PARTICIPATE at Forums

Regardless of what niche you’re in, posting on forums can be an excellent way to drive traffic to your blog.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re using your blog to give people marketing tips or tell them how to buy a car, there’s a forum for you!

If you’re willing to find those forums and follow the five steps I’m going outline, your blog will benefit richly.

Step #1: Pick Forums

Before you do anything else, you should head to http://www.big-boards.com and construct a list of promising forums. Use the “browse” feature to locate forums that fall within your niche or that are related to your niche.

As you go through this process, you may want to open up a spreadsheet to keep track of your findings. You should make note of these details for each forum:

•    URL (address of the forum)
•    the primary focus of the forum
•    the total post number
•    the total member count

These numbers are all listed on Big Boards.

Tip: Optionally, you may also go to http://www.alexa.com to look up traffic statistics for each forum.

In addition to collecting hard data on each forum, you will also want to visit each of the ones you’ve added to your list.

At a first glance, see what you can learn about the general demeanor of the forum; and also try to discern how active it is. In general, you will want to focus on forums where people are generally positive and helpful; and where there is a high-degree of participation.
Finally, using both your spreadsheet data and the notes you’ve jotted down about each forum, decide which ones you’ll visit regularly and post on.

Tip: As a general rule of thumb, it is better to concentrate on a few very good forums, rather than spreading yourself thin over many.

Step #2: Create a Signature File

Once you’ve selected a number of forums to post on regularly, you must next create a signature file to use on each of them.

The idea here is to use something interesting or intriguing to draw the attention of other forum browsers and to then redirect them to your blog.

Usually, a signature file is between one and five lines of text and is accompanied by a link. Some forums will permit you to use different colors and fonts.

Note: Some forums have strict rules on the total number of lines, color use, etc. Be sure to check the signature rules of each forum first.

What you place in your signature file is ultimately up to your own discretion; however, I suggest that you keep it professional, but make sure you surround your link with some intriguing text, so that viewers will be encouraged to read your blog.

Tip: What will you put in your signature to promote your blog? There are a few options:

•    Latest blog post’s title
•    One of the most popular blog post’s title
•    Title and slogan (if any) of your blog

Step #3: Post, Post, and Post Again!

You’ve now selected forums and have created signature files. Getting traffic is now a product of two things:

1) Building a reputation on those forums.

2) Getting people on those forums to view your signature file as frequently as possible.

The first part will only come from a concerted effort to provide valuable content for forum members.

This means that you will NOT ONLY have to post frequently, but you will also have to provide high-quality, detailed information that others can use constructively. It also means that you should avoid bickering, complaining, or entering into a flame war that could make you seem amateurish or unstable.

In short, maintain an effort to both increase your post count and increase your post quality continuously. These two things will ensure that you become a respected member of the forum.

Step #4: Consider Becoming a Moderator

If you get the chance to become a moderator on a respected forum, do it.

There may be a few situations in which this isn’t a good idea, but overwhelmingly, it will be.

Forum visitors pay attention to and respect people who are moderators. And when they observe moderators participating and posting, they are far more likely to want to learn more about them – perhaps by following a signature file to their blog.

Step #5: Track Your Results

As with all things in marketing, your prospects of success are poor if you don’t know what works and what doesn’t. This holds true here, too.

If you don’t know which forums are driving traffic to your blog, then you don’t how best to use your time. You may be spending a great deal of time on one particular forum, thinking that it is giving you results, but in fact, your traffic is coming from somewhere else.

This is why it is important to pay attention to the traffic statistics on your blog, so that you can determine where your traffic is coming from; and concentrate your efforts there.

Conclusion

Participating in forums is a great way to grow the ranks of your blog subscribers, visitors, and commenters. Just remember to create an attractive, compelling signature file, and to follow the basic guidelines I’ve outlined here.

Related Blogging Articles

• Forum Posting Tips (lazerpromotions.com)
• 5 Secrets to Promote Your Site Via Forum (shoutmeloud.com)
• Forum Marketing Strategy: How To Promote Your Site Through Online Forums (masternewmedia.org)
• Writing A Perfect Forum Signature (tlmarketing.net)
• Web Traffic Tips: Forum Marketing (internetmarketingformommies.com)