Super Tips for the Internet Marketer (Part1) How to Use Forums for Finacial Gain
Part 1
One of the biggest turning points since I began Internet marketing has been my discovery of the online forums (or discussion groups or bulletin boards as they are also called).
There are 4 major reasons why people use forums
1) You can get free advice. For example
- ask about any aspect of marketing
- ask for opinions about a product before purchasing or about a business opportunity or affiliate program you plan to join
- ask for a site review
2) You can discover new products, ideas, tips, tools
3) You can make contact with others, and possibly set up joint ventures. You will find many helpful people and many of the top names posting at forums.
4) Site promotion.
When you make postings you can include your signature or a link to your site. If you have provided helpful answers or useful information readers ‘may’ decide to visit your site.
There are techniques to turn ‘may’ into ‘will very likely’, which you will see in the next tip.
I’ve put a list of my favourite forums below:
2. Books about Forums
2.1 Forum Marketing SuperTips (free book)
Every day hundreds of thousands of people visit the online forums and make postings. And yet it is possible for anyone to profit from posting at forums – even newbies.
2.2 Forum Owner SuperTips (free book)
One of the most effective, yet underrated, methods of making money on the Net is to run a forum. Yet it’s possible to start and profit from a forum
- with no previous online marketing skills
- and even with no expenditure.
Tip 2 How to post at forums – for PROFIT
Every day hundreds of thousands of people visit the online marketing forums and make postings.
Many are trying to promote their site – however their methods are so ineffective it is no wonder they complain that promotion via forums does not work for them.
But in truth you can get dozens if not hundreds of replies from a single posting – if you do it right.
Let’s take a look at the various ways that people make postings, starting from the most unacceptable and ending with an entry which even the strictest forum moderator will enthusiastically approve.
Example 1:
Your post says:
Samwww.a101hosting.com/affiliate link
This is blatant ad (spam) and will be removed. And so it should.
Example 2:
You make a rather uninformative and vague announcement
Did you find that sales were down recently ?
www.a101hosting.com/affiliate
You announce a useful piece of information.
SamCheap web hosting
www.a101hosting.com/affiliateWell now we are moving into the realms of acceptable postings, you have supplied good information BUT why would anyone want to click on that URL ?They may just look at your signature to see who you are and what your site is about. But your post attracted them because it was about Google, why would they then be interested in cheap hosting ?Example 4:The question has been raised at a forum:’What is your advice about cheap hosting and who would you recommend ?’.Here is your response
I use this company, they are cheap and I’ve had no problems with them,
Sam
www.a101hosting.com/affiliate
That’s better in that you are (partly) answering the question. The main weakness is that your reply may seem to be biased in favour of a particular company which you happen to be clearly affiliated with.
But how do you think your reply compares with this next one ?
Example 5:
The winning post
www.cheap-hosting-guide.comThe perfect reply.An informative posting with no hype, no ads and no affiliate links.Bob knows his stuff. He has a site all about cheap hosting – just look at the domain name- and he’s offering sensible advice about what to look for.And now George can go on to dominate this niche in the forums. Apart from waiting for the opportunity for the topic to arise and make a response he can proactively announce his site to the world.How ?Well, if you wanted to post news of a product of your own, or a product you are affiliated with, it would rightly be deemed an ad – and unacceptable.However his posting reads like this:
Subject:A Guide To Low Cost Web Hosting CompaniesContent:I’ve been searching for some time for a list of cheap web hosts and the pros and cons of using such companies. I’ve also noticed that many members of this forum have been asking the same question.So I’ve put my findings in a guide which is free for you to visit atwww.cheap-hosting-guide.com
No blatant promotion just an informative and welcome posting.
“OK”, you say, “that’s fine if your specialist area is a popular topic but my specialist niche is about ‘Widget number 493‘ and I never see any one ask about it”.
Then, I am afraid to say, making useful informative postings about general topics but adding a signature file for ‘Widget number 493′ is an absolute waste of time. You cannot promote it using forums.
So how could you emulate the success of Bob above ?
Well let’s do some reverse engineering
- First, you find out what are the popular topics that people ask about at the forums.
- You then produce a resource of information: it doesn’t even have to be a site with a domain name, it can be a single web page – quickly constructed but highly professional using certain techniques.
- You then make no-hype announcements at forums or search for appropriate postings where you can respond.
All this is explained with step-by-step instructions in my FREE ebook: Forum SuperTips
Please check out all the othe topics on this site, you will find them most helpfull.
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