Too Many Experts, No Proof & Examples

well you make a lot of assumptions though I mostly agree with you. Its a forum so people talk. Thats what a forum is for. How far people should go for free providing a solution is really up to the individual plus

Case studies are mostly frowned on now. Plenty of them get locked down.
Links to blogs and articles assumes that they are any more authoritative.
Social proof is as worthless as forum proof
analytics and data only a fool would show ofs their sites unless theres a payoff for doing so

You are right there is alot of noise and nonsense but on a board that is free and open and overall not solely dedicated to SEO its not likely to change. I'll tell you straight up. I would never do case studies , pull out my analytics spill all my research and expose my sites and resources just to appease a forum that is at least half just freebie seekers looking to get rich with little or no work.

So sorry but the quality in here is about what is deserved. I talk to other regulars here and they all tell me - share my real techniques and resources on an open free forum? That would be crazy.

You are absolutely right! Too much noise out there. Infact "Internet marketing" is one of the most abused buzzword in recent time.Well, Out of the given measures, I would consider Analytics numbers as a reasonable trust factor

Personally, to get a feel for a site's authority, I like using Opensiteexplorer's Site and Domain Authority metrics. It lets me know whether that site is generally trustworthy or not.

Do you go around showing people your bank passwords?

I don't know about anyone else here but I make a living from my websites/traffic, might as well be a bank account. Only a half wit would post successful campaign details on a public forum.

Lol @ social proof. Do you really need peers to confirm you made money online?