So your advertising isn't doing much for you?

[Music Man]

When you ask a new forum administrator what the toughest part of growing a successful forum is, they often reply "Getting new members". If you spend enough time speaking with them, you might find even more specific answers like "Finding a way to advertise for free that isn't a total waste of time, brings in the right people, and encourages them to stick around."

Well I'm here today to tell you all that you've been mislead by people who think they know what they're doing, and in good faith have shared their methods with others...but are going about it all wrong. Many admins today talk about some very outdated methods of advertising, and I'm not so sure anymore if it's just them withholding the better methods and sharing the outdated ones, or if they just don't know any better and are still making the same mistakes themselves. Regardless of their intentions, I'd like to expose some of the more commonly discussed advertising suggestions you may have heard, and point out the flaws they have, as well as provide some better options. I think I'll write this as a series when I get time to write, and as I come across more advertising myths and poor suggestions.

So here is part one:

Advertising at other forums.

All over the web you see people offering advice on how to advertise for free, and one of the most common that I see is the suggestion to advertise on other forums like yours. Now I shall dissect some of the recommendations I've seen, and hopefully I can help steer you all to a path that will get you more results for your time spent. For the sake of this article, let's say you started a forum dedicated to discussing Widgets a couple weeks ago, and your forum is located at WidgetTalk.com.

There are two major things that the following myths seem to suggest, but they are in fact things that can make your advertising efforts all for naught. These misconceptions are...

1. Posting on other forums and letting on that you are part of the staff at your forum, or even appearing to be a fan boy of your site is good.

2. Spending more time at other forums than you spend at your own is a good way to invest your time.

These two misconceptions are really hurting a lot of people, and in some cases it's killing their forums completely. If you only remember a couple things from this article, please remember the following. Posting as the admin of WidgetTalk.com on WidgetForums.com will usually get you nowhere other than banned or called a spammer. Either one of these will make you look just as bad as all the other spammers forums are seeing nowadays. People have learned to completely ignore spammers on forums, and most have become blind to unnatural looking posts containing links. The key is to just appear to be a regular member of WidgetForums that occasionally finds something of interest at WidgetTalk, and share it with others in a natural, non-spammy way.

Also please remember that spending more time at other forums (posting, doing post exchanges, spamming, etc...) instead of creating great content at your own forums does you absolutely no good at all. If you don't have something unique and enjoyable at your forums, a link on Google's homepage wouldn't do you any good. You've gotta have some good content before you can expect to get any active members from your advertising efforts. Advertising an empty, boring forum will actually kill your chances of ever getting those people to come back if you ever do create something worth checking out and sticking around for. So not only are you wasting your time, you're adding a list of people who have visited your forum, seen nothing of interest, and will never come back.

Now here are some common myths I've seen suggested a lot, even here on TAZ. I feel I need to show these in a more realistic light so that you can better determine how to spend your time.

Myth #1: Advertise your new forums and the new members will start generating content for you.

Wrong: Launching a forum and making it a place that people want to join takes a lot of hard work, and at the beginning it's up to you to get it to that level. People won't join an empty forum anymore. Back when forums were new, people would be more likely to do this because the concept itself was so new to most that curiosity drove a lot of them to jump in and try it out. Now that forums are commonplace, and many people already spend a lot of their time at one, you have to provide something they can't find at every other site they visit. So get the idea that forums magically hit critical mass by themselves out of your head, and realize that creating content is very time-consuming, but it's worth every minute. Avoid advertising until you have enough content that most people will find a cool discussion they'll want to join in and share their thoughts about.


Myth #2: Post a lot at your competitor's site (WidgetForums.com) and put a link/banner in your sig at their site.

Wrong: This is like grabbing a bullhorn and announcing that you're the admin of your site. This will only get attention from the mods there, scrutiny from the forum regulars, and nobody will take you seriously if they're nice enough to not ban you. Any forum that allows spamming of other sites probably is so small that you're probably wasting your time to even register there. If they have a whole forum just for blatant advertising, then they're probably so desperate for members and activity that you'll never get a click from them. Move on.

A more natural way: Try posting a link to your site in your sig, but post a couple other links to non-related sites like msn or google. Make it look more like a list of sites you enjoy, not sites you own.

Myth #3: Posting your site's content at bigger forums will get people to join your site.

Wrong: Remember a couple of things here. By taking an entire article that you've spent time coming up with for your own site, and copy/pasting it at a larger forum, you're opening yourself up to a few things. If the larger forum gets your unique content indexed first (which is the likely case if your forum is new and isn't constantly spidered deeply), thus possibly giving you a duplicate content penalty if the same article at your site gets crawled. It's quite possible for the article to show up at your competitor's site, never show up at yours, and you may be penalized for trying to post duplicate content despite you being the author and you posting it at your own forum first. Also in most cases it will tip everyone off that you're forum-spamming, and your goal is to blend in and make everything look natural.

So how many times have you seen people bring up things they've seen on forums, quote a couple sentences from an article, and link to where they found it? I want you all to take a close look at things like this. Study what looks natural (obviously if people are quoting big sites that they don't own, they're not forum-spamming their own sites), and what doesn't. Take notes if you must, but observe what people do when they want to share something cool they found on another site. This happens everywhere you go, and the more you learn how to assume the same posture when linking to cool stuff on your site, the more it will work for you. But despite you now having a better way to look at advertising on other forums, there is still much to learn to make it work. If you try this approach but don't have anything worth linking to on your site, you're stuck. If you aren't believable, never post any links to anything other than your site, or do it too often...it'll be obvious what you're doing. So you gotta keep all this in mind and I promise your advertising efforts will work 100% better on other forums. Just keep it natural looking.

Myth #4: Exchanging posts and threads with other forums is a great way to boost activity at a new site.

Wrong: I'm sure some people will disagree with me on this, but hear me out. I'll point out some reasons why people decide to do post exchanges and tell you why each are a waste of time.

"They help me get more members."

If you're a new forum, you need content before you need members. Using exchanges to get members will just get you a few members that post for a bit and then leave. In most cases they'll post absolute rubbish that adds nothing to your content, just chit-chat. So while your board is being spammed, you're off at their site fulfilling your obligation to their forum. When all that time you could have been creating content at your own forum, content that helps your forum rather than hurts it.

"They help me get more posts"

Again, why in the hell would you want strangers quickly spamming your board and then never returning? The key to growing a new forum isn't postcount, it's quality and relevance. You want to get discussions that people can learn from and enjoy, not read and think "What a noob, I'm glad this spammer is gone now."

"They make the forum look more active"

If you want to make a forum look more active, create gimmick accounts and have discussions with yourself for a while. In 8 hours I could create 10 gimmick accounts and create 25 threads with some good conversation. If that takes you a week, who cares? At least you're controlling the quality of content rather than allowing spammers to make your forum look like any other junk forum.

"I can't think of anything to post at my forum."

If you don't have anything to talk about at your own forum, then why did you start the forum in the first place? If you can't be bothered to put out the work it takes to start a forum right, then you probably won't ever be successful or have any fun with it. If you find that you've created something that you don't enjoy or take part in, you shouldn't necessarily quit forums altogether, but finding a topic you're more passionate about isn't such a bad idea. And for those who make forums just for money, I'm crossing my fingers that you won't find this article. But for those who truly want to create a thriving community that has a lot of fun together, I hope this helps you get you going in the right direction. Forums can be so rewarding, and if your heart is in it, I'll do my best to help you see that for yourself someday.


The bottom line with exchanges is that anything you could possibly gain from doing them, you could do yourself, be spending your time more wisely, and get much better results. The only way doing exchanges could benefit you is if you are a lazy slime bag that always demands more than you're willing to give in return, and if that's the case then I hope your forum dies in a fiery car crash. Avoid exchanges like the plague if you want your forum to be special.



That's all for now, I'll try to post more when I can.

[cpvr]

Great article, quite helpful.

[rmwebs]

Thanks for the great read!

[Big Boss]

Great atricle!

[asheef]

good i will try to get

[IpbWiki]

good article, I can't wait for part 2

[simsgenius]

great, i'm gonna use those tips with my own forum but which would you suggest, posting at a related forum with a link to several sites in your sig with 1 of them being your own or dropping links to your site every so often? or would you even get away with both?

[Music Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by simsgenius great, i'm gonna use those tips with my own forum but which would you suggest, posting at a related forum with a link to several sites in your sig with 1 of them being your own or dropping links to your site every so often? or would you even get away with both?

Good question!

If you're going to do both and get away with it, I'd recommend having a few other links in your sig, and use anchors rather than spelling out your url. For instace, if you look at my sig you'll notice three links that don't seem all that related. However, they all three point to pages on my music site. Of course I'm not trying to be sneaky here at TAZ, I'm allowed to promote my site in my sig. So as far as a sig goes, avoid banners with your logo, and avoid url's if possible.

Now when it comes to posting links every now and then, you also need to be subtle and make sure that it's relevant. For instance on my music site, we have a subforum full of threads that list news and tour dates of today's bands and artists. If I was on another music forum, and I wanted to get some traffic coming in to that section I would do the following. If someone was wondering when Radiohead was touring, I could link directly to the Radiohead Tour Dates thread in a helpful, but not pushy way. I often get away with this with nothing other than a "Thanks Man!"....without throwing in other links to Radiohead's official site or others. But I do make a habit of using anchors and blending it into my post like this...

Quote:

Originally Posted by example I love Radiohead and I can't wait to see them play live! Here's where you can see Radiohead tour dates and I think Ticketmaster is where you can get tickets. If they are playing anywhere near you, you should definitely go see them!

Note that that type of linking is one of the most effective ways of getting SEO-friendly backlinks.

But if you decide to link like that in threads, make sure that not every single one of your links are to your own site. Mix it up and act like your site is not the only one you visit and recommend.

[Phanna1]

One thing I have noted on forums is that if two forums copy each other's topics and content, basically one will get sick of the other. I have seen boards where the members at one invote the members of the other, and basically the same content appears on both. I found that people tend to get sick of a "repeating thread". Forum Games like word association is very applicable in this case.

Plus there are only so many times one can discuss Movies, Music and Tv shows.

[Orp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Music Man But I do make a habit of using anchors ... Note that that type of linking is one of the most effective ways of getting SEO-friendly backlinks. But if you decide to link like that in threads, make sure that not every single one of your links are to your own site. Mix it up and act like your site is not the only one you visit and recommend.

Interesting stuff. I thought having the url in my sig would make the name more recognizable.
Which type of linking is the one that is most effective for getting SEO friendly backlinks? Are you saying Anchors are better than listing the entire url for SEO? I don't understand why. Would you please elaborate?
Thanks!

[Orp]

hmmmm, my sig didn't even show up for some reason. Posting again to see if it's fixed.

guess I'll edit it and add it manually. Weird.

http://www.dothq.com Work
http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/ FUN

[Orp]

My forum is Off Topic, debates, jokes, computers etc.
I have struck up a relationship with a specialty tractor forum. We have been able to help each other by allowing sigs pointing back to our respective sites. Since the subjects are different, it seems worth it to maintain this relationship.

Anyway, it works for me. Now lets see if my sig works this time .....

nope. had to add it manually. whats up with that?


http://www.dothq.com Work
http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/ FUN

[Music Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orp Interesting stuff. I thought having the url in my sig would make the name more recognizable. Which type of linking is the one that is most effective for getting SEO friendly backlinks? Are you saying Anchors are better than listing the entire url for SEO? I don't understand why. Would you please elaborate? Thanks!

Well, would you rather people only find your site at google by searching for "www.yoursite.com", or would you rather use anchors everywhere you link your site, and have a number of keywords associated with your site?

For instance if I am a member of 5 other forums, and in my sig at all 5 I simply put http://www.keepmusicalive.com, then all I'm doing is telling google that my site has content dealing with "www.keepmusicalive.com". However, if I use 5 anchors such as "music forum" "tour dates" "song lyrics" "guitar discussion" "songwriting"....then I'm telling Google that my site has content related to all of those subjects. After getting enough backlinks with good, diverse anchors, I may find myself being ranked very high for some of those if my site actually contains relevant content and I'm not just pulling keywords out of my ass. So use anchors, but make sure you're using keywords 100% relevant to what you're linking to, and also keep in mind that the place where your link appears should have some content relevant to your keywords and linked page on your site. Me having a link in my sig pointing to a music page, with a music related anchor, but placed on a thread or site with absolutely no music discussion does me far less good than placing it on a related music site or page.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orp My forum is Off Topic, debates, jokes, computers etc. I have struck up a relationship with a specialty tractor forum. We have been able to help each other by allowing sigs pointing back to our respective sites. Since the subjects are different, it seems worth it to maintain this relationship. Anyway, it works for me. Now lets see if my sig works this time ..... nope. had to add it manually. whats up with that? http://www.dothq.com Work http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/ FUN

Signatures are turned off in this forum to avoid clutter.

And by the way, what you wrote isn't a url with anchor text, it's just a url with the url as the anchor, and a word placed after the link. To truly use an anchor, meaning a keyword will show instead of your url, do this...

[url=www.yoursite.com][b][color=DarkSlateBlue]Keywords Here[/b][/color][/url]

That will show up as Keywords Here

[.Rogue]

Excellent article and will help me out very much. I can see a few mistakes that I've been making now.

Thank you.

[QueenB]

Very useful info, thanks. Ive been tempted to do a couple of the 'wrong' things myself and you just saved me! Thank you.

[The Kingpin]

I think that this article has highlighted some very interesting points and should be read properly by anyone interested in starting a new forum.

I agree entirely with you about the exchanges, they are a complete waste of time, i don't see what you gain at all by posting the same number of posts on someones forum as they are on yours. Usually the person posting on yours has no ideas about your subject.

[netridge]

caught my attention when you said widget in the topic
Very informative article, I would like to see you put one together about creating content. Nice work, thanks.

[desertseo]

thank!!! Excellent article and will help me out very much. I'll try. i was making mistake for long time.

[jayman]

Good article.I think most of what you said it true.

[SaIIIok]

Good new!