Is buying forum posts a good idea?

[GamerDomainer]

You know those services that sell 1000 posts or whatever for a certain price? Is that a good idea to liven up your forum? The thing is I do get good traffic. About 20,000 UV a month but they only visit the news page of the site. My site used to have an active forum with lots of people posting but it died when I did a revamp.

If I bought 1000 posts from this service, and they started to post good topics do you think that will help get real people talking?

 

[Dasher]

I used to run a gaming forum when I was in my mid teens. It had about 50k members or so, but boy was I ignorant back then...I didn't even remotely think to make any kind of money off that traffic. I started it from nothing (it was a Final Fantasy fanbase forum) and i'm guessing you are using gamers as your audience just judge from your name (great audience for forums btw)

A good number of visitors will not stay/signup on a forum if it isn't already established... I guess you could say it is like going into an empty chat room.

It really depends on how the person you are buying the forum posts from interact with the legit users. If they just post 1000 times in the course of 1-2 days you might get a few people to sign up, but once they start posting and the people you paid don't response to them then they won't really use the forum much (meaning you will need to repurchase to keep it going).

To be honest I would try and make the forums more appealing to the people viewing your news, integrate it into the core of your site and make it really 'in your face' for the average visitor. Make the news a summary and put a link at the bottom that says something like "read the full story at our forums" or "comment on this at our forums." That was basically how I got that 50k member forum started.

If you have a good deal of money to throw at, no harm in purchasing though. (:

 

[Ettore]

It depends.

If you are going to pay some "company" to do this job and they will provide you the service in 1-2 days then it is really not worth the money. As Dasher said users will just go away from your forum if they don't find it interesting.

If I would be you I would pay 2-3 freelancer to do that job, it will cost actually more but they will interact better with other users and your forum will gain more visitors. You could also ask some expert to write something in your forum.

Good Luck! =)

 

[Robin]

It works if forum is new but make sure you hire posters in some manner. So that the forum always looks an inactive medium.

 

[MeanerDomainer]

Do you screen these services or is there a list of known good ones?

The spam post below was just posted in one forum I am a member of. Grammar is bad and it does not include a link to the site/blog that it is trying to promote (which is probably actually a good thing).

"Anyone who wants to see big and strong should include protein powder in your diet, because it is rich in protein and helps achieve a healthy body. Although there are people who think the protein powder is just for bodybuilders and need more, but in reality it is nothing. All human beings need protein, and therefore it is necessary that each of us must include protein powder in your diet so you can gain muscle and have a healthy lifestyle. protein powder is not limited to athletes, but also ordinary people can include them in the preparation of a protein shake. A healthy protein shake in the morning helps stabilize blood sugar. It is actually used for cancer treatment, bruises, and obesity."

 

[mysteryleo]

depends on the quality of posts. ask for references.

You do need to get some content in your forums. No one wants to be first . . .

but crap content . . . well . . you'll be wasting your money.