Incoming visitors from Forums

I was just checking Google Analytics data on Referring Sites, or sites that send visitors to interfacebus.com [not the home page]. I noticed that I get many more incoming visitors from on-line forums then I do News Groups. I always figured the News Groups sent in a lot of traffic because every other day someone posts a link to me in one of the threads. Now I realize that when I search Google News Groups, that they post forum links as well. News groups have been on the decline for a decade any way, once the web turned into what it is now.

The chart shows 34,262 visits from 529 different sources [forums]. The news groups only sent in 1,921 visitors during the same period. This year forum traffic accounted for 10,948 visits. Now none of that traffic is from me, I don't post in forums. But it is a nice way to get some free advertising, and they may end up coming back again because about 70% are new visitors to the site [really 80%]. Better yet those posting stay out there forever, so once someone links to me I still might get a hit years later.

Related Posts;
Referring Sites; 6/13/08
Referring Sites; 5/3/08
Why do I need backlinks; 3/14/08
Graphic; Referring Sites, filtered for "Forum", per week.