Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Thanks,

—paula

What I mean is, after reading threads here, I`ve gathered impressions, for better or worse, on the value of most people`s statements. If you post a lot, and now and then you ask me to contact you if I need any help, I`ll contact you if I need any help. If the only posts I`ve seen from you are asking people to contact you if they need any help, I`m going to contact one of the people who put their reputations on the line posting publicly.

I`ve gotten two offers of one on one communication - one from Mfackrell, and one from RobertJ. These two frequently offer their knowledge/statements to public opinion, and public opinion more often than not ratifies these. If I need help later, I`ll certainly keep them in mind. There are a handful of people who cold-call, and why would I need that when I have proven knowledge offering the same service.

So anyway. I think offering promotions of services that fit the nature of the site is great. I think offering the services without proving your worth is counterproductive, simply because for every professional offering consultation blindly, there are a handful of members offering proven knowledge openly. Post well and your consultation services will probably do well. I don`t think self promotions should be prohibited. I think they should be encouraged to do well - to do well they have to put their money where their mouth is and prove their worth, and the only way to do that is to post valuable information. We both win.

Cubemonkey, you replied to Rabbit Mountain....."Kind of like everyone signatures....like yours!"  ????  I see yours there too, so what are you saying?

 

I agree with Paula, many times there are a lot of spammy posts, I just don`t even read them or click on a lot of posts anymore, which is unfortunate.

The signature links have given us all an opportunity to show who we are without spamming the forum. If you want to click on the Sig link, you can.  But I doubt many do, unless it`s something that interests them. My silly Sig link just uses my keywords, not trying to entice you to click. But if there is a `no follow Sig link`, it`s not necessary anyway, so I won`t :) 

 

Janie 

The forums are not for article marketing. There`s a whole articles section to which anyone can pitch an article idea; and straight-up marketing offers belong in the marketing section. Either of these will get picked up by search engines too, there`s no need to post articles and self-promotions in the forums. The forums are for networking, helping each other, socializing and discussion.

Imagine if you went to a networking event and every third person you met launched into a prepared sales presentation about why you need to contract with him for something that`s not even on your radar. It`d be pretty obnoxious, because that`s not what networking events are for.

I`m with Janie -- I used to be a daily participant at the forums but I`m not anymore in part because of the jump in spammy posts. When I see an interesting headline and click through expecting to find discussion or debate, and find instead a self-promotional article, I feel tricked and ripped off. It happens way too often of late. Certainly I can`t be the only one who feels this way. 

—paula

Josh and thread contributors, please private message me some examples of what you`re referring to. clearly we`re not catching as much as we should. happy to upgrade our efforts in this area!

 

Rich (and SuN team)