Most know that posting to forums with a link back to your site is a good way to drive traffic. I was doing some math, though, and it hit me that it might not be such a great strategy. I've found that, in general, you can post to 10 forums in an hour. (I'm talking real posts, not spam). I can do this for 2 hours before getting burned out for the day. For a decent post, let's say you AVERAGE 100 total views. Ok, so 20 posts (in 2 hours) = 2000 eventual views of your posts. Here's the key number which I'd like to know. What percentage of click-throughs do you get on your link back? I'm guessing 5%. This would mean, 100 visits to your site. Well, I can get 100 visits @ $.05 a click from Google Adwords, or $5 a day. So for my forum "work," I'd be getting paid the equivilent of $2.50 an hour. Not a very good pay rate. What's been your experience? Is my math wrong? Thanks, in advance, for your replies. -Bill
I'm sorry, but it's one of the poorest ways. A minimum-paid worker gets paid more, and works far fewer hours.
Yes, I'm talking about having a link in your signature for getting click-throughs back to your site. Is my guess right? That you'd get about 5% clickthroughs on that signature link?
Ok, well another thought just occured to me. I might be able to get closer to the right click-through number by comparing responses. I totaled the number of views of all posts on this front page. There were 2531 total views, Then I counted responses. There were 194 responses. This means that there is a 7.98% rate of response to views. Now my guess is that you'd get at least twice the number of click-throughs on a signature link, as you would responses. This is based on the fact that if 7.98% are motivated to take the time to actually write a response, surely twice as many people are motivated to simply click a link. So maybe a better click-through rate on signature links is 16% of all views. So from my orignal example of 20 forum posts = 2000 views, you'd get 320 visits, or the $.05 Adwords cost equivalent of $16 for 2 hours, which then equals $8.00 per hour. Better. Does this make sense? What do you think the right click-through number would be? Again, all this is about REAL posts, not spam. -Bill
you math makes sense at the the start , but the real math is the fact your post stays on the net for month after month getting traffic , plus many posts means someone interested in you or your business can see what value you offer which adds more to who you are - google clicks just disappear as quickly as they arrive !
Your math is not exactly correct for reasons hotforgdi mentioned. Also if those sig links are DoFollow, your SERP will improve and that will drive more traffic as well.
Well, regardless of how long your post stays up, the number of views is still shown and a decent post will average around 100 views - lifetime of post. It is still a function of how many people view the post. Yes, google clicks are here & gone, but, of course, I'm trying to capture clicks with a squeeze page. If my squeeze page converts at 20%, then every visit has the potential of becoming my subscriber - that's the final goal. So it is still a function of how many unique visitors come to my squeeze page. I agree that the more posts I make, then my rep as an "authority" increases within the site and gradually, people would be more likely to click my referral link in my signature. This would push the click through rate somewhat higher. I'm still guessing a 16% click though that would maybe increase to 20% or so if people see me as an authority, but those are just educated guesses. I wonder if anyone has tracked this.
I would have to agree that your math makes sense. And there are the SEO benefits mentioned also, but I think you are more on the right path when you start thinking about authority and reputation. However, I think there is also another important factor and that is relationships. Time spent in a forum can help you to build up relationships. As people get to know you, you will find that you have more opportunity for partnerships and things of that nature. Also, people who get to know you and do follow a link might end up bookmarking or otherwise linking to your site if it is worthy.