Niche online forums can be a great source of information. For example relating to the gambling affiliate niche signing up to Poker Affiliate Listing is simply a must. PAL is a niche forum for those who work as gambling affiliates although members also include operators, content writers and link sellers. Buried amongst the fluff you will find some great posts. Remember though, as in the case of all forums, the range of expertise and post quality will range from poor to superb. This is the case with all forums.
Form experience of running online forums for many years I will tell you to take what you read with a pinch of salt. I read many webmaster type forums and stumble on claims of new SEO techniques most months. I may test out these techniques on test sites or pages, but being an old sceptic I will never believe anything I read on a forum until I have tested the technique myself. I will say the same for those who have built up their own reputations online. Until I’m sure that I trust them 100% then to me their reputation means nothing.
In general on many forums especially webmaster and affiliate forums many of the members are “wannabes”. Despite what many say, making money online takes a hell of a lot of work and dedication with most failing to do so. Time and time again I have seen the wannabes jump on the latest bandwagon and be exploited by experience marketeers selling the latest sure fire technique that they claim will help affiliates make a fortune.
Perhaps the greatest example of how an online reputation can be built and exploited is the recent story of Neil Blatchly from the UK Blonde Poker Forum. Blatchly was a long term member of the Blonde Poker forum who many held in high regard. Last year he posted a staking thread asking for backers so he could test his sports betting trading techniques on the Betfair Exchange. With initially just a few backers he started to post amazing stories of his success plus of course stated how well his backer’s investments were doing. As you can imagine many jumped on the bandwagon with Blatchly taking up to £120K in stakes from many members of the forum.
Each week he would post about how well his system was working gaining almost god like status on the forum. During the last month or so a couple of members started to get suspicious so they asked an experienced sports betting trader to take a look at Blatchly’s data on the forum. The trader (arbboy) posted some valid comments on the forum which raised some valid concerned in regards to what Blatchly was doing. The masses of the Blonde Forum simply could not believe that their hero was up to no good. As you can imagine rather than looking into what arbboy was saying most members of the forum simply dismissed his posts treating him like some sort of troll. So what did the mods of the Blonde Forum do? Well they banned arbboy.
As you well may now have guessed arbboy was proved to be right as Blatchly’s sports betting trading system was no more than a scam. He had indeed traded but had been skimming the trades plus “degened” many thousands away on roulette and horse racing. He even treated his family to a 5 star holiday in Miami! It is not for me to say who should be blamed for the Blonde Poker fiasco I’m simply using the case to prove to you how online reputations can in reality mean very little.
