Look, I love forums and discussion boards. They’re great social arenas and they can provide a wealth of information.

They can also be hotbeds of misinformation.

Every once in awhile, I’ll run across someone with a strong bias against IM-related information products or who think the idea of hiring a coach or consultant.  They maintain that paying even a single dime is a complete waste because everything one needs to know can be found by researching forums and/or marketing-related blogs.

That’s theoretically true.  One can probably dig up the information he or she needs with some smart Googling and plenty of reading.  That can be incredibly inefficient–one good reason to lose the bias.  It can also be dangerous.

Yesterday, I happened to encounter this discussion at a marketing forum.  It’s an object lesson in why new entrants to the industry shouldn’t rely on the “I can learn it in the forums” approach unless they’re willing to get second, third, fourth and fifth opinions.

The original poster just discovered the “nofollow” attribute and wants to know what the story is with respect to “nofollow” links.  The answers include the folowing errors:

• It’s a new thing from Google.
• An implication that you can only comment when “dofollow” links are available.
• You’ll get no value from a “nofollow” link.
• Google doesn’t recognize “nofollow” links.

There’s no mention of  Page Rank, PR sculpting, Google’s recent announcements regarding changes in the interpretation of “nofollow” links, Matt Cutts’ recent interview on the subject, the way other search engines treat “nofollow” blogs (and how that can conceivably influence Google SERPs), the propensity for direct traffic from well-placed “nofollow” links, the situations in which utilization of the “nofollow” attribute is desirable (if not necessary), etc.

If the original poster believes he or she has “the answer” and moves forward based on the information provided, it’ll be unfortunate.  The OP would actually be better off if he or she didn’t ask the question and was totally oblivious to the existence of the “nofollow” attribute.

This is why it can make sense to buy a quality guide or to hire a qualified coach or consultant.

You can learn a lot on your own, but you need to be ready, willing and able to separate the wheat from the chaff if you want to go that route.

I love the “do it yourself” attitude.  If that’s your plan, however, be careful.