Online Marketing Forums – Are They Promoting Spam?
Take a look around the Digital Point forums or the Warrior Forum and you could be forgiven for wondering if these sites are basically about promoting spam. Want to find even more about promoting spam? Check out the Black Hat World forums. After all, the essence of black hat SEO is in fact spam. However, in spite of that, I don’t believe that these forums are ONLY about promoting spam or even mostly about it. Here’s why:
It’s All about Marketing
The fact is that marketing isn’t necessarily spam (though spam can be a form of marketing). Marketing basically means coming up with the kind of language which will get people to make a purchase. It involves heavy use of human psychology, though the issue of spam doesn’t really enter into the equation.
Spam is Bad for Marketing
In fact, spam is often a bad idea when it comes to Internet marketing simply because of the fact that so many people hate spam. Therefore, it’s considered to be a poor choice when it comes to finding a way to make a sale.
On the Other Hand
However, black hat SEO is mostly (though not all) about promoting spam. The most obvious of black hat SEO techniques involves spamming websites and blogs with links back to your website. This means that you are in essence engaged in spamming when you do this.
But They Don’t Promote Spam, Do They?
Now, as I said above, Black Hat World’s forums will have lots of ideas for spreading spam because of the fact that black hat SEO is so involved with spam. However, I do find that even in places like Warrior Forum, there are strategies discussed about how to get the most automated links possible so as to maximize the number of backlinks you can get to your website.
Responsible Spam
I think however that there is such a thing as responsible spam and irresponsible spam. Responsible spam means that you are using various techniques to get your links out there across the in a responsible manner.
I mean, if you leave a comment here, even if it’s hand written, that is in some cases a form of spam, because most comments don’t really add anything to the conversation (and no, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t comment – I like to see comments of all kinds, even if it’s just to say thanks for a great post). However, that doesn’t mean it’s spam in the sense of nonsensical garbage which no one wants to know about or read. It’s what I like to call responsible spam.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that Internet marketing involves a certain amount of spam. However, I don’t believe that these forums are necessarily promoting spam, at least not irresponsible spam. I also do believe that there is a lot of genuinely valuable information at these sites, so I strongly suggest spending time there if you want to learn more about SEO and Internet marketing.
great tutorial for the marketing . Giving lot of information about online marketing speically very effective for the new bloggers as well as for the web masters… .thanks for sharing
a free tool to know all the basic elements of your website also gives the detailed analysis of all the online marketing channels at one place
What a picture! straight to the point with the use of SEO!
Spam is annoying when trying to make a good comment on a blog post and someone does a silly two worded thank you on the blog post!
I’m glad there has been a lot covered in this blog post!
As I have tried to learn my craft, SEO etc. I have traveled to hundreds of industry sites and have seen SPAM throughout. I agree that online marketing can be considered SPAM, but also think that if the campaign was planned correctly from the start by correctly targeting the recipient(s), the campaign could lessen the amount of readers considering it to be SPAM in the first place.
Thanks for the post and the opportunity to comment.
Jess
everything we do can be considerated SPAM. We didn’t ask to comment a post, to post something in a website or in a blog, but the worst SPAM is the one that you send for a personal account, for example for a personal blog, email account, etc…
Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes..
I agree with all your post here Yasir.. Spam is not good and I really hate it too! But still there are some good sites/forums here that doesn’t allowed Spam.
I never said there weren’t Indeed, there are numerous wonderful sites for learning useful information online. However, for all those that are great, there are dozens that promote spam.
I agree. That’s why I wrote about the problem. ;).
Point well taken. Still, there is spam where there is nothing useful said and spam where you really aren’t spamming because you add to the conversation.
Sadly there will always be people who think they can take the easy way out and who are naive enough to believe that spam will help their cause.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any way around it for the time being…
Uhm, okay. What tool is that?
My pleasure. Glad to be of help. Please do drop by any time for additional helpful tips.