The effective use of forum web sites, can be an excellent way to get
your name recognized on the Internet, and to drive traffic to your
website.
Some people believe that they can just find and join a forum, and proceed to post a huge advertisement, and then sit back and wait for the massive amount of web traffic to hit their web site. Unfortunately it does not work like that.
Firstly, you need to find relevant forums for your niche market, i.e. Forums that have a theme similar or related to the general them of your web site. Secondly, you need to take the time to read the rules of the forum, and specifically as they relate to forums posts. To find forums use the search engine and look for forums and your keyword phrases. e.g. To find forums for car wholesalers, do a search for forum car wholesalers. Some forums will not allow you to post any form of blatant advertisement, others may allow a signature block at the end of the post that can point to a website, with maybe a brief description of your site, others may not even allow that.
I've seen other forums where you do not get a signature block until you have contributed to the forum by posting a number of times. This is to ensure that the quality of the content of the forum remains high and that people are not joining the forum purely to obtain a link to their web site, never to return again.
Once you've found a forum and signed up it's time to consider if you're going to be able to add value to the forum by posting. Do you have knowledge that can be used to help out other posters? Can you actually add decent content, and not just answer questions raised in forums posts with "Sounds like you need my affiliate-o-matic program, grab it from my website".
It should be recognized that you should be able to reply to posts without doing selling of any kind (although hopefully you selected a forum that allowed a signature block in your posts, so that at the bottom of each of your fabulous relevant, and expert, rich in wisdom posts, there is also a link for people to reach your website by a simple mouse click).
This signature should NOT be the focus of the post though; the focus of your posts is to actually help people by solving the particular problem or issue listed in the forum post. You will be amazed how quickly you can build up yourself as an expert in the forum, which adds immense believability and credibility to you on the forum, meaning people will start coming to you for help! A forum member who has read your posts, and has seen your demonstrated expertise in your niche market, will come to your website already pre-sold on your abilities. The other huge bonus is that forum posts usually get picked up by the search engines so that over time your answers will get into the search engine results, and low and behold there is a link to your website in them!
It is essential to make sure that the forums you post in a relevant to the particular niche market of the Internet you operate in. For example if you have answered questions in a gardening forum, and your signature at the bottom of each of your posts leads people to a sports site, you may be disappointed with the results, because the majority of forum readers would likely not be interested.
The search engines love relevancy, and you will find you will likely find the search engines will see your website as less relevant, than other sites that only have links from forums (and other sites) with related content. A relevant one way link to your website from another site (including forums) is far, far more valuable if both sites have related content and are based on a common theme.
Make sure you look into posting of forums to get a boost in visitors to your site. This is a very easy way to get free traffic on your web site.
About the Author:
Tim Buchalka describes a fantastic way to generate web traffic using the power of affiliate programs. Visit his site to obtain a free 20 chapter guide to web traffic.
Firstly, you need to find relevant forums for your niche market, i.e. Forums that have a theme similar or related to the general them of your web site. Secondly, you need to take the time to read the rules of the forum, and specifically as they relate to forums posts. To find forums use the search engine and look for forums and your keyword phrases. e.g. To find forums for car wholesalers, do a search for forum car wholesalers. Some forums will not allow you to post any form of blatant advertisement, others may allow a signature block at the end of the post that can point to a website, with maybe a brief description of your site, others may not even allow that.
I've seen other forums where you do not get a signature block until you have contributed to the forum by posting a number of times. This is to ensure that the quality of the content of the forum remains high and that people are not joining the forum purely to obtain a link to their web site, never to return again.
Once you've found a forum and signed up it's time to consider if you're going to be able to add value to the forum by posting. Do you have knowledge that can be used to help out other posters? Can you actually add decent content, and not just answer questions raised in forums posts with "Sounds like you need my affiliate-o-matic program, grab it from my website".
It should be recognized that you should be able to reply to posts without doing selling of any kind (although hopefully you selected a forum that allowed a signature block in your posts, so that at the bottom of each of your fabulous relevant, and expert, rich in wisdom posts, there is also a link for people to reach your website by a simple mouse click).
This signature should NOT be the focus of the post though; the focus of your posts is to actually help people by solving the particular problem or issue listed in the forum post. You will be amazed how quickly you can build up yourself as an expert in the forum, which adds immense believability and credibility to you on the forum, meaning people will start coming to you for help! A forum member who has read your posts, and has seen your demonstrated expertise in your niche market, will come to your website already pre-sold on your abilities. The other huge bonus is that forum posts usually get picked up by the search engines so that over time your answers will get into the search engine results, and low and behold there is a link to your website in them!
It is essential to make sure that the forums you post in a relevant to the particular niche market of the Internet you operate in. For example if you have answered questions in a gardening forum, and your signature at the bottom of each of your posts leads people to a sports site, you may be disappointed with the results, because the majority of forum readers would likely not be interested.
The search engines love relevancy, and you will find you will likely find the search engines will see your website as less relevant, than other sites that only have links from forums (and other sites) with related content. A relevant one way link to your website from another site (including forums) is far, far more valuable if both sites have related content and are based on a common theme.
Make sure you look into posting of forums to get a boost in visitors to your site. This is a very easy way to get free traffic on your web site.
About the Author:
Tim Buchalka describes a fantastic way to generate web traffic using the power of affiliate programs. Visit his site to obtain a free 20 chapter guide to web traffic.
