Most bloggers recognize the value of generating backlinks to help rank higher in the search engines. One of the most popular ways to get beneficial do-follow links to your site is by commenting on CommentLuv enabled websites. Did you know that there are many social media sites that allow do-follow links as well? Did you also know that there is a browser extension that you can install that will help you hide spam, ads and sponsored stories from your Facebook newsfeed? Learn more about this (plus some great ideas for making your images stand out) in this week’s #FridayFinds.
Interested in 35 Do-Follow Social Media Sites?
Google’s PageRank metric calculates the value of incoming links to a website. (Many SEO folks refer to this as “link juice”. Not all links are created equal. Some links are tagged as no-follow and others are do-follow. (The CommentLuv links on this blog are do-follow.)
So, how do you find social media sites that are do-follow? Check out 35 Social Media Sites To Get Do Follow Links by Nancy Badillo on BloggingTips.com. You’ll probably recognize a lot of these sites (Google+, YouTube, Tumblr) but there are sure to be some new sites there that you’re not aware of.
How Can You Generate Backlinks?
For more ideas on how to obtain backlinks, check out the two part article The Ultimate Guide to Generating Backlinks by Meghan Wolff. (Notice that this link is what is referred to as an internal-link, meaning that it links to another article on this blog. Internal links are another opportunity to help increase PageRank.)
Do You Find Your Facebook News Feed Annoying?
I’m sure most everyone here will answer that question with an adamant yes. If you’re one of them, you would probably benefit from reading Filter Out Annoying Words and Topics From Your Facebook News Feed by Kim Castleberry on Just-Ask-Kim.com. In her article, Kim highly recommends installing the F.B. Purity browser extension. It’s free and is compatible with: Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera.
What exactly is F.B. Purity? The developer describes this extension as:
F.B. (Fluff Busting) Purity is an anti-spam, browser extension for Facebook. It alters your view of Facebook to show only relevant information to you. It removes annoying and irrelevant stories from your newsfeed such as game and application spam, ads and sponsored stories. It also hides the boxes you don’t want to see on each side of the newsfeed.
Kim has used this extension for over 3 years and she’s created this how-to YouTube video to show us how to use it:
Note: You may want to grab this extension now because Facebook is trying to shut F.B. Purity down. The developer has this announcement on their site: “Facebook’s legal department has told me I may not access Facebook and to stop developing F.B. Purity.”
Want to Make Your Images Stand Out with Text?
If you’ve been to Ashley Faulkes blog (MadLemmings.com) lately, you may have noticed that the images that Ashley has been using for his blog posts are really standing out. What Ashley has been doing to grab our attention is adding text. While that might not sound very exciting on the surface, you may be surprised to see what he’s come up with. Thankfully, Ashley shared his tips with us in his guest post How To Add Text To Your Images Like A Pro on Adam Connell’s BloggingWizard.com. Don’t worry that you’ll need expensive editing software like Photoshop to come up with amazing results. Adam will show you how using Pixlr Express. (It’s free.) Check it out if you get a chance.
Note: My only regret is that I’m writing this post at the last minute and I don’t have time to implement some of Ashley’s advice in time to spiff up an image for this post!
Over to You:
Did you find any interesting social media sites that you haven’t tried yet? (If you’re a business blogger and decide to join BizSugar, you’ll find many of us there. It’s one of my top sources for referral traffic.) Do you have any experience using F.B. Purity? What do you think about Ashley’s tips? As always, please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments.
About Sherryl PerryWelcome! If you're looking for help building an Internet presence that fits your needs and works for you, you're in the right place. I blog common sense articles about WordPress, social media and SEO. My goal is to help small business owners and entrepreneurs understand their core business. Together, we can develop and implement business strategies that make sense to you.
Hi Sherryl,
I feel honored to be mentioned in such an informative article! I appreciate your support and including me in such a prestige site. 🙂
Will be sharing with my blog community.
Nancy Badillo recently posted..5 Different Blog Analytics Apps
Hi Sherryl !
You made my work a bit easier . I have a list of over 200 bookmarking list and don’t have any clue on which one would give do-follow links to my blog . I gonna build links with those 35 sites right from today . And talking about facebook , i do hate some news being displayed in my facebook feed . I’m gonna disable them through fb-purity extension/add-on . Thanks for sharing these links with us .
-Pramod
Hi Pramod,
Thanks for letting me know that you found the list of do-follow social media sites and the links to Kim’s articles on F.B. Purity helpful. Thank you for taking the time to let me know. 🙂
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Friday Finds: Backlinks, Social Media Profiles, Landing Page Conversions
What great shares Sherryl and I’m surprised by the people who didn’t know about the sites that shared dofollow links. We learn something new everyday right!
I’ve been using FBPurity myself for probably just over a year or so. I hate looking at ads and I really don’t want to see certain subjects being discussed in my newsfeed. I love that extension and it’s really cut down on just crap over on Facebook. Fabulous invention and glad Kim shared that video.
The post on backlinks is something everyone wants to know about and I do put my text on images but probably in a totally different way. Hey, whatever works best for us all right!
Great shares Sherryl and you have a fabulous week.
~Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted..Why Effective Consistency in Blogging Is Crucial
Thanks Adrienne. We do learn something new everyday. Sometimes, it’s hard to keep up!
Thanks for the testament for FBPurity. I installed it but I haven’t configured it yet. I’m hoping that I’ll no longer need AdBlocker. That works fairly well but I can see that it’s having an impact on how fast the sites that I visit load. I agree that Kim’s video is really helpful.
Ashley’s examples of text on images inspired me. I’ve placed text on images before but I’ve never embraced the idea for my blog posts. I think it would be a perfect fit for this series especially.
Thanks again for dropping by and you have a fabulous week too!
Hi Sherryl,
From my point of view, this is one of your best Friday finds. Let’s take it one by one and step by step.
1. Social media sites with do follow links
I had no idea they exist. I always thought social media links are no follow. This is good news and I can hardly wait to check the list. Thank you.
2. Facebook news feed
I find my news feed more and more annoying each day. So many cats, dogs, parrots, bears, iguanas together with ads, and a lot of sponsored posts that have absolutely no relevance for my niche. Any means that can help me clear my news feed is good.
I don’t like the FB staff’s reaction. Ad blockers and extensions like this are a part of a major trend that cannot be stopped. So I will download this extension and see how it works. If they will manage to stop it, another one will appear and another one.
3. Adding text and images that make you stand out
I know Ashley Faulkes. He is a web developer and a great person, warm and friendly. I always visit his blog to find out more cool tips and tricks. About text and images, I know he uses a paid plugin or something alike to get those beautiful results. It is on my buying list and when the time comes I will make that purchase. It is worth it.
4. Bizsugar
This is very interesting. I am still searching for a blogging community that is affordable, easy to use and safe. Now, I always trust your judgment so I want to know more about Bizsugar from an insider. If I get an answer from you, this time I might join it. What are the main advantages? What made you choose this particular community among so many others? Is it a pure blogging community or is a content curation community? How safe is it in terms of content stealing?
Have a wonderful day
Silviu recently posted..Macro Marketing or Mini-Marketing Training Methods?
Thanks Silviu. I value your opinion and I’m glad that you found this week’s post particularly helpful.
I own a copy of Photoshop. It’s old but it works and I believe that I can create images similar to Ashley’s without investing in anything else. I’ll have to see how long it takes. It would have to be cost effective time-wise for me to do this but I really like the idea. I’d be interested in finding out what plugin Ashley recommends. I’m not averse to investing in tools that streamline my work.
BizSugar is free to join and it’s a wonderful community of like-minded bloggers. The categories that you can submit to include marketing, finance, management, technology and startups. In addition to voting, I also share from their site. They have a “Contributors of the Week” feature too and that’s a nice way to get some added visibility. (Once you establish yourself as a valued member, they’re likely to approach you.)
Voting on BizSugar is easy and I know you would be familiar with a lot of the contributors. Since you’ll have already read many of the articles, you can quickly vote for them without having to check them out. You can also create a friend list to quickly see all of the posts that your favorite bloggers have submitted. (This saves time voting while supporting each other.) I’m thinking that I should write a post on this. 🙂
You have a wonderful day too!
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Friday Finds: Social Media Branding, Color in Website Design and Images
Got rid of Facebook ads some time ago. Don’t remember if I used the option featured, but it’s great to not be spammed by Facebook anymore. Highly recommend it.
Have links to many of the sites mention in the do-follow article already. But I agree with Jeannette and you about the problem such links give you with Google. So I will keep linking to the sites I am already linked to but not add any more.
Personally don’t like the option of text on your pictures because, in my opinion, it makes them look like adverts. Instead write captions to draw attention to the pictures.
Catarina recently posted..What makes you follow a leader?
The AdBlock add-on helped me tremendously Catarina. I intend to tweak F.B. Purity to filter some more clutter out. There’s just too much.
As for links, as long as you’re participating in legitimate social sites that are related to your niche, I don’t believe you’re at risk of having problems with Google. I see a potential issue if you have do-follow links on a site that is too generic. For example, when I was dealing with backlinks from spammy sites, I found links from a site that had a broad range of topics including dating sites. (I never had visited that site and their webmaster claimed that the incoming links didn’t exist. I disavowed the URL in Google Webmaster tools.)
I can see how images with text on them may not work for your site but I really like them. I think it would be very useful on sites like Pinterest. Sometimes, I struggle finding appropriate images for posts like this #FridayFinds series because it’s multiple topics. With text on my image, I would be able to easily communicate the main keywords.
Texts on pictures is really a good idea for Pinterest, Sherryl. But not for websites if you don’t wish to look like advertising.
Propably a good idea for photos uploaded on Google Plus as well. But, again, one has to be careful when it comes to text on photos or it will look like spam/advertising.
Catarina recently posted..What makes you follow a leader?
Hi Sherryl – another great round up as always! I’m headed over to Nancy’s post to see if there are any sites I haven’t come across yet. I’m not using the FB plugin mentioned above, but have looked into it in the past. I guess I’m just used to all the extraneous stuff and mentally block it out anyway 🙂 As far as Ashley’s post is concerned – it’s a great one for sure. Besides Pixlr, I also use PowerPoint to edit images (it’s not necessarily free, but a lot of people already have it – so might as well get some use out of it). Thanks for sharing and have a great weekend!
Tom Jamieson recently posted..Top Quotes to Inspire Your Blogging
Tom,
It’s getting harder and harder for me to block out all the stuff on Facebook. For a while, I was happy using the AdBlocker add-on but I’m starting to see advertising popping up again and those annoying game apps. I installed F.B. Purity. Now, I have to go back to Kim’s video and configure it!
I never thought of using PowerPoint to edit images. I usually boot up Photoshop but that’s because I’m a creature of habit. When I’m just resizing images, it’s a waste of time. I’m trying to get in the habit of using PicMonkey (another recommendation from Ashley) for that.
Thanks for letting me know that you enjoyed my finds and you have a great weekend too!
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Tracking Your Blog Post SEO Meta Tag Data
Hi Sherryl,
I used to do a lot of social bookmarking, but it has been at least a year now since I have submitted something. A number of the ones I had been working with switched from dofollow to nofollow. A few others kind of went downhill in quality, moderation, or both so I kind of stopped submitting.
There were also a couple of social bookmarking sites that I really liked that called it quits and no longer exist, which was kind of a bummer.
You mentioned directories in an article before that I remember commenting on. Kind of the same situation with them, as well as social bookmarking, and forum signature links for that matter. Pretty much the same thing has happened with all of them for me, and I got burned out on seeing my dofollow turn nofollow as well as seeing sites totally disappear.
Lately I have only been getting backlinks from blog commenting. I know I should do other forms and methods too because the same thing can and does happen to blogs too. I just like certain blogs a little better than other backlink methods I guess especially when the blog owner will actually respond to a comment.
I haven’t really done much of the guest blogging thing mostly because I don’t have a lot of free time on my hands.
Anyway sorry to ramble on so much.
Ray recently posted..Are You Paranoid About Your Backlink Profile?
Ray,
I think BizSugar would be a good site for you to join. It’s geared to business bloggers and it’s always been one of my top sources of referral traffic. The moderators are very engaged and Heather Stone often comments here. It’s truly a community there.
As a side note, another of my top resources for referral traffic comes from a CommentLuv blog that I haven’t commented on in months. (The blog I’m referring to promotes advertising products.) So, the people coming here from that site most likely found value in my comments and them came here looking for more info. I need to get back there!
You’re not rambling Ray. I appreciate the conversation and I certainly hear you about not finding the time to guest blog!
Sherryl Perry recently posted..The Ultimate Guide to Generating Backlinks – Part 2
Sherryl, I think more websites are adopting no-follow because of concerns that people who comment on their site have websites with thin content or link to other bad sites. Google is now punishing links to sites it considers of little or no value. As you know, the do-follow, no-follow debate has been going on for years. Thanks for the link to the post about 35 sites for do-follow links.
Jeannette Paladino recently posted..A Primer for Sharing Your Content on Google+
I agree with you Jeannette. If you’re going to continue to keep do-follow links, you really need to monitor your comments diligently. Lately, I haven’t seen as much blatant abuse of CommentLuv as I have in the past. I’m definitely getting more spam but it’s getting caught by GASP and I’ve been blocking a lot of the most flagrant IP addresses.
The reason I continue to keep the do-follow attribute on my site is because the majority of the people who comment here are members of a larger community of bloggers that I’m connected to and the do-follow is both an incentive and a bit of an opportunity for them (as their sites are for me).
Thanks for letting me know that you found that article about the 35 sites helpful. Have a nice weekend!
Sherryl Perry recently posted..The Ultimate Guide to Generating Backlinks – Part 1
I am one those who find some stuff very annoying on FaceBook. That said I very much appreciate the information about how to filter out some of that. That is way cool stuff Ashley has shared about images. I plan on looking into that and star using it. Thanks for the shares Sherryl. 🙂
Susan P Cooper recently posted..You Never Told Me That: Story (Podcast)
Susan, Facebook is getting so annoying and they’re making it very difficult for bloggers to promote their articles unless they’re willing to pay. I vaguely remember reading Kim’s recommendation of F.B. Purity. At the time, it wasn’t as big of a problem as it is now. I’ve installed it on my browsers already.
Thanks for letting me know that your enjoyed the shares! Have a wonderful weekend.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Facebook Graph Search Privacy Concerns – Be Careful What You Like