Are you here for free advertising?

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There is no such thing as free advertising.
Let's get that one out of the way.

If you are here, solely to advertise your food blog or YouTube channel, or a business, you'll not get any advertising because we close accounts down if that's all you are here for. We consider it rude and a form a spam when you sign up and just push your food blog/YouTube channel/business without participating on the site.

Why? We're a small forum. Our members contribute to the running costs of this site when they can and the rest is met by the site owner. So let's put it this way: why should we pay for your advertising? There is no benefit to our members, or the moderators or the site owner unless you participate on the site.

So our rules are simple: we expect members to participate first, and then get their advertising. Why? Simply put, you came to us, not the other way around.

Members will get free advertising from many avenues just by participating in our community and often without even realising it. The more you participate on our site, the more free advertising you'll get from it. It is that straightforward. This includes but is not limited to

• Your member/username gives you free advertising. The more comments, posts and threads in your name, the more hits search engines see of your online identity
• Your logo/avatar gives you free advertising. Again, the more comments, posts and threads in your name, the more hits search engines see of your logo/avatar/gravatar)
• Your signature can include a link back to your site. So every single post will have an additional link to your site (once established as a full member).
• In your "About You" page, you can mention your blog there (once established as a full member).
• You'll also be able to link to your site in website link in your profile.
• Uploading recipes onto CB in accordance with our T&C's (ingredients & method are minimum requirements) gives you a chance to link back to the recipe page on your site. The more content you add here, the more links back to your site you'll get.
• Decent photos that match the ones on your site also give you free advertising. Search engines match photos nowadays.
• If it is a video recipe, we don't host videos, so you get a free link back to your video in addition to the full recipe, method & any photos you've added.
• Adding new threads to our site, such as reviews of kitchen equipment or talking fruit/veg/meat preservation for example, gives you another chance to link back to your site for more information, to expand the depth (e.g. history behind the subject) of the thread for example.
• "Liking" (aka reactions) other members' posts also helps in getting your 'name' out onto the net.
• Commenting on other members' recipes again gets your username out onto the search engine results.

So the more content you add here, the more search engines see your member name, links, signature, profile page, contents, photographs, videos and avatar, the more free advertising you get from it by helping the CookingBites site be seen by search engines.

All of these advertise your site by links back to you and your member name. Many of these will have multiple ways of a search engine linking back to your site.

But, search engines also look at dates on things, so regular participation counts more than adding a couple of recipes and disappearing for a month.

Our only requirement is that you regularly participate on this site as any other member would, and you'll get the "free" advertising you are after.