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Discussion forum marketing
is a highly effective internet marketing
strategy used to draw targeted traffic to your
website for free and consists of simply
participating and contributing to niche market
forums.
Each message you post or question you answer
will be concluded with your signature file which
includes your name, website address and
slogan/headline which will link to your website.
After the user reads your post then most readers
will click on your link and visit your website
out of impulse, curiosity or necessity as well.
And as a result of participating in discussion
forums, this simple yet effective internet
marketing strategy begins to create targeted
traffic to your website daily. |
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Furthermore, this also becomes one of the best
ways to establish yourself as an expert in your
field.
Just by answering questions and posting valuable
information on high traffic discussion forums
you can build instant and long lasting
credibility within a very short period of time
and as a result create more website traffic and
more sales as well.
By posting on forums, consumer awareness is
created and potential customers are more likely
to visit your website, simply due to your
contributions to the forum community. |
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How to get started
To start contributing and participating on
discussion forums related to your niche market,
simply go to Google.com and type in your main
keyword or the name of your product category
along with the keyword “forum” or “discussion
forum”.
For example, if you were selling video editing
equipment or computers for video editing then
you can conduct a search on Google.com for the
keywords “video editing forum” and come up with
a list of search results for video editing
discussion forum websites.
Then you can begin to visit and observe the
forums in order to make a list of the most
active forums with users, reading, posting and
visiting daily. You need to find and participate
on high traffic forums related to your niche
market and focus your time and efforts posting
on those.
You can read discussion topics on forums without
having to register. But in order to start
posting then you’re going to have to register
with that particular forum and others just as
well.
However, it’s also possible to find one, good,
active forum with plenty of active readers which
will allow you to focus on one main forum for
now just to get you started.
Your registration user name
When registering your name on forums it’s
important to use your business name as your user
name as well as this also becomes another
element of effective internet marketing.
For example, if the name of your business was XL
Video Editing Systems then be sure to use the
name XLVideoEditingSystems as your user name for
posting in forums.
However, if your business name is
XLVideoEditingSystems.com then do not use the
“.com” ending in your user name as this can be
seen as blatant advertising and will most likely
cause your account to be closed quickly and/or
cause forum members to lose trust in your
business as well.
After you have registered your user name then
you can proceed to start looking through and
reading the most recent and most popular posts
on the forum.
You will be looking for posts on subjects which
you already have some knowledge of in order to
add and contribute value to that particular
post. |
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If you come across a popular
thread and do not know the answer, then you can
also do some research, find the answer and then
post it on that thread, but in your own words of
course.
For example, if a question is posted on a forum
concerning which digital camera is best to use
for macro-close up pictures then you can review
your digital camera comparison charts to see
which cameras offer the best macro capabilities
with high resolution. Then you can recommend the
best camera to the poster along with a few other
recommendations as well.
However, as much as you would like to have that
person buy the camera from your website you can
not try to sell them by letting them know that
you sell that camera on your online store. They
will figure it out soon enough.
In the mean time, your goal is to help them by
answering the questions you are able to answer
with an educated and informational response, yet
without asking for anything in return.
It is your ending signature file that will cause
those readers to visit your website, and not the
content within your post. (More on signature
files below) |
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How to post
effectively
The best way to get people to click on your link
to visit your website is to post short, yet high
quality answers, responses, and solutions to
people’s questions, comments and concerns.
An effective post should address and answer the
original post with clear, precise and detailed
information on the solution to their concerns.
Your post should be able to impress the reader
enough to make him or her want to click on your
link at the end of your post to find out more
about you, your website and the products you
offer.
By providing solutions to other peoples problems
and adding valuable information to forum threads
then you are in effect providing an effective
post and therefore contributing in a positive
manner.
If you’re going to start a thread on your own
then be sure to post valuable information such
as the announcement and discussion of new, up
and coming products or new technology for
example.
However, it’s always best to simply answer
questions and provide solutions for problems
than it is to start new threads on your own. And
by doing so, you add value to the community and
establish yourself as an expert in the field as
well. And this will be more than enough to
persuade readers to click on your signature file
link at the end of your post.
After you have posted a response to a current
thread, an email is automatically sent to all
forum readers who have requested to be notified
once a message has been posted in response to
that thread.
This in turn brings instant traffic to your post
and can bring traffic to your website as well.
(As long as your post adds value to the thread
and is not a sales pitch then readers are more
likely to click on your signature file link.)
Furthermore, you too will receive an email
notification once other forum members have
posted a message to that thread and your own
post as well and this is the best time to add
more value to the thread by continuing to post
valuable responses when the thread is most
active. |
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More tips for
effective posting
When reading discussion topics, be sure to read
the rest of the thread to see what others have
posted before posting your message, otherwise,
you may end up repeating what someone else has
posted, and may be in error in the matter as
well.
There may be times where you may have to do some
quick research on the topic before posting in
order to post a more accurate and educated
response.
Remember, the goal is to impress the readers
with your post and to establish yourself as a
professional in your field.
Furthermore, you can learn from others as well
just by reading their posts.
There may be plenty
of readers and forum members who are experts in
the field and participate in discussions just
for fun or to kill time.
And before posting your message, it’s important
to run a complete spell check for spelling
errors and grammar as well. It’s important to
leave a good impression the first time and typos
become a sure way to draw criticism to your
post, no matter how good it is.
Therefore before posting, be sure to check your
grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Re-read your
post before posting it no matter how short or
how long it is in order to avoid criticism and a
loss of credibility in the matter.
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Ethics for discussion forum marketing
It’s important to remember
that you can not post sales type postings to
discussion forums. Advertising and promoting
products on forums are the best ways to get the
forum moderators to close your account and label
your business as spammers. Even if your sales pitch
includes valuable product or industry
information, if it contains the slightest form
of sales talk or appears to be an advertisement
then most likely your post will be deleted and
you will be seen as a spammer and not as a
positive contribution to the community.
This is your reputation
we’re speaking of, and it’s important not to
damage your reputation on forums where hundreds
if not thousands of readers and potential
customers will see your post and business name
daily. It’s also important to
refrain from letting readers know that your
online store offers the products they’re
referring to in their post as doing so will be
seen as blatant sales and advertising. (They’ll
see soon enough what your website has to offer
but not by you telling them so.)
When posting a response,
do not use terminology that can be viewed and
considered as selling terms or advertising. All
it takes is one reader to identify your post as
a sales letter and they’ll be more than happy to
report you and expose you on the matter and make
you look bad in the process.
It’s important to present
yourself as a knowledgeable professional in your
field and not as a retailer for your products.
Forum readers must see you as an employee or
owner of the store who is just participating on
the forums simply because you enjoy the topic
and have valuable expertise to contribute to the
community.
However, just to be clear,
your main objective is indeed to market your
website but to do so you must present your
website in a careful and subtle manner. And
before you do so, you must give the reader some
value first before they can consider clicking on
your signature file link.
Your actual post should
consist of helpful, valuable and educational
information only without asking for anything in
return. Your signature file however, is going to
do all the selling for you. |
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The signature file
You signature file will be inserted at the end
of your post and is what the reader will see
when they’re done reading your message. This is
why it’s important to post short, yet valuable
reading material so that the reader will
continue reading till the end of your post to
find your signature file at the end.
Your signature file will consist of:
-Your name
-Your business name
-Your business website
-Slogan/description (which includes your most
important keywords)
-(email address is optional)
You can add your email address to your signature
file but your main goal is to get the reader to
click on your website link and not on your email
address. For example, your signature file can
read as follows:
George Robinson
XL DigitalCameras
wwwXLDigitalCameras.com
Digital Cameras, Accessories and More
It’s important to keep your signature file short
and right to the point or the moderators may
shorten it for you. |
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Your name, website address
and a short slogan may be sufficient to entice
the reader to click on your link. For example, a
short signature file can read as follows:
George Robinson
wwwXLDigitalCameras.com
Digital Cameras and More
NOTE: Do not to add a sales pitch or use sales
terminology in the slogan on your signature file
as this can be seen as blatant advertisement and
may be removed by the moderators as well.
Most forum systems will link your slogan to your
website in which now your slogan becomes your
link title. And this is another reason why it’s
important to place your most important keywords
in your slogan as well as search engines scan
forum topics daily.
The more post you make, then the more your
signature file will be seen. And the more
readers who see your signature file then the
more visitors your website will receive. And
more traffic means more sales.
Participating in discussion forums can be a
great way to give back to the community and
create more customer awareness as well. It is a
highly effective marketing strategy that works.
And best of all, you can do it yourself for
free. |
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