Business model of paid forum post services

How do they calculate, how does it work in general?

[openmind]

Hi, you probably have noticed that paid forum posting services are popping up and it seems there is a growing market for this type of business. How do you think does it work? I mean, how do those services calculate their prices? The client usually pays between $ 0.15 and 0.25 per post and a the bigger portion of that goes to the free lance writers/poster the posting company is hiring. How much can they make? Also, what do you think are the reasons forum owners are paying others to post on their forums? Are they hoping to attract 'real' posters and convert them into customers? What are your thoughts on this?

[rogerd]

We've often talked about having friends come in to post on your forum in its early days. A posting service could be handy for webmasters with no friends. :)

Seriously, it's important for a new forum to look busy - buying cheap posts is one way to do it, although I'd worry about the quality.

I presume these same services might do promotional posting on other forums - one way to get buzz about a product/service/site - but kind of risky if exposed.