In my last post about "˜making money online', I briefly touched on joining forums to increase your knowledge of a topic. There is another great benefit to joining forum and that is getting traffic to your site or sites.
I am a member of 5 forums:
Steve Pavlina "“ The guy who started me blogging. I am not really active in this forum and will need to make more of an effort but the conversations here are just brilliant.
Personal Development Partners "“ Another great forum set up by Aaron Potts of Today is that day. You'll not meet a friendlier bunch.
Warrior Forum "“ I am an active member here. This forum is all about making money online and newbie's are always welcome with open arms. This is a very busy forum with thousands of members.
Digital Point "“ A forum about all things internet. Another fantastic forum and always very busy with thousands of members.
Earn1Kaday "“ A great membership forum from Dennis Becker, which discusses ways to make money online. It is smaller but lots of great discussions with a hell of many great freebies and great information to get you started making money online. I was hesitant to pay a monthly membership fee, but it has already paid for itself for the next few months with the information I have received.
Your niche
Joining a forum in your niche will help you meet like-minded people and give you a plethora of ideas to help you along; whether it is your writing, help with your site, feedback on your blog or just networking.
I have met some great people on the forums and have spoken with them about various topics, which have helped me no end in my blogging, in my own personal development, and in my money-making ventures.
Traffic
When you sign up to a forum you are allowed a link in your signature box or most allow a few links. Put your blog link or website link in your signature box and become active in the forum.
Pretty soon, people will trust and respect what you have to say, unless you're saying all the wrong things and not following etiquette. Be a lurker for a while to get to know the forum etiquette and to get to know the people on the boards. Typically, there are many different discussions going on and each board on a forum has a different topic for example the Personal development partners forum has boards such as:
Introductions: introduce yourself here and receive a warm welcome
Books: Discussing the latest and best personal development books
Business & Entrepreneurship: all things business
Health and fitness:
Social Bookmarking/networking:
In addition, a host of other topics all under the same roof.
When people start to trust you they will start to click on the link in your signature box to check out your writing or your product. When this happens, they might comment on the forum about your blog, which means others will see the comments at the forum, and check it out. The more you participate the more this will happen which will mean more traffic for you.
Finding a forum
To find a forum in your niche simply go to google.com and type in your niche field name and tag on forum at the end of it. For example if i type in 'personal development forum ' I will find Steve Pavlina's forum at the top.
Participating in forums
The traffic should be of secondary importance to you and not the primary reason you join a forum. Participation is the name of the game here. When you join, participate as much as you can. Don't be shy about this and do your utmost to visit the forum once per day and join in the conversations there.
When you join a forum, you will gain knowledge from others who have been there and can offer you some great advice on anything and everything.
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