Hi Tony here, hopefully your online activities are paying off and your business is growing, certainly for me it’s an ongoing work in progress which we keep working at. And you know the old idea of “little & Often” is pretty true, get yourself a plan, put the hours in and most importantly stick with it. I personally have seen so many people just let it slip away just before success knocks at their door – make sure you’re not one of them. Anyway moving on to what forums can do for your business.

Forums offer a great resource for getting the word out about your online business.  When you make a post or start a thread, you get a back link.  This increases your site’s value in Google’s eyes.  It also gets you real, organic traffic.  People will see you as a friendly and credible source of information; then, they’ll naturally click on the link to see what else you’ve got to offer.

Here are 4 tips for getting the most out of your forum posting strategy.

1.  Read and Understand the Rules

Most of the time, popular forums are moderated by administrators who enforce the rules.  If you break the rules, you can get banned.  That’s not good.  If you take the time to read the rules, you can quickly become familiar with most customs on other popular forums.  They typically follow a pattern of treating others with respect and sharing information in a helpful manner.

2.  Introduce Yourself

Administrators are always on the lookout for someone joining their forum simply to blast a bunch of back links.  It may be tempting to go in there and post tons of short messages as quickly as possible.  However, don’t do it.  Many times, that will get you banned.

The very first thing you should do is introduce yourself.  There is usually a sub-forum for introducing new members.  Go in there and tell people a bit about yourself.  You can say where you’re from, why you joined, and what you hope to do there.  Be genuine, and you’ll find that most popular forums welcome you with a warm reception.  It also gives you a chance to get a feel for how new members are welcomed in general.  You’ll most likely want to join a forum that generally carries a good attitude.

3.  Contribute

If you have knowledge or can help in any way, seek to contribute to the forum as soon as possible.  While back links help boost your ratings on Google, remember you can still get customers visiting your website directly from the forum.  Nothing grabs attention as well as a post that contributes something meaningful.  Make certain your level of expertise is authentic.  True experts can smell a bluffing amateur a mile away.  However, don’t ignore your life experience.  Chances are, you’ve learned some lessons along the way.  Other people may just now be learning what seems like common knowledge to you.

4.  Educate Yourself

Likewise, don’t be afraid to ask questions.  There are plenty of people who can help you.  Just like you, they want the opportunity to help someone else to demonstrate their expertise.  If you truly need help in some area, ask.  Try to ask detailed and specific questions.  It’s normally best to read the FAQ first.  You don’t want to ask a question that gets asked so much it had to be put in the FAQ.  Try to make your questions call upon expert answers for help.

Establish yourself, as a friendly and reliable source of information on the forums you’ve chosen, and people will naturally want to learn more.  You don’t have to promote your business; just participate and have fun.  The traffic will come rolling in!

To your future!

Tony

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