JS_Harris - 8:31 pm on Aug 26, 2007 (gmt 0)

Blogs can have great value even with the no-follow applied.

#1 - Pingbacks and trackbacks. If you add them to your site and you link to an article on any blog that has pings and trackbacks enabled (most do) you get an instant relevant deep link in the comments section of the blog.

#2 - RSS feeds, most blogs syndicate so an excerpt of your content will find its way onto interested readers aggregators.

Those two will generate traffic to your site.

#3 - If you write an article or content that everyone talks about, and the bloggosphere talks about it in mass, you will end up with relevant deep links on at least a few sites that don't use 'nofollow'.

I believe google discounts blogs link value in general but if you're new to blogging you need to know that blogs are more and more imune to google, most get their traffic without google.

Social sites and blogs may be largely ignored by google but they also get more traffic than many normal sites and do it without the need of good serp results. Bloggers especially tend to bypass google altogether. Theres value for sure.