Copyright 2004 Christos Varsamis

Forums are one of the most effective free internet marketing strategies if done correctly. Many people participate in online forums for different reasons. Especially in internet marketing forums, they use it for getting advice and answers to their questions.

Another reason is finding new tools, products and marketing concepts that they can apply to their website or online business in general. Internet forums are also an excellent resource for contacting with other online entrepreneurs and build win-win and profitable joint ventures. Finally, you can promote your website in forums in indirect mode of course.

Taking advantage of forums can be focused on the link of your site you are allowed to place with your posts. However, this is not as simple as it sounds. Users must have a reason to click on your link. One reason could be a useful tip or resource you provide with your answer for instance. On the long-term run, you gain credibility and start becoming an expert in your field.

But how do you accomplish that? First, you must study carefully the forums before you join them. Check for their guidelines, their theme, the questions, the level of knowledge and experience the users have. After that, you group the questions in a specific block in order to provide the answers.

For example:
Questions:
1) How can I protect my website from theft?
2) Where can I find HTML security software?
e.t.c

Answers:
1) HTML encryption software
2) Hide your website’s code.
e.t.c.

Now it is time for getting answers. You can find answers using search engines, or a recourse you have already used in the past or even a “how to” e-book you had purchased. There are many options. Don’t forget that you shouldn’t restrict yourself to one topic. You can repeat this procedure as many times as you want.

You can provide your answers to forum users in three ways actually.

First, by informing the forum users with a website you saw, that contains the solution to the problem they have. This is the less effective way, because you are keeping them away from your primary cause, which is to visit your website by clicking your link.

Second, is to create a webpage to your website that contains the answer.
For example: www.yoursite.com/htmlsecurityreport.htm . This is an excellent way of promoting because it’s not a blatant advertisement (you are informing people) and on the other hand users visit your website.

Third, create a new website exclusively related on this subject.
For example: www.htmlsecuritytips.com . This way is extremely effective too, but you should keep in mind that you do have to spend some money for that (web hosting, domain registrar e.t.c.) and definitely more time.

The catch here is that with the second and third option you can promote your website, which can include your affiliate programs or even your products without breaking the forum’s rules.


Of course you could ask,”where can I find forums?” One way is using search engines. Write in the search bar “internet marketing forums” and you will have many listings but you should notice that only the active ones worth your attention. Another thing you should be careful about is how many users and posts the forum has every day. If there are one or two users then you should go away, although forums indexed by the search engines are important because a link of your website to this forum could mean indexing for your website too.


When you post to a forum always, use your name and not some kind of number or code like 22357 e.t.c. You want to gain credibility with your name and not with characterless number or fake username. Use your signature in every post, which should contain your name, 2-3 lines of text (that depends on how many lines the forum administrator permits you to use) and of course your site URL.


Here is a list with great forums you can use:

www.webmasterworld.com/home.htm
www.sitepoint.com/forums
http://associateprograms.com/discus
www.ablake.net/forum
www.wilsonweb.com/forum
www.network54.com/Forum/184615
www.jimworld.com/apps/webmaster.forums/bin/Ultimate.cgi
www.clickbanksuccessforum.com/forum
www.howtocorp.com/forum
www.homebusiness-websites.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi
www.affiliateboards.com/messageboard/index.php
www.internet.com/forums
www.web-mastery.net/forums.html
www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums
www.aardvarkbusiness.net/chat
www.infosyssec.com/forum
www.abestweb.com
www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl
www.network54.com/Forum/11488
www.marketing-strategy.org/forums
www.ask-marketing-experts.com/forums
www.resource-zone.com