Abundance 2

sunwest · Thu Dec 07, 2006 5:52 pm Getting the Most from your Forum Membership

Forums are rapidly becoming a great media for getting recognized on the Internet. But a lot of newcomers to the
world of Internet marketing are somewhat ignorant of how to use forums to get their message out. Many people
view a forum as a great way to advertise their business without investing any money.

Free ad forums are the rage right now, we belong to dozens of them, and obviously have some of our own. But
let's explore how to use your forum membership to the best advantage.

First of all lets look at how you use your forum membership. If you joined multiple forums just to post your
random advertisement, and then moved on to something else, you have wasted your time. Why? Because if
someone on that forum wanted to buy your item or service they probably would like to know from whom they
were buying. If you're not a nationally known company with an impeccable reputation, you already know how
tough it is to make a sale.

The proper way to become a valued and recognized member of any forum is to look for the Introduction section
of the forum. Every forum has one, it may be called something different, but it's there. Look for it and introduce
yourself before you go off merrily posting in every available category. It doesn't have to be a life history thing,
a couple of lines about where you live and how long you have been active on the Internet will usually suffice. Now
you have put your foot in the door, so to speak, and the forum has accepted you as a person, not a bunch of
random ads.

But now that you've become known, how do you get your money's worth from your membership? Yes, now you
can post all those great offers you have and sit back and wait for the orders to start rollling in. Right? Wrong!

You may have read about how forums can add links back to your site, thereby helping your site gain more
recognition. This is true in a sense, but you need to work the system to make the system work for you. Every
forum permits you to add a signature to your postings. You can use this signature to your advantage by creating
a small ad, or by just making a link or links to your sites. Many forums have a 255 character limit to the signature,
so you need to get creative here. Find a keyword phrase that you would like to rank well for in the search engines
and use this as the 'anchor text' in your website link. That means if you want to rank well for a term such
as 'All-American Widgets' - then you would type that into your signature and have that link to your website.

OK, you should have the idea by now. But there is one other important thing to remember. Now that you have
joined the forum, introduced yourself, and posted a few ads, you need to participate. You can do this by
welcoming to new members to the forum, and generally getting involved in other discussions on the forum.

Ok, you've got the idea, now go out and join those forums and get active.

christevens1000 · Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:02 am

Good post Bob Thanks

hookey22 · Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:59 pm

Thanks for the article!