DubLi Training: Online Marketing with Forums

Forum Secrets "How to drive loads of FREE targeted traffic to your site using little-known secrets that the top marketers want to keep private!" Author of “Squidoo Basics” and “Blogging Your Way to Wealth” Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

Foreword Hello fellow marketer, First, I want to thank you for downloading "Forum Secrets". I wrote this short report to highlight some of my most coveted forum posting golden nuggets. Using forums has become one of my personal favorite ways to increase free traffic, generate leads and build relationships for my network marketing business. The purpose of this mini-course is to provide you a solid foundation full of tips, tricks & secrets that will make your forum posts MUCH more impactful in realizing the three aforementioned pursuits. I figure that if you’re going to be posting anyway, why not increase your effectiveness by mastering this little-known craft. Let’s begin! An Intro to Forum Marketing Forum marketing rests at the foundation of our current “Web 2.0” online world. We live in a time where the advantages of user-generated content have never been so potent. Forums serve as an online chat room connecting like-minded people from across the world. Over the past few years they’ve played an increasingly valuable role in home business marketing due to their low-cost means of networking with others and driving targeted traffic. Think of forum interaction as the back-and-forth comments to a popular blog post. It’s as easy as posing a question to attract replies or spotting a current conversation to add your personal thoughts. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

The follow five benefits to using forums underscore the subsequent tips and tricks used by successful internet and network marketers. 1. Trends. Forum participation among home business marketers is flourishing. Sites such as betternetworker.com, work -home- work-at- forum.com, talkgold.com and homebasedbusinessforums.com have seen increased usage by new network marketers taking their businesses online. In more informal language: ‘it’s where the cool people are hangin’ out’ – so join them! In the offline world where would you go to meet people of similar interests? The hotel lobbies of motivational, personal development, investing and business opportunity seminars are the typical hot spots. In the online world, nars the answer is forums. Copyright © 20 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

2. Providing Value. Forums offer a platform for giving and receiving information. More online users are introduced to forums after typing their questions or problems into Google and clicking on the first few links. The notions that you’re not the first person who’s been in your current predicament and that the answer resides somewhere on the internet are at the heart of forum marketing. Ponder your various proficiencies and seek to help others who need assistance. You can do this by responding to forum questions with a short answer, a link to one of your blog posts and even a free ebook you have. Alternatively, you can initiate the conversation by posing a question of your own. 3. Search Engine Optimization. The SEO benefits are twofold. On one hand a forum’s conversation thread can rank based on the keywords used in the title, body and signature file’s anchor text. Avoid blatant over-usage of keywords; it should sound natural and less formal than an article or ebook. The other aspect of SEO is seen in the enhanced optimization of the signature file’s link. This website is visited each time someone clicks on the link or hyperlinked anchor text below your name each time you post a comment. Google tracks the number of overall backlinks and the text used in the clickable link to rank the target site. For example, given the anchor text “MLM online training”, your primary site is more likely to be ranked when that 3-word keyword phrase comprises a random Google search. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

4. Branding. Actively participating in forums can quickly brand you as . a knowledgeable source of home business marketing. Members need to continually see your positive contributions to the larger ually community. One easy way to stand out among the crowd is to use a eye-catching profile picture. I use a basic one of me wearing a bright catching orange shirt. Overtime they’ll link up your name, profile picture and subject material, which enhances the likelihood of them finding more about your business or product. It’s often said that ‘people buy from people they know, like and trust’. This axiom is only bolstered by appropriate forum participation. Copyright © 20 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

5. Joint Ventures. This is an extension of basic relationship building, . a benefit we’ve loosely touched on. It’s a fact that home business forums are filled with people much like yourself who are looking to partner with fellow entrepreneurs. You will meet other members with the same interests and skills as you but who haven’t been introduced to your specific business opportunity. You can also find members who complement your skills by filling a void in your current marketing plan. Keep in mind that each forum Keep member is looking for something and someone to solve their business needs and that sparking the right joint venture is often grounded in your positive branding and willingness to contribute what you already know. Copyright © 20 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

The Role of Keywords Did you know that you can actually rank higher in the search engines by making one simple change to your forum posts? Everyone knows that search engines find websites based on the keywords that are contained on their site, and particularly their titles and headlines. Well now we can transfer this same logic to our posts’ keywords. Your posts will have a much higher likelihood of being picked up in search engines if the posts’ SUBJECT is keyword-rich. This is because forum posts actually get indexed just like a video description, an article or a press release. Many SEO experts would also advise putting your desire keyword at the beginning of the post since initial words are known to hold more weight. Moreover, keyword-rich forum posts can easily retain their high ranking with consistent commenting which implies relevancy. (More on that later) This is great news for you and me since we can easily use this to your advantage. First, you have to know what your most frequently searched keywords are. Use the Google Keyword Tool before posting to acclimate yourself with a given keyword’s popularity. Here's a few examples: KEYWORD: network marketing training SUBJECT: Any network marketing training suggestions? Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

KEYWORD: SEO tips SUBJECT: Cool SEO tips I just figured out... KEYWORD: MLM sponsoring SUBJECT: MLM sponsoring make simple (beginners only)... Okay, now it's your turn. Head over to a few popular discussion forums and focus on your industries powerful keywords in your subject line. Again, this (like the other techniques) is a maximization strategy. You're already posting to the forums, so let's do it smarter and make more money! It’s time for the next technique of this series. This is a little known trick that experts use to make sure their posts get seen by nearly EVERYBODY. I call this one... The Slingshot Method What happens when you pull a sling shot back further and further? Eventually it comes exploding back to where it was originally... almost instantly. This analogy applies to forum posting in the way that posts can rapidly rocket back to the top of a list with some small incremental effort Here's how to pull this off... Most forums are designed so that the newer posts are at the top of the list, and they get pushed down as more and more new posts get added. But Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

guess what... it's not only new posts that make it to the top. The ones who get REPLIED TO also get pushed to the top! If you made a post last week about something, and nobody replied, it would keep going further and further down the list, until it made its way to (gasp) page 2 which few people visit. However, if you simply reply to it a few times you can spring it back to the first page to increase visibility. That's right, simply reply to your own post, and add some extra information that you "forgot" to put in your original post. Consider if you or your team members were to post replies on a daily basis for a week. The post would conceivably remain on the first page for days and days. This promotes more “regulars” to view and read it which in turn will bring more people back to your site. This makes your job significantly easier since others (with your shared motive) can team up by each replying, while you just made the first post. Garnering organic or natural replies takes more effort but is just as plausible given the affinity toward quality content. Emphasizing your genuine and experience-based free advice on a given topic will compel users to comment and thank you. Open-Ended Posts That's what today's lesson is all about. The main thing you want to learn how to do is create open-ended posts which leave readers thinking and eager to learn more. This often leads them back to your primary website. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

Let me explain. If I asked you the question "Do you enjoy learning about Internet Marketing?", you would likely respond "Yes", right? Since the only two answers are “yes” and “no”, this is a closed-ended question. However, I see countless new marketers making this mistake. Although their content may have had merit, they shut off the reader’s attention by closing their post rather abruptly. As an example… "Has anyone else tried this method of emailing their customers? I read somewhere in an eBook that if you put a descriptive, and enticing subject line in your email, more people will open it (as opposed to just saying XYZ Newsletter Is Here)." This kind of post will usually generate very lame responses that sound like this... "Nah, I simply use the same subject line each time, so that they'll recognize my email newsletter." Open-Ended Posts Alternatively, here's an example of an open ended question... "Why do you like network marketing compensation plans over those of traditional direct mail marketing?" Do you see how there's more room to give a personal, creative answer? Here's how this looks in a post... ************************************************** "I've been learning all about subject lines this past week, and I was just wondering if you folks could share your favorite subject line strategy for sending out email newsletters. I've heard that some Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

people disguise their content by using vague subject lines (does this personally annoy you?). I've also heard that sometimes it's a good idea to use the same subject line every time. For example, XYZ Newsletter, Issue 11... where only the issue number changes each time you send out a new email. With all you experts in here, there's got to be some really good secrets behind using subject lines to your advantage. Now that you know how this works, let me show you an example of a post that I made, which got me nice little boost of traffic. ************************************************** The Power P.S. Technique Have you noticed that you barely even SEE banner ads these days? Even if a site has a well placed banner ad, your eyes are trained to ignore it, because you've seen so many of them, and you know that they're generally not worth looking at. Well guess what, the same thing is happening on discussion forums! More and more people are completely ignoring the signatures at the bottom of each post. Although some people ARE making money with their signatures, I've discovered a much more powerful way to get people to click on your link. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

At the bottom of your posts be sure to add a little P.S. to increase the content’s attention and urgency. Readers are more likely to click on something in the “P.S.” section than in your post’s body. The P.S. should not be canned message that you slip into every post. Rather, it should be different each time so that viewers do not grow overly accustomed to it. The P.S. Technique in action… I'm going to give you a powerful real life example of one of my most successful P.S.'s of all time, and then I'll reveal how YOU can ethically steal my secret to make drive tons of traffic to your web site. It's important to remember that your P.S. shouldn't be a blatant promotion. You want to create it so that it comes across as a "personal note" instead of an obvious sales plug. Here's a post I made a couple weeks ago. Pay particular attention to the P.S. at the end... ************************************************** Is anyone here experienced in putting together really "tasty" resale rights package? I've been brainstorming all the different elements of what I want to include, and here's what I've come up with so far: * resale rights to the e-book (obviously) * use of my professionally created sales letter (the copyrighting itself is well crafted…. should I include it, or let people create their own?) Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

* I'll also give them my thank you pages, and download instructions email to make things easy for them. Here's my main question... I have a few other things that I can throw in, but I'm not sure if it would be too much. The other possibilities are... * the mini-course I wrote to enhance opt-in and conversion rates * the order page, which contains various up-sells * the back end customer auto-responder sequence * and this is the one that I'm wrestling with... should I offer private labeling options? (giving full rights to customization & ownership) Because these eBooks have sold a ton of copies, I don't want to devalue them by offering a ton of cheap, low level packages. I expect to charge around $700 dollars for the cheapest package, and even with that they could recapture their investment in a short time if they have a decent list. Would it be a mistake to offer private labeling options, and give people my mini-course? I'm ready to launch this offer, so I'd really appreciate hearing from some of the more experienced marketers on this forum. Warmly, Daniel D. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

P.S. - Here's the URL of the products that I'm offering the rights for. If anyone here has an email list that would be interested in this kind of deal, I'm willing to give you 50% of what I make (50% of a high end sale like this is a pretty good chunk). www.MySiteHere.com ************************************************* Do you see how I structured my post as a request for help? What you may not realize is that what I was really trying to do was get the attention of people who have good sized opt-in email lists, so they can promote my resale rights offer to their list. Paste Your Post Today's forum posting secret is all about how to get maximum exposure for each of your posts. If you came up with a recipe for a really tasty meal, and you were interested in selling it to as many people as possible... would you only go to ONE restaurant and make your offer? Of course not! If you're smart, you'll go to as many restaurants as possible, so that you can put your recipe in front of as many prospects. The same is true with posting on discussion forums. You've got to get maximum use out of your efforts. I can sum up this secret in 3 words - Paste Your Post. First, you choose the forums that you really like visiting. Then you construct your post in Windows Notepad (or a similar text editing Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

program), and save it. Next, you visit each one of the forums and paste your discussion post into each one of the forums. Most people spend a lot of time writing a really amazing forum post, but they only put it up on ONE website. That's a huge waste, because you can post it to a handful of other forums at no additional cost and in very little time. Some of my favorite home business and network marketing forums include: mlmforums.com, hombasedbusinessforums.com, onlinemlm.com, talkgold.com and mlmwoman.com. One of the fastest growing ones is betternetworker.com, started by industry top earner Mike Dillard. I would suggest using each one of these at first and then narrowing down you posting to a few based on your preferences. You likely recognize some of these on the aforementioned list from your last MLM Google search. Don’t lose sight of the fact that forums are aggregated user generated content – something that large search engines favor! Leveraging this tool is key since you’re banking on existing traffic and participation but also an SEO-rich platform. So the next time you want to get some really great traffic from your forum posts... be sure to place them in multiple forums... not just one. You'll get a LOT more traffic (and sales) from your efforts than you ever imagined. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

Final Words… Thank you for taking the time learn more about forums. If we haven’t or . met yet, I’m a full-time internet marketer and avid writer on numerous time internet marketing topics. As the founder of the Doctor DubLi Team, within the DubLi Network business opportunity, I’ve trained countless trained novice and aspiring home business owners to leverage my marketing tools to grow their businesses. If you enjoyed this no no-nonsense guide to forum posting, feel free email me to request additional ebooks. For those select few that are serious about applying these tools and would like to learn how I coach my team to bout duplicate my success, please email me at dan@doctordubli.com. dan@doctordubli.com See you at the top! Copyright © 20 2010. All Rights Reserved. http://DoctorDubLiBlog.com

DubLi Training: Online Marketing with Forums

by ddt on Jan 02, 2010

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