Are You a Forum Junkie? Things to Consider When Joining Online Forums

(Archived in: Ecommerce SOHO Online Usability)

Like everyone else, I receive many emails each day from Internet Gurus using email campaigns to drum up business. Today I received an email about precautions you should take when joining and participating in forums.

Generally, I subscribe to these emails in order to sift through the information for the occasional hidden gem of advice. I found the advice below to be of value, and have paraphrased the five points to make them shorter and more to the point. Here are some things you should consider before joining an online forum.

1. The name of the forum has the word "Scam" in it. This should be an alarm. You cannot search to see if a forum is a "scam" when the name contains the word "scam"?

2. Members are allowed to post links in the signature directly underneath all posts. People will only leave comments to steal traffic away from the forum with a link back to their site.

3. The forum is a "hang out" for online marketers . Typically these forums have many shills trying to compete for your attention. Forum members can also be targets of phishing scams, asking you in an email follow-up to confirm personal contact information.

4. The forum owner is trying to sell or promote something. This is a common ploy for the forum owner to promote the same thing over and over again to forum junkies and unsuspecting new arrivals.

5. The forum has a monthly membership fee. You should not pay to participate in forums. This in itself is a scam and these forums are completely useless and offer no value.

Note: Paraphrased from an email campaign from therealstraightshooter.com

Making Money Ideas for The Online Entrepreneur