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10 Steps Towards Successful Forum Marketing

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1) Find The Right Forums

Find forums with a similar niche. Every time you post or create new threads you will expose your backlinks to people of the same interest. Not only is this good to directly promote your product or service, you will gain relevant backlinks. Relevant backlinks are important for SEO! Besides SEO, driving traffic from relevant niche forums means highly targeted traffic.

2) Think “Long Term”

Creating an effective forum presence takes time. Although you may have the ability to gain tons and tons of high quality traffic, it may take some time. Join conversations and help others to create a valid contribution! The more value you put into each and every post, the more you will build authority and trust. When first starting out forum marketing, make sure you build credibility for yourself, for others, and forum administrators. The last thing you want to do is get banned.

3) Forum Rules And Guidelines

It is important to be familiar with forum rules and guidelines. Each forum is different and may have different policies when it comes to forum marketing. Take the following for example:

a) are affiliate products allowed in signature links?
b) can I have a signature link to another forum?
c) can I promote my own business in my signature links?
d) are new users restricted from certain capabilities; signatures, profile pics, etc.

4) Username And Avatar

Choose a professional username. This will tell people that how serious you are about your business. Make sure you upload an avatar so you can start to build credibility and authority over others. These two aspects of forum marketing is essential to create a successful presence.

5) Introduce Yourself

It is best to introduce yourself at a new forum. In my experience, many regular users or administrators strongly urge this act.

6) Don’t Be Hasty

Make sure you create a good first impression at all costs. Newbie forum members can be easily resented by other “older” members if disobeying rules.

7) Valuable Contribution

Think of every post you make on a forum, whether a comment or thread, a way of building your authority, recognition, and expertise. This one aspect of forum marketing is very important and will determine your success in the long run!

8) Market Your Website

Add your website in your signature link. I recommend you create a narrow niche website for many reasons. It is very easy to build authority when you have a whole website dedicated to one narrow niche. Your signature link will appear with each forum post you make, which is great for not only direct traffic but SEO.

9) Avoid Negativity

Do not run into any negative arguments or thoughts. If you want to run a professional forum marketing business you have to be profressional yourself. Create a positive atmosphere at all times and you will quickly gain credibility and respect.

10) Track Marketing Efforts

Create a progress chart/traffic chart for how many visitors are gained from each forum. This will give an estimate of progress and the potential high quality traffic that forum can bring each month to your website! Some form of progress will provide information on whether a successful forum marketing campaign is being build or not.

Which of the above do you believe is the most important tip to keep in mind when advertising on a forum?

I believe number 7 is the key one. You most likely will NOT get new people on your site unless they know you can be trusted and are not a spammer, and the best way to do that is through submitting valuable content.
 
I agree with number 7 because that's what I do most of the time, when I am not being a general busybody. However, I believe number 6 takes precedence. A forum is a community. In real life, you don't move into a new neighborhood and start shooting off your mouth. That would be a good way to get your head shot off.

Same with a forum. Lurk around first. See what's going on. See how the game is played. Then make a small neutral post. See how people react to your post. Make adjustments to your posting style. Make another post. Keep on repeating until you become accepted as a useful member of the community. Then market your site or whatever you are selling.
 
There are some amazing points there, many of which I have employed myself, but I find myself quickly losing patience with forum advertising. I know that there is a lot of traffic to be gotten from forums, bit it just takes too much effort to build that trusted presence on a forum, and then what if you suddenly discover that you are in the wrong niche? You'd have to find another forum for a better niche and start all over again. A lot of forum have too many rules these days. 20 posts before you can do this, 50 posts before you can do that LOL! It's annoying, but I get why they do it.
 
I think #2 is one of the most valuable mentions in your list, as I think most marketers, especially beginners tend to overlook it and just try to yield instant results. This is why I think lots of them come off as being spammy. I think having patience is the best way since at least this way the forum members won't have to feel too much like they are being sold to which feels very bad and which is why it's understandable that most forums frown upon or are strict with their advertising rules.
 
I'd be really cautious about this. For one thing, a lot of forums hate spammers. However, though, if you look at other member's posts and also the rules, you might be able to find commercially friendly ones. However, though, a concession might need to made, say paying a monthly fee or making so many posts. Anyhow, though, for the few ones not like that, you've hit a goldmine. Well, not really; not in the sense of money, necessarily.
 
1. Research: Research your industry and target audience to understand their needs and interests.

2. Identify: Identify relevant forums and create a list of them.

3. Read: Read each forum thoroughly to understand the rules, regulations, and culture.

4. Participate: Start participating by offering helpful advice or suggestions.

5. Engage: Engage with other users by starting conversations and responding to their posts.

6. Share: Share your knowledge and expertise by answering questions and providing helpful advice.

7. Monitor: Monitor the activity on the forum and take note of any changes.

8. Build: Build relationships with other users by being helpful and engaging in conversations.

9. Promote: Promote your brand and services in an appropriate manner.

10. Measure: Measure the effectiveness of your forum marketing efforts by tracking the number of visitors, leads, and conversions it generates.
 
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