Hi,
Like many of you, I have downloaded list after list, from BHW as well as elsewhere, which claim to contain *do*follow* links but when one checks them out, they turn out to be *No*do*follow*.
It's of course possible that more and more website owners are getting alert and are imposing no*do*follow and this may not have been the case when the list was compiled.
Having checked out a large number of lists and also having used search techniques mentioned on this forum and elsewhere to find .gov and .edu links (eg insite:.gov + register to post etc), I have evolved a method of my own.
I am sure the more experienced marketers amongst you use this and similar methods, but there are several newbies---like me---on this forum, who could find this search method useful.
It is for them that I post this thread.
Also, some of you may have better techniques, which I would be pleased to learn about, if this thread starts of such a discussion.
My Method
I normally check out the search term I am interested in Google. From the search results, I feed in the top 10 urls (assuming they are not blogging platforms like problogger, but links to sites owned by small businesses) one by one Yahoo's site explorer
Code:
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
Site explorer gives both the number of pages which have been indexed by Yahoo for the site as well as the links to the site.
I track back the links to the site and leave a comment there. (It is possible that Google and Bing too have similar tools, though I have not yet used them)
The advantage of this method is that Yahoo does not place a limit on the number of searches, so you can search as many sites (hopefully of competitors) that you want in a day. Also it gives you access to some good links in keywords you are interested in, instead a link to any site which will provide you with a link.