Beginners Listen Up… There’s Free Marketing Available

If you are new to your business, and you don’t have an unlimited advertising budget to attract traffic to your website, one good way to advertise for free is forum marketing. Forum marketing is being used by a lot of home based business owners to be known out in the internet, which in turn will attract more visitors to your website. Unfortunately, there are a number of marketers who utilize this technique and return to the same forum the next day only to notice, when attempting to log in, that their forum ID was deleted and accesses as well as posting privileges have been denied as well. What happened? Why were you removed from that particular forum?

What probably happened was that your forum posts were considered spam by enough of the other players that an administrator was contacted who eventually took action and banned you from the network. There is a line that exists between forum marketing network business and spamming. This is often a heated topic of discussion on said forums themselves and there is no hard and fast answer. You’re out there trying to promote you business, and attract customers to your website, but there are rules that need to be followed.

To make it easier for the newbie, forum marketing network businesses for the beginner is a three step process:

1. You need to decide which how you want to market your business, and know exactly what you are looking for. Are you looking to recruit people into a particular business, or are you looking at selling products to potential customers? If you are looking for customers to buy your products, are you also looking for them to sell your products? Not matter how you decide to market, each is different, and you will need to use a different approach. Since each approach requires you to write you to write your post with care and expertise, this may be a good reason why some outsource this to an experienced freelance writer.

2. You will need to create your forum handle. This is the nickname that people will see to identify that you created the post. Make sure you use some that won’t have other forum members to roll their eyes when they see your handle, and thus you lose credibility. If you do not want to use your real name, use something respectable. Do not use anything like “get rich here” or “make money losing weight”. Maybe your first initial and you last name, or anything that doesn’t make people ignore your posts. Next, you need to create a profile. This is a great opportunity to mention your business and also your role in it. Do not just cut and paste stuff from the company website. No one will want to read through a lengthy profile. Make it short and to the point. Lastly create your signature, if the forum allows you to. This is where you could put a link to your website, and your blog, which will make it more effective. A headline that will catch a person’s attention, something like “how a bag of chips at two in the morning cost me three hours of sleep and $5”. This is an example of a headline that will generate more traffic because it seems unbelievable and everyone wants to read more. Do not disappoint the website visitor, deliver a compelling story or blog entry so when you change your signature to feature the next article, those who know you will come back.

3. Know the forum you are in. You do not want to post anything about losing weight in a childhood disease and autism forum. Only post in forums that are somehow related to your business. Secondly, keep the posts short and simple, especially when you discuss your product. Anything too lengthy or anything that has nothing to do with the forum itself will not only be a waste of your time, but also ruin your credibility.

Forum marketing is a strong strategy that can attract a number of visitors to your website, if done right. Not only will you attract more visitors to your website, but it’s also very cost effective, free. Now, if you’re a beginner looking for some real targeted traffic, go out there and get involved, but remember the three steps listed above. Credibility is key to your persona and your business.