What Is The Best Internet Marketing Forum?
Forums are one of the coolest things on the Internet. No matter what the niche or topic may be, there is almost invariably going to be a number of useful forums or discussion boards available. For example, if you’re into playing guitar, then you’re probably familiar with sites like Ultimate Guitar, or Harmony Central. Perhaps you’re a fitness buff, and you frequent the Bodybuilding.com forums (and its infamous “Misc” section)
But what is the best Internet marketing forum?
Now I’m pretty sure that I can guess what you’re thinking…
Are the initials of this forum “W” and “F”? Is the answer “Warrior Forum“?
The Warrior Forum is pretty much synonymous with Internet Marketing. It’s the McDonalds of the affiliate/make money online world; a household brand with a huger number of fans (and an equally impressive group of haters)
But is it actually the best Internet marketing forum online? What are your alternatives? I’ve donned my “investigative journalism cap” to bring you the straight dope on the top forums where you can learn about Internet marketing. A word of warning before we begin; the results of this little (and very unscientific) test are going to shock you!
My Take On The Warrior Forum
I browse the Warrior Forum fairly regularly; in fact, I probably spend 30 minutes a day there at least. There are a few things you will notice about the “WF”:
1) There is an almost limitless abundance of bright-eyed newbies, all clamouring to make their first coin online
2) There is an almost limitless abundance of “experienced” marketers (I’ll cover this shortly) whose advice is treated like gold-covered stardust.
3) The moderation team are complete d-bags, and will ban anyone who even slightly questions the WF status quo.
What’s the WF Status Quo?
Basically, you need to understand how the Warrior Forum functions. It is a hierarchical system, only regular members cannot easily climb the hierarchy. Instead, the WF serves two main purposes:
1) To allow self-proclaimed “gurus” a place of mutual worship.
2) To give these gurus a place to sell products based on their reputations (the WSO/Warrior Special Offers forum)
Seriously, as harsh and conspirational as it may sound, the Warrior Forum basically involves an elite group of forum gurus selling and promoting products to the legion masses of newbies who flock to the forum. This mass promotion is based off the fact that privileged members are able to make ridiculous, hyped-up income claims
The basic process works a bit like this:
1) Johnny N. Ewbie arrives at the forum
2) He hangs around in the Main Internet Marketing Forum
3) He sees all these amazing “gurus” who’ve uncovered the secrets to making massive sums of money online (hint: this generally involves “taking serious action” or “taking mega action on a daily basis”)
4) He purchases guru recommended WSO products, 99% of which are worth nowhere near their asking prices
5) He doesn’t make as much money as promised; but never mind, because the next big thing is here (at the moment it’s offline marketing that is all the rage)
Now I’m not here to bash the Warrior Forum to the same degree as sites like Warrior Forum Sucks. I will agree that there is a lot of chicanery that goes on in the WF. For example, one member (Alexa Smith) who may or may not actually be who she claims she is always peddles the same nonsense about syndicated articles being the secret to massive riches. When was the last time you actually saw articles from Ezinearticles being republished on blogs or by big list owners WITHOUT their links and attributions first being removed? MYOB/Paul Uhl is also another nonsense Warrior Forum member who claims to make so many hundreds of millions a year from article syndication that I’m pretty sure he could buy his own African nation. What skullduggery from the Warrior Forum!
Also, the fact that the moderation team (including the very dubious Paul Myers) allow the privileged members of the forum like Alex and Paul to say whatever they want, in order to encourage newbies to spend up large on WSOs and premium memberships, is borderline evil. It’s not on to exploit newbies and innocent people who are just trying to earn some coin online!
That being said, there are some great people on the WF; they just tend to fly below the radar. Some free WSOs are also well worth the outlay as well (keep an eye out for my soon-to-be-released free WSO that will show you exactly how to make your first REAL money online using a cool platform called Slideshare)
The SEO/PPC sub-forum has a load of great information, and there is also a lot of opportunity for JV activity and list swaps in the JV section.
But the Warrior Forum simply cannot be seen as the best Internet marketing forum, primarily because of the fact that is is really a massive vacuum cleaner designed to siphon cash into the pockets of people with enough skill to declare themselves “gurus” (oh do I hate that word). However, if you look under the turds, there are often some great golden nuggets of information.
My choice for the top marketing forum would have to be Black Hat World.
I can almost hear the gasps – he isn’t talking about a Black Hat SEO forum is he? Yes I am!
Firstly, I’m not 100% opposed to black hat SEO. Considering Google think it their right to destroy honest business overnight with search algorithm changes, such as the recent Exact Match Domain massacre. I don’t really see anything wrong with using automated tools, sneaky redirects etc to game the search results and make money in the short term (even if it means you’re not going to build a lasting business). In fact, I don’t want to dissuade you from doing anything, apart from illegal and immoral practices like spamming peoples’ email inboxes.
The thing with Black Hat World is that it isn’t just black hat SEO; there are so many useful threads where members share profitable money-making strategies, great traffic and link-building tips, as well as “cutting edge” methods that are ripe for the picking. You can learn so much by browsing this forum (and even more by taking part) and the best part is nobody charges to share their knowledge. The “Downloads” section is also pretty neat, but I’ll leave that for you to discover.
In contrast, I’m positive most of the so-called experts on the Warrior Forum would scalp you if dandruff was worth money. And then they would chastise you for “not taking massive action”.
The evidence is clear; Black Hat World is the best forum for Internet marketers who are actually serious. You will learn more there in an hour than you would learn in a week on the WF, so make sure you check it out here.
Hi there Sam,
Thanks for your inside scoop on this. I do go over to the Warrior Forum from time to time, but as you’ve pointed out, it can be difficult to know who you can trust.
While I’ve known about Black Hat World for a number of years, the name always put me off but now I’m inclined to take it more seriously.
All the best with your site!
Tyler
Definitely give Black Hat World a try – you wont regret it. The Warrior Forum is on its way out, because it’s just such a rort these days. If you step back from the self worshiping of many of the WF members, you’ll quickly see that there is little of value in that forum.
I still browse there from time to time (my username is samjaynz) but I much prefer Black Hat World.
At least there people actually give quality advice and don’t expect you to pay/opt-in for it.
Happy to see someone send newbies in the right direction. I have been a victim of the Warrior forum and it cost me dearly, but not wanting to be a victim I choose to think of it as the price I had to pay to learn some bitter truths about believing everything anyone tells you online. The Black Hat World has saved me hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars and my sanity. Great article Sam. Thank you!!
Hey Rosie, thanks for the comment.
Any chance you could let us know how you’ve been scammed through the WF?
Hmmm,
I thought this sounded like a good forum so I checked it out. I think you should have let your readers know that their forum rules state that you have to have 50″quality” posts before you can have a signature!!
As a beginning internet marketer with a full-time job I have to be careful where I spend my time. I just don’t think having to do that much posting before being able to create a signature is a worthwhile investment of time.
Yeah that is true… However, the angle I was taking with this post is more that Black Hat World is a better place to go and learn affiliate marketing. Warrior Forum is still useful for brandishing your signature around willy-nilly.
This is a great article. We have worked on link building for 3 months. This works and we are chosy with the forums we have joined. Our site has seen a steady rise in traffic and our Alexa ranking is improving weekly. We have had great success with directories, press releases and guest blogging about our website.
Sam, thanks.
I’ve not known anything about these two sites until now. I’m happy for this and give them a try. But then, does it still worth doing the WF since it is branded with much negativity?
Thanks.
Michael
Definitely keep using the WF, even if you just use it to push your own business!
This guy’s totally right about the Warrior Forum and it’s con man in chief Paul Myers. I didn’t realize what a sham Warrior Forum was until i ended up getting into it with Paul Myers. If you’re looking for real internet marketing you won’t find it at the Warrior Forum like this whole page says you don’t. The reason is people like Paul Myers protect the fake expert personalites on there giving out shitty advice just so they can be viewed as experts and make a buck. For what it’s worth I found this info on Paul Myers last night online:
it’s a blog called gurusoftheghetto.wordpress.com
I hope you post my message even with the link in it cause it totally shows what a loser Paul Myers is. Eye opening stuff about how Paul Myers is supposed to be some Warrior super-god but in reality he’s a poor broke loser with no money to speak of.
Hi John,
Thanks for coming and leaving your comment.
I’ve checked out that blog you linked and it is definitely worth reading!
And I totally agree with your comments about Paul Myers as well 🙂
Hello, good article. I own the Typepad blog that you refer to above:http://alexa-smith-warrior-forum-scam.typepad.com/blog/
Thanks for the link and hopefully you can make some money online without unethical, unlawful, or scammy tactics.
No problem my friend… I like your blog and have read through the whole thing.
And yes, I pride myself on trying to make money (and help others to do the same) online without scammy or spammy tactics.
Black Hat is good but there are better sites to learn form like, ppvplaybook which is a paid forum. ppvplaybook realy is the best forum, only if you can afford the fees each month.
There are other free sites like wicked fire, but be warned this forum is hard core, and you will probably be insulted,They are very rude on there, but you can you can learn from them if you can stick with it.
If you are learning stay away from warrior forum. In the day it used to be good, but it is full of self proclaimed fools now.
My brother suggested I might like this blog. He was entirely right.
This post actually made my day. You cann’t imagine just how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
Hey Sam, Ian from NoMoreBSReviews here.
I enjoyed your post enough that I wanted you to know that I stopped by. As one of the few people that provides 100% and transparent reviews in the internet marketing space rather than trying to make as many affiliate commissions as possible, I’ve been censored by Warrior Forum many times. They even wiped my forum signature site-wide at a point and told me to stop linking to my website on WF because they’re so into protecting their “gurus”.
If you hang around WF long enough it becomes pretty obvious that the whole thing is one big circle-jerk where the owners and the scummy product publishers are making each other as much money as possible. I’ve received many links from BlackHatWorld in the past due to people asking for quality reviews and others linking back to my site, but I’ve never actively participated because the site title put me off. I’ll be checking it out more thoroughly and actively participating now thanks to this post.
So I say all of that to say – thank you for putting together such high quality information! Let me know if I can help you with anything down the road.
Hi Ian,
Thanks for taking the time to come and read my blog; I’ve been a long-time “lurking” reader of NoMoreBSReviews (to anybody else reading this comment I strongly urge you to visit Ian’s site).
I’m really not surprised by your experience of the Warrior Forum … the more time I spend there surrounded by people peddling their dodgy WSOs and over-hyped services, the more I despair at the Internet marketing business in general.
Regarding Blackhat World, I would certainly recommend that you don’t let the title put you off. There are a lot of “unethical” posters there, but one thing that never ceases to amaze me about BHW is the fact that people will always share their methods. For example, it’s not rare to see a user share a step-by-step method that is making them real profit … and the regular user case studies are great.
On the Warrior Forum nobody shares anything without trying to hawk their latest WSOs – and what amazes me is that so many “junior” members are complicit in this activity. I nearly spat my coffee out the other day when I was reading a thread in which a self-confessed struggling newbie was desperately seeking a bit of advice and encouragement, and every single reply was “well XX has a really great WSO you should buy on this topic” … one commenter even suggested that the poor soul needed “to buy a few WSOs before going further”.
I’m forever getting threads and posts deleted on the Warrior Forum because my signature questions the “holy grail” of Warrior topics – article syndication. We all know it doesn’t work, but that doesn’t stop people falling into the trap.
So thanks once again Ian, and if I ever have any products of my own I might take that favour and ask for you to do a review of them.
Sam
I agree completely with your assessment of WF. Though I know much less about the politics that go on there, it’s certainly not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s certainly not place that’s newbie friendly.
And though I don’t like black hat SEO tactics, I have noticed that there are some useful threads happening at Black Hat forum. I guess at least you know what you are getting when you show up – they don’t pretend to play by the rules!
Thanks for your comment – one thing I’ll add is that even though BHW is a black hat forum, there is loads of non-blackhat advice there. Just steer clear of the “black hat SEO” subsection and you’ll find a lot of gold. The “money making” forum is really good there.
Sam
My early peception Blackhat forum is not good because of the name of it. However, after reading your post, I will join Blackhat. I also find difficulties you mention in Warrior Forum.