what are your best tricks in your signature?

Hello,

I noticed that on DP a lot of people using more advanced signatures.

I noticed bold text, colors, Icons, images etc.

and is it useful to have there a kind of text link ad (some advertising text) or is better to keep it simple/normal (like my own)

what are your secrets to get a maximum of exposure (and traffic of course) ?

The way I see it is this. Since the search enignes don't see them then it's up to the viewer to click on to your link(s).

Making them different colours might help to make them stand out, to catch the eye.

Do a test, colour one of your links and make it bold, etc.. and see if you get more hits.

I am putting different colors, and a special character in the start.

thats not true, search engines count them and also show them as backlinks

but anyway thank you for your hints (maybe you should take on you own signature)

this first character sound good

I saw one somewhere where they were using a marquee. It was very effective at drawing the eye - the forum didn't put ads between posts, so as you are reading the thread, it is the only thing moving on the page.

The actual link was stationary. Don't know if it converted, but it certainly gained visibility.

Hehe, you mean something like :

Click my signature now!

I think a signature like this should not be allowed as it would be annoying to the members.

Click my signature now ... OR YOU GET BANNED FOREVER :D


yes that is really bad...

What about this?

 ;D

yeah this way you say welcome to RSI, lol

btw. it looks like that a link in your signature is still a kind of magic... ;)

oh yea, it seems to have disapeared, I'll investigate, cheers ;)

what about a pic?

way too big! A picture sig is nice, but it shouldn't distract from the posts too much... I'd say don't make it more than half that height.

Done. As you said it was too high. I've cut it down by half which looks better. But I think it still stands out due to the red background.

On some of the non-webmaster forums I frequent, many of the members use images in the signatures. Some are simply something they like or find cute and others are a true banner. I think on those forums, too many are using images and I have become blind to them. On a forum where very few use images it could be effective, but once it becomes popular among the members they begin to look spammy.

Actually the marquee was done a bit better...

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The Webdigity Webmaster Forum is the best forum on the net!
link text here


There is something to be said for a marquee that threatens banishment for non-clicks.  :P

Of course Giant Text can be effective too.  ;D

I think it can be effective to include some sort of description about the site which is what I do. At least until you develop a reputation on the forum and where your site becomes a recognized name - think Alive and Aviva. But, simple links can indicate a sold signature as well.

I think I go for less links (1 or 2) and write some usefull information there like I saw before...

Also a trick is to change your signature frequently.

I have the belief that people click your signature mostly because they are curious to see what is inside the link (that they haven't seen before)

Also when you are a respectful member of the community and post useful information they click on your sigs to see more "cool stuff" from you.

that makes sense...