Have you ever paid for content?

Back then I was trying to get the forum going without paid posting, unfortunately it never worked. Have used postloop recently so will see if that helps, certainly got some activity at the moment at least.

 

When I started a webmaster forum a year ago, and I paid for about 500 forum posts. They were OK quality, and I wouldn't buy forum posts again, because now I know many other free ways to gain forum posts, and I rather work for my success. I made a profit on the forum when I sold it after a few months so it worked out in the end.

 

I think we all have different experiences on this topic. Personally what I have found has been quite depressing for the most part. In the last 8 years I have tried several different content writers services and maybe 1 out of every 10 actually delivered something 100% unique. The remaining 9 out of 10 either; A.) copied / pasted exact content from elsewhere, B.) copied / edited a few words / pasted content from elsewhere, or C.) copied / spun (using a thesaurus based software) / pasted. All 9 of which rendered the content a blatant copyright infringement or total gibberish that causes the site to lose any authority with it's readers it may of had.

At the end of the day, if the prices on a content writing service are low (under the equivalent of $0.10 per word), then you will probably be very disappointed. The 1 out of 10 for me were the higher priced writers averaging $0.15 to $1.00 per word. It's also important you review their references, past work, and how long they have been writing professionally.

Eric Lyon

 

I've bought content, mainly posts, a few times in the past. Most recently I've used postloop, fiverr and a few individuals from promotion/webmaster type forums. Postloop for the most part were decent. Fiverr was a waste of time, found one decent gig out of about 10 tried and he stopped selling posts shortly after my first order, he was underselling himself, so I don't blame him, but was still a pain in the ass. Most of the others were low quality and three of them just copied and pasted from other forums. Finally, promotion/webmaster forums, never again.

 

I've used Postloop in the post for my forums, it cuts out the need for me to do the work of managing the posts and paying out.

 

I have not paid for content, and will not in the future. I like creative control...lolz! On the other hand, if asked, I would also offer this service freely to anyone to help them on their website with reciprocation optional. They are welcome to post on my website anytime in the form of exchange (I would post on their website too) and it would be appreciated greatly. I think that's an awesome way to share community support for others that are working so hard to provide nice forum communities.

 

I haven't paid for content...thought about paying for it on post loop. I hope to gradually build my traffic and have then have consistent content. Just going to be patient for awhile..

 

I've never paid for content and will likely never consider it in future. Why should I when I can write all my content myself and add new stuff regularly for absolutely free? And as for forum posts, see no point to pay for those either, I just ask people I know online to join and help the community. Heck, a good few of my current sites members are people who came from the site I was running before it and just wanted to be on a new forum and hence joined when invited. Paying for any content just strikes me as desperate and a waste of money.

 

I have had people buy a premium membership before which involved them posting on a sealed section which was private to everyone else. I called it the Mixed Grill subscription because it was just the general discussion section that was hidden that people loved to use. Will do that again. Have only just put my forum back up under a new url and it's a fresh new start. Have only got a small General Discussion section at the moment. I might have to add a few more boards to it.

 

Did you ever order from those sites that sell posting packages? I know they were pretty popular some time ago. I don't even go near promotion forums these days because its full of users spamming their forum link around, and you really can't find a lot of good advice on those sites, but I do post sometimes especially if I'm looking to do some quick exchanges and such.

 

I haven't tried a package from any site that specifically sells posts (except postloop if that's counted - spent around $175 between Dec and January). I think I'm probably going to try some post exchanges in the near future, as I actually think that's probably a better way to go about getting content.

I did dip my toe in to micro-job posters again recently and found a pretty decent poster on SEO-Clerks. I wont post the gig here, but if anyone is interested, just let me know.

 

How was the quality of those posts when you paid for them on postloop?

 

Most were of a decent quality. The thing I liked about Postloop is that you get posts from multiple users, without having to organise it all yourself.

 

Ya, that's what I like as well, I had 80 points the other and I had my site disabled, turned it back on, and loads of users posted. I haven't gone back there to build up my points again though. I'll be doing that sometime this upcoming week though.

 

I might try posting there a bit more. I have done a little posting, but the most part of the posts I got from there were paid for.

 

Don't most those PostLoop posters copy / paste the same comments and thread starts that they do on multiple other forums? And sometimes just copy / paste other posts / replies they found somewhere else onto your forum? I've even seen lots of xrumer users posting from sites like that, where their software basically spins a post and renders it to read like gibberish. That's what I've heard and seen anyways. I can see where it can help boost post count and make a new forum look active, but all the duplicated posts (word for word) also found on multiple other sites kinda hurts the original content for organic search traffic aspects I would think since search engines like google exclude dupe content into the supplemental index . And of course, the gibberish xrumer type posts just cause the site to lose any authority it might of had with new members.

- Eric -

 

I've not had that problem with Postloop, but I imagine it will happen. I used to check posts people made to ensure that they weren't copied and pasted. The only time I've had users copy and past posts was when I bought posts off a promotion forum and a few times on Fiverr.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I've never had the problem myself.

 

The only problems I've faced is them making one liners, but I won't rate them or included their posts because if it doesn't count as good enough content, I simply move their posts to our trash can, thus, their posts aren't included in their posts that they do.

 

On my forum I have got a paid section. At the moment the general discussion boards are all public but those boards are going to be open for those who pay to use it. It's a bit like the pay wall you get with some newspapers who are wanting your money due to online content

 

I never bought content and I think I won't buy content in the future. I like creating my own articles and I don't see the point of the buying articles for your website. Yeah it helps when the article is search engine optimized but you can do seo yourself as well right? Why pay for something that you can do. Besides, by constantly doing articles, you are training yourself to become a better writer and by being a better writer, you won't need to buy articles anymore. Heck it can even be another source of income for you if you decide to sell articles of your own.