I'll just add it's not about advertising, it's about letting people know you're legit
Advertising is not about advertising? That's strange.
First thing you do when you encounter a new website is google "name scam or legit"
This way the website proves it pays!
Not only their gamblers but people who wear their signature
Clicks from the signature are just a bonus
Your logic is - people see signature, than they search on google "scam or legit" and it's bonus if they click on signature? Does it really matter where they click? IMO more important question is - did they sign up because they've seen site in signature.
People know the website is paying, the website leader has a good trust on bitcointalk and people will more easily deposit onto his site
What about new sites and new signature campaigns? Can you tell new site is legit because they are running signature campaign?
It's all about the 'legitness' of a site, not advertising (which is a bonus)
And you had betcoinag's signature. Isn't it ironic?
Sorry m8 but signatures are advertising.
It does not prove it's legit
It makes it appear as such
For example
You see some agency let's call it XResearch is often cited as a source on the news
And you get job offers from XResearch and YResearch
You need a job right away, you don't want to do the research or don't have time
You take the XResearch offer although you don't know if they pay their employees
It's the same with signatures
It does not have to to be legit to appear as such
I know the first website I gambled on was PrimeDice, simply because it was everywhere on the forum and it was paying everyone
I didn't click any of the signatures to bet on it, I just knew about it as it appeared legit
And I gambled on it
It's the same with any other signature campaign
If you think paying people 1$ a post is profitable for signature conversions?
...
It's not about the conversions
It's about appearing legit to the crowd
We can say it is advertising, but not in the conventional sense of advertising for direct conversion
It's advertising of your "fairness" to pay people and as I said appearing legit which will result in people being more likely to bet on your website
But the signatures themselves will not convert even to 10% of their pay per post