Writing Guides For Forums? Why Not Syndicate Your Content Instead?

[Zwielicht]

This is just a quick advice thread.

For those of you who don't know what syndicating content is, it's a strategy some people use that simply involves posting an article on your own website first, waiting a bit for it to index, and then posting the same article on a forum in a relevant niche. If the forum allows it, you can even link back to the original article on your website.

But why should you do this?
After all, as many of you are aware, most forums are no-follow when it comes to links, so there won't be an SEO benefit in it for you outside of diversifying your backlink profile.

But the benefit of doing this is simple! Rather than just giving a forum your content, you can benefit yourself by driving traffic to your own website. If people like the content that you're putting out, you can build up a reader base and potentially even get backlinks 'the natural way' from others who like your content and want to link back to you on their own websites.

I actually knew of someone who built up their brand by using this exact strategy.

Not All Forums Allow You To Do This
Just be aware that not all forums like when you do this, so always check their rules first.

In case you're wondering why, then you should know that many forums claim ownership over the content that you write on the site, even this forum does.

Forums usually claim this ownership so that in the event that a user requests an account deletion, the forum doesn't have to risk losing hundreds or even thousands of posts worth of content. You can imagine this would cause some serious SEO issues for the forum.

 

[roydan]

many forums claim ownership over the content that you write on the site, even this forum does.

How can a forum both:
1. Claim ownership over the content, and
2. Not take legal responsibility over illegal content?

Don't they contradict each other?

 

[Spy]

How can a forum both:
1. Claim ownership over the content, and
2. Not take legal responsibility over illegal content?

Don't they contradict each other?

Great question actually.
It’s like a YouTube channel with a comment section. The channel "owns" the space and can use or delete comments, but it’s not responsible for what users post. However, if the channel promotes illegal content or ignores reports, it can still face consequences. same applies for forum.

 

[roydan]

Great question actually.
It’s like a YouTube channel with a comment section. The channel "owns" the space and can use or delete comments, but it’s not responsible for what users post. However, if the channel promotes illegal content or ignores reports, it can still face consequences. same applies for forum.

On youtube, channels control the comment section, but the channel owner don't own the content.

 

[Spy]

On youtube, channels control the comment section, but the channel owner don't own the content.

Yes I agree @roydan ....I said owns the "Space".

If you wrote 100 threads in this forum and multiple users engaged with those threads and later you decided to delete your account (which I hope you never do, @roydan), allowing content deletion would affect the platform's structure and other users engagement statistics. Perhaps by "claiming ownership over the content," Z meant that the forum retains the content as part of its ecosystem, ensuring discussions remain intact. However, since it's user-generated content, legal responsibility still lies with the users, not the forum owners.

 

[roydan]

I'm not against forums owning the content, I just don't understand how these two things coexist.

No subtext.