Warrior Forum review

Claiming to be the number one Internet Marketing forum since 1997, WarriorForum.com has certainly laid down the gauntlet for its competition. While it may not sit as the largest community for web marketing, it certainly boasts a wide array of content and articles for the would-be Internet entrepreneur.

Warrior Forum is run off Snit2 software, a rare breakaway from the usual vBulletin code which most webmasters choose to go with. The forum is laid out in a clean red and black skin. It’s by no means spectacular, and the theme seems to clash with the identity of the site.

Let’s face it though. If making money is at the top of your agenda, a slightly off-key forum layout isn’t going to deter you. The content comes first, and it’s here that Warrior delivers plenty.

In contrast to the more vibrant communities like Digital Point, Warrior.com encourages its users to contribute static content in the form of articles and reviews. You’ll find that the main entry pages are obtained from these archives of how-to guides and useful advice. So in one way you could argue that Warrior sits above its competitors, certainly in terms of readily available information.

The 50,000 members – of which around 50% are active – are mostly friendly and affable. You might have to wait longer to get a response in the Warrior community, but the percentage of users who have active experience in what they’re talking about is noticeably higher. There are people using the boards who genuinely do make a large slice of profit, and this is naturally a great selling point to have on any money making forum.

You will find a healthy level of discussion in the Adsense and SEO forum, as you’d probably expect when glancing over the e-marketing spectrum. There is plenty of advice for optimizing your web business, and as we’ve already said, the members are highly knowledgeable of their profession. You won’t find much bad advice, and when you do, the more experienced members will step in with informative re-evaluations.

Unfortunately the site isn’t as independent as it perhaps could be. The page is lined with what looks like forum links, but when clicking on them, you’ll be taken to third party websites under a barrage of affiliate talk. It’s clear that the owners of Warrior Forum are looking to make a fast buck by drawing from the traffic that their board brings, and you could argue that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But as a browsing experience for a new member, the affiliate links do somewhat detract from your first impression of the site. It makes it hard to determine whether there is genuine good advice on offer, of if you’re there as bait to the affiliates.

It would be unfair to write off The Warrior Forum as a collection of other people’s sites. You will find a lot of good advice on Internet marketing and there are some genuinely innovative concepts described. In short, there’s money to be made.

But for all of the rich content, this is a community which would rank much higher if it wasn’t convoluted with third party deals and blatant advertising.

WebmasterWorld.com review

Webmaster World takes all the ease of use from a vBulletin forum and throws it out the window in favour of a board powered by BestBBS. It’s quite obvious that the owners of the site are trying to appeal to a different audience in their approach, and upon first impressions, they’ve succeeded.

Webmaster World looks more like an article resource site than a buzzing community housing thousands of members. But a forum it is, and for those who prefer content over appearance, this is a site which will rapidly feel like home. As you’d guess by the name, Webmaster World offers discussion for those looking to start-up or improve their websites. It could be an online business, a hobbyist site or just about anything in between.

It is presented rather simply with a list of selected topics down the left hand side, and an overview of the forums on the right. The selected topics are titled as “Highlighted Posts”, which essentially means the discussions that are elected worthy of inclusion by the staff team. You’ll typically find two or three of these per day, so it helps to get an immediate idea of what’s going on – whether you’re new to the board, or returning to check up on what you’ve missed.

So what are the main selling points of Webmaster World? Anybody who has dabbled in the arts of E-Commerce will be well aware that the field is literally seething in sub-topics and new technologies. Webmaster World, in a bid to provide a comprehensive coverage of the entire industry, has opted to include just about every forum imaginable on its site.

We have categories for the basic languages of development, in HTML, CSS, PHP, XML and AJAX. We also have an area dedicated to the so called Web 2.0 movement. As the Internet swings towards a new generation of development, you’ll find all the latest discussion on mobile technology, scaled down application and multimedia design.

Perhaps the most useful area of the site is the forum for marketing on the Net. Whether it is link baiting, PPC programmes, Google Adwords, Yahoo…you’ll find just about every noteworthy topic under the sun in this section of the board.

Given the huge breakdown of forums that we’re talking about, it’s quite surprising to browse through each area and see that almost every topic has a reply of some kind. The member-base is clearly large, and the experts are active in providing help for the troubled members. Despite that, the forums aren’t overflowing with information. You can enter a sub-category and track topics dating back a couple of months in the first page.

If you post a thread today, it won’t be buried under four pages by tomorrow morning!

Under each topic is a neat little line which describes more about the subject at hand. This makes it much easier to locate noteworthy threads, and you’ll spend less time tapping at the search function.

Webmaster World should be commended for sticking to its guns and offering a board that relies on unique content rather than tidy presentation. If you prefer this kind of approach, drop by and see what you think. There’s enough relevant content to be reading for days!

Adwords CPA (PPA) Beta Expanding

Google is expanding  its CPA campaigns beta. I have been officialy invited and I already set up an initial campaign. Adsense publishers can now promote my products directly for a set payment per sales conversion, rather then per click to my website. I will let it run for several days and report here if it actually brings conversions (sales).