I think that the link in the external blog, at least WordPress blogs, have a Nofollow command in the links that instructions search engines not to follow the link, which kills the benefit. The problem was that there are so many comment spammers trying to get the benefit of links in comments – so take away their priviledes.
Fair? If you want to play fair, then write up a note about the post on the site and what you found interesting about it. Or post a note on the blog telling them what you found interesting about it.
Putting up a post that links to blogs you commented on may or may not help the authors of other blogs. You can also use your blogroll to list blogs you regularly follow, which will also help them. See Links Manager for more info on that.
There is no fair, and any idea is a good idea, but just do whatever you want that makes you feel good. But don’t expect them to start linking to you or commenting on your blog unless you have something worthy of commenting or linking. Concentrate on attracting attention to your site with good content and keyword distribution and the rest will take care of itself, unless you want to get into serious SEO stuff.
I usually post comments on blogs when I have a short thought or idea to contribute to the post. If I’m going to take something in a different direction, or write something lengthy, then I usually use a trackback, to avoid “hijacking” someone’s comments section. Just a personal thing…
The type of blog sometimes dictates the type and length of comment you leave.
As far as trackbacks go, it is generally regarded as good etiquite to write a short note in your blog post, linked to the other blog post you sent the trackback to.
For example, say both of you have an entry related to charity for the Gulf Coast. Somewhere in your post you would note the other blog and link to their related post, plus send the trackback.
Thanks for the input, that helps a lot.
Lorelle: I hadn’t thought about the Nofollow thing. (actually greatly diminishs the value of blogging if it can’t help you get links, but we will continue anyway)
Eveums: Good idea. I think we will follow your rule of thumb about trackback or comment
At least two (actually more) plugins exist to disable nofollow in WordPress. See the bottom of the Nofollow documentation for links.
