Why is forum marketing seen as spammy/blackhat etc? Give me your opinions. Personally I feel like there isn't anything wrong with it, as long as you provide decent quality content and don't post links in every post. Thanks.
In and of itself forum marketing is not a bad idea. However, we have the big G that has been penalizing forum "link dropping" since 2014. For them it's all the same: if a webmaster leaves too many links on forums, blogs, directories in hopes to beat the search results it will be considered web spam and penalized in some fashion. If you don't care how the big G views your site, then there's nothing to be afraid of.
To what degree does Google punish sites that link drop, and how much link dropping does it take. As I presume it would take a massive amount for it to be considered spammy (a massive amount for 1 person to do, anyway). Most sites are stuck in ways of promotion etc because of Google and their CPC pushing ways.. Thanks.
Your guess would be just as good as mine. It can be 10, it can be 1000. It may never happen to some sites. It also depends on what forums you post your links on. From the basic research that I did on the subject it all seems to boil down to relevancy. As an example: If your site sells e-cigs but you have backlinks coming from affiliate marketing, women's clothing, car repairs, etc. forums your links will be considered spammy (their algorithm can tell if a backlink is relevant or not).
I can see why people assume that. People continue to use their junk/spin content that they are not will or unable to write themselves, then along with their massive link buildups over night, then their sites get penaized, then they come on here saying they did nothing wrong, and that google is just penalizing sites and force them to use google adwords, in fact if this is your theory, then it would be a big gamble hoping to get their business..... I ran across an affiliate site last week, just one of his pages was around 7000 words, and the content was packed full of charts, graphs, videos, images, and I would guess he has 100's or even 1000's of pages loved by google, because this is what google wants to see.. google does not want to see your 300-500 article that has been spun 100 times... People just dont get it, and they can not understand why they can not make any money on the internet when their sites are shot down by google. Can you create the type of content that I mentioned above? This affiliate most likely makes more then $5k/mo if not much more, and his site has been around for 10+ years.... If you put up similar content, then google would love you too, and you would never have to worry about another penalty, ever! however, most are not skilled, nor can they afford to put up quality content, as it would be too expensive, and the payoff is not short term. Can you afford to pay $100s or $1000s in content costs for the next 3-5 years hoping your investment pays off in the future? BTW, the above affiliate worked on his site 10-12 hours/day, and it took him between 3-5 years before he was able to quit his day job, and by looking at his site, i can tell he has put 100's or even 1000's of hours into his site... I wish people would just man up, and stop blaming google for their own failures in life. I guess it is just easier to blame google... I also see people keep repeating past failures. dropping links in forums is old news. One high PR link iw worth 1000 forum links that have between little and zero value. You continue to focus on spam, then your site will never get anywhere. You should be going after 5-10 High Pr links each week, but wait, you cant afford it, and you think spamming forums is going to solve what you cant afford to pay for, anyways, people like you is why google is the way they are, because you got to have it now.... find another hobby, you will not make it if you keep doing the same....
google has gotten very good at weeding out sites. One site has a brandable looking domain using unique content, and takes off like a rocket, while another domain that may be generic in nature, and they use spin content, then they cant figure out why their site isnt moving in the serps. and if google spiders cant tell, then they can always do a manual review of your site just to make sure. It can take a long time for a legit site using unique content to get anywhere; using unique content is just your first step, then you have to start going after high quality backlinks, and that can be costly... You will not become #1 just because you use unique content, however, by using unique content that offers value to readers will insure that you continue climbing and will maintain your ranking(s) in the future.