Quick Backlinks Question

[Staccs]

Today I was using Backlink Watch to check out some backlinks from my competition.

This person got about 100 backlinks from being active on a vBulletin forum, but having the URL in his user profile so when you click on his username one of the option on the dropdown is "Visit xxxx's Homepage!".

This means that finding a high PR forum and becoming an active member = easy backlinks?

Are there any downsides to forum backlinks?

I know this is a ridiculously stupid question, but I figured I should make sure I don't start wasting even more time on forum for and justifying it to myself because "I'm backlinking".

 

[sevnup]

The only downside = the time spent on building shitty backlinks.

From my experience, forum post links do not get help your rankings in the short term. There is a chance you'll get a first page post on a thread that gets stickied and generates some PR in the long run.

If you're active in a forum that hands out those links, by all means post away.

 

[essbom]

Staccs . . . I'm new to WF, but not to SEO. Forums offer some quick wins to get links but they're not the ones that are gonna get you ranking. Get a few . . . but don't waste too much time on them.

 

[DanWesson]

Diversify your link sources. A number of signature links from the same forum are generally not as valuable as the same number of links from many different domains.