seems to me that you are adding quality stuff at there. That,s why they are visiting your profiles.

starting own forum is good idea if you a good network or good team or your own staff.

Tip 6 – make sure you spell the link back to your site properly.

I’ve not corrected the link at the site’s needs about two weeks work before it’s really ready for public consumption.

Totally right, it is too common to see people joining a forum, leaving a short post along with the link back to their site. I am 100% sure that they don’t get the traffic they expect. So let’s be careful when joining forum

Thanks again!

Awesome! It’s great to here confirmation of these tips from an admin/moderator point of view!

Thanks for the heads up, Steve! Hopefully Daniel will fix it…

I agree 100%. Great point, Ivan!

Thanks for the complement, Terry! I’m glad you found the tips useful!

Not all forums are DoFollow, but you’re right, it is a great idea to participate on DoFollow forums especially. I don’t think the search engines give too much credence to backlinks from forums, but hey, every little bit helps, right?

So true about lots of people just wanting the short term benefits! Once you’re in it for the long haul, THAT’S where you can start creating a serious online business.

Great point about just “hanging out” in forums. By just posting consistently you can get your name out there and get clickthrough traffic. Thanks!

Yup! I think this might be the #1 best way to get traffic from forums. Thanks for posting!

True. Some niches are more conducive to forum traffic strategies than others. But I’d argue that for just about any niche you can participate in a forum and get some amount of traffic. The quality of the traffic… now that’s another story.

Yeah, a lot really does depend on the forum you choose. I definitely know what you mean about the personal attacks and spam. Those kind of come with the territory in certain niches and on certain forums. Sad but true.

Yeah, and that’s annoying. My favorite forum for one of my niches doesn’t allow signatures, but I still get a fair amount of traffic from people clicking through to my profile.

Great points! I’ve also been able to sell stuff quickly on forums just because of my reputation.

And yes… Trolls… How can something simultaneously be so amusing and so freaking annoying? 🙂

Very true. Thanks for the tips, Barbara!

1 Technical and support forums are often large and usually carry a lot of authority. So if you are using a certain package, eg WordPress, a certain professional theme, such as Thesis or StudioPress, then it’s worthwhile you joining the leading forums anyway.

It is useful if you are seen to help others. Even if you are not technical you can probably still help sort out basic issues or you may spot some trick that is useful.

The highly technical people will be relieved that you’re taking on the simpler tasks and the people you help may link up with you or in a couple of cases become online friends. This has lead to exchange of writing posts to each other and other lines of support.

2 If you are on a support or technical forum and need help. Do as Tristan suggests be professional. The heading to your post should explain the problem, ‘ How do you use a full width header image in Thesis,’ not ‘I need help’.

I explain the problems as clearly as I can. Give links to where the problem page is. which in a way is a useful back link. Don’t make up problems though as the techies will soon soon catch out.

After stating a problem I always end with a ‘Thanking you in anticipation’

When I’ve got responses I always respond with a thanks.

Where the solution is one that will help others I will write that up as a solution.

This approach means that you get recognised by the technical people and you’ll find them eager to help you when you do have a problem.

Just ignore the odd arrogant response you may get. These sort of people are like Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory. They’re good technically, but probably don’t have much of a social life.

3 On big forums support others and you will find they will quickly support you. Thank them for a tip or solution.

Don’t, however, be too eager, or too cynical, in trying to make contacts or friends. Other people will spot your ploys and your attempts can be counter-productive.

4 I didn’t realise this comment was going to be so long. it just started with a few thoughts and has now developed into something much larger. it’s the lecturer in me coming out.

This comment is possibly useful and backs up Tristan’s post. It is therefore more useful to a reader and is therefore more likely that the links to it will be followed.

This is a repeat of Tristan’s point 6 above. However, I personally would not pressure people to follow a link back to my site. This is not a criticism, but my personal style.

I also think a lot depends on the forum you’re in, the type of business you’re in and the niche you’re in. I’m also English and a restrained approach works well over here.

5 Don’t waste your comments in a forum. Often a response on a forum triggers a number of thoughts that can be used again.

If you’ve said something useful to members of a forum it almost certainly can easily be turned into a post, part of a post, a free article, a how to article or possibly a response on another forum.

So looking through this comment. I rewrite or about three blogs I write for. Rewrite again for submission to a number of free articles sites. I’ll also file it in case I might use in an ebook, a class I teach or rewritten again as an article in a print magazine, (to you younger readers – a magazine is a legacy content management system, with really poor search facilities and editing ability).

Similar to the suggestion of one of the comment posts, tact is of utmost importance in forums. The last thing we want is a forum fight.

Balance is another. As a forum member, I wince at “know-it-all” posts, answering every question like he/she is a wikipedia. So, maybe posts should be quite balanced. At times, ask questions and seek the opinion of others. That makes you real. And others will appreciate that their opinion is valued too.

Friendship is also created in these forums and little “virtual” groups are created in the background. So, if there’s a forum member acting like a jerk, you can be sure that there’s a round of private messages going in those groups in the background and totally dissing the jerk. 🙂

The last paragraph says it all.. be a part of the forum community. You’ll gain respect and friendship.. your increase in website traffic will be a great bonus!

Well put!

One suggestion is to use a real name on the forum and not a psuedo-name,

I think we all engage better with ‘real names’ especially when you want to respond to anothers comments.

Ivan

As I’m starting to get into forums more often, I’ll be referring to your timely and practical tips.

Terry

Excellent Topic. Every newbie who is new into internet marketing should understand the importance of building a trust relationship where ever they are rather than looking for the short term benifts, since the long term benifits are simply too big to handle 😉

PS: the link for big-boards is not working – i guess the “http” needs to be added as the anchor link since its just taking to ttp

thanks again for the nice post.
warm regards
Joshu Thomas

I used to join every working from home forum…

Now I’m finding since “changing directions” somewhat, I have tons of profiles to update.

Nothing is a must. But I do agree, it is time consuming…but, if you have the time, it’s worth it.

Thanks for the Big Boards tip. I think I’ll give this another shot.

Avoid the forum-trolls and indeed with good content you can built a status on a forum. I have myself worked in into some big local forums (about windsurfing) and this is creating a lot of traffic, but also a lot of usefull relationships with other site-owners.

ANother nice added value is when I’m selling some second hand stuff on those forums, it’s gone in some hours, because of my good status and confidence in my posts.

It’s not a great idea because trust me it’s time consuming and also paid promotion is a must.

Becoming well-known at a forum can really generate fantastic traffic.

Depends on what your niche is! If you’re into the whole Internet marketing thing, Warrior Forum, Site Point, and the Digital Point forums are the big dogs. Site Point seems to be the most active one if you’re looking for forums specifically about bloging.

Yup, I said that in #6!

Yes, but I think one of the saddest things on the web is an empty forum! I’d only suggest creating a forum if you’ve already got a decent amount of traffic and a loyal readership.

Forum is sure way to get great links and get help from other like minded people. However with forum I have noticed, it takes time to build reputation (as in everything online does), many forums give only no follow links too but in my opinion some forum are much better over other. Great tips.

Which Forums are good in your opinion?