Before the article begins, let us make this assumption: There is a basket of apples and an apple tree. The apple tree has not yet produced any fruit. If you choose one of the two, which one will you choose? Apple or apple tree? In life, we do not directly face apples or apple trees. The choice of apple tree, but similar situations are common. In other words, is it the immediate benefit or the long-term benefit?
Many grassroots webmasters join forums for one of the purposes of watering down and relaxing. The more important thing is to promote and post website links. The most direct and limited method is to leave a URL, but this is not only easy to be deleted by the forum moderator, but also difficult to be reposted by other members. Therefore, many people began to study soft articles and cleverly add advertising information into the articles. If they are well written, not only are they not suspected of advertising, they are also easy to spread. The traffic and backlinks they bring to the website are relatively long-term. For example, a post on the Admin5 forum "I don't want you to get wet in the rain because I'm afraid you will get sick" is actually a soft article from an IDC company, but it has a good effect and has been read and clicked a lot. Everyone can learn and learn.
When it comes to posting promotion links, because links can easily be deleted by moderators, many people think of their personal signature location, which is also a good website display. Recently, the signature position of the individual webmaster of the A5 forum was reduced by the administrator, which caused dissatisfaction among many webmasters. So Tu Wang wrote an article analyzing the pros and cons of "Why the signature bytes are reduced." Tu Wang compared the signature position, AD, and sending external links. As an apple, external links can directly bring limited gains and increase the external links and inclusion of the website, but the effect is limited after all, because the apples will eventually be eaten. The purpose of the A5 forum is to hope that members can harvest apple trees here and absorb valuable information in the forum, because the value of information is priceless, and turning information into income is a smarter approach. Therefore, by reducing the number of signature positions, everyone should not only see the limited role of signatures, but also hope to mine more value from the information itself. Of course, this is considered from a higher level, and many members may not see it, because ready-made apples are more tempting.
We are often faced with a choice similar to apples or apple trees. Apples are directly harvested and do not require management and waiting for maturity. A basket of apples will always be empty, and although apple trees have to wait for a long time to bloom and bear fruit, they will always usher in the harvest season every year. When encountering short-term gains, it is very tempting but not sustainable, and it will eventually end. Just like the "sustainable development" that has been emphasized now, we cannot use up all resources at once and must consider future generations. The website's advertising revenue is very direct and short-term, but it cannot accept too many ads at once because it may cause resentment among users. If users are lost, how can it be sustainable? Everyone thinks that the A5 forum is a good place to send external links. If everyone sends external links, one day the weight of the forum will be reduced, and everyone will lose another place to send external links. For the sake of your own website and sending external links, don’t forget sustainable development and cultivate apple trees well to form a virtuous cycle.
Going back to the opening question, what choice would you make between a basket of apples and an apple tree? I think we often face similar problems. Maybe at the moment we only care about the immediate benefits and choose directly without cultivation and Waiting for apples, but the apples will be eaten one day. What should we do at that time? So, the next time you are faced with a choice, don’t forget that there are still apple trees. (Text/Mengjiang)
Editor in charge: Meng