Use Forums to Increase Traffic and Sales

There are many ways to promote your online business. To be successful, you should use a number of different methods in your promotional efforts. Forums are one of the lesser-known marketing techniques that can be very productive.

Many people start out by adding useless posts containing nothing but self-promotional material. Do not fall into that trap. People will steer clear of you, your postings, and your website. In addition, constant self-promotion could get you banned from the forum.

To benefit from forums, you need to give as well as take. Answer questions in your area of expertise. Provide useful information. By doing this, people will see you as an expert in your field. As people read your posts and see that you are very knowledgeable, you will begin to see more and more forum members clicking on your links and visiting your site.

To increase sales or traffic, join as many forums as possible. Make time to read and answer posts. Look for questions or problems that are related to your field of expertise. Everyone is looking for help on certain topics. By helping others, you will actually be helping yourself. Following are a number of techniques to increase your traffic and sales using forums:

Develop a signature (sig) file that includes the URL of your website or sales page. Each time you enter a post to ask or answer a question, include your sig file.

Forums are filled with people who are promoting products. Look through the various posts to find products to purchase, or better yet, get for free.

Forums are an excellent place to find a profitable niche for new product ideas. Examine post topics that have numerous questions. Typically, these are topics that people are interested in. Take note of the types of questions asked and the number of people asking similar questions. This can alert you to the need for a particular product. Make sure to go through these posts thoroughly. If the topic is filled with people answering a question, it is not a candidate for an ebook. If the topic consists primarily of questions, you may have found a profitable niche.

Get others to evaluate your website or sales page. Many forums provide areas where you can ask participants to review your site. This is an excellent technique that can improve your sales dramatically.

I check my traffic regularly and I see consistent traffic to my sites from forums that I post to. Making frequent posts is a great method to improve traffic.

Forums provide a very good source to get information on a product, service, or company before you make a purchase. People are more than happy to give you their opinion on products or companies that they are familiar with.

Forums can be very beneficial to the experienced marketer as well as the newbie. The most beneficial forums are those related to your site or niche. Seek out those related forums and you will surely see increased traffic and sales.

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Have you tried to join lots of forums? Does those forums helps your site to gain more traffic? As an SEO, does it help you learn more things about the field that you choose?

Well, I am a SEO and joining forums really help me a lot, specially if I want to learn something.

There are lots of forums out there that will really help a SEO to learn different things. Aside from buying different books and searching from the net. You can also ask different web masters who are on the forums. They will surely answer you back that will make you improve on what you are doing. You can also ask them for some other tools that can help your site and even you as a SEO.

Some popular forums that I know are Digital Point, Google community, V7 Network, SEO chat, and many more. You can also join blogging forums if you want to promote your site or if you also want to ask something. Bloggeries, Blogger Forums, Blogger Talk, Authority Blogger are some of the popular blogging forums.

Through those forums your site can gain traffic. Usually, SEO and bloggers leave their links on their signature. Because of that links it will be crawled by google and count as your back links. You can also ask those web masters if they can check your site and that’s for traffic.

Those that I mentioned are some of the benefits that you will get if you join forums. But, as a forum member you should be aware that there are lots of spammers out there who will going to spam your site. Some spammers will send you a private message or sometimes they will leave some comments on your blog. If you suspect about someone who is spamming your site you can immediately report it to the moderators of the forums where you are a member. As a moderators they will check if your suspect is true and they will warn or worst they will banned the said member who is a “spammer”.

I am already a member of some popular SEO and blogging forums out there and I can say that I am learning. Every time I logged in on those forums I learn something different. And sometimes I even help other members. As an SEO, I think helping other newbies are very much full filing. Seeing them improving and learning just like you.

As of now, joining those forums is really a big help. Not only to my blogs but also to my job as a SEO. They easily answers my question every time I can’t understand something. Even though, there are some criticism but through that criticism I am improving. Those bad words can make me stronger and strive harder. And I think, I don’t wanna quit.

Forex trading is often a very lonely profession which is why so many traders like visiting forex forums and chatting with other like-minded traders. However, what a lot of people don’t realise is that forex forums can actually be responsible for making a dent in your bankroll.

Why?

Well there are a few reasons for this.

Firstly, if you visit any forex forum you will nearly always find that there are some posters who love broadcasting their trading positions to the other forum members and enjoy the attention they get from their loyal followers. It’s basically an ego trip. If they make a few good calls, then they seem to get instant adoration and inexperienced traders will start to follow them and even copy their positions.

This is a trap that you really don’t want to fall into. The minute you find yourself copying other peoples’ positions is the time when you should take a step back and have a good look at yourself.

You may not even realise you’re doing it. For example, you may consider taking a position but decide to go to the forums to see if other traders are taking the same position, for confirmation. It’s important to note that just because lots of people on the forum are all taking long positions, for example, the price will not necessarily go up.

I was on a forum last week and nearly all of the regular forum members were going long on the GBP/USD. However all of my indicators were indicating that we were heavily overbought, and despite being in the majority I traded using my own tried and trusted system, took a short position, and as I write this article the GBP/USD is about 210 points lower.

So always make your own trading decisions and then you only have yourself to blame. Don’t look to others for advice or confirmation.

Similarly, on the other side of the coin, you don’t want to be the one who goes onto forums and boasts about how good a trader you are and announce your positions to everyone. This may boost your ego but it can affect your trading.

For example, if you announce your latest position to the forum and it quickly moves against you, you may disregard your normal stop loss policy and stay in a position longer than necessary in order to justify your position to your loyal followers. This could lead to even further losses.

So please don’t become one of these people. After all do you really think the best traders in the world hang around on forex forums? No of course they don’t, they’re too busy making money.

Finally there is one other way in which forex forums can damage your wealth and that’s by following systems given on forums. Sure you can pick up some great ideas, but be careful about jumping in and blindly following the latest new trading system.

Always be sure to thoroughly back-test any system you may come across and either use a demo account to test it out for a period of time or use very small stakes.

Forex forums can be a very valuable resource for learning new trading ideas and strategies, but be careful about blindly following any one system or poster, and try not to start broadcasting your positions as soon as you achieve any level of success.

Become an active member of the best affiliate forums, and you can save money and make money. What is so special about affiliate forums? In affiliate forums, people show how they do things, tell you about neat little tricks they have discovered, and sell useful stuff at low prices to other members.

Forums are odd things, really, limited by the way the Internet works. Some are called bulletin boars, and this is really what they are. If you have something to say you post it on a bulletin board. Them someone else can add a comment or ask and question and so on.

The better forums are moderated, which means that someone looks at all the comments posted and make sure they are on-topic and not blatantly selling something, or being offensive.

Affiliate forums different from other forums

These moderated affiliate forums are quite different from the forums that some of the gurus put on their sites related to one or two products. These are basically a waste of time because you get people moaning about the product, you get people going way off-topic, and also blatant attempts to sell some other stuff. Don’t bother with them. If you want help go straight to the help desk. In fact, if you find you have bought something, and all they offer is a forum for support, I would get a refund and go somewhere else – there really is no ‘must-have’ product for internet marketing and affiliate marketing.

Forums for Affiliates

So back to affiliate forums. One of the best ones is at www.associateprograms.com. This is run by Allan Gardyne, who has been helping people find good affiliate products since the last century! Yes, he has been around a long time, and you get a lot of interesting information there. I recommend you sign up, and have a look around.

As with all forums of this type, make sure you read the rules first, and abide by them, and also just read posts and look around until you have got the feel for the way they do things.

You will find that there are actually several main categories, and within each category a lot of different topics you can read about and post to. Once you see how things work, you can start commenting, and getting involved in any discussions that interest you.

You can’t advertise, but use a signature

Another good forum is at forums.digitalpoint.com. Here, too you will find plenty of topics of interest to affiliates although this one has a broad range of topics, including a lot of stuff about internet marketing, not related to affiliates. You will get a lot of good advice here too.

You can’t advertise in these forums, but you are allowed to have a signature attached to each of your posts. This needs to be a link to your website, not straight to an affiliate link.

As a starting work at home business owner, you often do not have the capital to invest in promoting your business. The goal then becomes finding strategies to keep advertising costs as low possible while still generating enough traffic to earn money at home. This can be tricky but online there are numerous ways to advertise for free or at a low cost. One of the best ways to promote your business is through work from home forums.

Marketing in forums is by no means a new concept people have using them to earn money at home for ages. However, a number of new marketers are reluctant to get in and participate, instead they sit quietly on the sidelines and watch the conversation. Now while this is a good way to learn and you should take time to do this before jumping in, it’s time you got off the sides and started earning money online by participating.

Work from home forums boast a number of benefits that many other marketing methods lack. Below are a few reasons why you should stop browsing and start participating.

1. Forums are free or low cost.

Five years ago if you were to ask “where can I get free traffic” any expert would have recommended starting in forums. Fast forward to today and the answer remains the same. Even social media platforms are modeled after forums.

Forums allow the free exchange of information. People use them to find information, rant, rave, or connect with likeminded people. And all this activity takes place for free. Some professional forums charge a member ship fee but it’s usually reasonable. Connecting with so many other people for little or nothing at all is something you should definitely take advantage of.

2. Forums are great for promotion phobes.

When you first start your quest to earn money online you may be lacking the necessary marketing skills it takes to sky rocket your profits. But as a niche marketer you know that you have expertise in at least one area. Forums allow you to convey this information to people without having to advertise. If your post is valuable it can help to sell you as a credible expert which ultimately means more traffic.

You do well in forums when you don’t actively advertise and instead leave it to your signature to drive traffic to your website. When you post regular, valuable content and add to other posts people are going to want more of you and they will gladly leave the forum to visit your site.

3. Forums provide targeted traffic.

One of the hardest things about marketing online is getting directly in front of your target audience. In forums however, that’s all been done for you. As I mentioned earlier forums are made up of like minded people, people who share an interest in your niche. This makes the task of looking for your target audience much easier.

A search in Google groups with your niche keywords will turn up related forums. This benefits you in two ways. One the people there want to hear what you have to say, two once they decide to visit your site they are more likely to be interested in your websites offer. All this translates to earning money at home.

If you have been sitting on the sideline simply watching the conversations in work at home forums it’s time you joined in, thousands of people are doing it and their earning money without you.

It is not possible to have a successful online business without website traffic. This means that implementing an effective traffic building strategy must be central to any overall internet marketing plan. In fact, without website traffic you might as well shut up shop. However, it can be expensive to drive targeted traffic to your website using paid strategies. It is therefore helpful to understand how to get interested visitors to your site without cost.

The first free method of driving traffic to your website is blogging. Most people these days know what blogging is and perhaps you already have one. However, to successfully drive traffic to your website from a blog you need to create an interesting, informative blog that can develop a readership. After all, if no one reads your blog you won’t be able to use it to drive traffic to your site.

With blogging, it is important to submit new posts regularly, preferably daily. It is also important that your blog articles are of a high quality and of particular interest to your targeted audience. One way to attract return visits is to regularly advertise special offers such as a free e-book, template or widget.

Blogs can be an important part of your traffic building strategy because they are very popular with search engines. Every time you add a new post, search engines crawl through your blog and index the page. If you update your blog daily, your chances of gaining a high position on the free search results page is dramatically increased. Blogger and Wordpress are two of the most popular blogging sites. Both allow you to establish a blog free of charge.

Online forums can also be used successfully to generate targeted traffic. By simply posting on forums and using a link to your website as your signature, you can receive the benefit of visitors to your website. You can find forums related to your niche by doing an internet search. Just make sure that the forum is active and has high traffic itself otherwise it might not be worth your time. Once you register on the forum, take some time to browse current posts to get sense of where people are coming from and what they are interested in. When you feel ready, start writing some posts yourself.

It is very important to understand the rules of forum posting. You are generally not allowed to promote your own business or products in forum posts. If you do this, your post will be removed and you will usually get a warning. In some cases, you will lose your forum membership. These rules can sometimes be applied in such an extreme way that even if someone on the forum asks for a recommendation, you still can’t give it. The best way to use the forum is to give generic but helpful information on any given forum topic. In forums, promoting your own business is considered spam even if it is relevant to the thread.

Both blogs and forums can be used to enhance your reputation or “expert” status. Building your credibility is an important aspect of attracting targeted website traffic. After all, if you invest in your own reputation in your particular niche, people will gain confidence in your advice and return to the blog or forum to see what else you have to say.

In your forum signature or blog “about me” page you can provide a link to specific web pages or affiliate programs. If you have taken the time to build credibility with your readers, they will click on your link to check out new articles or special offers. Blogs and online forums are a great addition to any traffic building strategy. They also have the added benefit of being free.

These two traffic building strategies are highly effective and you can begin to use them immediately.

Forums are concentrated communities of highly targeted prospects that are all interested in the same things.

Why are they a great place to market your home business?

1. Forums are HIGHLY targeted.

2. You can learn great new tips and tricks on any particular topic.

3. Your links remain over time and increase in number with every one of your posts.

The biggest reason that forums are a great place to market your business is that people that click through to your ads will already be familiar with affiliate marketing or internet marketing because those are the types of forums where you’ll be promoting your business.

If a prospect from a home business or affiliate marketing forum sees value in what you’re promoting and joins your business they’ll already know how to get off to a fast start without your help.

You’ll be promoting your business through what’s called a “signature box”. I don’t get thousands of hits a day, but I probably get 20 – 30 highly targeted hits on average. With forums, that’s enough. It’s a constant flow that slowly grows over time.

If you post a comment on a highly viewed thread hundreds of prospects in a single day may see your signature box advertising your lead capture page.

I want to make it very clear that you should not post a comment just to get your signature box seen. This is SPAMMING and it’s distasteful.

The other forum members will know what you’re doing and they will remember you as being someone that tries to take away from the community instead of trying to add to it. Only add to the discussion if you have something of value to include otherwise just read, learn, and wait for your turn to chime in.

How do you find forums?

Just go to Google and do a search for home business forums or network marketing forums, you get the idea. Save yourself some time, if it looks like no one has made a post in a forum for the past month it’s probably not worth your time.

Here are a couple I visit regularly: wahm warriorforum

First you just register as a member of the forum, set up your “signature box”, and then simply participate.

Like I said before don’t SPAM! Chime in when it’s your turn and don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you’ve had a burning question that you haven’t been able to find the answer to – forums are the best place to ask that question.

Find 5 forums in your target market and register yourself as a member. Commit to making a least three posts per day per forum from here on out.

Signature Tip: Always send people to your personal capture page that will grow your own list!

Sample Signature:

Residual Wealth Factor FREE 7 Day E-Course ads $1,000’s to your monthly income: yourleadcapturepagehere

With the current and unfortunate trend in downsizing by American companies, workers are looking for opportunities to either supplement their incomes or work from home full time. The Internet is without question the largest reason for the phenomenal growth in home based businesses and downsized, out of work people are flocking to the Internet to open online stay at home businesses.

One area that has seen exceptional growth, is network marketing. Although network marketing has been around for years, the audience and connections made available by the Internet on a mass scale has caused unprecedented growth in network marketing. But to succeed in network marketing, face to face meetings and word of mouth are still the best methods to being profitable in network marketing.

The Internet allows for mass exposure and does increase the volume of leads a network marketer may receive, but the conference call and person to person meetings are still the hallmark of this industry. The Internet does however outperform in bringing together people that are of like mind and have the same interest.

One particular tool that is unique to the Internet are forums. There are hundreds of thousands of forums available on the Internet with such a wide variety of subjects that it would be almost impossible to not find someone that does not have the same interest. Network marketing is no different. Forums are places where people come together to discuss and trade ideas about their area of interest.

Network marketing forums are ideal places to pick up new ideas about lead generation, discuss new and innovative ideas or to find a new business line that may enhance your current business. People in forums are more than willing to help and discuss just about anything that is relevant to network marketing. People love to show and share their knowledge of anything that is important to them and this is what makes forums so successful as a place for like minded people to meet.

There are very few negatives to using forums to increase your knowledge in network marketing, however we will outline some. Forums should be used only as a way to increase knowledge about your business and not as a social venue other than for business reasons. Forums can become addicting and many hours best spent promoting your business can be lost while participating in online forums. Setting aside maybe and hour or two a day to catch up on the latest trends and industry news is all that should be allowed for online forums. Moderation is key for forums.

One other negative is the level of anonymity allowed by the Internet. Unscrupulous characters are very aware that their identity can be cloaked and use this for purposes that can cause financial harm. However, most forums have moderators that are vigilant and quickly weed out these bad apples making the forum safe for genuine members.

Although forums cannot replace the tried and true methods that have always been successful with network marketing, they can help enhance and grow your business by offering new ideas and different approaches that may not have been thought of before for application to your own network marketing business.

First, let me answer the question “What is a Forum”?

A forum is a tool used to communicate and collaborate with others. Different types of forums include discussions, chat rooms, and messaging windows. Forum users interact with each other by exchanging tips and discussing topics related to a websites theme.

Forums save information posted on any given topic for others to see at any time…creating a discussion environment. Anything that gets posted can be read over and over again.

By participating in a forum discussion, you are reaching people from all over the world. Participants join together, get to know each other, build relationships, and create a community. When you contribute to a forum, and offer solutions to someone elses questions or problems, it allows you to gain credibility with other visitors. You are letting everyone know that you are an expert on the topic you are discussing…which in turn will make them more likely to buy from you (when the time comes)!

So, then, “What is a Blog”?

A blog is a collection of articles, ideas, news, facts or opinions that are posted on a site. They are usually fairly structured, and organized by category. Most are updated often, and controlled by the owner of the blog. “Blog” is actually a term coined from “Web log”.

The purpose of a blog is to communicate with others and provide content. You direct the content, but let your readers guide you. By providing compelling, well written content, and posting updated material often, you are positioning yourself as an expert on your chosen topic.
Readers of your blog can comment, but not in a discussion format as in a forum.

In summary, with both forums and blogs, you are able to post a comment and reply to other comments. You can leave comments that may or may not be moderated, and therefore may have to identify yourself – usually with a name and email address.

Let’s look at the differences between a forum and a blog side by side:

FORUMS

Main Purpose: Create a discussion on any topic by allowing comments on posts

Forums are created to promote discussion between many participants

Control of Content: Group control – decentralized…In most cases, all members have the ability to create new topics. Discussions can change direction, reflecting the group as a whole.

Unfocused – numerous contributors…creates user-generated topics.Forums will create a wider variety of content, and pull traffic on topics or phrases you may not have thought of.

Intent: Group participation and collaboration.Saves group input and facilitates group decision making.

Message length: Numerous short messages

Log in /Registration usually required.

Shows who’s online at a given time

BLOGS

Main Purpose: Content of the posting is the main intent, not the commenting

Blogs are mainly created for single user input

Control of Content: Individual – centralized…New topics are presented by the owner of the blog.

Focused – since blogs are written by a single author (or a small group of authors).Comments are generally directed to the primary author, not other readers.

Intent: Personal accounts, news, and opinions. Trusted individuals provide their accounts of information.

Message length: Mostly longer messages

Log in /Registration not required

Doesn’t show who’s online

Hopefully this comparison will clear up the distinctions between forums and blogs for you. Both are effective tools of communication, so use both to increase your presence on the internet, and promote your expertise.

To Your Success!

Lynn McArthur

Business Growth Specialist

Discussion forums offer several benefits to Internet marketers if they use them correctly. However, many people spend time in discussion forums and are not really benefiting from them as much as they could. In this article we will talk about a few ways you can use discussion forums to benefit your Internet business more than you may currently be doing.

1. One key thing you can do is join only a couple of discussion forums at first. If you are currently not doing much marketing in discussion forums there are a couple reasons why you don’t wan to join too many forums all of once.

One reason for this is you want to get a feel for how the forum works. You can’t do that if you are constantly jumping from one forum to the next.

Another reason is discussion forums offer an actual way for you to market your business once you become a known entity within them. The best way to do this is to get involved in the discussions as quickly as possible and start to build up your reputation within the forum.

2. When you are participating in the forums never used them to promote your business or products in the posts themselves. If you will just participate by providing quality useful information people will appreciate that and you will begin to become known as a person who is well liked and trusted.

3. Take the time to set up a very simple signature file that includes who you are, and what you have to offer. Of course you want to include a hyperlinked keyword phrase that leads to your website, blog or landing page.

By keeping this simple you will have better results, because you are not confusing the reader with a lot of choices. If you practice list building this is an excellent place for you to provide a link to a free product or report so you can capture contact information from your reader.

4. There will be times when you really don not feel like participating in the discussion and that’s okay. Discussion forums are an excellent place to get free information that can help you build your business too.

There is no charge to join a discussion forum and you may just want to spend some time reading the various posts that there are. This is an excellent way to come up with ideas on future content for your own website or blog.

Many of the top article marketers for example use discussion forums as content ideas for their next article. This should give you several ideas on how to use discussion forums better than you may currently be using them.