My Site Showing Up in Other Forums

Cool!

[kriskd]

I participate in a variety of other forums. I don't spam my site, but just stay on topic (of course I'm choosing forums with topics of interest to me) and have my site in my sig file. That has generated some traffic for my site as well as entertainment/education value I get from participating in the forums.

What's really cool, is now people are mentioning my site in forums that I have no affiliation with! I'm just guessing they are picking up my site from the forums I participate in and passing them along to other forums. Of course, this is all unsolicited.

So far my site has show up in a racing forum and another more general one. Both are quite unrelated to the subject of my web site.

As you can imagine, I'm pleased as punch! Anyone else ever have other people do your advertising for you?

Kris

[martinibuster]

Yup. Spotted them in MSN Groups and on topic forums. It's always a good idea to encourage people to tell a friend. I don't drop url's in forums (makes me feel weird) but it's nice to see other people doing it for me.

[kriskd]

I used to do a lot of URL dropping with my site and have gotten in trouble for it, so I've pretty much stopped doing that even in forums that are related to my web site.

I haven't figured out a tactful way to encourage people to "spread the word" about my site, so I'm staying away from that at this point and letting the site (hopefully) speak for itself.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Martini.

Kris

[BlueSky]

Yeah, I tracked down a few unfamiliar URLs that ended up being in forums with decent traffic coming in from them. One person would ask how to do something and the responder would say you should be able to find that easily on the net just go to Google and enter "blah blah" for a search phrase. The responder would then post my site as an example of one telling how to do it. The ones I find even more interesting are those who access my site from password protected areas. Can't tell what they're saying.

[Marketing Guy]

It is really good to get forum and blog links - it's a much stronger referal than the generic link - it means someone actually likes what you do (er...unless they are saying, "dont go to www.example.com because they suck...." ;)).

I was well chuffed when i first got blogged and first got a forum entry! :)

Scott

[mcavill]

ditto - i got a yahoo groups link and got referenced in someones thesis which got indexed from their blog - wish they'd used keywords for the reference ;) - pretty cool when your sites start getting promoted by others though.

[martinibuster]

I haven't figured out a tactful way to encourage people to "spread the word" about my site...

Easy, use a tell-a-friend script.

[rcjordan]

>...unless they are saying, "dont go to www.example.com because they suck

Bots won't care about the negative review.

[rogerd]

I think this anecdote is yet one indicator that a "visitors first" strategy works best. Strangers drop your URL in forums when they think other people will find your site useful or interesting.

I like "send this page" links for viral marketing, but I don't know of any easy or ethical way to get people to drop your URL elsewhere. Perhaps you could include some general copy about how you are trying to get the word out about your site, and encouraging them to tell their friends. I certainly wouldn't tell them to drop your URL in forums. ;)

[Marketing Guy]

> Bots won't care about the negative review.

People visit forums and blogs from time to time too! ;)

Scott

[killroy]

I got three forum links so far in my second month, and I've never dropped the url anywhere, and this is the only forum I'm on. the linkingforums where all on topic, and hte posters used my site as a reference, like "see what the widget is made of at domain.com". Really flattering.

I love following those threads and seeign how my site actually helped a person with serious problems to feel better and find factual info to put them back on track.

Gives me that fuzzy white-hat feeling that sometimes gets lost when you're too intent on content-content-content, so mcuh taht you start seeign visitors jsut as numbers.

SN

[rogerd]

I work with a product site that gets quite a few unsolicited links from collector/enthusiast forum participants. They even snag images, which we don't get overly excited about in most cases.

One caution: you had better take good care of your customers, as these same posters will crucify you if you fail to deliver the product or service they expect.

[Marketing Guy]

Wise words RogerD.

Some of my own forum posters are currently crucifying a related business (the UK Gov Department of Trade and Industry has already intervened based on the thread and the company in question has removed certain "services" from itīs portfolio).

As with any form of PR (not the butchered Google make believe PR - i mean the "real" PR! ;)) you better make sure your business is whiter than white before you begin promoting it in this manner.

A couple of good referals are good. A couple of bad ones can be devastating! ;)

Scott

[killroy]

Funny thing is, I don't sell anything, just info sprinkled with affiliate links. And yet I get emails asking to order from me, and when I point them to my affilaites, they insist on dealing with me and send me all their details tofill in the order for me. If people need this sort of handholding, and are SO averse to bying from my merchants, I can sometimes understand why conversion rates aren't so great. Iguess my job is to fill in the missing service.

Hey, service isn't dead yet ;)

SN

[dragonlady7]

I'm trying to promote myself through forums a little bit. I'm active in a number of forums, and have just recently put my website up and put a link to it in my sig in the forums that allow that.
My site logs are full of visitors from wild and wacky places! I'm pleased by that, and the big link from the forum I moderate (they put links to the moderator's sites on one of the pages of the forum as a kind of thank you, which works for a small forum) has attracted Googlebot to my little baby site for the first time, which is very sweet. (This is my personal-professional site, which is more personal than professional just now.)
So I'm making helpful posts and trying to write helpful articles in response to threads that alert me to a need, etc.

Funny enough, I've gotten more job offers from this forum, where I'm not allowed to mention my URL or plug myself at all. Go figure!

But, it's very satisfying to be viewed as an authority or a resource by fellow forum members, and it makes me feel all old and authoritative. (Not that that stops me from making inappropriate comments in Foo...) And fuzzy, too-- I think there's a fuzzy feeling in there somewhere. :D

[rogerd]

Dragonlady, excellent point about signatures. I'm so used to WebmasterWorld and forums that don't allow sigs that I failed to cite that as a legitimate way to drop your URL. Quite a few forums DO allow URL sigs, and a reputation for helpful, intelligent posting will enhance your PR (all meanings).

[troels nybo nielsen]

The ones I find even more interesting are those who access my site from password protected areas.

Yup. The most recent link of this kind to one of my sites is from a school. It's from a page that seems only to be accessible for teachers and to be related to some kind of web project.

The link is to a website that is rather controversial. I wonder what they are saying about it.

A couple of good referals are good. A couple of bad ones can be devastating

An old article on the website of one of the two national Danish radio and TV companies has a very arrogant linktext to another of my websites. I don't know if it harms me, but I have thought about making an equally arrogant backlink.

[dragonlady7]

Many forums that do allow you to have a URL signature put a redirect on it so that PR isn't actually transferred, and the same for URLs you drop within the actual text of the posts. So they're useless just for link pop. But if you approach them from the point of view of highly targeted traffic that should be favorably disposed to you because you've just spent an hour of your time freely critiquing their website's copy or somesuch, and you just happen to sell copywriting services and the like, etc. etc. ... Forums are a great, legitimate way to honestly, straightforwardly promote yourself. I didn't put a signature on my posts until I'd been a member for several months, because I initially joined to gain information. Now I try to dispense information. There's nothing underhanded about it, and that really appeals to me. And, when someone here asked me about the services I do, since my website wasn't completed and I didn't have a portfolio up, I was able to point him to the forum where I'm a moderator and where I had recently made a large number of relevant and very good posts.

Well, heck, it's the only way I can justify all the time I spend in here. ^.^

[jimbo_mac]

yeah, I've got a few links for one site in a few forums.
One, an irananian forum, has some text and a link to the site, although I don't understand a word of what's been said.

[kriskd]

I just had my site dropped into another completely unrelated forum -- this one on backpacking! Now if I could only find out where these people are picking up on my site. :)

Kris