- Impact
- 4
Just something I wrote to help people who want to start their own paid posting service 
Beginning.
Choosing a Name. The name of the website should be unique and themed. A domain such as “ForumPostings.info” might help you with search engine rankings but that’s about it. Paid Posting is all about reputation and most advertising will eventually be from word of mouth. A domain such as that will get confused with other sites and is not easily remembered. When asked to name some services, a themed site such as ForumElves.com is remembered more often than PaidPosts.com, and that is perhaps why ForumElves is more popular than PaidPosts.
Building the Website: Design. The website should be cleverly themed to the website name. ForumShock has a logo of a lightning bolt and even has themed packages such as “Static Shock” (being the worst package) and “Atomic Shock” (being the best package). Make sure your site is easy-to-navigate and user-friendly. A design that is too professional can have negative affects as users are more attracted to a service which treats them more personally.
Build the Website: Extra Features. A good support is essential. FAQ and Email contact is a must. A Support Forum and Instant Messaging contacts are optional but big pluses. Extra features such as forum installation, forum design and staff hiring are also all optional but again are good bonuses to have. Paypal is a must for taking payments while credit cards, egold, stormpay etc. are optional. Also try to have a special feature that other services don’t have. For example, make a partnership with a forum directory and offer your customers featured listings.
Launching.
Get Posters. Getting posters is harder than many think. It is very difficult to find trustworthy posters online. So our suggestion is get some of your friends and people your trust that can post for you at start. Be very careful about picking up random people online who claim to have an impressive resume. Understand that if the person has just graduated from Harvard with a major in Linguistics but just typed half the words in the resume incorrect, something is wrong. Don’t just give posters a 100 post job and tell them to email you when they are done. Keep new posters on a short leash and keep on updating their status. Make sure they are interested or at least knowledgeable on the topic of the forum. This process gets easier… as you take on orders you will see which posters are good and which aren’t. Eventually, you might keep only a dozen of your most trusted, quality posters.
Get known. Offer free posts to forums by posting threads in popular webmaster/forum owner communities such as TAZ (http://theadminzone.com), AdminFusion (http://adminfusion.com), NamePros (http://namepros.com), SitePoint (http://sitepoint.com), and DigitalPoint (http://DigitalPoint).
Advertise. If you would like to expand quickly you must have a good budget for advertising. Purchasing spots in forum signatures is a good start. Purchasing adwords for keywords such as “paid posts”, “paid posting” and “forum posting” will also give you some traffic and potential customers. And of course don’t forget to get listed with us. We have a 1 week free trial available so you have nothing to loose.
Exchange Links. Once you have advertised you will start receiving a decent amount of traffic. Exchange links with forum resource and webmaster sites to get more traffic and boost your pagerank.
Running the Service.
Doing Orders. Make sure you take the money only if you are sure you can complete the job for such a forum. Keep the client constantly updated. If you don’t have a client login at least send frequent emails. Provide the forum owner with the poster account names, how many posts each poster is assigned to do, and when you should be finished. Keep asking if the posts are satisfactory. If you cannot complete a job as promised provide a full refund… being nice will benefit you in the future, reputation is everything.
Taking Emails. Answer emails as soon as possible, a quick response time is a good quality to have. If the email asks a good question answer it and put it in your FAQ. If a person needs help with their forum or website, do anything you can to help. Always be nice and helpful… just a simple “Let me know if there is anything else I can do” at the end of the email can get you picked over a competitor.
Keep In Touch. Keep in contact with all your previous customers. Don’t spam them with your current specials but instead ask them how their forum is going. Ask them if there is anything you can do to help. Let them know you are still out there and are willing to help if they need anything.
That’s It! Hopefully this tutorial will help you start a service if you are interested in doing so. Let me if there is anything else I can do to help you.
Beginning.
Choosing a Name. The name of the website should be unique and themed. A domain such as “ForumPostings.info” might help you with search engine rankings but that’s about it. Paid Posting is all about reputation and most advertising will eventually be from word of mouth. A domain such as that will get confused with other sites and is not easily remembered. When asked to name some services, a themed site such as ForumElves.com is remembered more often than PaidPosts.com, and that is perhaps why ForumElves is more popular than PaidPosts.
Building the Website: Design. The website should be cleverly themed to the website name. ForumShock has a logo of a lightning bolt and even has themed packages such as “Static Shock” (being the worst package) and “Atomic Shock” (being the best package). Make sure your site is easy-to-navigate and user-friendly. A design that is too professional can have negative affects as users are more attracted to a service which treats them more personally.
Build the Website: Extra Features. A good support is essential. FAQ and Email contact is a must. A Support Forum and Instant Messaging contacts are optional but big pluses. Extra features such as forum installation, forum design and staff hiring are also all optional but again are good bonuses to have. Paypal is a must for taking payments while credit cards, egold, stormpay etc. are optional. Also try to have a special feature that other services don’t have. For example, make a partnership with a forum directory and offer your customers featured listings.
Launching.
Get Posters. Getting posters is harder than many think. It is very difficult to find trustworthy posters online. So our suggestion is get some of your friends and people your trust that can post for you at start. Be very careful about picking up random people online who claim to have an impressive resume. Understand that if the person has just graduated from Harvard with a major in Linguistics but just typed half the words in the resume incorrect, something is wrong. Don’t just give posters a 100 post job and tell them to email you when they are done. Keep new posters on a short leash and keep on updating their status. Make sure they are interested or at least knowledgeable on the topic of the forum. This process gets easier… as you take on orders you will see which posters are good and which aren’t. Eventually, you might keep only a dozen of your most trusted, quality posters.
Get known. Offer free posts to forums by posting threads in popular webmaster/forum owner communities such as TAZ (http://theadminzone.com), AdminFusion (http://adminfusion.com), NamePros (http://namepros.com), SitePoint (http://sitepoint.com), and DigitalPoint (http://DigitalPoint).
Advertise. If you would like to expand quickly you must have a good budget for advertising. Purchasing spots in forum signatures is a good start. Purchasing adwords for keywords such as “paid posts”, “paid posting” and “forum posting” will also give you some traffic and potential customers. And of course don’t forget to get listed with us. We have a 1 week free trial available so you have nothing to loose.
Exchange Links. Once you have advertised you will start receiving a decent amount of traffic. Exchange links with forum resource and webmaster sites to get more traffic and boost your pagerank.
Running the Service.
Doing Orders. Make sure you take the money only if you are sure you can complete the job for such a forum. Keep the client constantly updated. If you don’t have a client login at least send frequent emails. Provide the forum owner with the poster account names, how many posts each poster is assigned to do, and when you should be finished. Keep asking if the posts are satisfactory. If you cannot complete a job as promised provide a full refund… being nice will benefit you in the future, reputation is everything.
Taking Emails. Answer emails as soon as possible, a quick response time is a good quality to have. If the email asks a good question answer it and put it in your FAQ. If a person needs help with their forum or website, do anything you can to help. Always be nice and helpful… just a simple “Let me know if there is anything else I can do” at the end of the email can get you picked over a competitor.
Keep In Touch. Keep in contact with all your previous customers. Don’t spam them with your current specials but instead ask them how their forum is going. Ask them if there is anything you can do to help. Let them know you are still out there and are willing to help if they need anything.
That’s It! Hopefully this tutorial will help you start a service if you are interested in doing so. Let me if there is anything else I can do to help you.
