Increase Web Traffic by the Means of Forum Marketing!

If you use forum marketing the correct way, it can increase web traffic and become a very resourceful free marketing tool which will deliver you free targeted traffic to your website.

If you are searching for proven methods that will increase web traffic to your website, then you will want to learn more about forum marketing.

The basic concept of forum marketing is to comment on forum posts which are relevant to your site’s niche. You aren’t there to promote your products and services to sell, you are there to interact with people whom match the products and services which you are selling on your website. These people are likely to purchase if and when they see what you have to offer. Your signature link is your only means which you make your offer available.

You must give answers and solutions which are helpful to help forum members resolve their problems and issues. You do this to establish yourself as an authority figure, someone who is very knowledgeable in your niche.

Once you have earned their trust, people will click on your signature link to visit your site and see what you have to offer. When you give good solid and helpful advice that helps people resolve their questions or problems, they have a tendency to remember you and want to learn more about you and your web site.

Not all forums are going to be worth your time, so you need to be selective.

Check list to find forums:

* Do a simple Google search looking for your niche. Example: search term = “SEO forums” or “webmasters forums”

* Complete a list of 5 to 10 forums which are related to your niche.

* The forums should have at least 500 members and at least 5,000 posts.

* Make sure the forum is active and achieves 20+ new posts daily.

* Make sure that the forum isn’t owned by one of your direct competitors.

Goals to achieve:

* Participate in the forum and have fun.

* Comment on relevant posts which related to your niche.

* Earn forum members trust by answering posts with usable information.

* Establish yourself as an authority in your niche.

* Get people to click on your signature.

You should try to make 5 to 10 posts per day, making sure that they are relevant to your niche. If this overloads you, then reduce the amount of posts.

Remember, you want quality posts, not spam. If the forum uses the do-follow tag, then it will also help to raise your ranking in the search engines. Whether or not the forum is do-follow or no-follow, you can expect to see an increase in traffic to your squeeze page or landing page. Offering such things as e-books and videos will help to build your RSS subscriber base as well.

Approaches to use:

* Answer questions which you have knowledge about.

* Ask questions about things you want to learn about.

* Asking for a critique will get you exposure. If you write an article, you can ask people for their input.

* Ask forum members for their opinions, this is a good way to get direct feedback. Example: you want to know about charter cable service, just ask forum members if they have any experiences with charter.

* Offer free articles which forum members can posts on their sites as long as they leave your resource box intact.

If you answer forums threads and your comments are nothing more than spam, no one is going to take you seriously as an authority. They are not going to click on your signature link to visit your website and you are wasting your time.

Forum marketing and article marketing are very related and have many of the same goals to achieve, so you may want to read about article marketing as well.

These are proven methods to drive traffic to your website, it just requires your time and patience, plus following the rules to succeed.

So, I encourage you to research it and give it a try.