How Forums can build your site’s popularity
Draft
I participate in forums, you’ll see me around, usually under the name of sarahk but sometimes I’ll have to pick another - shock, I’m not the only sarahk out there!
Have you ever wondered who all these nice folk are who are answering questions on the web? Well, they’re nice folk. But they may have an ulterior motive such as
- Building their personal reputation in their chosen field
- Promoting their business through their comments and signature
- Gaining new inbound links for their websites through their signatures - links that are purely for SEO purposes
I’m not going to spell out how participating in forums can be very good for the first two options, I’m just going to deal with #3
Forums have alot of content, you’re fighting an uphill battle to try to create content on any site more quickly than a forum can. Unlike a links page a forum will have alot of text that isn’t a link and the bots see that as being “good” content - with links scattered in there too. That the links are your signature and not someone saying “read this” doesn’t matter.
When you first visit a forum get going straight off and check the control panel or profile settings. Enter a signature and check to see what sort of signatures others use. Don’t be cute about your name - this is professional link building so “hot mama” may not be the username you’re after. They will also have a field for your website. This doesn’t get useful anchor text but a link is a link so I normally put in this site - because it in turn builds up my other sites.
When you post to a forum you get the opportunity to add your signature (can’t see the option, it may be hidden until you have something in your signature)
Then when you do post you’ll have some standard text at the bottom of the post. Best of all it’s usually updated when you change your signature so you can generate new links in a giffy further down the track.
I like to have a minimum of 10 posts on a forum so after I’ve signed up I’ll look through the other posts to see if there’s something meaningful I can add to any of them.
Many forums provide an RSS feed of the posts which you put into your favourite feedreader and then at a set time each day you can review the new content and decide if you want to participate. They’re all in one place so you don’t have to remember where to go.
Other forums, such as those using vBulletin allow you to subscribe to a section of the forum. I do this for those sections where I know I can add value or gain value - such as the Link Exchange forum over at REW. Every night I get sent an email with the threads that are new or updated. If I have a moment I may pop in and contribute, thus clocking up another set of links.
One point, once you have posted on a page don’t put your signature in again. Pages tend to have 10 posts, so only put your signature in if the thread spills over to a new page.
I asked a question, in the early days about the value of signature links and the feedback was “don’t put all your SEO efforts into links from forums” and I do agree with that. However the SEO competitions, particularly the Nigritude Ultramarine comp was won from blog and forum posts, not from traditional link exchanges.
Thanks for that, Sarah, I found it pretty useful.
I posted a couple of posts in the photography section of coppermine source forge (or some name like that), and noticed that they (my posts) got indexed.
I registered with my web site address, and this appeared on my posts, so it looks as if I got some back links out of it, but I’m not sure about this.
I’ve since read that using your website address like this is considered spamming, so I don’t do it now.
I look at the page ranking of a forum before I get too involved, my reasoning being that a link back from a high page ranking forum is better than a link back from one with a low page ranking.
Don’t know how valid this reasoning is,
regards, Paul Gooch
Comment by Paul Gooch — September 7, 2005 @ 2:23 am
Hi Paul
I’ve had a few laughs with this and one anonymous, disapproving poster on a forum even quoted back at me from this post!
I’d still be adding your website address to your signature and check the signature box for posts where you are making a contribution to the discussion. Some people do spam the forums with silly posts like “I agree” and that would be spam. But if you’re helping that community then why not?
Before you do, though, read the forum rules about what’s considered acceptable, the format, and the number of links allowed.
Comment by sarahk — September 8, 2005 @ 11:27 am
Re: Paul Gooch’s contribution about concerning forum signature links spam: As long as the forum’s administrator allows links in signatures I consider it valid and even ethically proper practice to link to a site of my choosing, if if this may provide commercial advantages for me.
A high percentage of fora is funded by banner ads or similar web propaganda media, or is a place where a company’s customers share peer support. Thus, the site where you place your post gains commercial value by the content you share. It is only a matter of justice to get link popularity in exchange.
If it was an absolute no-no to have links in signatures the forum admin could easily enforce this by disabling markup in almost every forum script I am aware of.
Comment by Robert Wetzlmayr — September 21, 2005 @ 4:48 pm
Removing links from forums or blogs would make webmasters have to work too hard, they would actually have to generate their own ‘interesting’ content in order to attract members. The are not many successful forums out there that dissallow signature links… some, but not many.
Comment by uk local classifieds — December 12, 2005 @ 6:16 pm
Another technique you should consider is to adopt search engine friendly (SEF) URLs, particulary for your Mambo site. There are various modules available that will translate the distintive Mambo url format into something more SEF and also more visibly appealing. Do a search on Mambo SEF to see what is available, some are free, others make a smallish charge.
Comment by Gordon Hickley — January 16, 2006 @ 12:12 pm
For me replying to forum message quite time consuming. Sometimes it takes hours in front of the PC just looking around hundreds of topics on different forums. And usually we have to be a loyal member in order to know the forum style and environment and then reply to other members’ posts.
I prefer to read blogs and websites (search with Google) and from there can easily reach what I want to know/read and send comments where I think I can contribute my ideas. I think this will also serve the purpose as like Sarah said regarding the signature to increase PR.
Comment by azwan — March 6, 2006 @ 11:58 pm
Your on the money about checking the pr of the site. And dont feel bad about signing with a link to your website. You should be posting to topics that releate to your website, ie areas of your expertese. Providing a link to your website helps validate that you know what your talking about and lets everyone know you are a professional, not just joe blow. The vast majority will appreciate that.
I did not know about not putting your signiture on the same page multipule times, thanks for the info.
Comment by World of Carnivores — July 23, 2006 @ 6:42 pm
Check the pagerank is one thing, but i found that visitors will visit one’s signature link much more often when the poster was realy focussing and involved maybe business or personal to what the threadstarter was saying. People who were passing by interested by the subject will be more interested.
Comment by forumgids — December 22, 2006 @ 3:22 am
Wandering around forums will not help you much unless you have much time to spend.
Comment by Indra — December 26, 2006 @ 9:39 am
I, personally, have found that every type of traffic development activity is time consuming. As to results, different methods are more effective than others. Also, some methods, such as writing articles, have slower but longer lasting effects. My favorite method is posting in blogs and forums, but that is mainly because I get to read other posts, and always learn something interesting.
Comment by SadieJane — January 31, 2007 @ 12:30 pm
Im must admit im new to this, somebody told me the otherday that posting to blogs was good for the PR of your site. I wasnt sure i believed him.My site has just attained a PR of 4 after an awful lot of dam hard work linking, so does this really work ? have i just got a one way link from a PR 5 website, just by writing this post ? i cant believe it ! Oh and would like to say it is fantastic to see a blog on blogging !
Comment by Doug — February 10, 2007 @ 3:56 am
sarahk,
Excellent article! Thank you for sharing this information with the rest of us.
Allowing contributers on forums to post signatures with links to their websites is a wonderful way of saying “thanks” for sharing your knowledge.
Having those links can provide other forum members with a way to determine if the information that was given is coming from a reliable source or not. Often times those signature links provide additional resources/information about the issue at hand. It sort of becomes a doorway to a very specific library.
There have been many times that I was able to find a solution to a problem via forums. I owe a lot of my current skill sets to kind people that were willing to share their time and knowledge with me.
To me it comes down to this:
The internet is built upon the notion of links and website addresses. After all… how did I come to be at this website - it was either through a link or a website address.
Sassafrass Winter Solstice
Comment by Sassafrass Winter Solstice — April 13, 2007 @ 8:07 pm
Hi there, your article proves that searching finds answers. I have only one question if I may:
How do we (as bloggers) get our message to select readers? I want reader’s that will continue to come back, but also readers who may even wish to participate actively on my blog. Take care. Thanks for this article it was very informative.
Truly,
Garret
Canada
Comment by Garret — April 26, 2007 @ 5:43 am
Hi Garret
There are a few tools. One site I visit sends me an email each time they add a post - I’ve subscribed and I appreciate getting it.
Other sites make it easy to subscribe to a feed, either in an RSS feed reader or through Outlook or Firefox. Alternatives might be to have them add you to a social bookmarking tool that they visit often. Technorati’s favourites is good - but the user has to be in the habit of visiting their page and reviewing new content. Even if they’re not, at least they can’t forget you as your site is saved somewhere.
Other than that you are relying on them to revisit. It’s a tough old game
Comment by Sarah King — April 26, 2007 @ 6:05 am
I am so pleased I found this page - it is full of very useful information. In the past I have contributed a lot to forums but never promoted my website by using a signature, but after reading all the comments here, i certainly will do in future.
Thanks for all the helpful comments
Comment by Jo Moss — May 24, 2007 @ 4:23 am
Yes this is true about links from forums. But beware. If you just write stuff for the links sake you are in effect spamming. Spam has killed so many things that to see the death of forums because of spammers would be a shame. Make sure what you write is of value.
What is great about this is that suppose you had a site about skate-boards, joining forums and taking part in skate boarding debates would be fun, educational and you become a part of a community.
However, when your CLIENT is selling house insurance, don’t clog up all the great forums about that topic with spurious questions and idle comments. That, surely, would put you in the spam camp with no grey areas.
Paul
PS Google is not daft either. They know when they are trawling a forum rather than straight html content.
Comment by Paul Drewett — June 1, 2007 @ 6:34 am
I actually found this page as I was searching for the answer to a problem I have : since years, I am posting on a specific forum (400+ posts). Today, I was considering to add the URL of a site of a friend of mine to my signatures on that forum. That would mean a boost of 400+ inbound links from that forum.
So I updated the signature, but the ones below my already existing posts did not change.
Does anyone know if VBulletin changes all of your existing signatures when updating your signature profile ?
Thanks,
Carl
Comment by Carl — June 21, 2007 @ 4:06 am
vBulletin does - but it’s possible to set it up so that the signature is saved with the post. This gives the posts stability and shows anyone trawling through the archives to see what was in the signature at that point in time. It also helps prevents signature sales and forum abuse. Some forums also put the infamous (and ineffective) no follow on signatures when viewed and have lost their members as a result.
However signatures should not be your #1 reason to participate!
Comment by Sarah King — June 22, 2007 @ 3:49 am
A good article, but I would say that forums are quite time consuming. Perhaps someone needs to write a program that submits to multiple forums (like you have article submitters and blog blasters!)
Comment by Paul Brown — July 5, 2007 @ 7:33 am
Yeah, Paul, because that wouldn’t be spammy! I’m advocating adding value while you drop your links. You can’t do that with an auto poster!
Comment by Sarah King — July 5, 2007 @ 7:36 am
Sarah, I was being sarcastic. I agree that you need to keep quality up. My problem with my rticle directory, and my blogs, is that I get so much spam I could have a fry up!
Comment by Paul Brown — July 7, 2007 @ 6:46 pm
Good article Sarah, I think it is important to find the right forums in regards to link building, some have very high scoring inner pages, some not so. It really is a trial and error game. Great post
Comment by Tracy — October 2, 2007 @ 7:12 pm