do Follow your way to Viral Success
June 5th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
The Do Follow movement is definitely a plus in the SEO world - with blogs taking the front seat as a link resource. I think the mutual support that do follow blog commenting offers is a great advantage.
June 10th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I just removed the no follow tag from the html in blogger.
I also inserted the logo, so I hope everything works.
If a few of you are willing to post comments, and check it out, I would be grateful, and in return will post on your blogs.
I want to make absolutely sure this works for everyone, because this “dofollow” movement is a good one in my view.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Building a Website with Blog Links is IFFY.
Word is Google is tired of getting tricked by Blogs, and may disallow all Blog Links altogether.
Enjoy it, while you still can ?
June 26th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
[…] addition, searching for “U Comment” or “I Follow” separately bring up a lot more results. Finding Do-Follow Blogs the Easy Way : Slightly Shady SEO Why people you follow on Twitter don’t […]
June 27th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
You can search for do follow .ed and .gov links by typing this into google… site:.gov inurl:blog “web design”
July 7th, 2008 at 12:15 am
this is great! thank you! cheers!
July 8th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Wow!! this blog makes me hungry! Yummy.
July 13th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Thanks mate for resource!!
July 14th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Nice tip Shady
July 15th, 2008 at 1:06 am
But Glenn do we have a check and balance by using this, i mean can we control it.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:40 am
Good suggestion Glen but could this resourse helps us out to prevent.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Just stumbled here for a drop and found this article very helpful. I give a “thumbs up”(stumbleupon) for this.
Thanks for the great share.
July 18th, 2008 at 6:35 am
[…] to find Dofollow blogs using […]
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:22 am
thanks for sharing this pal. my was “do follow” too.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:23 am
sorry, that was “my blog”. thanks.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:34 am
thx to write such a nice and help full article i was just looking how to find dofollow blogs and google is great which give me ur site link.
thanks to u and google.
Now http://www.dofollowblogs.com ac has been suspended.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
i love dofollow blog, thanks! but im not a spammers! lets comments wisely..
August 1st, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Nice tip Shady, btw are you from BHW?
August 6th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I remembered that there’s a way to do such search on SE but have forgetten somehow. Glad that I found this …Thanks.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Thanks for the information it will ge quit useful.
August 13th, 2008 at 9:17 am
mod thanks and you
August 14th, 2008 at 10:50 am
thanks for the info.. now, I can easily look for do-follow blogs..
thanks..
August 14th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
thanks i too found something alike
at dofollowbloging.com
August 19th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Hey! I was looking for this tool for a while. Thanks a lot!
August 21st, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Those are some very ingenious ways of finding do follow blogs. I like this much more than the search engines designed for it at the moment. The possibilities are endless!
August 28th, 2008 at 5:46 am
Great article. You said it all. I think there is nothing left. it will be quit helpful. Thanks
August 30th, 2008 at 3:15 am
look a lot of “dofollow” sites are actually nofoolw, just look at your post or any others. By claiming you are a “dofollow” you can create a little bit of a buzz, more like a swarm of BLOGGERS to your site. So just check the site HTML source out after you have commented and you will see. Press ctrl+f(find) and type follow and a lot of the time you will see nofollow in some form or another come up before your “link”. Not all, but quite a few of these sites do this, just be aware!
August 30th, 2008 at 3:19 am
One more comment on http://www.dofollowblogs.com
oh well
the first two sites I looked at had nofollow tags before every link.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Thanks Shady. I appreciate you sharing the knowlegde to help the rest of us out!
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Worthy trying tips. Though using a do-follow blog directory is a much easier way
September 11th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Thank u for this .. was looking for do follow blogs to promote me websie.
September 11th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
[…] But how do you find dofollow comments? Here’s a Google query tip from Slightly Shady SEO about using Google image search to find dofollow […]
September 29th, 2008 at 2:27 am
thts a bad way to show bad intentioned guys on the otherhand it’s good for ethical posters
October 2nd, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Great tips, commenting on dofollow blog makes your search engine ranking higher…A good backlink indeed.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:25 am
Really great tip. I am near the bottom pit of searching do follow blogs. Thanks for giving this information. You have helped me a lot…
October 9th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
great tip.
thanks shady..