Using Forums To Increase Traffic

You can find forums all over the Web with a focus on almost any niche subject you can think up. By far, the Internet Marketing, “Make Money At Home” subject is the most popular forum focus today and probably for more than several thousand tomorrows, too.

It is easy to find forums with targeted traffic for any niche that exists. Just use any search engine, enter your niche keywords, and stand back. Find one or two forums that interest you and join. Quite a few forums are free to join. Some of them on the highly popular Internet Marketing subjects are fee-based, but do not discount the free ones for your traffic-generating marketing.

In fact I’ve had better results from free forums.

Members of free forums have the same questions, problems and needs that fee-based forum members have. They also have credit cards and will buy products that seem useful to them or products that provide resources they need.

The first task you have as a brand new forum member is to introduce yourself to the other members. Most forums have a “New Member” category that is used for introductions and soft self-promotion…who you are…where you live…what you do…or what’s your interest or experience with the niche you just joined.

Create a short, friendly bio covering the pertinent details and post it in the appropriate category on each forum you join.

Create a signature (Sig) that appears at the end of every forum post you make and on any email or private message you may send. All it needs is your screen name or real name and a statement or two, with your link, that will get clicks from any interested forum member. Here are a couple of examples:

“Tom Jones

Need a song? Contact Songwriter for music written just for you!”

“Lady Bug

Got ants in your pants? Visit Garden Solutions for “Going Green” solutions

to a nasty garden problem.”

(The links in the two examples are not valid, but used to illustrate the point being made)

Whatever you decide your niche is, add your linked signature to every single posting or email you send, even emails to your mother. A carefully constructed signature is totally viral and will zip around the Web without you having to think about it again.

For example, let’s say you send your mother a good joke or recipe and she sends it along to friends and relatives, who do the same thing. Most will just click forward and your signature file is going along with it. There is no way to tell who will see your sig and need the information or support promised there. This is a very effective and free marketing soft sell that keeps on working. Do not discount it.

Now that you have created your online personality, let’s take care of the rest of your forum marketing techniques.

Read every category in your new forum. Get to know the moderators and their style of commenting. Learn who the strongest members are and what they post for questions or answers. When you have a good feel for the focus and tone of the community you just joined, start asking questions of your own or posting solutions. Offer links to free resources others need and links to free online processes some need, like keyword verifiers, etc.

Be supportive and gradually become a reliable source of good, clean information …a valued community member. What you are doing here is building your reputation and creating a credibility that will carry your where you want to go with your online marketing projects.

Most marketing forums have an Announcement category where you can drop the mannerly approach and deliberately market your products. Before doing it, though, read the postings carefully to see how it is done on that specific forum and copy the methods with your own promotional method.

Another very powerful way to get attention for your products is to offer the forum members something free…a short report, ebook, piece of free software, a set of articles you’ve written (with your sig imbedded) that they can use for their own purposes. Make sure your free gift is worthwhile and useful. Be ready to answer questions about your gift, so make sure you use it before giving it away.

Don’t forget when you have a product launch, a couple of hours posting on the forums can greatly add to your sales by just including your sig link in each post.

Try it…you’ll like the response you get and the increase in traffic. It’s all free!

Did you know you can download and read this chapter as well as the entire website traffic handbook now for FREE? Click Here for Free Traffic

Next: Best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Practices