By: Marige OBrien

Forum marketing has recently been touted as a type of free, organic marketing. But because many marketers go into forums purely with the intention of marketing, their actions and atittude unwittingly causes exactly the opposite to its desired effect.

Forums, after all, are not marketplaces. But when used as such, the marketers’ actions become offensive and will only inspire the wrath of fellow members and marketers, not to mention the moderators.

Before a marketer can effectively market on forums, they must first understand that this type of marketing — in order to be effective — carries a certain degree of commitment, responsibility and respect.

To successfully market on any forum, the first requirement is to take a personal interest in the main topic of the forum. Not only does that mean visiting it regularly, but also developing a good relationship with both other members and the moderators, as well as taking an active interest in helping others. And, of course, it means abiding by any and all rules that exist. By doing this, one develops a reputation and, since it is human nature to work with a trusted colleague, business will naturally develop from this.
Because this type of marketing has already suffered some abuse, many forums have recently (and rightfully) developed stringent rules designed to protect their members from abusive or overly-aggressive marketing tactics. One forum, for instance, grants .sig files only after a member has created 100 valid posts; another has disallowed ads in sig files altogether.

Marketers must respect that the purpose of a forum is to be a platform to exchange ideas on a given topic, NOT merely to advertise their wares. And, contrary to what might be thought, this is especially true in marketing forums, where EVERYONE has something to advertise. But by focusing on the topic and posting responsible questions and answers, a marketer’s reputation will grow. From this, the potential sales/sign-ups will naturally follow.

Also, there are different types of forums, beyond the obvious topical types, of “marketing” or “special interest”, etc. These are examples of one type of forum, referred to as “open forums.” But there are also business and professional forums, which do not operate under the same rules and, more often than not, disallow any and all types of advertising or self-promotion. Forums created to support the membership of a particular program are especially adamant on this topic and often request that all members check their adverts at the door. They ask this because advertising other programs — especially to newer marketers — can often compromise the very program the the forum was created to support.

With all that said, it is still possible to successfully market on forums. But in all cases, a pre-requisite for success is developing a good reputation and a good relationship and maintaining both. So, while this is a free form of advertising, it does require a certain amount of investment as far as time and energy are concerned, not to mention subtly and finesse. Below are seven practical suggestions to successfully market on forums.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK
Prior to joining any forums a certain amount of research is required.

1. Join relevant forums or forums that are in some way related to the promotion’s primary sales market. For someone involved with a health related product, for instance, many types of forums — from holistic medicine to mom’s at home — could apply. But to join a forum about punk music, for instance, would not be very productive.

2. Choose popular forums. Page ranking and the amount of active members are two good ways to check for this. This ensures that the forum will have enough members to remain active. Because forum marketing requires a certain amount of time invested, this also ensures that it will be there beyond tomorrow.

3. Choose forums that allow sig tags. If it’s possible read the rules before joining and pay close attention to them. Your time is important, too. It is better to discover if a forum does not allow posts of any kind prior to joining.

YOUR FIRST DAY
4. Read and follow the rules. Every forum is different. Some allow links only to your own website. Others only allow a certain number of links. One forum allows no more than five lines in a sig file, for instance. Beyond .sig files, respect all the rules and be a model member. Complaints will also give you a bad reputation, whether you’re aware of it or not.

5. Keep your signature tag short and update it regularly. Ideally, limit yourself to one link, preferrably to your main website. It presents a much more professional appearance and is less offensive to members and the moderators.

6. NEVER, EVER create posts that are nothing more than an advertisement. This is an all-but universal rule and only displays the marketers lack of experience. At best, the post will soon be edited, and, if left on the forum (although an author can always delete their own posts), will only serve to hurt the marketer’s reputation. At worst, it could be grounds for being banned.

Some forums have a special Advertisement Section, an area where all members can post ads, though they are usually limited to no more than one per day.

If no such section exists, after being a member for at least a few weeks, a marketer can send a Private Message (PM) to the moderator(s) and politely suggest that an advertising section be added.
Point out that this would mollify any members from putting links in their .sig files, while allowing them a place to post their link. And, too, the advertising could become a service, since it would at the members’ discretion to view them. Of course, they may refuse, but at least you made the attempt.

7. Work the (for)room. That is, be an active member on the forum. Plan to spend at least an hour each day there and take the time to get to know the issues and other members. Depending on the forum’s topic, both new and experienced marketers can introduce themselves well with intelligent questions.

As a marketer becomes a regular member, they will develop a (hopefully) good reputation and, without saying a word about their promotion, those interested in their product or promotion will approach THEM.–mo

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About The Author
Marige O’Brien works as a writer, web designer and Internet Marketer. Visit her Website, Tracker Mo’s Den for her latest recommendations in i-marketing tools and biz opps. NEW– RSS Feeds to Articles and blogs, Plus A Special offer to new TCC Sign-ups.

By: Tommy Moore

There are thousands and thousands of message boards on the internet. That’s a lot of potential people who may be interested in your products or services. It also serves as a quick and easy way to get a lot of links pointing back at your site and can help get your pages spidered faster by the search engines.

I use a free tool, Board Tracker to help monitor posts on over 25,000 forums.

You can set up a free account there and then set up alerts. You can set it to alert you to any posts containing any keyword or phrases you like. Some examples would be, your board nicknames, your domain names, affiliate programs you work with, or whatever else you’re interested in..

When someone makes a post and one of your alert keywords is found, you are emailed a link to the thread which you can follow and make a post. So as not to be a blatant board spammer, it is recommended that you register and make an introduction post on that board before responding to the thread. When responding, you should make your post helpful to the person in regards to answering any question they had without spamming your site/program, you are relying on your signature file here to draw their attention.

To make this task easier,I suggest utilizing Roboform. Roboform makes it easy to handle all of your registering and logins.

Now, let’s find some forums in which we can participate. Everyone has some knowledge or interest in something. Perhaps it is cars, interior design or something else. Whatever it is, you can be certain there are forums for that particular niche.

You can use your favorite search engine and search for…
forums
“message board”

or specifically for…
car message boards
interior design message boards

or search by the different types of forum software like…
“powered by PHPBB”
“powered by vbulletin”

Before registering with any message boards I would suggest that you setup a yahoo or gmail account just for this purpose. It would also be a good idea to use this email for your boardtracker alerts as well.
Now you are ready to begin registering. I have created a new identity in Roboform to handle the registration for me. This includes my signature file as well. Before posting, make sure that you read the board rules so you are able to comply with those.

Once registered, make your introduction post. Basically you are just announcing your arrival and maybe saying a little something about yourself (roboform can do that too!), be sure to set your introduction thread to notify you of new posts so that you are able to respond as others welcome you.

Some things to keep in mind…

Who is your target audience and where will you find them? Are stay home moms likely to be found in Family & Parenting forums? Who is most likely to be participating at a car forum? A pet owners forum? etc..

Once you’ve located your target audience, target your signature to meet the needs of that audience. For example, if you were involved in a Family & Parenting forum, a signature aimed towards the mom who would like to earn money while being home for her children may be in order. If it were a Car or Electronics forum, maybe a signature promoting Free Satellite Dishes (these pay $50-$100 per install btw) would be more appropriate. The idea is to determine what the needs of any particular audience would be and finding a way to appeal to that.

Also, notice that the majority of forums offer a place for people to place advertising, usually under a category labeled something like, “opportunities”, “recommendations”, “spam allowed”, etc.. Look for these and make use of those as well. Each of those is a free targeted link to your site or product.
Make sure that you are paying attention to your anchor text. Anchor text, in case you don’t know, is the actual text that is linked. Choose good keywords for your anchor text that you would like to do well for in the search engines. Never link text such as “click here”.

The most important thing is to make this a part of your daily schedule. Do it each and every day and shortly you will have thousands of free advertising links all over the internet!

Disclaimer: I am in no way endorsing blatant spamming! The method I’ve outlined above is more of a suggestion for yet another avenue of free marketing that should be used in a responsible and productive manner which will benefit the board owners, other board members as well as yourself.

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By: Joem Hughes

Do you want to promote your website? If you do, you should try forum marketing. Online forums can be powerful and free Internet marketing tools if you learn how to use them properly. In this day and age, using online forums for Internet marketing is one of the most effective forms of free Internet advertising available. Leveraging forums to promote your products, services, or website is a good idea if you’ve got time on your hands, but no money to advertise.

Few people know that the idea behind forum marketing is fairly simple. All you need to do is interact with other people that match the product you are promoting. Since these people are looking for a product that is similar to that you are offering, then there is a good chance that they will buy it if they look at the offer. The key is that in every post you make, your offer is automatically attached to your signature.

A person using online forums for Internet marketing purposes only needs to be engaged and to have fun. However, you should not talk openly about the product you are promoting because you will only be ignored. Let me give a few approaches that can help you in using forums for Internet marketing success.

The first approach that you can take is to answer questions that are posted on a particular forum. This approach will work for you if you’re an expert on the topic. You can also take the opposite approach if you are not an expert on the topic. You probably do not know a lot of things if you are not an expert so you can start by asking a question. Many forum posters use this quick and legitimate way to add a lot of posts to any forum on the web.

Requesting the members of a forum for a critique is also an effective way of using forum marketing. This approach is useful if you have written an article and posted it in your blog. All you have to do is to make a quick post to ask what people think. This method will give you a back link to your blog and give exposure for your forum signature.
You can also ask the members of the forum for their opinions. Many people use forums to get direct feedback if they come across a product or service and want to research it first. Try making a post that says, “Have you ever tried this product…?”

The World-Wide-Web is teeming with forums that you can use for Internet marketing. Simply visit a high-traffic forum and sign up for an account. After you have confirmed your account, you can then log in and update your Profile. In your Profile, you can add your signature which will appear at the end of every post you make. Never forget to read the rules about posting. You can ask specific and relevant questions and you can answer questions by replying to posts that were made by the other members.

If you are new to forum marketing, you can start by looking at what others are posting and how people are replying to those posts. You can post as much and as often as you can, once you get a feel for it. It is very important that you never advertise in your posts unless you are on a forum that permits ads. Just allow your signature do the Internet marketing work for you.

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Joem writes to encourage people to participate in the www.isupportthismessage.com/messages/category/1.
2008 presidential race. He hopes that his work will create awareness and participation in the election through articles that feature election news, political videos, recent election 2008 polls, and other information. He also He also writes occasional Internet marketing articles and on other topics.