Forum Posting Service Reviews

[Mike]

Nice article Chris, it's wiped out a few concerns I had at first.

I think I'll give Inb0x a try in the next few weeks...

[star]

Do they take orders currently ?

Emailed them twice, no reply.

Thanks

[Mike]

Hope so, I'll be using them in a week or so.

[cyanide]

Sorry for digging up an old thread, but do you have a link for that article and this company?

[Chris]

http://www.websitepublisher.net/article/pay-for-posts/

[cyanide]

Nice, Thanks Chris

Great Article, too !

[Mike]

I'm using postonmyforum and they're not bad. The only thing I dislike is that a lot of their posts seem to be just links to news articles, with a very small comment. It kinda wastes the posts.

Also, some of the posts you can tell that they're trying to make discussion and perhaps are artificial. I don't know if it will be similar with other companies, but the way they phrase things makes me wonder if outsiders know they are "fake posters".

[Bleys]

Interesting article. I have often wanted to attempt to start a forum solely with artifficial posts and see how far I could get. Order 300-1000 posts from 8-10 different companies and let them go at it for a month while still traditionally promoting the forum and see what happens.

Would be an interesting experiment, I believe, and make for an interesting article. Alas, I don't have the money to dump into such a (potentially) fruitless project right now.

[Steelsun]

Would be a neat idea to try Josh.

Too bad it would not help my community (too location specific and requires some diligence and thought)

[FPU]

Forums that hire posters are frauds that have zero editorial integrity and they will all fail because people can see through that sort of thing, posting services are a joke and are major scams and a blot on the forum community!

[Mike]

Ok then FPU, how do you create a successful forum now then? If you take posting services out of the equation, as well as talking to yourself (which I'm sure you'll disagree with), how do you get forums off the ground?

I'm waiting :)

[FPU]

The same way forums were built before the scams of paid posting services came about!

[Sagewing]

The same way forums were built before the scams of paid posting services came about!

Jeez every thread we have FPU with some kind of paranoid rant.

[FPU]

I guess you just have not seen much truth in your life if that is what you call it, I feel bad about that! :nod:

[Erin]

I sent an inquiry to forumlaunch.com three days ago, but haven't heard back since. Just for the record, I've never used these services before, but I've been curious and thought they might have some value for certain types of posts.

[KLB]

Forums that hire posters are frauds that have zero editorial integrity and they will all fail because people can see through that sort of thing, posting services are a joke and are major scams and a blot on the forum community!

I don't know about this FPU. I think Chris makes some valid points. If one starts a brand new forum, there has to be some mechanism to get people to start participating. The most important thing is threads that people want to reply to. Paid forum posters can help start threads on interesting topics to chat about.

Assuming the threads are on topic, I see no integrity problems with this. After all you have been claiming that forums should compensate members by displaying the members' sigs to the general public and SEs sans the rel="nofollow" flag. Are these sigs not a form of compensation?

I do agree with Chris that this tactic should only be used on brand new forums that have no members yet. It would be especially useful to someone who is starting a forum, but doesn't have a big network of "forum buddies" to help post until the forum gets rolling. To get posts a forum needs members. To get members a forum needs posts; paid poster's short circuit this problem.

[FPU]

I don't agree, if you have an index set up that is half decent, you can invite some experts on those topics to seed the forums with articles, press releases, news or even comedy topics!

I just don't think any of these services and post exchanges are worth anything, you can do better by inviting friends from other forums to join in versus paying a scam artist post broker to get half assed posts put up!

In addition, I have seen forums get going and lose members even after they have a ton of content up, some forums that have been up for years can't keep members coming back, most of them die out if the people are not having fun on the forum, most of the members come back to spend time with friends versus coming back to study!

[KLB]

I don't agree, if you have an index set up that is half decent, you can invite some experts on those topics to seed the forums with articles, press releases, news or even comedy topics!
The only way to intice these experts to post if you don't personally know them is to pay them to do it. They aren't as likely to be interested unless they are getting something for their efforts.

This is no different than me having to pay people to write articles for my environmental chemistry website or a newspaper paying their reporters.

Once there is a decent amount of seed material on the forum, one doesn't need to continue this practice, but the forums do need to be seeded.

[Bleys]

What's the difference between paying someone you don't know to post or having your friends post? Either way the end result is just seeding the forums with content. If you're friends aren't really interested in your forum, and are just doing it to help you, there is absolutely no difference. Both scenarios are just people who don't really care about the forum, but are posting for other reasons (either as a favor or to make money). I see absolutely no difference and there is certainly no moral issue in my eyes.

If you have no friends willing to do this, or have no time to do it yourself, then paying posters is a good solution.

[FPU]

Paying for posts is fraud, it is a threat to the editorial integrity of the forum and it distorts the historical record of the forum, this happens to be the most valuable thing a forum possesses!

[Chris]

Its not about manufacturing a full community with paid posts. But rather to fertilize the forum so that it grows quicker.

[FPU]

I understand Chris, but to me it is fake and fraud and unfair to the original members, one would do better bringing on moderators with the promise of revenue share down the road when the forum has advertising cash flow!

[Chris]

You'd be suprised. I'd tried Adsense Revenue Sharing and it didn't bring in nearly the amount of posts that simply paying did.

[Bleys]

I'm still not sure, though, how it is any more "fraudulent" than getting your friends to post? If they're not interested in the long-term growth of the community how are they any different than paid posters?

Plus, how do they distort the record of the community? If the posts are on topic and relevant, what difference does it make under what pretense they were created?

[FPU]

Well if you have never posted on a forum and don't know anyone, what business do you have starting a new forum anyway ?? ;)

I guess you have to do what you need to do, but there are millions of forums today, it seems every website has one now, so not all of them are going to make it, it is a long drawn out process and you better treat your great writers like superstars too!

[Kyle]

I strongly disagree with the opinions you have expressed, and feel the points you made to support your opinions were not satisfactory.


I don't agree, if you have an index set up that is half decent, you can invite some experts on those topics to seed the forums with articles, press releases, news or even comedy topics!

I just don't think any of these services and post exchanges are worth anything, you can do better by inviting friends from other forums to join in versus paying a scam artist post broker to get half assed posts put up!

Lets get something crystal clear. There is no reason to pay for baited posts on an existing active or even semi-active forum. Keep that in mind through this thread of mine.

There may be unique niches where "experts" will freely post on your forum to help you bait, but overall, would be nearly impossible.


Paying for posts is fraud, it is a threat to the editorial integrity of the forum and it distorts the historical record of the forum, this happens to be the most valuable thing a forum possesses!

Historical record? I believe most of the points made to support paid posting applies to new forums. It's more of a given. At least the MAJORITY of people who would pay for posts would only do so for a BRAND NEW forum. No need for us to debate the minority?


Forums that hire posters are frauds that have zero editorial integrity and they will all fail because people can see through that sort of thing, posting services are a joke and are major scams and a blot on the forum community!

People are going to notice? The goal is not to have these fake posts be engaged by real members. These fake posts lay a foundation which you can then grow from on your own. I have a feeling that most of your opinions are based on webmaster forums, and the webmaster communities. Not normal internet users.... Go ahead and disagree with this, but somethign is awkward with your judgements on the forum posting population. WEBMASTERS may detect fake posts, but most general internet users wont.

If a webmaster uses this service for an already existing community (again the MINORITY of forum admins who purchase this service), then many of your points make partial sense.

Finally, lets get some specific examples.

I just started www.shoeforum.com last week. I do not have any active members except for myself and a couple friends. I purchased posting services from www.inb0x.com. There aren't any quality general shoe communities out there. There are a couple focused more on athletic shoes (basketbal, running, etc.) but none that are general. The topic matter at hand, shoes. Where will I find the experts you mention? University of Shoes, California? Maybe find some expert shoe designers whose expertise does not relate to the general shoe fan population?

Many of your posts have been very harsh. And I cannot help but be a little harsh in return.


Well if you have never posted on a forum and don't know anyone, what business do you have starting a new forum anyway ??

I wont provide a constructive response to this because your thoughts on forum owners is too narrow minded. It's like you have no idea of how significant the differences can be from one forum's purpose to the next.


I guess you have to do what you need to do, but there are millions of forums today, it seems every website has one now, so not all of them are going to make it, it is a long drawn out process and you better treat your great writers like superstars too!

Stop generalizing about forums. Perhaps your only experience with forums are ones that target the webmaster community (made this assumption after looking @ your signature). Forums are created for different purposes. All can succeed. Chris's forum on 4laserhairremoval.com will probably never be a truly active community. It appears he gets one good thread every couple weeks or so. This is good enough. It keeps it semi-active, and creates new content slowly. We're talking about laser hair removal... the goal is not reasonable to think it becomes the next "hard ocp" (google it, go to their forums).

Having those fake posts creates a FOUNDATION so when the one or two people a month who wish to ask a quick question on hair removal observe a semi-active forum. Seeing a few hundred posts is much moer inviting than 5 or 10. They aren't going to read the fake posts. They're going to register, and ask their question. Then Chris is going to apply his google hacking skills to find some good answers to the question, unless Chris is an expert on hair removal :)

I'll conclude with reminding you to look at the casual Internet user who enjoys taking part in online communities. He/she will not want to engage in a near empty forum. When the user sees a couple hundred posts in the forum's history, this will be a big factor when he decides whether or not his question is worth asking.