Thread: Case study in real time - inner forum at Classipress site

Case study in real time - inner forum at Classipress site

I'm posting this post if you are considering to add a community forum to your classipress site - more like a case study.

I have created a bbPress forum on 1 of my sites http://www.lustjobs.com/forums/ (warning: adult content).

My target is getting more long-tail keywords covering my niche only that will result in more organic traffic: the more original quality content you have on the site > the more keywords you will have in the eyes of search engines > and it should result in more traffic (that is very, very basic). To explore this topic more - go to semrush, test different quality sites and you will see > more keywords = more organic traffic.

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Next thing - nobody likes empty forums, so you will need help with that. In my case, I am contacting various Fiverr sellers who offer forum posting services. As for today: I have hired 2 forum posters ($5 > 50 posts) and they will start posting content tomorrow. Here is a link to the Fiverr gig description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

will keep this thread updated,
Helmuts

screenshot of full page: http://imgur.com/a/oBUNR (it is too big to be inserted here)

many people say that forums are dead - it is not the case > niche forums are still very, very powerful.

another thing - a year ago I believed that FB groups have killed forums and again I think I'm wrong. I own a very active FB group of 10k+ members (for Latvians living in the UK) and a forum (the same niche) and this is more than a manageable FB can be (I have 6 admins/moderators) and although the forum is an underdog - it is slowly gaining power/traffic as well.

couple samples of inner forums you haven't seen that support main website with generating lots of traffic:
> http://forum.stockingshq.com/
> http://www.tefl.net/forums/index.php (horrible old website - but forum is busy like hell)

.. as well as have a look on this forum - isn't it just great?

H

ok, short update - have my 1st 3 forum posters on the job. Out of these 3 guys, 1 is good - have worked with him before.

screenshot (2nd order is 50 posts as well not 100.. the seller is a bit cheaky with the title):


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guys, is this topic of any interest for you? .. if yes - just post here and I will keep this thread updated as honest as I can

H

are the forums open to general users?
wouldn't they be annoyed with spam posts?

the posts from the fiverr gigs would be low quality and not really discussion posts, so it only using for SEO fair enough but what about existing members / forums being swamped with the lower qualitying postings?

yes, the forums are open to anybody.. I don't think that anybody will be annoyed with fiverr posts as they are relevant to the industry (can't be classified as spam).

do those posts look like spam?

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yes, most of the forum posters are quite bad and, for this reason, I have to keep an eye on what they are doing.. all the time

still, there are some decent forum posters and working with them is uber easy as long as you don't hire them for the whole week or even worse - month.. then the quality drops immediately.

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1st target is to build up numbers of threads and comments, where the total number is at least 10,000 >> only after reaching these goals the forums start looking good (based on my experience).. it is better to have no forum than empty one.

.. I want to have 10k+ posts/comments

Thanks for the info Helmuc, info on getting and keeping traffic/visitors always appreciated. Keep updating when you have more info please.

tx for the comment (I am happy to continue updating the thread if there are few guys curious about this approach).

about the stats, few hours ago just published the g analytics numbers (all about "acquisition" sector only): http://www.lustjobs.com/forums/topic...e-acquisition/

H

here is the search console (ex webmaster tools) chart I am after (the main graph I want to see to grow asap) - impressions:



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similar data, this time from ahrefs:


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here is the full report comparing few more resources (there is no need to post all of the screenshots here)..

can you see my where I'm trying to head with the forum? .. it is a battle for more keywords and hopefully within the same niche. .. huge risk here is - search engines might get confused about the content on the site and that can result in loss of the core kw rankings > and further in less traffic.. but it is a gamble I'm ready to take.

enjoy the evening,
Helmuts

here you go.. a quick screenshot from the Real Time feed (g analytics).. forums already get some eyes..

ok, finally the traffic starts kicking in... yesterday almost 1k, today already almost 600 and it is just lunch time.. most US traffic will start coming in after 3-4 hours..

.. have to admit that forum isn't the only thing I've done - just recently added a chat function.. and huh.. as strange as it sounds - it looks like people love it (advertisers stay longer online)