I've been using all sorts of free strategies to drive quality laser targeted traffic to the websites I am working for. I know most marketers use forum posting to establish themselves as an expert and to get backlinks for SEO purposes, but does it help to bring in quality buyers these days and not just freebee seekers who wouldn't invest a cent in their own online marketing education. Most people search forums for free advice. Thoughts?
Many people do go to forums to learn new things, get things for free, and to purchase items as well. I have been on forums and given away software but also made tons of money selling other software on like 3 different forums. So in my opinion you can drive traffic to your website for sales from forums. You just have to find the right forums that fit what products you are selling and post a little add with info on the products with a link to your website for more info as well as a buy now button.
In my opinion Forum posting is an effective way to increase sales. I agree with KatnissEverdeen. Most of the people are using forum for getting something new and free. I have also used forums for increasing my sales and it works effectively. So if you can use forums properly then you can easily increase your sales trough forum posting.
It's effective for traffic but I wouldn't think so much for backlinks since most forums are no follow. Anyhow I got a lot of goog traffic from forums and sales.
This is an area that I cannot seem to tap into. Looking for forums as one more means to get traffic to my blog(amazon affiliate). Just 4 weeks old and using FB as well at this point and link with my signature via email. When the term forums are used, let's say I am advertising children's toys up to 12 years of age. How to I find specific forums for just that viewer. I have tried googling this and yes there are forums but have yet to find one that allows for posting my url with my comment.
With most forums you have to have a certain amount of posts, points, likes, prestige, or something along those lines. It isn't too hard to fulfill the requirements in order to post links. Just search around the forum, find things you are interested in and comment. As questions, make friends, help out other members, share HQ Content, by doing this you are fulfilling the forum requirements and adding to the forum. Soon enough you will be able to share links. Good Luck to You
Oh wonderful feedback...thank you. But is it possible to get someone to look at my blog and provide their opinion on what needs changing, improving as I have it set up now? http://yourpetshopa-z.blogspot.com/ if not it's okay...thank you though...
Yeah definitely the forum can bring you quality buyer leads that is because there is plenty of people at your discussion so you can get by quality ..
If you are looking at forum contributions as a means to drive backlinks and help with your website SEO, you are doing it wrong. Google has no trouble identifying the source of the backlinks and signature links will be discarded, if not penalized in extreme cases. But there is no doubt that forums are a good source for driving new leads to your business? I have myself had new customers through my forum posts. As a customer too, there have been instances when I purchased through a signature link. When I was shopping for a dedicated server, I found one through a signature on the webhostingtalk forum and my discussions went up from there.
I think forum posting does not bring quality leads and sales most of the time. Because Forum posting is used for discussion but It drive more traffic to the site.
I am almost sure forums are not a very good way to attract buyers.. As most people want to learn new things .. if possible for FREE! I would also try Facebook & Twitter and as long as you do NOT spam, you can create an authoritive fan page and twitter account and post often about your services, offer free things, etc.
Yes it does. You could find potential clients in the forum. People would also be interested in what business you are into based on how good you answer or solve there problems.
My point was that when Google analyzes the backlink profile of your website, it can easily make out the platform the link was build from. For example, when Google crawls this page and sees my signature link, it is not difficult to know that this is a "signature" link, meaning it was not organically linked to, but was deliberately put in by the website owner. So it may not be giving such link too much weightage even if it is a follow link. Worse, if it sees that almost 90% of your links are from such sources, it could potentially penalize you as well for trying to manipulate.
Ah. I see. Thanks. Not sure I agree with it all, but I do know that Google is aware of such links, and it specifically disregards seo optimized links.