In the first part of the RQR Internet marketing forum comparison, we had a look at some raw data – number of members, topics, posts, member activity, popularity etc. In this second part, we’ll see what kind of characteristics each of the forums bring to the table and what kind of members and content you can expect to find in each one.
I’ll summarize my (largely subjective but hopefully unbiased) impression of each of the forums, in alphabetical order:
5star Affiliate Programs Forums
The 5star Affiliate Programs Forums are part of the 5star Affiliate Programs review/blog site about affiliate networks. The forums are fairly active, considering the relatively low member-count. I noticed that almost every post receives at least one response from Linda, the 5star owner/admin/boss. Her answers are often very elaborate and detailed. Frankly, I’m amazed that she invests so much time taking care of the community.
The atmosphere in this forum seems very friendly and welcoming and I’m seeing a lot of good advice being handed out.
There’s also a wealth of good stickies that are worth having a closer look at.
5star Affiliate Programs Forums
Friendly place where you get detailed answers from the boss – even if your questions are stupid.
Abestweb
Perhaps the defining characteristic of the Abestweb forum is that it is very diversely categorized. What I mean by that is that there are loads and loads of sub-forums on all kinds of subjects to be found here. For example, there are sub-forums for discussions about affiliate tax issues and legal issues as well as separate sub-forums for every ad network and affiliate network you can think of. And there is also a good collection of off-topic forums about health and fitness, random funny stuff and forums for general chit-chat.
In practical terms, this means that for almost any Internet marketing related topic you might have a question about, there is probably a specific sub-forum on Abestweb that is perfectly suited for you.
The downside is that the whole forum is a bit confusing. There are just so many different threads in different sub-forums that you can easily get lost on you first few visits.
Abestweb
The place with the absolute most sub-forums possible inside the online marketing segment.
AffiliateBot
The AffiliateBot forums are actually just part of the AffiliateBot affiliate network. The forums are not limited exclusively to subjects related to the parent-company though, so they can be interesting for any Internet marketer. Apart from a few sub-forums about the AffiliateBot network, there is a good amount of other sub-forums – not too many and not too few.
When you’re browsing this forum, you do notice that it’s a relatively small one. That’s not always a bad thing, though, since this means that it’s calmer and less chaotic than some of the very popular forums. I also found quite a few very useful resources like this link-building thread, for example.
AffiliateBot Forum
Great if you are an AffiliateBot member. Good, even if you aren’t.
DreamTeamMoney
At first, I was very irritated with the DTM forum: Via a search, I was directed to a strange landing-page they have, that looks like a sales-page. They aren’t selling anything though, it’s just a “squeeze page” for signing up to the forum.
I still don’t know if this was meant as a joke or if they’re serious about this. Anyway, after signing up, I had a lot of trouble logging in, my password didn’t work and I sometimes arrived back at the squeeze page instead of the forums. After a while, I had these issues sorted out, but I wish they had just omitted that bloody landing page in the first place.
The forum itself features a large amount of sub-forums on many subjects, much like Abestweb. I found the categories on DTM easier to navigate, however.
As far as member activity and good content, there’s nothing to complain about on DTM. It’s a large, active and useful forum.
What’s slightly annoying about it is how much advertising is used in this forum. There are animated banners all over the place and text-link ads are also used in the posts. I realize that the forum-owners need to make money somehow, but DTM definitely suffers from advertisement overload.
DreamTeamMoney
Good content, ads, ads, text-ads, some more content, flashing banner, content, ads…
eWealth
eWealth is a relatively small forum and it’s noticeably “slower” than some of the others. You might not get an answer to your question for a day or two, but you usually do get a response eventually.
The good new is that this makes the forum less addictive. You won’t feel as compelled to check for answers every five minutes as with some other forums.
From what I’ve seen, it seems that eWealth could do with slightly stricter moderation. I’ve encountered the occasional spammy post while browsing eWealth.
Apart from that, eWealth is a quality forum. There are quite a few experienced and helpful members and there’s good info to be found on eWealth.
eWealth
Not ashamed of being small.
Warrior Forum
This is the big one. As we’ve seen in my last post, the Warrior Forum dominates in terms of activity, number of users and visitors, posts and any other metric you can think of.
So what makes it so special? For one, the fact that it’s the most popular of it’s kind does have some benefits. Because of it’s sheer size, it attracts the most marketers and so you are most likely to find some brilliant marketing minds on the WF, even if just by pure chance.
The WF is also very, very active. This is great because it means there is a lot of info you can soak up on the WF and you’ll usually receive answers to your posts within minutes. On the other hand it can be problematic because the constant stream of interesting contributions and new threads popping up all over the place can keep you locked into the WF for hours on end.
One of the notable features of the WF is that the members can offer their own products as “Warrior Special Offers” or WSO. There is a thread where you can buy online marketing related ebooks and programs from the top members and the WSO also offers you the chance to publish and profit from a product of your own.
For pure, valuable information content, it’s quite frankly amazing how much the WF has to offer. Especially if you join the paid “War Room” section, where you’ll find more valuable marketing information than you could work through in your lifetime.
In short: Spend some time on the WF and you’ll soon realize why it’s the most popular online marketing forum by far.
Warrior Forum
Warning: This forum may eat up all of your free time! It may also make you seriously rich.
Why Do Work?
The whydowork forums are part of the whydowork website which is a resource site about work-at-home jobs. As such, the forum isn’t as squarely focused on affiliate marketing and online marketing as the other forums listed here. There is still a fair amount of activity in the online marketing subforums, however.
For information about legitimate work-at-home jobs, MLM, freelance writing and other subjects that are about making money online but only loosely related to the usual online marketing subjects, whydowork is the place to check first.
Whydowork.com
Should be called “Why do work somewhere else than at home?”
WickedFire
WickedFire has character. This is definitely the forum that leaves the most memorable impression among the ones listed.
Why?
I think these two quotes from the N00b’s guide to surviving WickedFire thread pretty much summarize it:
We swear…a LOT around here, so deal with it.
and
If you post a stupid question, you will be told so. However, you will probably still get a decent answer from someone. So, go ahead, ask dumb questions.
That’s what I found, browsing WickedFire: There’s a lot of swearing, sarcasm and joking around, but there’s still a lot of very useful information and the members are ultimately helpful. They might first take a stab at you, but they will then proceed to help you. If you have a sense of humour and aren’t easily offended, then you’ll feel right at home in this forum.
Also: I found some sticky posts that contain a ton of valuable information. Definitely worth looking into.
WickedFire
Online marketing forum with a distinct 4chan/cracked.com slant.
Final Verdict?
While each of the forums listed has it’s benefits and I do recommend giving at least a couple of them a closer look, there are two clear winners in this roundup:
- The Warrior Forum for being huge and filled to the brim with brilliant advice and resources.
- WickedFire for being fun and very informative.
I hope this post was useful to you. Make sure you join at least one online marketing community, otherwise, you’re simply missing out!
Here, you can find the first part of the RQR forum roundup.
