Aboutnewtech.com has always been a DOFOLLOW blog.  That means that people are welcome to leave relevant comments and participate in discussions and link back to the authors blog or website.  It seems to me that this is the right thing to do on a social level because a good blog, like a good coffee shop should encourage open dialog and genuine community.

The argument against is about three different concerns.  First, the question of losing linking power when you link outbound. That could be true, but I’ve seen a whole lot of pages that link to a whole lot of Page Rank zero (new) websites and they still have great PageRank.  I’ve also seen that my outbound links to other sites are a NET BENEFIT if that site is more authoritative and that link benefits our readers.    The second and third reasons not to have a DOFOLLOW blog are centered around spam and unintentionally linking to bad neighborhood sites.  This concern is largely eliminated by Akismet, the WordPress spam filter.  It’s amazing, saves time, prevents spam and generally does exactly what they say it will.

I think it’s best summed up by the Google webmaster guidelines which basically say “Build a site that delivers value to the reader“.  If an outbound link adds value, then link it.

So participate openly, genuinely and link.  This is one community that is open to all.

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