rel="nofollow" in signature files question

[ncangler]

I sell an advanced membership on my site that allows the elevated member account to include a graphic banner link in the member's signature file. I am concerned that this elevated member benefit may cause a negative impact to the SEO rankings for these members.

Seems it is all related to a relatively new anti-spam feature many software vendors have incorporated and the search engines are using to punish people who go around spamming blogs with their links. In sections of the website where visitors can post a link, the software automatically places a rel=“nofollow” tag in the link, this tells the search engines it is a self installed link. Google seems to be punishing sites that have “too many” of these type links.

Any suggestions on how I can take out the rel="nofollow" parameter for the signature section of a vBulletin site? Or any suggestions on a way to add a graphic banner link elsewhere that would not have the rel="nofollow" tag added?

Thanks for any input/direction on this.