A Fast Free Way to Advertise Online

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One of the fastest ways to begin advertising online is by posting on forums or group message boards. You can advertise your own websites or you can advertise affiliate products.  There is a certain finesse to posting on forums and several steps that must be taken before using forums to advertise.

First of all, keep in mind that a niche market is a group of people who are all searching online for a solution to a specific problem, but are not finding many useful results. This is where you come in with a solution to their problem. It is important to only post on forums and message boards that are relevant to your specific area of expertise.

To find forums, groups and message boards that are related to your chosen niche, you can begin by searching for them by using your favorite search engine. Type into the search box:

“forum: YOUR KEYWORD”

The search engines will bring up hundreds of forums that are related to your key words and your specific niche. There are also forum directory sites that list forums and message boards in every conceivable topic.

Links to a Few Forum Directories

http://directory.big-boards.com/

http://www.forumvirus.com/

http://forum-directories.com/

Read the TOS of the Forums You Find

Prior to joining any of these platforms, be sure that you are allowed to leave links in your signature. You will need to read their TOS (Terms of Service). If you can not leave links, then don’t join it. Move on to another one that does allow it. Many, but not all, do not allow affiliate links in the signature. Try to find forums that allow both.

Here is the Key….

Your links should link to something other than an affiliate page. They should be linked to a page you created to pre-sell an affiliate product, or to an autoresponder squeeze page that is used to capture email addresses, by giving something away as an enticement to join your list. The links usually, but not always, have to be linked to your own platform, be it a website, a blog, a Squidoo lens or a HubPage.

You would set your links up in your profile section of the forum you have joined by using BBC code instead of HTML coding. It would look like this:

[url="http://www.yourawesomedomainname.com"]Your Link Text Title[/url].

Before joining a forum find out how many active members the forum has. Avoid groups that only have a few hundred people as members, as you will only be wasting your time. They just won’t bring in much business. You want to find a large audience to see your post.

Next, take the list of forums you have found – that are both relevant to your topic and that allow affiliate, or commercial, links – and begin developing a reputation on those forums. Some forums will not allow signature files to new members. Some will require a certain amount of post before the signature file is approved.

The Correct Way to Advertise Using Forums

Once you have joined a few forums or groups, be a lurker for a little while and see what people’s interests are and what kind of questions they are asking. This will tell you exactly what people want to know. Become a “familiar face” by helping people. Answer questions when people need help – truthfully. If you don’t know the answer do not post! You want to post relevant, helpful and informative messages on an online discussion group that is targeting the audience you want to reach.  Remember that you are building a reputation.

A word of caution: DO NOT promote the report or product directly in your post, it may violate the spirit and the rules of the forum – and brand you as a pushy marketer or spammer instead of a helpful friend. Many forums do not allow it anyway and will delete your post.

DO NOT SPAM the forums!

You can’t just start a thread, nor do you want to post on a thread, with some nonsense just to get your signature links seen. This is called spamming and the forums will ban you for doing this.

Begin by helping out other forum posters. You never want to leave a post that just says “I agree” or “Good point” or some other benign statement just to get your links seen. This is also considered spamming. Be helpful by offering your expertise to questions that other posters may be asking.

I am a moderator on one Internet Marketing forum and nothing is more aggravating (well almost nothing – some ass trying to get away with posting porn is more aggravating) than having some moron hitting every single thread and posting “That’s nice” or “I agree” and nothing else, just to get his signature up for a backlink. As a moderator I just go right in and delete them all.

Post Often

Post regularly, but avoid meaningless fights and flaming. If someone leaves a nasty post in response to something you have said, just ignore it or be VERY kind in your response. NEVER retaliate immaturely. It only makes you look like the ass instead of the nasty person with the nasty message. Again, contribute useful, on-target information to discussions. In a matter of 1-2 weeks, you will have developed a reputation, provided that the forum receives a considerable amount of traffic

Last, be careful about adding loud and flashy graphics. You want to attract people, not scare them away. Add your signature in some attractive way that draws visitors attention, but is also likely to convert them into interested clickers.

In the end, you will find that this form of advertising pays off considerably, and does much faster than many other methods that are available online.

Remember to repeat this process in all applicable forums. Look for high traffic forums that allow commercial link posting in signature files and that also happen to fit your specific targeted audience.

Answer To: “How to Explode Traffic Using Forums?“

Here’s a Free Instant Download:

Quick and Easy Backlinks

Watch this Video – It’s an old one,about forum posting, but it’s pretty funny.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9q2jNjOPdk[/youtube]

Posting and You

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