Forum Marketing 101 - General Guidelines

It's almost impossible to find a niche that doesn't have some relevant forum dedicated to it. If these forums also manage to garner a fair share of traffic, it's a simple matter to capitalize on that traffic in a really big way. The truth is that most people imagine this process taking much longer than it needs to. Alas, you will have to put more than a little time and effort into it if you really want it to pay off for you. It's up to you what the best choice might be.

Most people are going to behave based upon their own personality. Others will be more extrovert or even introvert. So, unless you are a rude person, just be yourself. If you are shy, it is okay to just watch things before you start contributing. Many people like to do this, which is known as lurking. Making a first post can seem little scary in the beginning. Once you settle into it, then simply start replying in threads and always be courteous and offer value. After arriving at a new forum, you need to surf around to check it out for a couple of reasons. Deciding to join is fine, but you need to know a few things before this happens. You have to consider some things since you will be using the forums for your online marketing. For instance, some forum owners and members despise online marketers. This is something that will probably not occur if the owner is not very fond of IMers like yourself. You can sometimes find that out by reading the forum rules. The absence of links, and signatures, at the bottoms of posts is a clear sign online marketing is not allowed. A good portion next of forums frown upon direct marketing in forum posts to begin with. If they did, then the entire place would be one giant billboard and people would not like it.

I've been in forums where a few people were chronic thread-starters. Sometimes, they are viewed in a dim light by other forum members. But, if you have a lot of good topics for threads, then that's great but just spread them out.

Don't forget to make posts and comment on other threads too. Remember that forums are filled with real people and human nature often rules. Even in this type of situation, you can't always follow along with others just because it's expected of you. You'll have no shortage of gray areas to contemplate as you use forum marketing more and more. If it's at all possible you want to find as many unique ways to share your knowledge with other forum members. It is possible that, after reading this, that you may already know most of what we have discussed. As long as you use common sense, and stick to the rules (regardless of the forum you're on), you should do just fine. Be a good community member and that will take you most of the way.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *