For 7+ years I've seen it . . . over and again people sign up for our site and then post an advertisement in our forums. Sometimes they stop, but many others just post the same ad over and again.

Our moderators then sweep in and delete the posts.

Some users read our terms of use and forum rules, and then upgrade their accounts to PRO. They then go to our Classifieds forum and post their ad properly.

While they are following the rules, the vast majority of these people won't get traction for their ads.

Those of you who are active members of the community or who understand social media know exactly why . . .

You don't walk up to someone at a party and start selling them!

The same applies on a community site like ours or on other forms of social media.

If you want to get people's attention, then you first need to become part of the community. You need to interact with others and become someone that they start to know and trust. Once that happens, when you post an ad, you'll suddenly capture the attention of the community.

If you just advertise without the social component, there is a pretty good chance that your ad will fail . . .

Thoughts?