Inspired Epiphany

"Forums" or "message boards" are online communities where you can find helpful information and lively discussions. More importantly for your business, forums are a great place to network and they're a powerful method of advertising your online business. Two key elements with this marketing method are to 1) Find forums with members who are likely to have an interest in your business and your products so they will thereby provide targeted traffic to your site, and 2) Become a part of the community in a helpful and unobtrusive manner. You can search for a forum on just about any topic at Big-Boards.com

When you find a good forum, be sure that you take the time to read the rules and regulations before you register. You want to make sure you can include your website link in your "signature" in order for this marketing method to be effective. Some forums don't allow you to put website links in your signatures, so they will not provide the same power of marketing leverage for your postings. Other forums allow website links, but only for domains you own (i.e. no affiliate links). Since you want to respect the rules of the community, it's best to take a few minutes to read the rules first before posting.

Once you're read the rules and registered for the forum, introduce yourself and begin interacting with other members. Do not blatantly try to sell anything. Doing this will turn other members off and possibly get you banned. You want to post helpful, genuine information and let your signature do it's job. Simply having a link to your website in your forum signature or well written ad can create a good amount of traffic if you're an active, helpful member. Forum marketing can be a lot of fun and it's one of the most effective forms of free advertising there is. If you've got more time than money, you should definitely make posting in forums part of your daily routine. Here are a few successful ways to approach forum marketing:

* Answer Questions - This is my favorite approach and probably the easiest one. All you do is provide helpful answers to other members who have asked a question. If you're not quite an expert on the topic, you can always Google the answer to be sure you provide acurate information.

* Ask A Question - If you've got a question on a relevant topic, do a search of the forum to make sure that it has not already been asked before you post it. If you don't find that it's been asked, start a thread and ask away. This is usually a good way to get a lot of posts and start a discussion. Try to make your questions "open ended" for best results. For example, instead of "Do you like XYZ ebook?", try asking "What did you like and dislike about XYZ ebook and why?" instead.

* Post An Article - Got an on-topic article you've recently written? Offer it for publication by the forum members with the condition that they keep your article resource box in tact.

* Ask For Opinions - If you come across a product you're interested in purchasing, forums are a great place to do some research and market your business at the same time! Ask the community if anyone has purchased the product, what they thought of it, and why. You can also ask for opinions on your website if you've recently updated it, if you've made a though-provoking or controversial post to your blog, or if you just want feedback on an article you've written.