Hi there and welcome back to more tips for getting your Internet marketing activities off to a flying start. Today we want to cover off using niche specific forums. Now I know for many beginners out there the idea of posting on forums can be daunting but read on & you’ll see its not difficult or complicated and believe me I we’ve found it a great way to establish ourselves – so here goes-give it a try….
Niche specific forums offer a great avenue for traffic and lead generation. Think about it – you’ve got one place that brings together lots of people with a common interest. The key to using niche specific forums effectively is to establish your presence as a helpful participating member and use that to build credibility and authority in your niche.
Finding Niche Specific Forums
It’s incredibly easy to find great forums. Just get onto Google and insert your niche’s name and ‘forums’ into its search field. Another option is to search for your niche and choose the ‘forums’ option on the left-hand menu. However in my personal experience, the first method is much more effective for finding good forums to join. Any good niche forum will be keyword optimized, so it’ll show up in the results.
If you want to find a lot of forums in your niche, you can try a forum directory like Big-Boards.com or BoardReader.com. On these sites, you just enter your niche and it gives you a huge list. It also gives you some stats for each forum. Don’t bother with PageRank or Alexa ranking; instead, look at its ‘user interaction’ stats. This will tell you if there are a lot of people actively using it or not.
It’s also a good idea to look for forums that your niche is part of. For example, if you’re selling treadmills, join weight loss forums. If your site is about worm farming, join organic farming forums. Brainstorm and make a list of all the different niches where your expertise will contribute.
Checking Out Forums
There are a few things to look for when you’re considering forums:
– Do they let you put a live link in the sig file? This is important because when people see your helpful comments, they can easily click on the link at the bottom in your sig file. If they have to navigate through your profile to find it, they’ll be less likely to check it out.
– Are they dofollow? Forums don’t have to be dofollow, but if you want the backlink benefit, make sure the forums you choose are. If they’re nofollow, they won’t get crawled by bots.
– Are there lots of users and are they participating? Forums usually tell you how many people are online. Check to see if there are lots of new threads, lots of users talking, and lots of new content (posts). There’s no point in hanging around in a dead forum.
– Read the rules. Every forum has its own rules about things like how soon you can PM, whether or not you can include URLs in your posts, and so on. Make sure you understand these rules before you make a profile, or it might end up being a waste of time.
How To Use Niche Specific Forums
First, make a profile and link it to your site and everything else you’ve got – your Facebook page, Twitter page, etc. Include in your profile a nice picture of yourself that doesn’t make you look like a serial killer or a giant head (get back from the camera!). Actually if you can, take a nice picture of you outside, smiling and looking like a helpful person that everybody would like to know.
Why is the picture so important? Because you need to be a nice, approachable human being on forums. It’s important to be real. You should also use either your real name or a pen name that looks real.
Most forums have an introductions thread. This is a place for everybody to say ‘hi’ and talk about their interest or involvement in the niche. Once your profile is finished, go to this thread and introduce yourself.
The next step is to get your post count up and start putting your name out there. Get into a daily or almost-daily routine of checking your forums, getting to know regular posters, and making posts. Remember that forums can be a major time waster, so decide exactly how much time you’re going to spend on your niche forums so you don’t take away from other tasks.
Here’s what you should be focusing on:
– Making friends and establishing contacts.
– Participating in discussions.
– Asking questions.
– Helping people – this should be number one.
Here are some things NOT to do:
– DON’T promote yourself, your site or your services. The value you offer on the forum, along with your general coolness and friendliness, will do your promoting for you.
– DON’T argue, flame, criticize or appear in any other way negative, even if some jerk is asking for it. Stay focused on the reason you’re here – to help people and build credibility.
Joining niche specific forums and participating in them will brand you and your site. It will establish you as an authority in your niche and create a good reputation for you online. If you do it right, it will bring you lots of traffic.
Tony
