1. Pay attention which forums you are joining. This would seem like common sense, yet it is amazing how many people are hanging out in forums that really are not going and make them any money.
The best thing you can do is find one or two forums that would have a need for your primary product and join those.
2. Spend the majority of your time in just one or two forums until you build up some credibility. There really is no since joining five or 10 discussion forums and only making a post or two per day in them.
If you would find forums that match the theme of your business, and then hang out there for awhile, you'll be amazed at how much better off you are.
3. Don't go for volume when it comes to posting, but rather go for quality. What we mean by that is take your time and write some really good responses that have some meat to them. These might even be several paragraphs long.
You almost instantly will be recognized as somebody who adds value to the discussion. The flip side to that is someone who makes useless posts that don't really add anything.
If you're adding quality to the discussion you will find you are getting quality visitors coming to your website. It is well worth the time to approach your forum posting this way.
4. Always be respectful of the other people in the forum. Never spam your posts with blatant advertising. Also never go out of your way to knock another forum member. That seems rude and really does not gain you much in the way of credibility.
5. Create a signature file that is very precise and easy to read. Almost consider it a short classified ad and remember that the goal of your signature file is to get the click to your website, landing page, or blog.
These are five shortcuts that will make your forum marketing efforts pay off much quicker for you. Forum marketing is an excellent way to build your business as well as learn things yourself when you do it correctly.
