Is an AboutUs.org link still worth getting? Probably not.

• You previously recommended AboutUs.org's paid Spotlight Program as a way to pick up a quality authoritative link. However, it appears this program is currently nofollow. Based on this change do you still recommend the program?

Good question. We recommended the AboutUs.org Spotlight Program as one of the Top 11 Best Authoritative Link Sources in Oct 2009 for two main reasons:

First, and most importantly, the links in these paid profiles were dofollow. Second, the links were a reasonable one-time fee of $197 and involved more than one backlink to your site and to multiple pages. There was even a site we referenced that was receiving several dofollow PR 3 backlinks to their site as a result of the program.

As of May 2010, AboutUs.org changed their Spotlight profile to a nofollow default, allowing dofollow profiles on a case-by-case basis only. In fact, if you pull up our example page, all the previous PR 3 backlinks are now clearly nofollow. To top it off, the price for the service has now gone up noticeably to $349 for a permanent listing.

More details on this recent change at AboutUs.org can be found on their blog. If you scroll down to the middle of that post you will see that they say we "will still not be following content that we are paid to create". This includes the Spotlight program.

However, they also state that they will review ALL profiles for possible "dofollow" status on a "case-by-case" basis. You simply have to submit a request for review via email to DoFollow@AboutUs.org. Some confusion exists as to which paid profiles (if any) would be eligible for possible ...