I agree with the "paid members only" benefit, and then putting a sensible limit on it, before your forum turns into one big Informercial. I think as long as there is some quality text to go along with a "roof cleaning anytown USA" thread it helps, vs hurts a forum. A generic thread about roof cleaning has a snowballs chance in hell of being returned in the search results. The generic search term "roof cleaning" is way too crowded. Now, if we have a thread about "roof cleaning germantown MD", that thread will generally appear well placed in the search results, assuming the forum it was posted on has any SEO Clout ?
Folks that own and run forums know that it is all about hits! Why limit a forums exposure by restricting your posters ability to keyword a post ? In fact some of our largest and most educational threads at RCIA started out as keyword loaded promotional posts, and grew from there. I would think an org like the UAMCC would want exposure ? What better way to get exposure then to watch a local competitors posts here pop up in the local search results ?
I respect Beth's position on Spam, and we sure don't want that. Perhaps there can be a 1/2 way meeting of the minds on this to allow local keywords in the post titles, while requiring some unique, quality content ?
Something like "This is the first roof we cleaned using our new roof cleaning set up. Our old roof cleaning set up would not allow us to clean a steep roof like this. The algae was especially thick on this roof, and we had to give it two coats of chemicals. In between coats, a neighbor asked us for an estimate" You get the idea I'm sure ?
IOW, something more then an "Attaboy, good work as usual" stuff.
UAMCC has members, and so do we at RCIA.
We must give our members something, so how about some exposure ?
Remember, every time the UAMCC members get exposure off this forum, so does the UAMCC !
LOL, I remember one of the local Tampa guys posting on another forum. The minute his thread hit the local Tampa search results, we had 1/2 of Tampa posting over there, including ME.