Generating Website Traffic Through Forum Marketing

Sharing and promoting your business ideas on discussion forums is one of the marketing ways of generating targeted traffic to your web sites.

So what really is forum marketing?

Forum marketing is a form of internet marketing strategy based upon the utilization of discussion forums and/or communities boards.

Marketing your products, services, or ideas in discussion forums is a great way to drive traffic to your website, though it is definitely not an overnight formula. To begin your forum marketing campaign, you need to Google search for forums that will offer you the best target market for your content. Browse through those forums, and also make sure that the forum is rich with members and contents as this will boost your image and credibility quickly because most forum members are also respected experts and bloggers in the specific topics discussed in the forum. But do not waste much of your time going through the entire forums in your search results to avoid getting sucked in!

Once you have selected a minimum of your best 5 forums, sign up with them and update your profile. All forums have what we call either a signature, resource, or bio box. Your signature box is a tool to promote you and your website or personal brand. Do not forget to include your web site link in your signature box, which can be used to gain unlimited visitors to your website. Remember, the people who read your forum posts will want to read more about who you are or the topic that you have written about, so be sure to include your web site link in your signature box.

After signing up, verifying your account (if necessary), start by introducing yourself to other members of the forum. Most forums are divided into categories or sections. Browse through the category where your information will best fit in and then offer answers or suggestions to questions on some of the posts. Forum marketing is dependent upon building relationships first with some members and readers of the forum, rather than focusing on a quick one-time advert. DO NOT blatantly advertise your website or business opportunity on your first forum post. You need to create a little reputation first, before advertising your business for effective results.

Most major forums have rules that are strictly monitored by the forum administrators and if you consistently go against their forum rules, you face the risk of getting banned. Also if you post your content on a wrong section or category on the forum, it might be deleted or moved. So before posting your content, make sure you are on the right section for it.

Most internet users probably do not know that forums are frequently crawled and indexed by search engines. This is why it is very necessary to draft a good headline or title to match with its contents so that the search engine crawler will be able to recognize the keywords for your contents. This leads to your forum posts and website link being visible and ranking high on search engines.

Back in the days, I built my first network marketing team (FortuneBuilders ITG Team) using forums, irrespective of the fact that I had no website of my own then and knew nothing about social media networks. It was a huge success. I used over 30 major forums at the same time and was very consistent with my effort. Today I still use forums and I am currently creating my own forum – FortuneBuildersTeam Forum, you can sign up and then get notified when the forum will be launched. The first 100 members to sign up stand the chance of having administrative right to some categories of the forum. The FortuneBuildersTeam Forum will be the HUB of Internet Marketing, Network Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Web Sites Designing, and Money Making Information.