Sue Worthington

Another great strategy to boost your blog traffic is by participating in Forums.  But what is the best way to go about this, because like any other strategy, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

Forum users are usually net savvy and very open to making online purchases.  Many forum users are also experts and bloggers in the specific topics covered in the forum.

Forum marketing has a high ROI, because once you make a good impression in an influential forum, this can help enormously in spreading your message.

So what do you need to do:-

• Find the right forum.

Search for forums in your niche.  You can try http://www.big-boards.com which gives a list of different forums in different niches, and the number of members.

• Check the posting guidelines.

Make sure you are allowed to promote yourself, how and what you are allowed to say, and what you are allowed to put in your signature.

• Use an avatar and an appropriate user name.

Use your global avatar of your real self if you wish (http://www.gravatar.com)

Or maybe you would prefer to create a persona if you are marketing in a specific niche, in which case you can use an appropriate representative icon.

• Create an interesting profile.

Give some background information about yourself, and let the users welcome you to the site. Try to convey the fact that you are genuine and have integrity.

• Lurk first and then introduce yourself.

Spend some time ‘lurking’ on the forum, and therefore getting to know what the members are talking about.  Try to find out what their current issues and problems are, and plan how you can help them (ie sell your products to them).

• Make valuable contributions

When you do start posting, do not launch immediately into sales mode.  Make as many posts as you can, and as regularly as you can, giving valuable and helpful advice.  This way you establish yourself as a valuable member of the forum community. You will find that as people get accustomed to your helpful posts you will not have to sell overtly on the forum.  Readers will start to do their research on you and your products.

• Use a signature file.

You can get a really great signature file from http://www.feedburner.com

• Do not cause conflict or controversy.

Drama is inevitable in forums. By their nature, they are a place to have open discussions about topics. Posting your opinion on something is fine, but to attack others personally will establish you as a controversy seeker and backfire later.

I hope you have found this post useful as another method of generating traffic to your blog.

If so,  do please leave your comments below.

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