I’m always looking for new ways to bring targeted traffic to my site and to give you a hand on doing the same; today I’m going to talk a bit about forum marketing. Although it’s not exactly new, it is a traffic strategy worth talking about. Forum marketing is greatly underrated but it can bring impressive results regardless of the niche you are targeting.
Nowadays people expect a lot in exchange for a little, you have to be willing to provide great content for free in order to get something in return. Forum marketing can be a tab bit time consuming but it is well worth it.
So, here is a quick step by step guide to bringing in targeted traffic to your site or blog via forums.
Step 1 – Find the forums for your target niche
Using Google to find a forum in your niche is a no brainer. But, what can you search for to increase the number of niche forums you find?
With the help of advanced Google search queries and some key phrases I’ll mention you’ll be well on your way to find the best forums available.
You can start off by simply searching your main keyword and forum. So, for example, if you are in the weight loss niche you might search for:
If this search didn’t bring you as many results as you wanted you should definitely try out these terms as well: “powered by vBulletin” or “Hot thread with new posts”
Step 2 – Evaluate the forum
After you’ve found your forums, it’s time to evaluate to see if they are actually worth your time. You don’t want to invest hours of hard work into forum marketing just to find out that the it’s a ghost town.
Here is how you go about it. First, since there is usually no exact way of knowing how many active users a certain forum has, you should check when the latest post was submitted, this would normally give you an indication of how active it is.
Other forums make it easier for you, just look for the section called “latest post info”:
Step 3 – Create your brand conscience account
Even though this seems pretty straightforward there are a couple of things you must consider in order to succeed with your marketing.
First of all, you’ll need to choose your username. Here, you would want to use your brand name or your personal name. You absolutely want to avoid creating usernames like ‘sexystuff593’, these are in no way professional sounding and could potentially damage your brand’s image; plus, no one will take you seriously.
You want your username to be memorable and branded; people will associate the content you create inside of the forum with your brand.
In some cases you might have a screenname in addition to your user name. The same rules apply here.
If you have more than one person actively posting in the forum you can try to use a combination of both your personal name and brand; something like “IMG – Ike Paz” can work well.
Step 4 – Create your traffic grabbing signature
This here is the single most important step you can do when forum marketing. This is how people are going to get from the forum to your site.
In short, you want your whole signature to be a call to action.
You want to consider what your particular goal is. Do you want facebook likes? Do you want video views? Do you want to promote a single piece of content?
Whatever your goal might be, here is your opportunity to drive people exactly where you want them to go.
Even though this link you’re creating will bring targeted traffic to your blog or site, Google doesn’t particularly believe these links to be valuable so don’t try to get crazy with SEO here. As I said, a simple but powerful call to action will work wonders.
Here is my own signature from the Warrior Forum:
NOTE: Beware of the “terms of service” of the forum you’re posting on. Some links can be forbidden.
Step 5 – Participate in the forum like a BOSS!
I know I said the signature is the most important part of this process but your signature will not be seen if you don’t participate in the forum on a regular basis!
To do so, you must first find where is the right place for you to post. Some forums have the number of people actually on a particular section shown, others might just show the total number of posts in the section. In either case, look for the section where the most people are hanging out and where you can provide the most value.
Now, share your expertise. Look for thread titles where you think you can add value and respond to the thread.
Important Notice: Learn my method to profit daily online –
Try your best to read the entire thread, scanning is ok. Sometimes other people might have already said what you intend. If that is the case, you can always add value on top of what they said.
Another thing to consider is when to post. In most forums, responses are added to the end of the page. To make your response as visible as possible, try to answer questions or respond soon after the original thread was posted, that way your response (and your signature) will be seen towards the top of the tread.
Your answer can be very brief or in detail . Whatever the case, you need to make sure you’re adding value; remember, quality over quantity. A couple of posts a day can go a long way for your traffic. I usually hit at least 5 posts a day. Create a schedule for yourself and stick to it.
Don’t forget, you can also start your own threads.
One way to do this is to upload your blog posts to the forum; wait for Google to index them and just copy and paste them to the forum. You might want to consider creating a condensed version of your post especially if it’s too long or you might want to add some content exclusive to the forum as well.
Also, your thread headlines are extremely important. They dictate how many clicks you get, here is quick guide.
A Quick Recap On Forum Marketing For Busy People
So that’s pretty much it guys, let’s take one last look at the steps I just showed you.
- Look for niche forums.
- Evaluate.
- Create your account as an extension of your brand.
- Create a signature with a good call to action. (Remember not to go nuts with SEO here)
- Participate.
- Respond to threads by adding value.
- Create your own treads.
Did I miss something? Comment below to let me know.