5 Forum Marketing Tips

Forum marketing is a great, but abused method of marketing a site, especially for a home business person or small business entrepreneur. Unfortunately, many people that think they are doing effective "Forum Marketing" are really just being glorified spammers. So this article is not designed to be a comprehensive training on Forum Marketing, as there is already a ton of great content out there about that, but rather a collection of Forum Marketing Tips and ideas.

Tip 1: Leave comments all day long, not just when you are actively doing some Forum Posting. What I mean by that is, that almost every website we go to now has a forum, or a comment option on it, and throughout the day as we cruise the web we have multiple times that we can leave a quick, relevant comment or post, and get a free and backlink to our website! But too many times we are in such a hurry we miss these easy opportunities. Slow down just a little bit, and every time you hit a site that allows you to, leave a relevant comment, with a link.

Tip 2: On Blog Comment boxes, use anchor text in your name! This is a little bit sneaky, but as long as you are leaving a high value comment, and not just being a spammer, good bloggers will let it stick. Let's say your name is John Doe, and one of the keywords you are trying to rank for is "blue widget." Instead of inserting your name as "John Doe," instead you could put "John The Blue Widget Guy." Then enter your URL in the box, and Voila! You just got an anchor text link back to your site!

Tip 3: Create a memorable forum signature. If you are an active member of some forums you participate in, you are often allowed to use an automated signature for every post. Unfortunately, most of these look like hypy, desperate things and aren't appealing to people. Don't let that be you! Instead of something with seventeen exclamation marks, try for something that states a major benefit of clicking on your link, or something that makes them like you, and want to click. For example, I remember a signature I saw a few years ago that included the words "All round swell guy." I liked it. I clicked. Being personal and inviting is much more interesting than most of the over-stated, trumped up signatures most marketers create.

Tip 4: Avoid Cliches. Don't use words like, "Great post!" or "Wow, keep them coming!" or any other trite, meaningless statement that any spammer can make. Instead, ask questions, comment on the topic, respond to somebody else's question in the thread, add a missing fact... anything that adds value to the conversation is great.

Tip 5: Treat the forum like a real live social event. For whatever reason, we say things online that we would never say to a stranger at a party. Remember that every member of the Forum is a real human being out there somewhere, and some of those people could become your next top affiliate! So don’t be negative! Ever! Avoid “flame wars” like the plague, and use the Forum to meet new people and build new relationships.

Forum Marketing is a great guerilla method of generating sales, so if you aren’t getting sales from it, you’re either doing the wrong things, or not doing enough of the right things!