Ron, I have been posting on these BBS boards a long time. In fact, I have well over 3000 posts here. I can honestly say I have never had any customer tell me "I found you on PWI" either.
And I "keep score" and ask every customer "how did you hear of us".
Now, I am the exception, because my websites are so highly ranked for roof cleaning in my target market, a forum does not have a chance. Even the mighty RCIA Forum is not quite strong enough to get on the first page for a roof cleaning tampa search.
We have plenty of roof cleaners on the RCIA Forum who have no other internet advertising but promotional posts on our Forum who get plenty of work.
I am sure the same thing happens here, it depends on the amount of competition for keywords in your local market.
I am a roof cleaner in tampa, a very very crowded and competitive market. This forum, and my own RCIA Forum, don't do chit for me, except provide me with a backlink every time I post.
This is because I am targeting the search term "roof cleaning tampa".
Now, I suppose if I put
cleaning stone coated steel roofs in tampa on any forum, or
cleaning barrel tile roof in new tampa florida 33647 that maybe one searcher in a million might find it.
But my keyword research indicates people are not searching like that.
I have a
Tampa Roof Cleaning Blog where I put weird keyword strings like
cleaning stone coated steel roofs in tampa on.
Those who do not already have a highly ranked Blog as I do will be better served by making a blog here, or starting a separate thread where they can post the keywords they are aiming at.