Using a proven forum marketing strategy is a great way to drive traffic to your blog. In fact, it is one of the most often overlooked and underestimated forms of marketing online.
It?s a ?time tested? online marketing strategy, and many people think that it doesn?t work. This is totally wrong. Even with all the social media sites like Facebook, twitter and others, people continue to spend a lot of time in their favorite forums and discussion boards.
Why this is important for your web traffic and online business?
Hint: these people are your potential customers, and you absolutely want to be (in fact your website) in front of them.
It?s obvious, but you want to be where you clients are hanging out.
If you manage to find a high traffic forum in your niche (there are a lot of these in health, weight loss, dog training and other big niches), you can drive dozens of visitors per day to your website. And if you do this well ? I mean you don?t spam your link there? ? you can drive a lot of traffic, and even make sales. Plus people in your niche will start to see your name. This is good for branding.
When people see your name everywhere online, they will start to trust you. I personally bought many products on Internet marketing forums, got clients in my private one-on-one coaching program (worth $997.00), so I know first hand that it works.
?However, if you want to drive traffic, build your email list and even make sales with forums, you?ll need to use the right forum marketing strategy?
3 Principles to Succeed with Forum Marketing:
1. Help people
2. Demonstrate that your are an authority
3. Consistency (it?s not a short term technique)
So why most marketers are not using forums to drive traffic to their blog?
There are two main reasons:
Reason #1: Although forums are a great way to drive traffic to your site, brand yourself and even make sales, if you are in a micro niche, forums may not work for you. There are only a few numbers of forums in micro-niches, and they are not really active because of the tiny community.
To succeed, you need a BIG forum with a lot of daily activity. Like this one for example: forum.bodybuilding.com. As you can see, there are thousands upon thousands of members, hundreds of daily posts, and it?s possible to make some money there (again, there is an art of doing this. Do it wrong, and you?ll never be able to earn a cent in forums.)
Reason #2: It?s too time consuming. I do agree with this one. First, it takes some times to search a thread, then add your reply. Plus if you are really serious about forum marketing, you don?t want to ?reply and run?. You need to keep track of the posts, and reply again.
These are the main reasons, but believe me, if you do it right, it?s can be really rewarding.
So how to make forums marketing work for you?
The key to make forum marketing work for you is to help others and add value to the community. You want to be perceived as a leader by other members. I don?t mean that you need to be the world expert, but you need to have some kind of authority and know more than most of the average poster.
?Follow these easy steps below to make forums work for you.
?Step #1: Find Forums that are relevant to your niche
?Make sure that the forum allows you to put a link in your signature. If it doesn?t, don?t join.
?A - In order to find high activity forums in your niche, you need to type your ?niche keyword? in Google, and add a modifier at the end. SO if your niche is body building, or muscle gaining, you would type the words below in Google:
- Muscle building,
- Body building,
- Muscle gaining,
- Gain muscle.
B - Then, you add the modifier (i.e. phrases) to find the forums:
- message board
- discussion board
- forum
?Example: I typed (Body Building + forum), in Google, and picked the first one: forum.bodybuilding.com
Personally, I prefer finding forums directly in Google, but you can also use the method below (sometime, it returns weird results.)
?Alternative method to find forums in your niche:
?You can also use the forum search engines below to find forums automatically (you need to dig a little bit more though):
Tip: 2 Questions you should absolutely ask yourself before joining a forum.
?Question #1: Is it an active forum?
You don?t want to bother with a forum where the last post was made a month ago. This is the sign that it?s not active, and you will not get any traffic. So make sure that you look at the number of posts, and if the last post was at least?yesterday.
Question #2: Are the visitors potential customers?
?Make sure that people on this forum are actually real buyers.
Step #2: Quality is better than Quantity.
Beware: Forums can take a lot of your time if you are not careful. What you need to do is to find one or two posts per day and reply to the poster?s original question. You can also reply to one of the posts within the thread to add to the conversation.
No more than one or two posts, overwise you will waste your time.
You only need to spend 30 minutes to one hour per day replying on thread when you are starting. When someone post a question, and you think you can reply, you want to overdeliver. You spend some times searching for the answer in Google (or if you are already an expert on the subject, you can skip this step) and write a detailed reply.
As I said above, the key to succeed and drive traffic to your site with forum marketing is to give away your very best information. I guarantee that if you help people like this, they will start searching for your help, and they will even send you PMs (private message) to have your opinion on various subject.
The formula is simple: The more value you add, and the more traffic you will get.
Plus your post will receive traffic for months and even years to come. Some of your posts will appear in Google, and many people use the search function in forums to find what they want. And when they see your replies, and how you help people, they will visit your sites.
Sometimes, people contact me and ask me questions about a post I made more than one year ago!
Next step?
Step #3: Help, Help, Help and don?t sell
Never come and add your link in a post or a thread. If you do this, people will see you as a spammer, and the moderator may ban you forever.
Also, before you start your own thread or discussion topic, you need to respond to a few other threads first. Get your user name out there so people know who you are and know you aren?t a spammer.
Step #4: Use Your Real Name when you register
Remember that you are also branding your name in this forums. So you will also have to fill out your profile in detail, and also include a signature, and talk a little bit about yourself and what you do.
Step #5: Start your own threads
Once you are seen as someone who know what he is talking about and that you are accepted by the community, it?s the time to start your own threads. If you can start a big discussion, you will potentially drive hundreds of visitors to your site overtime.
The right way to do this is to look back through the oldest hot threads and see what title and topics turned into threads with with dozens of replies (sometimes hundreds), and several thousands views. You will not copy the thread (this is bad?), but you will try to reverse engineer it and find out why it became so hot.
The next step will be to post a new thread on the same subject, but with a twist. You can create a complete tutorial (something people would like to pay for). You post it and say that you want to give back to the community.
If you do this well, your post can also become sticky!
Your thread may not take off. If this happens, no worries. It?s normal. Wait sometimes, and start a new thread on another topic. A thread per week is a good rule of thumbs.
Step #6: Forum Signatures (sig file)
Important: Wait until you get a couple of posts (this will vary from niche to niche) before you add your website in your sig file. As a rule of thumbs, wait until you have at least 5 posts.
Now, this is really important. This is the reason why you chose to join the forum in the first place. Sure, you want to help others, but you already want them to come to your site, visit your site and eventually subscribe or buy your product.
You need a compelling signature. You need to think about your signature file as an ad. However, don?t make it hyped up or salesly. It?s a good idea to give them something for free. Below is an example of sig file:
?Free Controversial Report Reveals how to gain muscles?
Sig File Tip: instead of sending people to your blog, you can send them to a squeeze page, collect their email address and your autoresponder will do the follow up for you.
Sig File Super Tip: You can use a Special ?Forum Optin Page? that you created. Like this, you will be able to make unique, ?Special Offers? and discount for forum members.
Step #7: Hot Threads
Whenever you find a hot thread (dozens of replies), make sure to jump in the discussion and say what you think. If it?s a big thread, you can reply to people and start a discussion within the thread. Like this, you will have several posts throughout the thread and more clicks on your signature.
Step #8: Reply to brand new threads
Replying to threads when they are new: When you first log into the forum, you can see the new threads, as well as how many replies they have. If a thread has fewer than 10 replies and it?s something you can offer a good reply to, then reply. The idea behind this is that if you?re one of the first few replies, your response
Step #9: Always read the forum rules
If you don?t do this, you will do mistakes, and the administrator will send you a warning. To avoid this, just read the forum rules.
Now, let?s have a quick look at?
Some Benefits of Using Forum Marketing To Drive Traffic To Your Blog:
?1. You will also get a couple of backlinks to your website. Most forums are nofollow, but when they are dofollow, it will help a little bit with your rankings.
?2. Plus some forum threads rank well in the search engines for specific posts. You may also receive traffic from normal search engine visitors (non forum members) who land on your thread of post.
?3. If your website deliver great value in your niche, members will add links in the post for you. This will bring a lot of traffic.
?4. Forums give you exposure in your niche, and you will be recognized as an expert (if you provide value and solutions.)
Imagine for a moment that your potential client read an article, and you are there. They go on their favorite forum, and you are there. Now, they start to say ?Oh, I know this guy/woman! I already read one of his articles, and it was good.? Then, they decided to watch a video on Youtube.com, and you are there too! They listen to a podcast, and your name popup again? finally, the open their email to chat with their friends, and you are also there. Facebook? You are there too. They type in Google? You are there as well!
You get the picture. When your potential customers see you everywhere, they immediately give you the ?expert status?. This is what you want.
5. Sometimes, you can even make connections with people in your niche, barter services or even find Joint venture partners. You can find guest blogging opportunities for example. Imagine you regularly contribute in a health forum, and someone with a big list see your post and allow you to write for their newsletter? This is something that shouldn?t be neglected.
Here is an example?One of my first info products was an interview ebook. All I did was searching for ?article marketing? (it was a hot subject at this time) with the forum?s search function, and I took a note of the names that really knew their subject and helped others with detailed and useful replies. This took me a couple of hours. The day after, I contacted each of these forum members and asked them if they were interested in an email interview. 90% of them accepted, I took the replies, put them in pdf format and made $3,000.00+ with this article marketing ebook?on the very same forum. It was simple because forum members already knew they were the real deal, and didn?t hesitate to get the book and learn these experts closed guarded secrets.
As you can see, there are many opportunities on high traffic forums.
Do you want to learn more powerful strategies to triple your traffic for any blog or website that you own? If yes, sign up to the Triple Your Traffic Coaching.
Source: http://www.internetcashvaultformula.com/forum-marketing-strategy-9-steps-drive-traffic-using-forums
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