Why Are You Wasting Your Time Spamming Forums With Advertisements?

[Dale King]

There are literally thousands and thousands of forums on the internet. They are an amazing resource for finding the answers to virtually anything you want to know.

For example, want your website critiqued? Ask a forum to critique it. Want to know how to incorporate your business? Ask a forum. Got a marketing question? Ask a forum.

Name the topic, and there's probably a forum for it. Participating in forums is a great way to learn, network and grow your business. Unfortunately, you have a few individuals who try to ruin it for everyone else by constantly spamming forums with stupid and ridiculous advertisements.

Now to be fair, there are some individuals who simply don't know any better. For example, "newbies" who don't bother to take the time to read the forum rules before they start posting. They'll spam a forum once, get reprimanded by the moderators and never do it again.

At the other end of the spectrum you have your serial spammers. These individuals simply dart from forum to forum carpet-bombing forums with advertisements. They know they're spamming, but they simply don't care. They're playing the odds, hoping their ad doesn't get deleted right away and is seen by enough gullible individuals to pick up a quick sale or two.

They don't care if they damage their reputations, because they don't plan on hanging around. Also, once forum moderators catch on to their game, they simply invent a new forum identity and repeat the process over and over again.

Here's my question: Instead of wasting time and energy spamming forums with advertisements that you know are going to get deleted, why not become a productive member of the forum and promote your business that way? Here's how:

Start participating in the discussions. If you have knowledge of a particular topic, jump in. Get involved. If someone asks you a question or makes a comment, ALWAYS reply back with USEFUL information.

So how are you promoting your business by participating in forum discussions?

If you provide useful information and advice, at the end of your post make a reference to your website in your sig file. This is more than acceptable.

Forums offer you the opportunity to be seen as an expert in your field, if that's what your goal is. And if you post consistently and provide accurate and reliable advice, you can quickly become a respected member of the forum whom potential prospects turn to for advice.

That's a lot better than darting from forum to forum posting advertisements that are only going to get deleted. Think about it!

Dale King

[jshaulis]

I agree, the problem is the serial spammer will never actually read this post.

[JLeezer]

I agree, the problem is the serial spammer will never actually read this post.

Excellent observation!

[Dale King]

I agree, the problem is the serial spammer will never actually read this post.

That's true. Most serial spammers will never see this article. But there are some who create multiple identities that lurk and read the posts. I wrote this article for them.

Dale King

[HarveyJ]

Dale, I think you'll find the more "professional" of these serial spammers actually automate the process using bots. When the bot can no longer login, it will create a new identity on its own.
Email responses are fairly useless as the bots will be programed to use temporary email services and "click" on the links in emails.
Captcha's work to some extent, but the ones that the bots have a hard time with are usually the ones that piss real people off too.
Honeypot traps (fields that are there, but made invisible to human users) are the most effective means of ensuring that the automated ones aren't viable. If information is filled into a field that people can't see, it's obviously not a person after all...

As for the people that do it all manually...
It's because that's what they've been told to do in BS books that invariably come with some PLR onsale.

[1entrepreneur]

In a way, we are all serial spammers via our signatures.