How to Build your Business Through Forums: Using Forums to Promote your Website

Forums have become the social network of the Internet, much like the corner coffee shop where you meet friends for a good cup of joe and a good conversation. What do you talk about at these informal meetings? Your life, your family, your business! The Internet marketing forums provide a niche-style coffee shop for any market that you can use to build relationships that will help you grow your business. Joint ventures have long been a way to leverage what you have to start with into something larger and that profit all parties involved. Forums allow you to network with other online marketers and make the relationships that lead to joint ventures.

There are four steps in the process to make money with forums. Each forum is an individual entity in itself, so for each one you need to learn about the community that you are in. Just as if you were starting a small business in a new town, these are the steps you will take…

1. Learn who your neighbors are.
2. Develop partnerships in your community.
3. Establish credibility in the community.
4. Contribute back to the community.

In each forum there are specific things you need to do first. The very first thing after you are registered is to update your profile. Your profile will probably already have your username, password and email already filled in. Next you will want to personalize it. Many times there are fields to fill in such as “About Me” and “Bio”. Use these fields wisely to tell the community who you are and what you do. When you start posting, this is where the community will come to learn more about you. This can sell someone on possibly signing up with you, making a purchase from you or even doing a joint venture with you.

You can also add a picture and a link to your webpage. This is also your opportunity to create your signature line. Make it count! This is how you will spread your name in the community and build credibility. Give your name, what you sell or provide and put a link to your webpage or blog. This is your virtual business card. Make sure to check the box that will add your signature line automatically to each and every post. Always check the rules for each forum for what is allowed in the signature field. Each forum will have different rules as to the length. You do not want to start out on the wrong foot, so be sure to know the rules and follow them.

Once you have setup your profile and signature line, you are ready to start posting! Go to the main forum page. This will then probably show you the main forum rooms. Select which one best suits your target market; you are looking for the main discussion forum, although there might be several worth checking out. The discussion forum should have the first several posts dedicated to telling you about that specific forum, for instance, what the rules are for posting. Make sure to read these posts first. This sets the ‘tone’ for the community. You will learn who the moderators are and what the goals are for the forum. After that, start reading posts and get to know your neighbors. Answer a few questions or post some responses. Don’t be shy; get your feet wet!

You will want to join 5-10 forums and go through the registration process. Once you have joined, start posting at least 5 posts each day to each forum. This will take some time out of your day, but if you are committed to making your venture a success, you won’t stop. Forums can be addicting anyway. Make sure not to get so caught up in one community that you spend too much time in one and don’t leave time for the others. Maintain a level of objectivity and remember why you are there. Set a block of time for this task. You will get better and more comfortable at posting the more you do it. As with anything in life, there is a learning curve that will take time.

So the whole kit and kaboodle is that after a few weeks and months, you will have all these posts in diversified areas of the web. This will accomplish several things for you. One, you will have many links leading back to your website or blog, thus helping push your search engine rankings higher. Second, you can think of each of your posts as free advertising! Each time you post you are establishing credibility for yourself. The more you post, the more people in your forum communities get to know you. The more they value your contributions, the more they will start looking at what else you are offering. By this time, you should have also developed some solid relationships with other online marketers with whom you can build joint ventures.

Whatever you do, don't forget the last step and contribute back to the forum community. You can do this by making special offers or pricing available to forum members. This also works to build more business for you as well. Make sure that each of your posts is informative and supportive of your fellow community members. Think of the forum as a circular network of information. You learn from them and they can learn from you.