Joining only to promote

[MrDawn]

Do you promote other forums on your forum? How is that working for you?

Honestly, I sort of frown down on it. Its different if your forums focus is on promoting and advertising because thats the point. But all in all for other forums trying to get started its a horrible idea and I respect other people's opinions if they don't agree with that.

So, no matter your forum. It could be entertainment or advertisement and you might just have a section for members to promote their forums.

I'm sure you have a section on your forum for people to plug their website. I'm also sure that out of all of those members you might just get one that takes a real interest in your forum. In my opinion this is a just a bad way to get people to join as they will post a one and done and than leave and never become active again.

I see this all of the time. Members join a forum just to post their promotion and than go inactive. It really gets on my nerves. They contribute nothing, they give nothing to the forum based on what it is. Some people may be okay with it. Some forum owners get fed up with it and trash that forum and all of those posts because people just log into bump that thread, or they just delete their forum and than your left with a useless thread that they made with a dead link to their site.

 

[Cosmic]

Joining only to promote is an effective way to get people to your site, but if you do that, you have to look like a real member, not a robot. If your username is BestFreeWebHost, and your signature has a link to BestFreeWebHost.com, then no one is going to take you as a serious member, and no one will visit your website. But if you contribute to the community, then you will get people to join out of friendship, which is the way to get true, lasting members to join your forum.

 

[Reverse Flash]

I don't do that, ever. It doesn't really work, either.

 

[Sharon]

I think being an active member in another community is the best way to get people interested in your own forum community. I remember I used to offer free graphic designs and back when I used to actively run my Creative Arts forum it was my main avenue when it came to new members. When you are helpful/interesting people find you interesting and they have a natural want to get to know you better and ultimately they can stumble upon whatever projects you're working on. I agree that people should make more of an effort to look like a regular member rather than just advertising then leaving.

 

[Chris K]

Joining only to promote is an effective way to get people to your site, but if you do that, you have to look like a real member, not a robot. If your username is BestFreeWebHost, and your signature has a link to BestFreeWebHost.com, then no one is going to take you as a serious member, and no one will visit your website. But if you contribute to the community, then you will get people to join out of friendship, which is the way to get true, lasting members to join your forum.

I agree, quality post and actually use a real user name, you can meet some nice people and also by helping others they may become curious and click the link in your signature.

Spamming with a fake username will actually hurt you more then it would help with ranking. Google is much smarter now days, can't just go around joining every forum you see and start posting in hopes that you get members.

 

[Cierra]

I don't do this, but Ive had some members sign up on my forum to do that before. I feel that doing that is rude, it's more meaningful to interact with the community and gain members/visitors that way instead.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

I've never really figured out why people like to join a forum, plug their link, and leave. I can see the short term benefit, since it gives a temporary increase in traffic, but it doesn't give a long term benefit.

I agree that in order to get good quality members from advertising, is that one needs to actually be a part of that community, in order for them to want to consider joining up at the forum one is advertising.

 

[Mikaya]

It can get annoying because they don't contribute anything worthwhile to the community. It's not really that effective to advertise and leave shortly afterwards. Becoming an active member and promoting a little would work out better.

 

[SilentThief]

I agree with you completely. Not only that, but advertisement forums are not only built around you improving your site, but are also built around you helping others out, as that is what gets everyone members in the end.

 

[Thomasss]

Being an active member on a community is probably the only way for other members to take you seriously. Plus, the more you post, the more your signature ad goes around the forum so in a way it's a plus for you.

However joining JUST to advertise is kind of annoying, however I have joined many forums just to promote my site so I cannot say it's a horrible thing. 😛

 

[Sharon]

I agree with you completely. Not only that, but advertisement forums are not only built around you improving your site, but are also built around you helping others out, as that is what gets everyone members in the end.

Exactly. That's why I don't disagree when forum owners require a certain amount of posts before members are allowed to advertise on their sites. To post your link and then leave a community make you no better than a spambot in my opinion.

 

[Allenafaith]

I don't like joining just to advertise and I don't like users who do that. If you want people to join you need to be active and make friends like people have stated above. If people don't know you or you haven't even said anything other than an advertisement then they most likely won't join. I have seen users that use their site name as their username and it makes me not want to join their site at all honestly.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

I agree with you completely. Not only that, but advertisement forums are not only built around you improving your site, but are also built around you helping others out, as that is what gets everyone members in the end.

Exactly. That's why I don't disagree when forum owners require a certain amount of posts before members are allowed to advertise on their sites. To post your link and then leave a community make you no better than a spambot in my opinion.

On a forum I had joined awhile ago, the owner of the forum had instituted a 50 post minimum requirement to be able to add links in signatures, and for the most part, it worked to help get the forum active from those users who actually cared about posting, in order to use that feature.

 

[Sharon]

I agree with you completely. Not only that, but advertisement forums are not only built around you improving your site, but are also built around you helping others out, as that is what gets everyone members in the end.

Exactly. That's why I don't disagree when forum owners require a certain amount of posts before members are allowed to advertise on their sites. To post your link and then leave a community make you no better than a spambot in my opinion.

On a forum I had joined awhile ago, the owner of the forum had instituted a 50 post minimum requirement to be able to add links in signatures, and for the most part, it worked to help get the forum active from those users who actually cared about posting, in order to use that feature.

Wow! That is a higher limit than what I'm used to seeing but I suppose for those that really want to advertise it might be worth it. Honestly though that can easily be done within 5 days. Typically, I see people put a 5-10 post minimum. For those that can't respect that shouldn't expect to be allowed to advertise.

 

[CM30]

If it's a promotion forum, I don't mind it. That's what they exist for.

If it's a different type of forum, like a general webmaster or gaming one? Then yeah, it's something I look down on. Use forums because you want to be part of the community, not just for a free backlink.

 

[Deleted member 17779]

I wouldn't join a forum with the intentions of just promoting my own site. I would participate somewhere else on the forum before I consider advertising my own. I just feel that it would make me look like a "spammer" if I joined only to advertise my own forum. I just feel people wouldn't even bother looking up my forum if I did that.

 

[drucrazy]

Mine is a promotional forum so I don't mind if you just come on to promote or post in 1 place. I still do find it rude, but wont come out and say anything.

 

[TwitchRaid]

It works but some people don't like it haha

 

[mushroompizza]

I left a forum, and before I did I dropped my link, so far nothing.

 

[Chester Gorilla]

People who just promote their work and nothing else come off as asses, unless it's a promotion forum. If it's a productive member, I'm 100% fine with it.

Now to make a hypocritical ass out of myself, yeah, I joined here to promote my site. After all, it is Forum Promotion. It's the whole point. But I've made a conscious effort not to come off as a spambot or anything. This is a forum, and I will treat it as such with constructive posting, even if I came here to promote my site. In fact, I haven't even made a thread about my site yet, and I don't think I will for a while.