One of the things that makes the Internet fun is all the message boards and forums. You can sound off about nearly anything, get and give advice, and even build a relationship or two.

But message boards can be great for another reason: They’re a free, effective place to market your business. You spend nothing but your time, but you make valuable connections with potential customers, and get your name out to members and guests alike.

With a link to your website included in your signature, you also can generate traffic. And, if those links are visible to guests, and the forum is indexed by search engines, those links may be counted by the spiders and improve your ranking.

Naturally, there are rules to follow if you want to effectively add forums to your marketing arsenal.

First of all, choose wisely. Keeping up to date with forum happenings takes time, and you want to make the most of it. So be sure you are posting on message boards that are visited by your prospects. You’ll also get the most benefit from boards that allow you to put a link to your website in your signature, and that make those signatures visible to guests as well as members.

Your signature should contain a link to your site, as well as a tag line. Be careful not to be too pushy in your signature. A quiet link and your USP are more effective than a blatant ad.

Nothing ruins a forum faster than a bunch of pushy, in-your-face ads trying to disguise themselves as posts. Make sure your posts are genuine additions to the conversation, not just commercials, or you’ll wind up doing yourself more harm than good. And you may even find yourself banned and your messages erased.

You’ll get more out of your message board involvement if you put more in. Ask and answer questions. Give helpful advice, without mentioning your business. Remember that your goal is to build relationships. The more good, quality free advice you can give in your area of expertise the better. Besides just being a good thing to do, it builds goodwill and positive exposure.

Think of forums as an online version of a networking group. You don’t want to be the guy in the polyester suit, pushing his way into everyone’s conversation, and irritating them with constant commercials. You do want to be the guy who leaves with a stack of business cards and several new relationships.

If you’ve got the time, and can resist the temptation to be pushy, message board marketing may be just the boost your business is looking for.