Cash the Web

Posts Tagged ‘forum’

There is no doubt about the fact that Forum posting works when it comes to driving traffic to a site. On many occasions, I have successfully used posting to forums to gain exposure to my affiliate landing page, squeeze page, sales page, etc.

I tell you, if you’re really smart, the goal of every forum post you make is to get as many people to subscribe to your list! Posting to forums is a very fast and powerful way to build your base of subscribers in as little as 30 minutes. Below is a step-by-step guide:

Step 1 – Find Forums About Your Niche Very Easily

Just Google the following:

+”your niche” +forum

or

+“your niche”+”discussion board”

For instance, if I am looking for Forums in the Internet Marketing field, I type +”Internet Marketing”+forum. The results show the top Internet marketing Forums.

Step 2 – Join the Forums and Set Up Your Signature

Remember to include your website address in your signature. Signature is another name for your resource box. Your resource box is just like an ‘about the author info’. This appears at the end of every post you make and drives traffic to your website.

Step 3 – Read the Rules and Regulations of the Forum before Posting

This ensures that your posts are not deleted by the Administrators of the Forum. Now, don’t go about spamming all members of the Forum with your website advert. In fact, I will advise you not to post an obvious ad. It’s a pure waste of time because it will be deleted.

So, what’s next?

Step 4 – Ask for Input

Approach from a weak man’s position. Assuming you’ve written an article on your site entitled “13 Ways to Drive Traffic to a New Site.” You could make a post asking folks to check out the article and see if you missed anything. Or you can ask for additional points to add to your article. Of course you’ll have your opt in box at the end of the article with a compelling offering.

Let’s say you’ve written an article on meeting the right partner. You could post a message like this: “If you had a chance to learn how to meet your right partner now, what would you do?”

It’s a great way to get the attention of forum members to your article. You also get them engaged in the article by asking for their input. And who knows, you may also get other publishers who would use your content in their ezines, thereby getting more exposure for your site.

Step 5 – Ask for a Critical Assessment

If you are the type that is not easily hurt by honest feedback even when it hurts, you can go to a forum and ask for a honest critique. You may think this will not make people sign up for your list, but I tell you, many people will end up subscribing to it. It’s a more indirect and acceptable way to ask people to check out your site without blatant advertising.

Plus, the feedback they give you may help to make your squeeze page even more compelling. Ask them if it would persuade them to give it a try, assuming they were in your target market (of course, you already know they are by the forum you selected). And, if they say no, ask them why. You can get valuable information on what they want (and don’t want) this way.

There are two types of forums where you should ask for critiques: the niche forum itself and a marketing forum. You’ll likely get more sign-ups from the niche forum and good advice to test out from the marketing forum (although you’ll get some opt-ins there as well).

Step 6 – Ask Your Target Market What They Want

Unknown to most people; this is one of the best ways to develop products and services. And most times, Forum members are ready to tell you what they’ll buy and give you ideas for articles, auto-responder content and your blog posts, whatever you need. People guess the products their target market will want and create them only to discover no one is interested in the product, but with this approach, you have real people telling you what product they want, how they want it and how much they are prepared to pay for it.

The way you would use this technique to get them to subscribe is to post something like, “what’s your biggest question about loosing weight?” Or “what’s the single most important thing you’d like to know about building a business?”

Don’t forget to ask if they’re willing to pay for solutions to their problems and have them give you an indication of how much they would be willing to pay. Powerful stuff!

Let them know you’ve already answered 10 questions (your 10 step mini-course loaded in your auto-responder), for example. Then they’ll be more likely to sign-up. Make sure you point out that you’ll add to your mini-course with the answers to the questions they’ve provided, and that they’ll get answers to the existing questions in your mini-course PLUS the new ones when they subscribe. Everybody wins!

Step 7 – Provide a Step-By-Step Guide or Video Tutorial

If someone asks how to create an eBook, give them a progression of steps they can take. Or, make a tutorial video showing them how. Now that you’ve got them to your site, you’ll want to “make them a proposal they can’t refuse.”

Provide a List of Resources and Websites

In addition to checklists, resource lists with website URLs make a great site for them to bookmark! Make sure you supply more than just links. Make it a huge info-page of information. A collection of resources, links to everything you have – articles, video, audio, your blog, other useful sites, tools, you name it.

Solve a Problem for People

If someone asks for help or asks a question, provide your experience and try to help them. But to maximize your odds of getting both the asker of the question and everyone else who reads the post to subscribe to your list, try to phrase your answer in one of the following two ways:

1. Give them tips, techniques, shortcuts, secrets, or anything that offers both the promise of exclusive information and fast results. A shortcut to success.

2. Whenever possible, supply them with specific results. Think about it. When you want to learn how to make income online, you go to someone who is making revenue online to guide you. This quickly establishes you as an authority in that area.

And by helping them, maybe – just maybe – they’ll click on the link in your signature to check out your website. If you direct them to a blog post or article you wrote to answer their question, they’ll be even more likely to investigate.

That’s all there is to it but at the end of the day, it’s a failure-proof way to drive serious traffic to your website using Forum Posts. Apply it and see your traffic soar through the roof. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

This is often an underutilized strategy but it works very well. It’s also a great way to promote your link within the “World Wide Web “ or one way links.

It works because it gets you and your website known. You do this by finding forums that relate to your website topic and post questions or comments, answer questions or post your articles.

This does two things for you. It gets your name and website out there and it helps create you as an authority, hopefully because you’re answering questions and making comments that help and support people. They’ll really appreciate that! If you look like you know what you’re talking about, people will be interested in finding out about you. Who you are and how you can further help them.

How to Use Forums

Create a simple signature that includes your name and your website address. Most forums will provide this feature. Set it up so that it will automatically be included when you make a post to the forum. Keep in mind that not all forums allow you to include your website link address to your signature. Some of them, in fact, will dismember you if you add your website link to your signature. They consider it advertising and don’t like it.

There are also forums that will require you to make a number of posts first before allowing you to include your site link. So it may take a few tries to find the right forums. Read the forum guidelines before posting, this will give you an idea of whether or not it’s a forum worthwhile posting to.

What you should not do, don’t post to forums to simply advertise your website. Posting things like “Nice forum” or “Love your posts” and attaching your website are considered spamming and you will be banned.
The real purpose of posting to forums is to provide useful information for everyone to experience. Spamming them for the purpose of promoting your website isn’t helpful to you or anyone else and it won’t help your credibility either.

If you respond intelligently to questions, offer suggestions and ideas, post your articles and offer support you’re likely to generate more traffic because viewers will trust and remember you.

If you find a forum you like, see if they need any moderators. A moderator will basically moderate comments and make sure entries on the forum follow the specific guidelines of that forum. This may take logging into the forum every day, maybe even a few times a day but you don’t have to do it forever and it will give you some good air time and exposure.

When you find 4 or 5 of forums that you can post to with your signature and website included, add them to your desktop and while you’re watching TV or have a little free time, go into the forum, answer or post a few questions and you’re done. It takes about 20 minutes. Do this 3 or 4 times a week and you’ll begin to see some real traffic and interest.

How to Find Forums

In your favorite search engine, type in your topic followed by the word ‘forum’. Here’s an example: “Childcare forum” or “Internet marketing forum” Be sure to use the quotes.

Remember, the more the traffic you get to your site the more chance of success in make money online!

Create a Forum to increase your traffic and make money online!

Creating a forum requires a little more monitoring than a blog or website; however it allows you to network with other businesses and exchange business tips, ideas, strategies, advertising, etc.

You could use the forum to start an online class, provide free tutorial and tips, and respond to your visitors inquiries. You’ll soon notice that your visitors will begin to trust you, meaning your visitors look a bit more seriously at your products and offers.

Forums are also a great place for sparking discussion on specific topics. It gives your viewers the opportunity to participate in debates, offering opinions or providing support. This method can gain you a steady stream of free massive traffic, and you could create additional income by displaying pay-per-click ads like Google AdSense or even offer advertising space on your forum.

You’ll also get a good feeling of what your visitors are looking for. You can even post inquiries for questions you want to know about products, services or whatever you need to know to enhance your business. The feedback you receive could be invaluable.

You can use a forum to provide after sale support to your customers by including a section that covers common customer questions. By posting customer questions and answers, your customers will get instant answers and you’ll increase your customer satisfaction tenfold.

…and the best part of all, creating a forum is free and the traffic you’ll receive is priceless.