For the online marketer, forum marketing is one of the simplest and most effective investments of time and attention available. It's something that can be done in any niche by any one. Some products or services will have better forum representation but most will have some.
You'll even hear about many marketers who simply skip this marketing method. However, it can help you meet many of your goals as an Internet marketer.
Anytime you do a particular marketing method online, it is good to have some background knowledge on the method itself. You won't know the benefits of online forum marketing unless you understand its benefits beforehand. You will be interacting with people on the forums, some of which will have businesses that you actually can network with. This type of marketing is about building strong relationships with these people and businesses, which goes far beyond typical networking. As you'll see when you start posting on the forums, the latter (relationship building) is to key component of it all. Using forums for business reasons entails a different approach in which you build your brand. And while gaining exposure, your brand name will soar, but only if you offer exceptional value for what you have to offer. If you offer so much value that people won't forget, your reputation will grow leaps and bounds on the forum. There are several things that you need to consider when you go to a forum your very first time. You should look see post for some things before ever deciding to join. Since your primary purpose is to market your products and services, a few things need to be known. Consider the fact that most forum owners are not very fond of IMers in general. This is something that will probably not occur if the owner is not very fond of IMers like yourself. You can sometimes find that out by reading the forum rules. More than likely, if there are not any links or signatures at the bottom of each post, then probably not. A good portion of forums frown upon direct marketing in forum posts to begin with. Should a forum owner allow this to get out of control, the forum would turn into an advertising website, which is not what most of them want to have happen.
Some people in forums start threads all the time. Sometimes, excess can be a negative thing when it comes to starting new threads. So, even if you have a lot of great ideas for threads, spread them out over time.
Also remember to post on the other threads. Human nature is the rule of the day when it comes to using forums. But on the other hand, you cannot respond or live your life according to what everybody else thinks you should do. There are plenty of 'gray' areas to consider when using forum marketing. If you really want to make a positive impression, find different ways to share your knowledge.
You can make your forum marketing efforts pay off in as little as one hour per day; five days per week-no matter how many forums you're targeting. You won't find many ways to get a higher ROI for your time than this. Internet marketing can have a lot of ups and downs if you don't diversify your efforts a great deal.