Hello, was just wondering for the opinion of some of the professionals. I've been doing blog posting for a while now, but this seems to show know sign of potential, i'm thinking about adding forums into my daily marketing plan. In your opinion, can forums be used to help bring in the business, that is using forums within a niche local to the poster. If anyone has had success this way, would love to hear it. THANKS IN ADVANCE DP James
In my opinion, forums are great to boost B2B but less effective when doing B2C. Hope it helps. Cheers!
If the forums you are going to be posting on are actively moderated, then the chance of making posts that will stick are pretty slim. Many sites will just nuke the post/profile if it appears to just be made for marketing purposes.
What i mean is that by actively building a reputation within that forum, not flooding it with banners and links. I mean answering questions, offering advice and history, reputation within a niche local to me. The only thing i will do, is have a link within the signature. Do you think the forums will moderate and remove such a link if they allow BB Link Code. I need to know if anyone has built reputation and trust from within forums, people have then become curious about that person, they click through to their site. Wam Bam, they convert. Has anyone achieved this, i don't mean spamming, i mean smart grooming
I don't have a high reputation in this forum, but my links in my signature have been clicked and converts pretty well. It just depends on how it looks. Make it grab peoples attention.
I get a lot of traffic from my forum posts - I think for the very reason you oulined in your later thread - if you take the time to actively join in a "conversation" as opposed to just saying "nice post" or "I agree" then I think it does build your credibility plus readers like to know who they are dealing with so they often click your signature links to see what you are up to. Personally I have not had a lot of luck with click thru's from blog posting although sometimes I accidentally get back links (this is not something I have actively targeted yet, lol). Another great thing about being in a forum is that you do start to develop relationships with other people in your field, which can help in terms of learning new skills. The only word of warning I could give is that forum posting is addictive - I am sure it is. When I hop on DP I think I will just be on here about an hour and next thing I know it is 4am! best wishes lisa
Can't do any harm. It's good practice to join forums that are similar to the topics you are covering. Just be sure to actually read the threads, make relevant and useful posts and don't just post for the sake of boosting traffic because I guarantee that attempt will never work. You have to actually get involved and be serious about the topic(s) you are discussing.
If you have to have a lot of forum traffic...I got some from DP, but nothing to really brag about, and you know how much traffic dp gets (a lot) so that should somewhat tell you something, but it never hurts to put your sig in there, some may even get indexed, but not all, as most forums are probably no-follow by default. as may posts as I have, I have actually only seen a few indexed in google, so not a whole lot. I am going to actually setup a scripts and software forum soon, maybe i can target some of that traffic into buyers, who knows...
If done right, the traffic is extremely targeted, and can be just as effective with B2C as B2B. It all comes down to product choice and forum culture.
Of course, forum posting can play a great role in making your site rank. You will have to build up a good relationship with others as well. Aside from having your site indexed, you will also get a lot of great information while browsing around.
Do it, if your post is meaningful.. People will only go to your link if what you're saying makes sense.
I say forum posting can really help when it comes to promoting a site and obtaining high PR and such.. post a relevant and substantial post for all the eraders and members of the forum.. and of course you should add your signature.. good luck with you
There may be difference of opinion on importance, weightage of forum postings and signature. But still it has some relevance. We should try to add more thread, comments etc. to various high PR forums.