How to make the most of the paid posting services

When starting a forum, it's not easy to have many members who are willing to post. Of course, if it's a niche your friends are interested in, you can invite them to help. What if you're niche is too specialized for them and you still want to have some activity in your forums as soon as possible?

In this case you might be willing to pay for few editors to help you with posts. If you decide to hire some forum posters, here are some tips to make sure you really benefit from it.

1. HAVE A BUDGET

I don't like to scream, usually, but it's important to have a budget. Don't go all crazy with the money, you might need to support the forum content for 1-2 months, until you're properly indexed by google and start getting more organic traffic. Depending on your niche, your regular members might not be enticed to enter an empty forum, so you need to have something working there already to have them join.

Think about your forum start as a MARATHON, not a sprint. Yes, you can hire people and have 1000 posts in the first day. And then?

Instead of putting all your efforts into the first week, try to pace yourself and your editors. And yes, as you can guess, money can be easily spent. This is why you need to set yourself a budget: $20/week or $40/month or whatever you feel comfortable with. Don't go over the budget

2. Look for good paid posting services

There are hundreds (if not more) people who are willing to post on your forums for a fee. Some are horrible posters, some are absolutely outstanding. You need to avoid the first ones and get the latter group. And NO, price DOES NOT MEAN BETTER POSTS. I have paid the same fee for various forum posters and some, even if asked for more money, were absolutely lousy. So getting a bigger price won't necessarily mean you're getting a better content.

The 'regular' posting price I found with many content providers is ~10 cents/post. Of course this can vary, you can get 5-7 cents or more. Based on the offers I have recently received, 10 was the regular price most quoted and it's the price I also compare services to.

Take a look at your editor's profile in the forums you're recruiting him and maybe ask for some proof of previous work. Yes, you are entitled to this, as a web designer, I am checked by my clients, too. They either look at my elance profile and read all my feedback, google my name or any other way they can get where I stand as a web designer.

Do the same!

Do take a look at their posts in that forum. Do they provide good insightful posts? Do they post junky 2-3 word replies just to get their post count up? Well, guess what? They're likely to do the same on your forums too.

Weed out the bad editors and stick to few you're interested in. If their price quote sits well with you, go to the next step: hire them.

3. Always test your editors

Of course I can afford paying an editor to work on a forum for 2 months from this moment. I can actually pay that person upfront for all the work. Will I do this? Nope.

I always ask for few posts first: 10-30. This way I can see how my editor works and what quality he provides. If I see a bad quality I can 1. let the editor know or 2. (if they copy-paste content and are really bad) fire him and pay only for the posts done. I have already done this with a horrible editor, who was shocked I don't allow copy-pasted content or idiotic replies. I AM PAYING for this, I can steal content myself, if I wanted to run my site like this, don't have to pay someone to do it.

MONITOR your editors closely. Know their usernames in the forum, review their posts quality and write down if you'll continue working with them or not. Do not be afraid to refuse further cooperation. There are hundreds of other amazing editors who can really do a great job, you don't have to accept bad content.

4. Weed out the bad editors, keep the best of them

I like to pace my editors. I am constantly providing new topics and have few friends who do the same. So it's easier for them to join in the conversation. I don't want to rush anything, so I'd rather have an editor post for 3-4 weeks than 3-4 days. It's important to have a constant flow of content, aside what you and regular members can provide, until the community picks off and you don't need any help at all.

From the editors you have tested, choose the BEST and thank the others for their support. You are usually paying THE SAME for a small post as you do for a nice informative reply. Yes, you are the client and can afford being picky. Never forget it's YOUR money.

You will be most likely left with few excellent editors who might like your community (if you're running a decent content forum, they should like it) and would gladly work more. Hire them for a longer time, but always set regular payments (1-2 weeks at most). This way you can always fire them, if the content is sub-par and can get them paid.

5. Pay fast, provide good feedback, be professional

Never forget you're in business with these people. Just as you want your salary, they want their money. Most of them will not ask for payment upfront (I don't pay upfront in general anyway), but will want money after a set number of posts or weekly, if you're working on a longer deadline. I do recommend my editors to keep track of their work and ask for payment, it's their right.

Pay as soon as possible, thank them for their support and provide a positive feedback. Whether it's a feedback system on they have opened a thread where they offer their services, mention your deal and how pleased you are. It really helps them and they do deserve it after all.

6. Keep your forums active and promote

I see many forums that have 4-5 new posts/day. If you're doing this, you're not going anywhere. Using few paid editors is a good idea to fast track your start up, but they will not, nor should, do all your work. You, as the admin, have to come up with new interesting posts and make your members and editors jobs easier.

Constantly promote your forums, watch your traffic and try to provide THE BEST content you can. With this boost in activity and a careful planning and editor management you can make the difference when it comes to your forums.

Hope these help you get the best from your paid posting deals.

PS: notice I haven't mentioned specialized paid posting services. I like to hire separate editors since 1. I can control exactly who I hire and 2. most of the time the price is smaller.

You can join various forums and get private posters, you can hire companies to do this or use post exchange systems like PostLoop.