Forum Marketing The Right Way

I wanted to do a post on the right way to do forum marketing because I think that a lot of people have a misconception of what forum marketing is all about and how to do forum marketing. Many people will only use forum marketing for one single reason which is a shame because forum marketing is meant for many things and can be used for many things. That is what this post is going to describe – how you can take advantage of every single aspect of forum marketing to both improve your internet income and your knowledge in the internet marketing field.

If you would like more information about forum marketing, you can check out some of the other posts on forum marketing at Why Are Forums Important, Using Forums To Drive Traffic, Forums And Forum Marketing and How To Use Forums To Promote Your Site.

A lot of the information I learned about internet marketing was from Wealthy Affiliate, although a lot of the information in this post is from my personal experience. I have a ton of experience in forum marketing and I know how to maximize forum marketing for both income and knowledge. And again even though I have learned a lot of the information I know about this business from Wealthy Affiliate I want to make it clear that all of the information in this post is from my personal experience, which in my opinion is even better because I have personally done and succeeded with the following information.

Most people use forum marketing for one single reason and that is for back links. Not sure how familiar many of you are with forums, but there is a section in each forum for a signature line (in most forums at least). And most forums will allow you to have a couple links in your forum signature line – people definitely not only take advantage of this but they spam like crazy which is not right. They make useless posts and fill forums with crap posts, and this turns a lot of great forums into crap forums and kills the forum eventually. Please do not be one of these people, they add no value at all and are making useless posts for selfish reasons. And remember karma is a you know what.

What most people don’t understand is that forums are so much more than a place to build back links – they are a super huge source of free information. You can really learn a lot in forums, even if you are an advanced marketer, but I will touch on this in a little bit.

What I want to do is tell each level of marketer how to properly use forum marketing. I will tell you how I used forum marketing at that stage of my internet marketing career so you can get a good idea of how I turned forum marketing into a super profitable form of online marketing for myself. I have made well over $250,000 from forums alone, and this post is going to explain how I did so.

For beginners and novice internet marketers the way to use forum marketing is of course for back links as always. Find out how many links you can have in the signature line for each of the forums you join and take full advantage of each link you can have. Make sure that you use anchor text, use the keywords you are trying to rank in the search engines for as your keywords. That way each time you make a post you will be taking full advantage of the forum (How To Quickly Become An Affiliate Marketer).

Make sure that you also use the forum as a learning source. Join a good 10 forums or so to start and get your signature lines for each. Concentrate on posts and sections of the forum where you feel you need the most help with. That way you can learn about areas of internet marketing where you are weak in and you can build links at the same time. Join more and more forums over time – there are tons and tons of forums out there for you to join.

Now the more interesting part of forum marketing, the part for both advanced and expert internet marketers. This is the part of the post where you can the most out of;  if you are an advanced or expert internet marketer (or even if you are a good novice internet marketer.

With this section we are going to start with the same kind of information. Join a good 10 forums or so in whatever niche you are in and find out about all of the signature line rules.  Again post as many links as you are allowed to post in your signature, and include your anchor text for the keywords you are trying to rank for – most of you already know this though.

Now most of you would simply use the forum for building links correct?  But there is a much more effective way to use the forums. Actually USE the forums. Just because you are an advanced or expert internet marketer does not mean that you can not learn from the forums. For the first “part” of my method, concentrate on posting with topics that you are weak on and need help with. Actually read the posts, ask questions, and add informative posts (All About The Affiliate Marketing Business).

This way not only are you building links but at the same time you are learning the business and improving your skills.

Now for the part that made me over $250,000 in the forums.

Being an advanced or expert internet marketer (or even a fairly good novice internet marketer) – concentrate in the newbie sections of the forums or on topics that you are very strong with. Again, actually read the posts and make INFORMATIVE posts answering people’s questions.

Not only are you helping people learn the business of internet marketing, but you are gaining the trust of the people of the forum and you are doing this for multiple forums.  When you are consistently making posts answering people’s questions and helping people, they will see you as an authority figure and this can do a lot for you.

I did this for one forum and basically had a whole forum of “followers”. I came out with a product and because I taught so many people in that forum and helped so many people in the forum – almost everyone in the forum went on to promote my product. This helped not only get my product off the ground and got me a ton of sales, but made me a top selling product in the PayDotCom.com market place and I ended up selling that website for $200,000.

All because I was making informative helpful posts in a forum. The people of that forum felt that they owed me and they actually did what I asked of them and promoted my product for me, and they did it very well because I had taught them very well (Large Sites Vs Small Sites).

Now I understand that many of you may never make your own product – so you may not see how this can help you, but it can. It may not make you $250,000 (and it may), but it can make you a good amount of money still. When people see you as an authority figure they will buy the products that are in your signature line which will make you money. On top of that they will most likely visit your sites and join your opt-in lists if you have them which will turn them into repeat buyers.

If you are an advanced or internet marketer you know that there are tons of products out there that sell for $2,000 or more, where you can make $1,000 PER SALE. With enough trust you can easily sell these kinds of products and you can especially sell these products to the people in the forums whose trust you have gained by repeatedly making informative and helpful posts in the forums.

Keep in mind that there are TONS of forums out there that you can join and do this for, which means there are tons of forums for you to be an informative authority figure in.

There is no reason for you to join these forums JUST for the links and then start making crappy posts that will help no one. Instead, actually put a little bit of effort in so that you get the full effect of forum marketing. Take the time to actually read the posts and make a helpful post back answering people’s questions and it will take you a lot further than simply making crap posts for the links. Doing this will just get you banned and waste a ton of your time (What It Takes To Succeed Online).

Hopefully with this post you see the true power of forum marketing and you are not one of those who just joins forums, adds your signature links and then makes one and two word posts that are always the same thing and don’t help anyone.

Best of luck with your forum marketing and I will see you all in the next post!