Links from quality forums even if they're not relevant to the niche help increasing link popularity, i.e. links from DP and v7n helped me a lot increasing my blogs' visibility.
If you've got the time, build them. A link is a link at the end of the day. Bear in mind that the weight the link gives might not be worthy of all the effort you took though
It takes a long time this way. Most forum posts have very little "juice" associated with them. If unrelated, you're wasting time.
Forum links are great even if it's not relevant, I've had great results from my signature links here at dp even though it's not relevant to my site, but it takes quite a bit of links to get great results.
Yeah I agree I think forum links do help but in all reality you need probably 1,000 posts on a forum with your signature to get any real boost and that is if the forum has some PR here and there.
If you are considering Traffic, the forums are great. But please be informed that they would not be your targeted audience as they are of mixed mindset.
FOr the most part I agree... but then, look up the auto anchor text in my sig in google. They all get top SERP. For actual click through traffic by humans though, I'd bet not many people have clicked through the links in my sig in the few thousand posts I've made since I put them there... Related links are the BEST links! The others help, but not nearly as much.
Relevent links are always crucial and hold much more weight. Forum links hold less weight now than they used to, especially if they are signature links. A link in an actual post is better providing it is relevent. This look more organic to the likes of Google. I find that signature links bring some good traffic in from the forums themselves rather than increasing your search engine rankings. Join as many relevent forums as you can, add interesting signature links and join in discussions. Become an authority member in these forums and people will naturally click on your links to see what you are about. Andy
Hmm I wonder how many are answering your questions JUST to get link juice?.... lol.. Perhaps that's why I am too. I have found that you do get a teency weency boost from forum links in the sig, but overall it is best to give quality responses to questions and make your posts WORTH reading. Then if the person wants to see what you are all about they can directly check out your links and you can get a boost that way as well.
I don't know why people say irrelevant links are waste of time.. I think they are not, many natural links are from unrelated sites/blogs (personal blogs) and they work really well.
I think if you're only looking for traffic then it's ok...you can link build on forums that are irrelevant to your niche but if you are after ranking then it's just time wasted.
Yeah, its true. Even my links are not related to the forums i've benn participating, my signatures here and there helps a lot in ranking my website/s.
Well, what do you suggest if not forum links? I realize blogs and web directories are good, but what else?