Find forums in which many subjects are discussed

While there are lots of online forums, it's best to try and get ones that are already big and active, since they are most likely to stay around for a long time. Also, they tend to have a lot of different categories including general or "lounge" sections in which you can post about pretty much anything. This is important, because after a while you do tend to get a bit bored writing comments about just one or two subjects.

Of course the SEO value of backlinks from these miscellaneous sections is probably even less than from from other parts of the forum. Still, a link is a link (although, of course that's not the only reason to post, of course!) and they really do add up over time.

As well as this you are helping the forum keep up steam by adding your thoughts. The more content that the forum has, the higher it ranks in the search engines. And the more likely it is that new people will join. So the cycle continues. (Also, you are generating some content that you can develop into articles or blog posts to use later on.)

Active forums disappearing

Just another thought on forum marketing: I haven't done any posting on forums for a few months now, but decided to get back and do some more recently. Sadly, a couple of the forums I'd been participating in had gone belly up. And they weren't small or dying ones when I last visited; they were actually quite large and active.

It's a bit disappointing, because I had maybe 30 or 40 posts on these forums that I was intending to paste to a file and use as raw material for blog posts and articles. But they've all just disappeared now!

So, it's worth remembering that there is a high attrition rate with these forums. And you should save what you've written as you go along if you want to use it somewhere else.

Online life trumps real one

It's a bit of a cliche that people are spending so much time on the internet these days that they are actually ignoring reality. However, there's quite a bit of truth to it.

Internet addiction is a huge problem in some countries, with numerous clinics being built to address the problem. And there are more and more stories of people ignoring their responsibilities offline. One of the most tragic is the case of a South Korean couple who were so involved with raising an online virtual baby that they let their real child die of neglect.

LimeDomains looks good for Wordpress

There are a lot of free website hosts and builders out there now. But many of them are substandard. There are a few that stand out from the pack, of course, like Yola, Weebly and Webnode.

Here's another one that looks good: LimeDomains. Actually, it's more of a domain registrar. But if you buy a domain through them, you can get a free website. The deal is not like the above mentioned sites, which have easy to use builders. But it does have a lot of applications that you can easily install. This includes Wordpress.

I haven't tried it yet but this seeems like a very good deal. If you want to get the most out of a Wordpress blog and put ads on it you have to host it yourself. That will cost you at least a few bucks a month with reliable hosting companies. But with LimeDomains, you get the hosting free. And of course you can upgrade as your traffic builds.

I've Googled for reviews about LimeDomains and they seem generally positive. So, definitely an option to consider.

Crazy Domains advertisement controversy

If you live in Australia there is a television ad that you've almost certainly seen, since it's shown pretty regularly. It's the one for Crazy Domains and it stars Pamela Anderson. Lately it's fallen foul of the censors.

I've seen it many times, and I never thought it was offensive. Actually, I got the impression that the makers of the commercial went out of their way to make Anderson and her equally sexy sidekick seem empowered and businesslike in much of the ad - while also taking advantage of their abundant sex appeal in the geek's daydream sequence. Because of this "bob each way" approach it always struck me as being overly politically correct, if anything. Clearly, the Advertising Standards Board doesn't see it that way.

A side note: The ad was filmed in Los Angeles - and of course stars a major US celebrity. It must have cost a packet! Crazy Domains is doing pretty well for a Perth-based company.

That state does seem to becoming something of a mecca for internet related businesses. The popular ISP iiNet started there as well.

Doomby, a French Weebly

I just found another free website builder that looks pretty good. It's called Doomby and the company is based in France.

It looks a lot like Weebly, with similar tools included, and an option to upgrade. The name is derived from the Pulaar (a language used in Senegal) word for "mice". It is kind of catchy - and also apt, since you would be using your mouse to build a site. However, I do think it might have negative associations for English speakers because of the inclusion of the word "doom". I suspect some people might be turned off using it for that reason.

Still, it looks like a useful tool for the newbie webmaster.

Another Facebook horror story

Negative stories related to Facebook are appearing frequently. And here's another one: A bloke murdered his ex-lover after seeing photos on Facebook of her with another man.

Of course, jealous men killing their ex-partners is nothing new, unfortunately. But in the past, these men had to follow them around to learn about their new relationships! Facebook makes the discovery much easier because pretty much anyone can log in and see how another person's personal life is developing.

And with Facebook now becoming so huge it's overtaken Yahoo to become the second most popular site on the web, horrific events like this will happen even more often.