A few things you will be doing to effectively use forums and comments to generate traffic, build relationships, and grow your brand awareness. This method is not going to be magic and automatic. This is not a one where you just put in a link and it automatically buyers start showing up. What you’re doing with this method is you are establishing yourself as an authority and basically giving people a reason to want to come to your site. 9 out of 10 times you’re going to find relevant forums. You’re going to set up a forum profile. After that, start contributing to the forum to set yourself up as an expert. You’re going to use a signature file and you’re not going to be selling directly. The key will be to be consistent and to develop relationships.
Now let’s take a look at what it looks like if you were to look for your niche. Now, in this particular case, what we’re going to do is we’re going to pretend that we are looking at model airplanes as a forum or as a, as a niche. In this example here, I’ve gone to Google and I’ve typed in model airplanes. I’ve looked up the word forums, and you’ll see that there are a number of forums here that you can join. Now, remember, you’re looking for a forum where you can exercise some influence. Now what we’re going to come back to is you eventually really want to be an authority in your niche. Now you notice that there are discussion forums here. What you want to find out is whether or not are these forums. You want to find out if these are forms that were number one, you can participate as a contributor, and number two, if you can have a signature make sure you create one for that forum. Not a lot of posters have a signature there. This may not be one that you want to be a part of. Although one of the interesting things is you know, as a contributor you will be able to put certain links in the forum, but you’re not going to be able to sell with a link in your signature.
You’re looking for one or two forms to participate in because you don’t want to dilute yourself by having too many. This is NOT about link building. This is about finding the right forum for you to participate in and get traffic back to your site. This is a traffic strategy and not a linking strategy. You’re going to find a relevant forum. You’ll see. That’s what we did. You’re going to set up a forum profile where you’re going to be able to put your link in your signature because you want other people to see your contribution and then go back to your site.
You’re setting yourself up as an expert there. You want to use your signature file and have a place where you can put a link in your signature. If the form doesn’t allow you to do that, you probably aren’t going to spend a whole lot of time there. You’re not going to be selling directly, but you’re going to be contributing to the forum. You want to be consistent in your contribution to develop relationships inside of that forum. We’re going to take a look at one more thing here. I’m going to show you a couple of other places where you can find some forums.
You would use whatever your search parameters, plus there is a place to search for forums called omgili.com. Put in your search parameters, and this will show you some of the various places where these discussions are taking place. In this particular example, these are going to be you traditional search based forms. Again, what you’re looking for is you are looking for a place where you can contribute and allows for a website address in your signature that people will see your contribution and compelling them to visit your site.
Well said. Forums are a powerful traffic tool that is often neglected nowadays. Many think that forums are dead. On the contrary, they are here to stay. And they will be around long after the mainstream social media platforms die.
Leveraging the forums for your blog/money site traffic is an important thing. Thanks for sharing how to go about it.