I’m a member on several forums and lately I’ve been seeing more and more people posting links to articles
or blogs that basically say “I wrote an
article on _X_, here’s the <link> check it out” well, I recently blogged
about _X_ as well, if you’d like to see it, check out my ‘recent blog post’
that’s up by my name….there is no need to post about it for the sake of
posting. The administration of the site was kind enough to give us an option
that leaves no need for such a mundane thread. When you do post a thread like that
it simply smacks of SPAM and a weak attempt at getting a link and maybe some
traffic.
What people do not realize is that if they would spend a little time they could
get much much more click through to the article or blog post they just made.
How? Simple! Just give a little content to the thread. That’ll do two things.
First it’ll make people want to read the article, and second it can cause
discussion, which in turn helps to keep your thread on the top, and the longer
it’s on top, the more traffic it’ll receive.
I am a forum owner, and as such, when I see a thread that starts off with no
content and a link, that thread will generally get deleted, and the poster will
generally get labeled as spammer, especially if that is their first post.
However, if a brand new member comes and gives a few snippets of an article or
blog post in hopes of discussion, and discussion happens, I’ll leave the post,
and it’s link, as that is falling into the grand scheme of the forum being a
Discussion Board.
I’ve also recently seen a thread with the original poster complaining that he
was not getting good traffic through his signature. I looked into why and the
reasons were pretty obvious, and I’m not just talking about the fact he only
had 66 posts at the time. I ran through his posting history and of his 66 posts
I counted only a small handful that actually provided any content to the thread
he was posting in. If I am reading a thread and see a post that says little
more then “I agree” I’ll scroll down to the next post skipping over the sig
links in the process. On the other hand, if I see a good post that adds
something to the thread, I’ll generally stay there for a moment while absorb
what the member was talking about. This has often led me to look at the
member’s signature, especially if the anchor text is relevant to the thread
they are posting in.
The same concepts also cross over into blog posts. Time and time again I am
logging into my comment queue only to find unrelated entries with little more
then a link. I don’t care about your cat site if I am blogging about my garden.
Though, if you have something to say about cats that relates to gardening
somehow, then by all means give me some content and your link, I’ll gladly let
it stay, in fact, if your link is really worthy of being read I may even click
around a bit and possibly even blog about something else you have to say.
Though, just post a link and chances are I’ll not even bother too look, even if
it does seem relevant.
Article Directories are nice, and should be the norm. When you submit an
article to a directory, they will host it for you, if it has a link to your
site, then it’s good for you, and good for them. The Article directory gets
free content, and you get that sought after link, it’s WIN/WIN, and posting in
a blog, forum, or even guest book, should be no different. Give a reason that
your link should stay, and I’m betting that it will!
So unless you are posting to a link directory, give something in return (like
good quality content). It’s the least you can do!
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