Forums of all sorts can are a rich seam to mine in the internet.
Personalities with sharp minds jump in to opinionate or to resolve any situation.
True?
Certainly some of the time – but be wary, there are a variety of other personalities out there that dilute the number that are spot on in the advice they give:
- On the make: not concerned that much about content, just about getting that link out, and getting visitors to that link for commercial purposes; eg commissions on a sale from the link.
- High self esteem: enjoys giving an opinion, and knows it to be right. Convincing to read – but can often send us on the wrong track – due to personal quirks, foibles, or technical weaknesses.
- Bee in the bonnet: has been frustrated, or unable to solve an issue, and therefore takes an unjustly negative view.
And that is really just the technical forums.
There are other Forums that are not what they seem. Forums about internet marketing, affiliate marketing or ‘blogging’, really just have visitors and contributors who fall into two categories: a small minority who make some money from the rest and the majority who finance that minority. Some would see it as a fair way of distributing income from the slightly dimmer to the slightly brighter. Others would call it a scam or pyramid marketing operation where information sold as not being available elsewhere and valuable to the buyer, is in fact simply available for free elsewhere, time wasting, and has a high element of marketing material or affiliate links in it. Finally, do not expect much breadth of opinion on Internet Marketing forums – some, if not all, tend to delete discussions that take an honest, or negative view, on the possibilities that Internet Marketing has to offer the typical person on the street. Many, as mentioned above, just make some money on selling ‘get rich quick’ schemes – and level headed honest appraisals are of no benefit to them.