An observation on forum marketing

Call me a naysayer, but given all the other ways that one can drive traffic, I really don't get why anyone (other than those who are literally just starting out) would spend any time using forums as a way to drive traffic.

One of the truly amazing things about an online business is that -- when done right -- growth is logarithmic, not linear. For instance, when building a social media page your first 10,000 followers might take you six months to get, but your next 10,000 might only take you 3 months and your next 20,000 might only take you one month to get. And the thing about social media marketing is that it takes you exactly the same time to write a post that will be seen by 1,000 followers as it will to write a post that will be seen by 500,000 followers.

I'm not arguing that social media is the best marketing strategy, I'm only using it as an example. But focusing on low-impact, low-growth strategies like forum marketing throws all of the internet's potential for logarithmic growth out of the window. It's neither very time-efficient nor is it scalable. Maybe you get 100 people to see a post you wrote or some fantastic response you gave; but unless the forum's traffic increases -- something you have no control over -- that 100 people you reach with today's post will still be 100 people that you reach with tomorrow's.

I suppose if I were selling high-ticket items in a very growth-constrained market (e.g., selling ten million dollar homes in a local real estate market), I'd be less concerned with growth and more concerned with getting solid leads now. But even there I doubt that forum marketing is that effective -- certainly compared to other traffic driving methods. The content on forums is by nature transitory (which is why we have so many of the exact same questions being asked on the WF day after day).

If you enjoy participating in forums and think you might get a side-benefit of traffic by having a prominent signature, by all means do so. But I'd think twice before employing forum marketing as a major traffic strategy. Even if you get some short-term benefits from your forum marketing efforts, those efforts are unlikely to have any meaningful long term impact, and it's your long-term impact that's going to determine whether you're ultimately going to be successful or not.

Not sure what forums allow you to do that, but it's probably not a good idea to make that a habit on the W.F. Unless you like to be nuked by the mod, harpooned by a grumpy Warrior member or get the dreaded "Red" button by a self-appointed Warrior Forum Cop. Not to mention it looks too "try hard".