Forum Marketing

Kick off your forum marketing strategy by conducting a search for terms related to your business or industry on Google and add the word “blog” to the end of your search string. Affiliate Marketing Blog, for example, will turn up dozens of blogs dedicated to that topic. You can also do a search in WordPress or Blogger, both of which catalog their users’ web logs.

Resource >> www.Big-Boards.com

With forums, you can easily connect with your customers, build relationships and generate revenue for your business.

Forum participation is also useful for:

•    Answering customer questions and concerns

•    Gathering information that you can use to enhance your business (about your competitors, your target customers, and so forth)

•    Increasing traffic to sell products and services

•    Position yourself as the “go to person” who offers invaluable information and customer service.

Start off by answering questions, engage other users’ concerns and connecting with them through the forum. These activities may not produce immediate results or sales, but they will help potential customers think about you when they need your services.

You can also create a presence by posting your own on the discussion boards or in the forms. Let’s say that in your last job you were a tax accountant who experienced great success at helping people day, there are thousands of potential clients looking for you on Google.

You can post a question like, “What challenges are you facing with the revised tax code right now?”

Your customers will answer your question, and you can address their concerns in a very direct way using the discussion boards. You can also do some research and seek out the most popular question being asked regarding to your industry, and then write a series of articles (which you can then post to various sites) answering that question.

Some forums will allow you to post articles right on the board, while others do not. Read through the rules, and select the boards that best meet your needs.

Always put a back link to your site in your signature and find out if there are other ways to “link” your comments to your company. Most forums permit such links within the signature section, and nearly all forums have restrictions on what level of advertising and back linking can take place on the sites themselves.

The best way to figure out what the rules are is to check out the posts from other forum members.

Have they included link in their signatures? Are they utilizing “about the author” boxes with more information about their companies, products and services?

Best Practices

There are a few tips to keep in mind when commenting on blogs, forums and discussion boards. Be sure to keep your comments on subject and to the point, for example, and don’t try to market your business in your comment.

Be genuine

Come off a marketer in need of a sale and your comments will be overlooked. Add value and you’ll stand a better chance of seeing results from your efforts.

Get to the point

Information overload and a lack of hours in the day make it hard for anyone to read more than a couple of hundred words at a time while online.

Keep it short and sweet, and stick to the facts.

Avoid one-liners

Phrases like, “Great post, thanks” do very little for the forum, and even less for you as a marketer. Instead of stock statements, put some time and thought into a more valuable comment.

Always include your name in your forum posts and responses

This is just good sense, since you want people to associate your helpful comments with your name.

Don’t squeeze your URL into the comment text

It’s tempting, but best to avoid putting your website into the comment. Instead, use the URL field for the website address. People will find it, and click on it if they’re interested in learning more about you.

In the next post, we’ll look one of google projects.

Talk to you soon,

Alexis.

Technorati Tags: blog marketing, forum advertising, forum management, forum marketing secrets, forum marketing strategy, forum sales, make forum marketing, message board marketing

Tagged as: blog marketing, forum advertising, forum management, forum marketing secrets, forum marketing strategy, forum sales, make forum marketing, message board marketing

Article by Alexis Kenne

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