Does anyone Recommend Hiring a Forum Posting Service? I had thought about doin this....can anyone speak from experience, is it worth it to start out a forum? -C
It works if you can get a good quality, literate poster to make 500+ posts over a period. If you respond to these 500 posts with two different users you have your first 1500+ posts taken care of.
I've used forum posting services in the past and have had a lot of success. You also might to look into finding a few people and work with them directly rather then a paid service who picks the group of people for you.
I would recommend it until you hit 1,000 or 2,000 posts. Then work on getting some users. ALOT! Work on Search Engine Optimizing your forums. Work hard on your forum for about 6 months. Focus on 1 forum and you won't regret it !
To keep things geniune, honest, I would suggest you try a real human effort first (friends, family, yourself etc.) until it picks up. If the above doesn't work out for a few weeks (up to 8 weeks) then go for these posting services. I have a forum with over 6,500 members, and never had to rely on any of these services. I was lucky and fortunate enough to just get members, who in turn got more and more and so on. As we all know, it is catch 22.
One more thing I found that works: If you offer a certain service, program or script on your site, make it so that people can get Free Help and Support through your forum. This method is very effective. When I find a script online and need help with it, and the only way I can get help is to sign up at the script site's discussion forums, I do it right away. So find what your signature product or service is, and provide first class support through forums: THIS WAY, GUESTS ARE MUCH MORE LIKELY TO TURN INTO VISITORS. Best of luck, it does need some time.
I certainly do if you have some extra dollars to spare you can go about it. I don't have there fore i dont.