Paid to Participate on Forums Thoughts

I recently talked about the changes at Adgitize that now pays members for posting on their forums.  On the pro side specifically for Adgitize is this will result in more hits aka traffic that should be reflected in their page rank.  Now if you think about it this is a gamble that can easily backfire in more than one way.  If a member does not participate in the forums the essentially lose 5¢ per day or $1.50 per month in potential earnings.  If a member does participate in most cases it is because they are being finacially rewarded.  Either way the integrity of the forums is lost.  For example if I give you my honest opinion on a particular topic you are more likely to listen to me if I am not being paid to give you my opinion.  This is one reason paid blog posts don't work and so it is the same with paid forum posts. 

I've been thinking about this though.  Google is rather specific as to what you can or can't do.  Paying someone to post in a forum is essentially the same thing as paying for traffic into Adgitize AND it does fall under paid traffic that is not advertising related to my understanding.  Other sites have tried the paid for post methods for forums but most have gone by the wayside simply because they tick off Google with this pretty much blackhat method of generating traffic.  Now, I like Adgitize and I like the results so it would be a shame to see them blacklisted by Google because of their new forum tactic.

At the same time Adgitize is running the risk of ticking members off.  I've heard from some who will not be renewing their ads.  I'm on the fence as to whether to continue to run 2 ads or reduce to one but there is something in the works that will also factor in my decision.  Fewer advertisers means less income and traffic but advertisers come and go so for every couple you lose one might sign up. 

I'm using the next couple of weeks to keep an eye on what's going on at Adgitize.  Already I'm seeing a reduction in total points in the system by over 10,000 from Oct 7 to Oct 9.  That tells me some have already not renewed their advertising.  This concerns me however active participation still gives a payback.  Time will tell whether these new changes are going to work or not on the short term basis.  The long term basis is more questionable.

Garden Gnome
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