Forums Marketing

Forums marketing is a strong, reliable way to generate free leads, if you do it right.  Getting it wrong will not only greatly reduce or eliminate the number of leads you generate; it can also damage your reputation and ruin your personal brand.

The Wrong Way

Too many newbies rush to market forums with no real idea of how to do so effectively.  Instead, they blast their ill-conceived and poorly delivered message to the entire forum at every opportunity.  It is not long before they get a bad reputation on the forum and the other members will either start giving them strong negative feedback or simply ignore them all together.

The Right Way

The right way to approach forums marketing is to see the forums as an opportunity and venue where you can have meaningful conversations with colleagues in your industry and where you can provide valuable, original content.

Start By Doing … Nothing

The way to start is to find some forums that you think you might interest you and join a couple.  And then … nothing!

Just lurk for a while.  Get to know the forums rules, get a feel for the place and any unique points of netiquette the group demands.   You’ll also begin to get a feel for the people in the forum.  Are they really the type of people you want to hang out with?  Are their conversations interesting and informative to you?  If not, I suggest you move on.

Beginnng to Participate

When you are ready to participate, start slowly.  Find a couple of topics where you can contribute something unique and of value.  Don’t worry about being the best person there.  There will always be people who can learn from your experiences.  Just focus on making a contribution to the discussion.

Forums Marketing Unleashed

After a while, when you’ve established yourself on the forum and are ready to start marketing heavily, here’s what you do … nothing!  Just keep doing what you’ve been doing … only maybe do it more.

The most effective way to market to forums is to simply continue to provide value and become recognized as someone with something to contribute.  Be consistent.  A couple of posts daily to each of a couple of forums is the way to go.  Let your signature file do the marketing for you.  And be subtle even about that message.  “Join my business now” probably isn’t the right message.  “Go here for even more valuable content” is more like it.

Forums can be a great place to generate leads for your business and a great place to get to know industry leaders that you might never have met otherwise.  Learning how to conduct yourself, position yourself as an authority who is willing to contribute, and an effective, passive marketing message can make the difference between success and failure in forums marketing.

For more information on using forums marketing and other internet marketing techniques to explode your business, subscribe to my free, cutting edge “7-Day Internet Network Marketing Bootcamp.”  Simply fill out the form in the upper right hand column on this page and I’ll send you your first day’s installment immediately.

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