billw55, on 2011-November-17, 10:57, said:
I am somewhat surprised that more professionals don't post here. It seems to me that a semi-regular sage contribution would be good marketing, and perhaps help to draw clients, promote book sales, etc. Perhaps I am misunderstanding the market.
I don't know how many posts I've written here, but I'm guessing something like ~15,000 over like 7+ years. I have been a full time professional the entire time, and I am sure that I have never directly gotten even 1 client/tournament because of posting on the forums.
The problem is that it is really quite expensive to hire a team for even 1 regional tournament, and there are relatively few people who can and want to pay 20k+ (or 30k+ to play 6 handed) to play a week of bridge somewhere. The people who do this are well known in the bridge world, established with some close friends (team managers, whatever), and the only way to compete for those jobs is through personal interaction with them or a recommendation from their team manager. Basically, to play well vs them, have a good reputation, and for everyone involved to like you, as well as having good results. Those things will all matter more than how you post on the forums. Even if any of those people read the forums (and it's unlikely that any do), it is unlikely that you will get hired as a result of your posts. Perhaps if any of those people read the forums and particularly liked my posts it might make them ask their team manager/friends about me, and/or approach me to interact more often, but as far as I know that's never happened. It is also unlikely that any new sponsors like this would start by reading the forums, and then picking me, again there is much more involved and it's more a people industry than anything.
On top of all that, BBF is really not that big of a forum, and generally older/very wealthy people don't read internet forums. The demographics just don't work.
That said, of course there might be indirect benefits to posting on the forums for me, like if it raises my status/profile (and I am sure that posting here, and being on BBO/OKB all the time DID raise my profile in the beginning, though that's not why I did it, my dad joked that I was an internet celebrity). If you have low visibility and are just getting started, of course doing positive things on the internet can help prove yourself.
I think it would be easier for bridge teachers or people looking for club game work or stuff like that to directly gain business by posting here since it is less price restrictive, and the demographic here would be more likely to hire someone like that (presumably people post here to try and improve, and some of those people might be willing to pay for lessons). But, to post enough to gain followers would probably be time consuming enough that your time "marketing" would be better spent in a targeted way. Really it only makes sense to post here if you enjoy doing so as a hobby, since it would not be an efficient use of time for marketing even for smaller level pros.
A personal website/blog would also obviously be a better way to try and create business since it is entirely focused on you. Of course you need to find a way to get people to go there, but probably if someone is thinking of hiring you they already know you, so maybe they search you out and find your blog. Also, the bridge site/blog community is very small so if you put out something good then word of mouth is pretty powerful.