9 replies to this topic

[outsourcegeek]

Hello all,

I have often seen or used a method of link building called Profile link building where we crate profiles in random sites most them forums and put links and anchor texts in the profile. My question is how much is this effective and is it ethical as it seems a little Spamy to me.

[chrishirst]

it seems a little Spamy to me.

Yep, and bloody annoying if you happen to run a forum or other such "random site"

[Jill]

You are correct; it is spammy.

[outsourcegeek]

You are correct; it is spammy.

But the question is what is the bad effect of this technique? Because some of my friends got great results just by doing this. And the funny thing is that the forums are accepting this as the links are live after months , as I know this profiles used to be later deleted as Spam account.

[Jill]

But the question is what is the bad effect of this technique?

Sounds like you answered your own question:

Because some of my friends got great results just by doing this.

[TheGreatHefin]

But the question is what is the bad effect of this technique? Because some of my friends got great results just by doing this. And the funny thing is that the forums are accepting this as the links are live after months , as I know this profiles used to be later deleted as Spam account.

I run a few forums and blogs..a Good and Clean Forum would never keep these profiles active for months as you or your friend said...Most of the Mods on quality forums or to say long running forums would never keep these profiles active...they would delete it in few weeks of inactivity...in my case on both my Forums I have set a Limit on the number of posts required to Add a Profile Link or to Post a live link in a Post...so members trying to do it...cant....they get warned and the post does not get submitted...

Coming back to your question..

The effect would be bad..as the few forum who keep the Profiles and their Links there are not monitoring the forum..and would be least interested in keeping the forum active for another year...you could get a backlink but ...i dont think the results would be Great...instead of trying this...you can try Social Bookmarking Solutions and other methods...where your link would also have a Paragraph of description which would give u a good ranking... hope this helps..

[chrishirst]

I find it much better to [n]NOT[/b] allow "profile links" or signatures until that particular member has demonstrated they are not purely posting for signatures or any other kind of link dropping. That way the spammy crap never starts, which is far easier than trying to keep it from getting out of hand.

In the last six weeks a registration plugin that uses the Stop Forum Spam database has stopped a little over ONE THOUSAND accounts being created by known spammer usernames, email addresses and/or IPs, and as they say;

"Prevention is better than cure"

[Michael Martinez]

Google knows about the heavily spammed forums anyway. You don't want to consider using profile links as part of your strategy.

[chrishirst]

Hi,

Another thing is that even if you get a profile link, there is a chance that you may be banned from that forum. So that link is no longer valid.

Actually vBulletin 3.6+ has a fault that leaves profile pages active after the user has been banned. You can't access the link from the forum members lists BUT if you already know the direct URL to the profile, it is still accessible.

[TheGreatHefin]

Hi,

Another thing is that even if you get a profile link, there is a chance that you may be banned from that forum. So that link is no longer valid.

Actually vBulletin 3.6+ has a fault that leaves profile pages active after the user has been banned. You can't access the link from the forum members lists BUT if you already know the direct URL to the profile, it is still accessible.

Oh...but im sure some VBulletin plugin developers can get a resolution for this like adding the Banned Users Profile Page URL to the HTACCESS file and redirect it to a No Permission Page or something like this...I dont use vBulletin though ...but i have done a similar thing on MyBB it works there... ...fighting spam is really a tough job...