ForumPromotion Review for Webmasters - Is it the Best Webmaster, Admin & Internet Marketing Forum?
Is Forum Promotion a Scam or Legit? Forum Promotion Review by Alexander (@Bizdustry.com)
Register for ForumPromotion here:
What is Forum Promotion? Forum Promotion - Best Webmaster, Admin & Internet Marketing Forum?
It's essential to understand what Forum Promotion offers in the first instance. Most of the Bizdustry members will probably remember @Joshua Farrell and @Alexander promoting Forum Promotion, from encouraging people to post for incentives, asking people to support us in the Website Battles, and even referring new users to help support a fellow forum. Over the years, it's had many various owners, including @Fergal and @MasterA, to name a few. The Community is there to help website owners improve their online presence and the opportunity for members to discuss anything on their minds, including off-topic discussions, entertainment, and technology.
We will go into more depth about what services they offer and break down whether each one is worth your time; however, to name a few now, Forum Promotion provides various services, including posting packages, website evaluations, and many forms of marketing strategies. The company also holds other events and contests regularly, such as the monthly Community of the Month tournament and our Site Battle Crazy tournament (annually).
History Behind ForumPromotion - Forum Promotion - Best Webmaster, Admin & Internet Marketing Forum?
Before I talk about my experience, I'd like to walk down memory lane and discuss some of the nostalgia behind Forum Promotion. The board first started on FreeForums (A phpBB-based free-hosting provider). A few years down the line, one of the former owners decided to migrate to a paid hosting provider, alongside exporting and importing their databases over. Somewhere in history, they rebranded their logos and graphics, which is a difficult decision for any business owner to make as there is a concern that customers or website visitors won't recognize who you are. However, FP pulled this one off nicely.
2013 Version of Forum Promotion
2016 Version of Forum Promotion
Current Version: (As Of 17/12/2021) of ForumPromotion
In 2016, the team moved from phpBB (a free open source forum software) to XenForo (a paid script for forums). XenForo is what Bizdustry uses and doesn't come cheaply, even without any extensions or add-ons, with pricing starting at 160$ for a license that lasts one year. Add Ons from self-employed developers generally start from 20-30$ per year. The theme is a custom theme produced by ThemeHouse. Custom Themes can be costly but worth it as the business or online Community becomes more unique and thus stands out from the crowd while becoming more rememberable to returning customers or members.
The forum was previously installed as a directory here, and the blog (running on WordPress) was located here. In the last month, they've moved from a "directory" to a "subdomain," meaning instead of having a URL slug of /forum, they've changed to community.forumpromotion.net. The blog is located on the index and is running through Shopify. This was primarily due to DDoS, or DoS Attacks being targeted towards Forum Promotion to help mitigate the attacks. From my understanding, they have moved web hosts and upgraded to a dedicated server with OVH that provides enhanced protection against online attacks. Generally speaking, dedicated servers have more cores and random access memory than a Virtual Server because it's "dedicated" to your website, meaning you were not sharing resources with other websites.
Introduction of Forum Promotion - Best Webmaster, Admin & Internet Marketing Forum?
During our research, we understood that forum Promotion claims they are the best webmaster, admin & internet marketing forum, but are these claims valid? Bizdustry will review every aspect of the forum and provide Forum Promotion with an overall star audit rating at the end of the review. I'll first talk about my experience last. First, I would like to provide you with an impartial walkthrough of everything that the Community offers to web admins to make an informed decision whether this website is for you. So for this review, I will be reviewing the website in detail as I've never used it or even come across it before.
Help & Frequently Asked Questions Support Pages of Forum Promotion - 1/10
I'll visit any new website, especially a forum; the first activity that I'll do is read the discussions to see if anything grabs my attention. Then, I'll head over to the Help and Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about the forum. However, I am very disappointed with this section of FP; it's highly outdated to what is happening. For example, I wanted to learn more about the Posting Package Service, and I have noticed that it contradicts what is stated in the Package Guidelines, which are located here.
Perhaps, I have a question, or I am curious to find out who works at the forum. I click on the Meet the Team link on the Help and Frequently Asked Questions page, and I notice that it's outdated and contradicts what is stated on this Community page. I have attached both images below in this review to understand what I mean thoroughly. These are only two examples of issues with the Frequently Asked Questions Page; several other stated facts and information confuse new users. What gives this a rating of 1/10 for this specific issue is that it's been raised countless times to staff members in the Community Matters section. Nobody has actioned the user feedback, and by not listening to your members, the Community will slowly die. I raised the issue here, and it hasn't been updated. Considering it's been months, I don't think this is an excellent start to our detailed review of the
News Centre of Forum Promotion - 8/10
The News Centre, a sub-section on Forum Promotion located at the top of the forum, is a fantastic idea, and the platform utilizes it to its capacity. You might be wondering what the purpose of the News Centre is, well, it's similar to our Bizdustry Office. It's where members can find all updates, announcements, and important information like the terms of service. Having such a board on a forum strengthens the Community's reputation, as it shows transparency to its members. They've also got an Archive, where they move any old topics and are no longer needed to as this helps keep the area tidy and easy for users to follow. As well as everything they mentioned, they have a sub-section in the category, called the Auction House, where they host regular competitions. Members cannot create topics in this area, only staff, and they don't bid on real money but instead forum currency. However, later on in the Article about what FP$ is and how you can earn it.
Directory Slugs not Redirecting to the New Subdomain: (Lost Backlinks) - Forum Promotion.
Whenever you share a URL on another website, pasting the link for others to see counts as Backlinks. Backlinks play a vital part in SEO and Website Traffic. people can check backlinks on many websites, but I'd recommend using this tool to check websites. https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checkerOld Topics links, for example, https://forumpromotion.net/forum/threads/hello-forumpromotion.168167/ redirect to a Shopify 404 page and not to the actual topic. Many URLs have been indexed in major search engines and shared across multiple social media platforms. FP could continue to take a nosedive in traffic loss without a proper wildcard redirect implemented.
Promotional Directory of Forum Promotion - 6/10
The Promotional Directory of Forum Promotion might sound confusing, but, to put it simply, it's an area of the forum where you can create a topic for the primary purpose of advertising your website, blog, or venue. Not many places on the internet offer free advertising with maximum exposure, so this is a feature that I like on Forum Promotion. The guidelines state that you cannot advertise commercial products and only bump (reply) every 12 hours. A response will bump your topic to the top for maximum exposure and an increased likelihood of other members replying to it. You can read more about the guidelines of the promotional directory on Forum Promotion here.
Posting Packages and FP$ Forum Virtual Currency on Forum Promotion - 5/10
You don't get paid a lot of "credits" per post or topic, somewhere in the range of 1-5FP$ per message, as we cannot find an exact figure because of the lack of clarity on the help pages mentioned earlier in this review. However, you can spend your FP$ on Posting Packages, which we will talk about and explain in a moment, and various other services. A few different ways of spending the rewards that you obtain are account upgrades, sticky topics, and but not limited to advertising services.To explain the posting package service, you first need to understand how you view your balance on the forum. Click on your username, and then under FP$ is your total credits. We shall be using @Naiwen as an example for illustration purposes only.
The Posting Package Centre is where a team of volunteers with an excellent understanding of the English Language will write Blog and Forum Posts on your website in return for an amount of FP$. Of course, there are guidelines that you should read before requesting a package, and they can be found here. The prices of the boxes or items, in other words, can be found here. I like the posting package center because they listen to user feedback and have an open feedback topic where members can leave their thoughts about the service they received, and the management will respond to this in due course.
The prices are a bit expensive, and it would take you a long time to earn the virtual currency before requesting the service. The package center also doesn't offer any posting services with forums under 100 posts, which could deter potential newcomers from becoming regular members. Offering a nine-topic or conversation starter package would be an excellent addition, with no restrictions for a minimal post count.
What's Going On & Website Battles Section of Forum Promotion - 8/10
These are not services that Forum Promotion, but funded and provided by the Community of Forum Promotion. The What's Going On section might be similar to an announcement board on your private blog or forum. It's where you can post any milestones, achievements, or announcements that you would like to share externally with new individuals. Other people will tend to express their interest, congratulate you, and some might ask questions about the topic. Again, you must follow guidelines, but it's not that strict. You can read them here: What's Going On Guidelines Forum Promotion.
The Website Battles Section is a fun but competitive element of Forum Promotion, where website owners can battle against one another and ask their members to vote for them. Whoever gets the most votes wins and moves up the leaderboard. But... wait? What's the prize? It's 10FP$. That's equivalent to about five posts on Forum Promotion, and in my opinion, it could be higher as it will create more of an incentive for members to use this section of the forum.
Job Centre - Forum Promotion - 9/10
Perhaps you're looking for a work-from-home job, or you're looking to recruit others on a voluntary or paid basis? Well, the Job Centre is for you. You can communicate with members and ask that they send the application privately for increased privacy and vise versa. Hiring externally isn't always advised, so my advice is to look at internal promotion rather than external at first instance.
Member to Member Marketplace and Exchange Board of Forum Promotion - 7/10
There are rules and guidelines that you must follow; otherwise, you could risk being punished, and as a consequence receiving account restrictions preventing you from accessing the forum. The exchange center can receive posts, comments, social networking likes, or follows! So, whatever you want someone to do, you have to return the favor by doing the same in their Community. Think of it like task4task. The marketplace, however, is separate from the Exchange section and it's where you can buy, sell, or trade domains, websites, marketing, web hosting, and everything else. This could be with real money or the virtual forum currency you've obtained through posting on the forum. Always be cautious about who you trade with to prevent being scammed. The rules are quite detailed and could be outlined simpler for members to understand.
Overall Rating of the Webmaster Forum - Forum Promotion - Best Webmaster, Admin & Internet Marketing Forum?
= 65/100
There are some improvements to be made that have been outlined above, but all in all, a pretty good community for web admins with the webpage owners offering free services to community owners. If you are interested in registering, please sign up using this link so FP knows where the new users have come from: https://community.forumpromotion.net/?referrer=57753.
If you have any questions about anything mentioned in this article, please reply below.
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