if you build links following a few simple guidelines, then there should not be any risk associated with it. as long as you are doing white hat link building, you are fine
"Risk from Backlinks"..seems some confusing, what exactly you want to say..if you are looking for backilinks then there many ways to get it.
Guys, get real. A lot of people join forums and post a bunch of quick meaningless gibberish (the shorter the better) because they heard that forum links are "great for SEO" (which is false, but who cares), but they need a minimum number of posts to be able to post links. The safest way is to post fake queries -- no one complains about the. So welcome another spammer into your midst.
I would beg to differ. My personal exerience (and I've done a lot of tests on this) - I've seen sig links from forums such as this go up when they are used. However, the minute you yank the backlinks - the site does fall. So basically in a sense you are correct - they are not good for long term.
In response to my remark that the idea that forum links are "great for SEO" is false: I beg to differ only about the meaning of the word "great." Forum links are a low-level tactic that has only a marginal effect because Google has depreciated such links due to spam (even when they are not nofollow). I agree that forum links are better than no links at all, but you need a huge number of them to achieve a slight effect, and they won't help you much at all to rank for a competitive keyword. I mean, yes, they may bring you for position 500 to position 43 or similar -- which may seem like a lot but isn't, and has next to no real value -- but they won't push you any higher. To really rank, you need real, quality links, and your time and energy are better spent developing those. One great link from a relevant authority site is much better than a hundred thousand forum links.
Phillip- I agree for the most part, although if people are able to stick to it with regard to profile links they do add up over time...plus it's not they are going to disappear. As part of a general link building strategy I think they have a place in anyone's SEO process. Especially if you have a large number of forum posts in your own niche they'll help in SEO (if only marginally) but also can drive traffic which is the real end goal.
In using backlinks, you must make use of sites that are related with your site for it to be useful. If you want to use forum marketing as well in getting backlink, you just make sure that you put useful and helpful posts in order for members to click your link.
I think the only risk is when you provide links to questionable sites. In-coming links are deem out of your control.
LOL! I agree. Just to ad my two cents. Forum links are useless outside of traditional marketing. Their only benefit is that they offer inroads to your site. They generally have no PR value unless the thread goes viral and receives links unto itself, which is extremely rare.
Yeah they should make this forum NO FOLLOW........ because the thing is, this forum is GREAT... it really is.... but when you ask a question, you get 25 jibberish responses that make no sense at all... its people thinking theyre getting a valuable signature link Its a bunch of bologna!!!! This forum would be extremely awesome if that was all cut out
You can get sandbox if your link will be not a good quality. You should build about 3-5 high quality backlinks daily to be safe.