Paid Forum Posting - Worth it?
Posted on March 14, 2007 by
Adie 
Forums 
41 Comments
Since I just went on a little rant about paid blog reviews, I figured my next subject might as well be paid forum posting. When I say paid forum posting, it’s a bit different from paid blog reviews in that the forum owner pays a third party to post on his forum (as opposed to bloggers getting paid by a third party to post on their blog). So why would someone pay a company to post on their own forum?
1) Gives the Illusion of Activity
This is the main reason for paid forum posting. One of the hardest hurdles to overcome for a new forum owner is getting those initial visitors to sign up. This is mostly difficult because of the fact that forums are attractive only when they are a thriving community, so when new potential members stumble into your site and see that there is no activity they often leave before giving it a chance. Paid forum posting makes your forums seem active during your posting campaign which may lead visitors to register more quickly.
Keep in mind that this is just an illusion of activity - paid forum posting is never a long-term solution to an inactivity problem. Once your campaign runs out those paid posters on onto their next $0.25 per post (or whatever the hell they charge) job.
2) Inflates the Numbers
Numbers are what make forums valuable. Believe it or not we’re in bubble 2.0 and forums are leading. You know that old 12x monthly revenue formula you apply to most websites? Throw that out when you’re talking about forums. Forums are selling for 24-36x monthly revenue based on little more than posting numbers. Maybe this should be a topic for a new post altogether eh?
In any case, paid forum posting gives you more members, more threads, and more posts. Simple as that. Every penny you invest into paid posting you can use as leverage when you sell ad space or decide to flip your forum.
3) Acts as a Personal Motivater
This is sort of an anectdotal point. When I purchased paid forum posting last year for my infant forum I realized just how inactive it was. The paid forum posters were talking to themselves and no-one else. This acted as a great motivater to get me to get more users in there so I could actually get what I paid for! Why pay for paid posters to chit chat? You have to give them *real* users to get your money’s worth.
Now that I have the “good” aspects of paid posting, lets tackle the bad.
1) Generates Little to No Real Activity
The main reason *to* used paid posting is that it is advertised to be able to help you generate activity. Paid forum posting companies rarely come straight out and say “we will single-handedly jump-start your forum” but almost all of them advertise on the platform that having paid forum posters on your board will help increase registration rate thus growing your forum. Although whether or not they do this is arguable, I personally think they don’t.
One would think that having activity on the board - whether paid or not - would generate a higher % of registrations, but that’s assuming the paid posters are hustling and bustling making the forum seem really active. Companies often include in the wee itty bitty fine print that the average job usually takes 1-3 months to complete. Now if you were buying 100 posts that were all put up in the period of a weekend (say while at the same time you were driving tons of traffic) then I can see how paid posting might work wonders. But when paid posters are posting 1 post a day over the period of 3 months, how is that effective in the slightest?
I’ve used 3 separate companies (all of which were suggested, none of which I’ll disclose, so don’t ask me) and none of them finished on time.
2) Paid Forum Posters Are ***Mostly*** Kids
Before I start, just be sure you notice that I qualified that statement with ***mostly***. Paid forum posting is not only a very low-paying job but it is also a boring one. Often times paid posters are forced to post on boards that they are uninterested in for little more than a few pennies per post. This in turn brings mostly teenagers to the workforce, and we all know how teenagers are. I was one just a few years ago, but it’s amazing how fast you grow up when you’re paying your own bills. Years make a difference. Do not trust your online presence to teenagers.
Note: I’m sure there are many notable teenagers, but I’m speaking in general here so get off my back.
3) Where’d [user] Go?
Another big problem with paid posting is that after the job is done, the posters are gone. You expected that though, and you only wanted to use the initial paid posting to gain registrations. So lets say you actually did get quite a few people to register as a result of your paid posting experiment. Have you ever thought of how your users might react when 20-30 of your most active users magically vanish after a month or two? It isn’t pretty. If you do hire paid forum posters and they actually do somehow work, be ready for some crowd control afterwards.
Conclusion - Is Paid Forum Posting Worth it?
No. It’s expensive and yields very little returns. You’d be better off just begging some of your friends to post for a while, ninja-stealing members from other boards, and maybe even running a forum competition or two. But paid posting? Not cost effective at all.
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An interesting read - as you may be aware I recently covered this subject in my blog. I wasn’t as quick to jump to the conclusion of writing off forum posting as completely negative, but it is important people are aware that paid posting is never a substitute for the hard work involved in building a genuinely active community.
I have to agree with you and say that it may not be worth the effort and money.
I think another very important aspect of the negativity is that you are paying someone to do something for you that should be coming naturally. It’s forcing the issue and trying to push ahead without working to have your forum come around. I am all for working hard and spending money where it needs to be spent, but it’s really focusing on the wrong issues and devoting time and money where it could be better used on something else.
Short version: spend your money on links and other forms of advertising instead.
And now the longer version for those interested. Paid posting can work, in theory. I have tried it though, and it didn’t work. The only way it is ever going to work is if you’re able to find those people interested in the subject of your forums, and can display a passion for it. This is because new forums will survive on one thing, and one thing only, and that is passionate members.
The one time I tried out paid posting, I ended up with a bunch of posters that agreed to everything, and were unable to create a single thread of value. Needless to say this was wasted money, that would have been better spent elsewhere.
Paid posting won’t get you traffic by itself, but it can help convert some of your traffic into forum members that would not have posted otherwise.
Obviously it works best if you can target topics where teenagers have a lot of knowledge.
Paid posting can be worth it, but only part of an overall strategy for building a forum. If paid posting is your strategy, then there is a problem.
It is a bit of a crutch for forums, but everyone needs help getting off the ground at one time or another. I think that it is good for some forums - it depends on the target audience and the main focus. I also think that the cost inefficiency is a problem that is easily solvable.
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Great post Matt.
On the whole it doesn’t seem worth the money. I have started one successful forum and got my initial members by asking people on forums that I was already a member of to come over and help me out. Worked out nicely..
Would you consider forum contests to be in the same arena …? I mean, for new forums, that is… to me that’s a form of paid forum posting.
I think paid forum posting is a stupid idea, if you want posts so badly, just let the spambots run wild. Competitions are always good though.
Interesting points Matt, but I disagree with on a bit. I used to fun inb0x.com back in the day, so I’m pretty knowledgeable when it comes to paid per posting services.
I think if you use paid per post services before your forum launches, it can be beneficial. Nobody want to see a just launched forum with no posts, or posts just by you. The illusion of activity can be more helpful than one might think.
If your forum is dulled down a little, a couple paid posts can give it that little boost of activity to get it back up on its feet.
Sure you could advertise a competition, but competitions are surprisingly temporary as well, and paid posts are much cheaper.
Of course paid posts aren’t necessarily going to help your forum, and I believe that if your forum is unique (few are these days), and marketed properly there’s no need to use paid posting services.
I believe that paid posting services are mostly being used by people with a hopeless forums anyway.
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