Forum marketing is an excellent way to get the word out about your
business for free.? But there are a few tricks to marketing on
forums without getting penalized.? You have to be careful not to do
any blatant advertising or you’ll probably get banned very quickly.
The first thing you should do when you’re new to a forum is create
an interesting profile.? Add an avatar, such as a picture of
yourself, or a picture related to the niche.? If you’re in the dog
training niche, for example, you might use a picture of a dog –
preferably your own.? In the golf niche, it could be a picture of
your favorite golf club or course.? You get the idea.
Next, start making posts that answer questions.? You should never
push your website or product outright at this point.? Being a
member of a forum, you’re there to give people helpful answers to
their questions and post an occasional thread of your own to spark
a discussion or provide helpful tips.
The point of this phase is to start establishing yourself as an
expert in the niche first.? By giving people valuable answers,
you’ll be seen as the go-to person in your niche.? As forum members
start to recognize your contributions, they might even start
looking for your posts. This is a great way to develop a fast
following.
Check the rules of the forum to make sure they allow links in
signatures.? If they do, be sure to add a link to your site.? You
might prefer to link to a squeeze page, so you can start building a
list of forum visitors that you can market to later.
Don’t do anything to draw attention to your signature – such as
continually telling people, “I have more information on the site in
my sig file.”? Just keep posting as you have been, giving out
helpful information. Let your helpful posts do the talking for you.
After you’ve built up a very good reputation at the forum, people
may start searching for you on their own.? Make sure the name you
use on the forums is featured in the name or text of every project
you promote, because you need to make it easy for people to find
your products if they start looking for them on Google.
You might even be able to JV with the forum owner after you’ve
become rather well-known around the forum.? You could offer a
standard JV, or you could just ask the forum owner to be your
affiliate.? You might offer them a special deal, with a higher
percentage of commission than normal affiliates – or a discount
reserved just for their members.
Respect the forum boundaries. Don’t private message people and ask
them to check out your site unless you already have some sort of
previous relationship with them.? The only time you should ever
draw special attention to a project of yours is if someone makes a
post that specifically asks for recommendations about products.
For example, if someone asks, “Does anyone know of any good books
that can help me housebreak my puppy?”? You could probably get away
with posting, “Actually, I wrote a book about how to housebreak a
puppy recently.? If you’re interested, you can find the link in my
sig.”? If it’s an invitation to provide a product link, it’s
probably okay – but otherwise, let the forum traffic funnel in on
its own.
