Traffic
Generation - Forum marketing
Forum Marketing has
been around as long as forums have
existed. Forums are known by a variety of names: bulletin boards and message boards are common names.
A forum is essentially where people with an
interest in a specific topic post messages, where other people who are members
of that forum can reply to them. It’s a great way to share and learn information about a topic of interest.
Forum marketing is a great way to drive traffic to your site. Now, before you run to
the nearest forum that relates to your topic and post a message about your
wonderful website, you need to know that the quality forums (the forums that
you want to participate in) are not
going to allow you to do that.
So, how can
you advertise your Adsense site in the
forums, without advertising?
- You use a
signature file. This is allowed in
most forums. A signature file is essentially text that has your name, your
website address, and maybe a small
slogan. It looks like this:
First and Last Name http://www.yourwebsite.com
Everything You Wanted To Know About Your Topic – And Then Some.
You use your signature file at the bottom of all of your posts. Some forums allow you to set up your signature file in your profile,
and every time you make a post, it
will automatically be inserted at the bottom.
Now, there are
several ways that you can use the
forums. First, you can seek out posts
that you can reply to. Second, you can
post questions that others reply to. You can also just post pertinent information.
To
find forums that relate to your
topic, go to any search engine, and
type in your topic discussion. If your
topic is fishing, you would type in
fishing discussion. You will get a huge number of results.
You
want to pick out about five forums to
actively participate in.
Ideally, you will make at least one post per day in each forum that you participate in, so choose a number of forums that you have time to post in each day.
When looking at the forums, you want forums
where there are a large number of members – 500 to 1000 are good. You also want
one that is active. Look at the
dates of the
most recent posts. Were they today or yesterday? If not, the forum isn’t active enough for your purposes.
You want to
avoid forums where all of the posts
are advertisements, where http://www.freeadvertisingforum.com/ is the
perfect example. They may have a huge number of members, and it may be active,
but nobody is reading the posts. Instead,
they are just posting advertisements.
Make sure that your posts are relevant and stay
on topic. Failing to do so can get
you banned from the forum, and it can also quickly
ruin your reputation within your niche. When you make a post, make sure that it
is grammatically correct, and that
everything is spelled correctly.
Never, ever ‘flame’ people in the forums. When
you flame someone, you are essentially starting a fight. This won’t be
tolerated. It is, however, okay to disagree with someone in the forums, as long as it is done in a civil and polite way. Always remember your purpose – to drive traffic to your website.
When you see a post that relates to specific information on your site, you can drive people to that page within your post. This is not advertising, because you aren’t selling
anything.
There is another
way to use forums to your advantage. Set up a forum on your own website. You
can publish your Adsense ads there, and you can build up a following.
These people
will visit your forum on a regular
basis, because they are interested
in the topic, and they want to communicate with others who are interested
in the topic.
