How useful has forum signitures been in your marketing campaign?

[Chief Ken]

Originally Posted by MattE

Personally I think the value in signatures is directly related to your involvement in the forum itself. If you post quality replies (most people don't) then this is part of your credibility and after a few reads, people will check out your signature links to look at who you are and what you do.

I also think that PR from forums is quite diluted, but is worth having in the mix.

Bottom line, think humans - create worthwhile responses and people will naturally check you out.

Nail on the head! Contributing to the discussion is key. People need to understand that content is king, there is too much fluff out there.

[Oshine]

Some forum members will click on your signature just for the sake of it just to have a look at the web site. However, the forum signature can also help in your backlinks if it has not got no-follow attribute

[Alex Williams]

I`ve had lots of success with forum marketing, in many different niches. Yes, you have to fucus on being helpful - this is the only way to get targeted traffic.

I do not focus on getting backlinkg though - just targeted traffic.

Sometimes you can start a new thread, which is very interesting and provides valuable information - and it can get posted as sticky. Just imagine what results you can expect from that!

[kirsky]

Forum signature promote your site or link. If your an active member of the forum, lots of your co-members will see your signature. This a good way to generate traffic in your site.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by weegillis

Welcome, wkathome,

Glad you asked. A signature is just that, a signature. It's not a back link in the strictest sense; that is, it won't show up as an IBL on your site (WPW uses 'nofollow' on OBL's). Yes, it does link to your site, but it's a way to find YOU, not your site.

Are you sure about that? When I look at the code behind this page, the sig links appear to be do-follow. And I certainly see links to my site when I look at Google's report on my backlinks.

Personally, I don't track traffic on my own site.
I'm just too busy ... but I do know that I've gotten quite a bit of SEO consulting work directly from this site and I am exceedingly grateful.