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Is it Possible to Inflate the Number of Visitors of a Forum?

by Nail Yener
6 replies
Hi,

I rented a banner spot on a forum yesterday thinking that it was a good deal checking its visitor counts and alexa rank. Also I didn't need to see the traffic report from the owner(will not do that again). The owner claimed the forum was getting 3k unique views per day and when I checked the forum, it showed the number of online visitors about 4k. I expected some good return out of my investment but I got only 6 clicks on my banner in one day.

So my questions here are,

- What is the approximate amount of traffic a site gets for an alexa rank of about 500.000, 100.000, 10.000, and 1000. If you have sites that have such ranks.

- Can a forum owner modify the number of online visitors? The total number and the number for each subforum like here on WF. I guess it is a vbulletin forum.

Thanks.
#forum #inflate #number #visitors
  • Profile picture of the author Davioli
    Alexa can be modified pretty easily. You can set up bots to keep visiting your website which would lower your Alexa big time. Its the oldest trick in the book.

    When buying ad space.. always do a 7 day test with the seller. Pay a nominal fee and see how it works over 7 days.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nail Yener
      Originally Posted by Davioli View Post

      When buying ad space.. always do a 7 day test with the seller. Pay a nominal fee and see how it works over 7 days.
      That's what I did, I paid for a one week trial and I think it will not be worth what I paid ($25). Anyway, I might contact the seller if I can prove that he inflated the numbers.
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      • Profile picture of the author theimdude
        Buying cheap traffic can easily lower alexa ranking. That is why alexa ranking means nothing. The only way you will know if the traffic is legit is to ask the owner to show you the awstats. Ask for the referrer section and if all traffic comes from one ip then it is cheap traffic. But the owner won't give to you.

        That is when you purchase a a website or some traffic claim look at he referrer stats. Many people sell some product claiming huge amount of traffic from doing something but look at the referrer traffic as that tell the truth

        Why do I know this. I have tried this method for myself to try and get traffic to make money. Does wonders to alexa ranking but nothing for real sales and traffic.

        Currently somebody is selling a product on WF that claims tons of traffic in a short time. Well look at the proof and you will be amazed that the bulk of the so called "search engine traffic" is from referrer sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dean Martin
    Not to mention that forum ad click throughs are abysmally low
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  • Profile picture of the author Brad Gosse
    Can we see the banner? Maybe it needs work, do you have metrics on it's CTR from other campaigns?
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