Domaining forums, now there’s a two edged sword! On the one hand, checking them out at least every once in a while can be worth it but on the other hand, there’s so much noise that it’s not even funny. I treat every second I spend doing something related to making money as an investment and if you guys do too, here’s a tip you will definitely find useful:

Compile a List of “This Person’s Posts Are Worth Reading” Forum Users

DNForum and NamePros both have a LOT of members but the thing is, most of the people who are active there are simply regurgitating information and not giving advice based on their own experience.

How to identify “this person’s posts are worth reading” forum users? Here are a few guidelines:

1) Post count is not always a good indicator (a lot of people with hundreds or thousands of posts are unfortunately absolutely clueless)

2) Track record, track record, track record! In other words, if someone who is trying to sound like an authority when giving advice on a forum today has tried to flip crappy domains for pennies on the same forum yesterday, last week or last month, then that person is clearly only regurgitating information (he/she talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk). The “find other threads by this user” feature is a powerful tool, use it!

3) If the person’s track record cannot be clearly identified (maybe he/she has only started posting recently, for example), put him/her on your “to watch” list. Check out posts from that member maybe 2 times less frequently and based on his/her actions, decide if you will follow that person’s posts or remove him/her from your “to follow” list

4) If a person has a clear hidden agenda (someone who is constantly promoting just one domain type, for example), you’re better off not following his/her posts. While that member might provide value to the community every once in a while, you’d have to spend too much time filtering quality posts from garbage for it to be worth it

5) Be selective and FWIW, there are less than 10 people on my “this person’s posts are worth reading” list

6) Don’t spend more than an hour or two per week reading forums, it just isn’t worth it

7) When reading a thread where at least one of the people worth listening to is posting, ignore long posts which are written by folks who are clearly clueless (you can determine if a post is worth your time or not after reading the first 2-3 sentences, it’s really not rocket science)