Your Intention With A Discussion Forum?

[Joseph Ratliff]

I've been involved in discussion forums for ages in Internet years

And I've noticed two main types of Intentions (aside from SPAM, which really won't last that long in a forum anyhow)...

1) The contribution and discussion intention. A person with this intention will get the most benefits from a discussion forum.

By contributing your knowledge to a forum, the members get to share and benefit from your knowledge, the discussions are enhanced...so the forum becomes a more valuable place for all involved.

Plus, this intention has 2 very valuable side effects...members will click on your links, and you'll be exposed to other opportunities as they arise in the community. There are "automatic" benefits that come with "do-follow" links and SEO...but those are better enhanced by participating in the forum itself.

2) The "I'm gonna get links and clicks" intention. The cool thing about a forum that offers "do-follow" links is yes...you can post a bunch of easy to post, lower-value content just to get SEO value from a forum. And, you can sap as much information as you would like from a forum (like this one) that has been built over a number of years from contributions by the members.

However, wouldn't you rather get the value of #2, while sharing your knowledge (yes, you do have some to share) and gaining the full benefit of what the community has to offer?

We're waiting for your next post.

 

[JeffCasmer]

Hi Joseph,

You can kill several birds so to speak with staying involved in discussion forums including the seo value as well as the reputation. I still find it amazing the number of people who waste their time making one post that says nothing and is gone...LOL

Take care
Jeff Casmer

 

[Joseph Ratliff]

Hi Joseph,

You can kill several birds so to speak with staying involved in discussion forums including the seo value as well as the reputation. I still find it amazing the number of people who waste their time making one post that says nothing and is gone...LOL

Take care
Jeff Casmer

Well said Jeff, well said.

My opinion as to why people "post and run" is they are misinformed about how much value that one (two, three, even ten) post(s) have.

Business is, and always will be about people...period. It's not about the value of a link.

 

[Omni Mike]

My opinion as to why people "post and run" is they are misinformed about how much value that one (two, three, even ten) post(s) have.

Completely agree. Especially in a forum such as this, where everyone works in basically the same industry. We can all see through a post like that, and I think it does more damage than good because you lose the respect of your peers.

 

[Joseph Ratliff]

Completely agree. Especially in a forum such as this, where everyone works in basically the same industry. We can all see through a post like that, and I think it does more damage than good because you lose the respect of your peers.

Amen to that Omni Mike

I would rather have a person click through to my link because they felt they received value from something I had written...than to have some search engine give my site a little more link value.

Of course, both at the same time is good too.