A place to advertise

[fayt]

Is there a forum section that I can post a link to my website and tell about my products? It's for forum members, not for google placement or anything.
I suggest a forum called "What is your business?" and let members tell all about what they do, about the products or services, years in business, location, etc.

[Pack-Secure]

You can post your website link on your signature. When they visit your site they can get all the other information, usually in your About Us.

As far as a separate section on the forums for this I am sure someone in charge will let you know.

[vangogh]

No. There's no section on the forum where you can advertise. You're welcome to create a signature with a link back to your site and assuming you contribute to the community people will click the link and visit your site. We don't allow people to create threads or posts just to promote their business. That would greatly reduce the quality of the content here that we work so hard to maintain.

At some point it's possible I'll offer ad spots for sale or create something that allows members to post something in the way of advertisement, like a classified section, however if that happens it will cost money to post in that section.

[fayt]

I was just wondering, I am contributing to the community, trying to maintain 5 posts per day.

[vangogh]

You're definitely contributing. I hope I didn't imply you weren't. My bad if I did. I just meant that it definitely works to get people clicking on your signature. I can imagine anyone here with a physical store is looking for signs as well as anyone thinking about using one for advertising.

To expand on why no section for advertising. I think it would water down the quality of the site. We'd start getting lots of people joining just to post a quick add to promote their business. We'd become a list item on people's marketing and seo lists and I don't want that to happen. I would like to see everyone here do well with their businesses and it would nice if the forum could help in that. That's why I made add something like a classified section to the site, though posting an add would require a small fee. In part it's to help me maintain the place and in part to keep away those who would just water down the quality.

[fayt]

That is true, you will have thousands of people signing up and spamming the advertising section. Of course you don't want paid banners either, it clusters the forum and making load times a nightmare.

I think a classified section with $1 ads would be ideal. No spammer is going to pay money to post spam.

[vangogh]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too. Even a small fee like $1 probably keeps most of the spam away. It's not something I'm in an immediate hurry to do, but it's on the to do list. I don't have a major problem with banner ads here. I wouldn't want them in every corner of the site, but a few wouldn't bother me. I recently added AdSense back to the site, but it only shows for people not signed in.

[Gabe]

Something I've seen that's relatively unobtrusive is sponsored forums. For example, if I was a tax expert I could sponsor the finance/tax forums and get a link. I'm not sure how effective that is, but it's a good way to offset the costs of running the site without degrading quality too much. One of the things that drew me to this forum was the quality of the users, quality of the conversations and lack of rampant monetization and other spammy stuff. I think the forum moderators do a really good job from what I've seen in the short time I've been here.

Speaking of advertising, for the more established users, how much business do you typically generate over the course of the year strictly from forum participation? In past years I know forum links used to be big to boost PR, I'm just curious if people actually get business from simply participating in forums. Personally, if I was in the market for a service and saw that someone had a good reputation and offered that service I'd definitely look at their profile/website to set something up.

[fayt]

I've never used a product or service from a forum, because people on here are either 3,000 miles away or in another country. I have yet to find someone in my own state.

[vangogh]

Something I've seen that's relatively unobtrusive is sponsored forums.

I have a hunch it wouldn't bring in much, but I could be wrong. Naturally I'd like to make some money from the forum especially since it takes time and money to maintain, but I also don't want this place to become one of those spammy forums where everywhere you look there's another ad for something. I know there's a reasonable balance in there. For much of the time we've been open the forum hasn't generated enough traffic or membership to make advertising all that worthwhile so I've mainly just let it grow, while keeping out as much spam as possible.

As far as generating business for my web design business I have gained clients from this forum over the years. This forum actually started as another forum. Same name, but .com instead of .net. Without going into all the details, let's just say the owners of the .com dropped the ball and instead of seeing everyone leaving, I set us up here. The core group of us have been talking through the forum for 6 or 7 years now. Some of the people I've talked to here have become clients, who've recommended other clients. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm pretty sure others will tell you they've picked up work through the forum too.

I think it's just like you said. Where service based businesses are concerned you can find a lot of people here offering something. Since we get to know each other through the forum we often contact each other than starting a general search. I know I'd much rather work with people here than people I don't know. It comes down to what your business offers and what others here need and then how you interact here. I think those who help the community first and do so in a way that shows they're capable where their business is concerned do generate business.


I've never used a product or service from a forum, because people on here are either 3,000 miles away or in another country. I have yet to find someone in my own state.

I think it depends what you're looking for. Using myself as an example there's no reason I couldn't design a site for you even though we don't live right down the road from each other. Most of my clients are in other states. The same is going to be true and many people here who offer services. I know sometimes people prefer to do business with people who they can physically meet, but for a lot of things it's not necessary and is probably going to become less common. It's similar with products. Some make sense to buy locally and some people don't ship so it's local or nothing, but I know I order plenty of things online from businesses I'll never be in physically. Amazon is a pretty good example.

[cobase]

If you're looking to prevent spammers, you might check out Akismet How we stop comment and trackback spam (http://akismet.com/how/)

They track spam links, etc. You show the message to their API and they give you an 'OK' or an 'It's spam' in return. I believe they have plugins for the major forum platforms, so you might look into it if you're thinking about opening a section that could get a little spammy without some moderation!

[Gabe]

vangogh, thanks for that. I didn't know the history of the forum. In fact, I came across the .com version and was turned off. Whatever you decide, I'm sure it'll be the right decision. I'm excited to see the site grow and totally agree those than find/maintain it should be compensated for producing such a resource.

If a classified/advertising section was started and all posters were vetted (i.e. paid a fee and required a certain reputation level), small business owners would come to trust the recommendations/ads in the forums. Trust is a hard thing to find these days, especially on the web. If you can offer that, you've got something--they'd come here to find answers and people to implement those answers. Sure, it wouldn't be a major part of the site, but it's something and it'd encourage those with expertise to contribute more.

[fayt]

I think it depends what you're looking for. Using myself as an example there's no reason I couldn't design a site for you even though we don't live right down the road from each other. Most of my clients are in other states. The same is going to be true and many people here who offer services. I know sometimes people prefer to do business with people who they can physically meet, but for a lot of things it's not necessary and is probably going to become less common. It's similar with products. Some make sense to buy locally and some people don't ship so it's local or nothing, but I know I order plenty of things online from businesses I'll never be in physically. Amazon is a pretty good example.

It's true, like for instance if someone bought a sandwich board, it'd cost a fortune to ship it. If they were to buy online there is companies that will do it for half the cost of me and charge free shipping. I can't compete.

[vangogh]

If you're looking to prevent spammers, you might check out Akismet

Already set up. I have addons installed that run everyone who attempts to register through a couple of databases to before the system will let them register.

@Gabe - Yeah there's a much longer story to what happened. Somewhere in some of the first threads here it's all written out. I just tried searching, but couldn't find it. If you're interested I'll search some more or retype much of it. If you check the .com and rank members in order of who has the most posts, you'll see a lot of names that are now here.

A classified section has been on my mind lately. I think we've grown enough and I've gotten the sense enough people would be willing to try. One of the things that keeps me from doing it is working on vBulletin is almost never fun. Maybe I just haven't spent enough time with the software, but most things are more difficult to do than they need to be.

@fayt - Yep. it really depends on quite a few things. Some things make sense to stay local. Other things it doesn't matter. Some people prefer working with local people even if it's not necessary too. If we do get a classified section set up here, I would imagine a lot of what's offered and looked for would be services, which shouldn't be an issue. I would think a certain amount of products could work too.

[Harold Mansfield]

I'm just curious if people actually get business from simply participating in forums. Personally, if I was in the market for a service and saw that someone had a good reputation and offered that service I'd definitely look at their profile/website to set something up.

I can honestly say that I've probably gotten 2-6 new clients a year that found me via a forum. Most times it's troubleshooting work for technical issues, but I'm happy that anyone would call at all from a forum. I've also teamed up with people on projects that I met via a forum.

[Watchdog]

vangogh, my brother designs websites for a nitch group he belongs to and is affiliated with very well. His travels brings him many customers and they are from all over the country.

I do my own web sites but often wonder if I should cut loose and do more promoting and building web sites for others as well as mine. There are many free ones out there but it wouldn't be hard sale of better service and better design. Do people really still hire web designers? :)

[Harold Mansfield]

Do people really still hire web designers? :)
That's a silly question, of course they do. And these days you need to know more than just building the website. People want more services, expertise and knowledge than just making the website for them and leaving.

[vangogh]

Do people really still hire web designers?

Enough definitely do. Quite honestly more people should. When anyone asks why they aren't getting the results they want with their website, the answer is almost always the content is poor and the design is poor. Investing in both by hiring the right people will likely have better return than most anything else.