So, the week before last I joined a discussion forum in a niche I’m in.

And I can’t really participate in it.

At first, I had problems finding the rules. I thought the rules might be in the FAQ section, which they weren’t. I could not submit to the Help area because you had to have a minimum of 1 post before you could post in the Help area.

In the meantime, I found the rules.

I sell stuff in that niche so, unless I’m one of their advertisers, I cannot do anything to promote myself. Okay, fine.

The only place I can post is in an introductory area. So, I cannot ask for help without first introducing myself, which would give me my one post which would then allow me to ask for help. However, since I cannot mention what I do, I cannot honestly introduce myself, can I? It feels deceptive to identify myself as a user rather than a seller and saying I sell stuff might be a form of advertising, which I’m not allowed to do. Of course, I could ask in the Help section if it would be okay for me to say I’m a seller without mentioning my website or company name or anything, but I cannot post for help because I don’t have enough posts.

It’s a bit of a catch-22.

So, I found a contact link and requested information there. Asked about advertising prices too. Over a week later and I’ve still not heard back.

Maybe they don’t want any new advertisers.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 15th, 2010 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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