How to increase your traffic using forums

How To Increase Your Traffic Using Forums
Forum posting is one of the best, and possibly
most under-rated traffic-building strategies
available.
In fact, this is one way in which I first began to
get traffic when I first started online over a
decade ago.

But that doesn’t mean it’s outdated – it’s just as
relevant and as powerful now, and is something
I continue to use today.
Forum traffic can also be a lot more valuable
than traffic from other sources.

It sounds simple enough – the basic premise is
you post content to popular forums relevant
to your niche.
However, it’s not a case of just posting a few
comments here and there and hoping for the
best.

That type of approach is unlikely to bring you
much traffic or be worth your while.
Instead, this presentation will show you the
strategies you should be using to achieve
maximum impact.

How Does It Work?

By their very nature, forums attract a lot of
traffic, whether from regular visitors on the
forum, from search engines, or other traffic.
And it’s not just any traffic.

By participating in forums closely aligned with
your niche, you are getting your message in
front of ideal prospects for your business.
That means the traffic you receive is highly
targeted, with the visitors you attract many
times more valuable than the average visitor.

In terms of search engines, forums offer a
valuable source of information, and are often
well-moderated to prevent junk and spam
content.
That means Google and other search engines
do tend to rank posts on them fairly highly.

As one example, the Warrior Forum is a
popular forum in the Internet marketing niche.
It has millions of pages indexed by Google:

So How Do You Benefit?

The content you post on forums can be viewed
literally thousands of times.
As a result you can continue to receive traffic
for months and even several years after your
original post.

Most forums encourage your continuing
participation.
For example, the more helpful you are and the
more you are involved, the more prominent
your posts and your profile can become.

This builds your authority over time and adds
more weight to your posts and links.
You can generally link back to your site or your
own materials either ...

● From the content itself (if done in the right
way, as explained soon)
● From your signature file shown beneath the
content you post
● And/or from your profile page.

Forget SEO ...

If you’re SEO-savvy and are concerned
whether such links are follow or no-follow, don’t
be.
It’s irrelevant.

You may get some SEO benefit, but it’s likely to
be negligible.
You should regard any possible SEO
improvement as just a side benefit, rather
than the purpose behind your participation.

In fact, trying to focus on gaining SEO benefits
while engaging in forums can negate some of
the real value to be had.
Instead, the real benefits come from the direct
click-throughs, i.e. the visitors you attract to
your site.

Your focus should be on attracting these
direct click-throughs, for example by using
the language most appropriate to achieve that
goal, rather than any SEO concerns.

Forum Traffic-Building
Strategies

1. Find Relevant Forums

Start by finding forums relevant to your
niche.
The primary method is to search for [your
keyword] forum, using a range of different
keywords associated with your niche.

For example, if you were in the horse riding
niche, you would search for horse riding forum,
as shown here:

You would then do further searches using
other keywords associated with your niche.
Some examples might be as follows ...

● equestrian forum
● equine forum
● horseback forum
● saddlery forum … and so on ...

You can use fairly broad, generic keywords –
or use long-tail keywords to get really specific.
For example, you might purely focus on the
market for children’s horse riding, and so use a
keyword like horse riding for children forum.

As well as forums devoted entirely to your
chosen keyword(s), you will also find specific
topics within wider-topic forums.
These can serve your purpose just as well.

To find additional forums to choose from, use
the following method too.
vBulletin is a popular piece of software used for
running forums.

Search for [your keyword] “Powered by
vBulletin” and you can find further forums to
look at.

For example, if you were looking for angling
forums, you may do the following:

Note this method can reveal forums that are
listed as ‘communities’ instead of ‘forums’, and
so will add potentially suitable forums to your
list that you otherwise may not have found.

2. Determine Which Are Worth
Your While

Once you’ve made a list of possible forums to
start looking at, you need to determine if they
are actually worth your time and effort:

Take a Look at the Forum and See
When the Last Post Was

If the last post was some time ago, then
obviously the forum has little traction.
Posting your own content would not attract
much if any interest.

Your efforts would therefore be better spent
elsewhere.
On the other hand, if there are one or more
posts from today or yesterday, then it’s looking
more lively and may be worth your
involvement.

Although exact stats are difficult to come by,
there are usually far more lurkers than posters.
Estimates range from 5:1 to as high as 100:1.
Posts alone are not an indicator of actual
traffic.

Are There Numerous Threads with
Regular Activity?

It’s important not just to look at the past few
days, but at activity in general.
There may for example be a short burst of
activity, followed by very little for weeks or even
months.

Does the forum have a general hum of
activity?

Look at the Posts Themselves

Do the posts contain lots of garbage or
spammy posts?
Or is there genuine interaction (which
indicates good moderator activity and an active
community)?

Does the forum give you the sense of a vibrant
community?

Use this checklist to come up with a shortlist
of forums you can start participating in.

3. Start Posting Content … The
Right Way

Once you’ve found suitable forums, it’s time to
start posting content.
But you need to do so in the right way so it
actually increases traffic levels for your website.

Start by registering with the community in
question.

There will usually be a Register or Become a
Member type button somewhere.

You will probably be asked to pick a username
when you register.
The username will be associated with all your
posts, so choose wisely.

Choose either of the following:
● A username that reflects you as an
individual (eg. Steve Shaw)
● A username that reflects your brand (eg.
trafficonome)

Remember the username will become
recognizable and identifiable as you, so you
want one that people can easily remember
and associate with your content.

Avoid generic usernames that look a bit
random (eg. Steve6789 or trafficonome53) as it
will be harder to stand out as a brand, and
can lead to lower levels of credibility and click-
throughs to your site.

Primarily … Help Others

In terms of general strategy, your primary
motivation should be to help others.
The more you genuinely try to give to these
communities, the more benefit you’ll tend to
receive.

In some ways it’s similar to social media.
If it’s obvious you’re only there for your own
benefit, and you’re basically spamming the site
with your own links, it will be ineffective and
work against you.

Instead, there are ways to provide genuine
assistance to and interaction with others, while
still attracting click-through to your site.
Here are some pointers:

Spend time getting to know the forum,
its rules, and its culture.

Every forum is different and will have its own
set of rules, likes and dislikes, and general
culture.
Therefore, before posting, it’s wise to spend
some time on the forum as a lurker and
familiarize yourself with it.

When you do start to contribute yourself, you
won’t then cause problems or end up in hot
water with the forum’s moderators.

Dull, generic posts are unlikely
to be effective.

Rather than quick, thoughtless ‘Me too’ type
contributions posted solely so you can display
your link in your signature file (which is likely to
be ineffective anyway), you’re instead looking
to interest and engage others in the
community.

Provide comments based on your own
experience and expertise.
Be willing to help, and be likeable.
Be positive in your interactions.

In doing so, you’ll find people develop a
genuine interest in who you are and what you
do, and will often click through on your links to
find out more about you.

Link to your own resources –
the right way.

While you can often link to your own site within
your posts, it’s important to be careful how you
do so.
I’d strongly recommend you do so sparingly,
and of course to keep within the rules of the
forum.

If you link back to your own material with every
post, it’s likely you’ll either get warned by a
moderator, or possibly banned completely,
which of course you want to avoid.

Acceptable linking practice would be for
example to link back to a genuinely useful
resource (eg. a blog post) that helps answer
an original inquiry.

Don’t do things like demand an email address
before making the resource available, or it can
work against you with negative comments
thrown back at you.

Similarly, avoid linking to a resource that
people would have to pay to access.
That goes against the spirit of what forums are
all about.

The only exception would be of course to post
such a resource in a part of the forum where
you’re specifically permitted to do so.

You can of course link to other materials too,
not just your website.
You may for example have a video on YouTube
that deals with the exact issue under discussion
(or you could create one especially – such
gestures can go down very well!).

Or you could point to a posting on one of
your social media accounts such as Google+
or LinkedIn.
Perhaps you could create a PDF report (or
some other free download) that you freely
make available in order to add to the value of
the forum.

By adding your URL to say the beginning and
end of the report, you’ll attract traffic
(potentially ongoing) from interested parties
wanting to find out more about you.

For the best results, just be genuine in your
attempts to help others, and try to continually
add value to the community you are now part
of.

The aim is simply to begin a business
relationship with interested parties on the
forum, and to add them to your own
community (i.e. visitors to your website who
may opt-in or follow you on social media) over
time.

Link to other resources too

Part of your aim on forums is to gain authority,
and thus more weight to your posts and links.
You’ll lack credibility if you only ever link to your
own website, so it’s important to link elsewhere
too.

Refer to sites and resources owned by
others where it’s helpful to other forum users.
By doing so, your authority and credibility will
increase.

When you do link to your own resources, you’ll
enjoy more click-through as a trusted and
authoritative forum user.

Signature link(s) – provide a
click-through incentive

It’s tempting for newcomers to forum marketing
to add click here, buy now type links to their
signature file.
However, that type of approach is completely
ineffective.

Instead, your first goal should be for people
to click on the link, not to sell them
something.
After they click through to your site, you can
then work on the relationship you have with
them and over time move towards a sale.

For example, offer a freebie as a click-through
incentive.
It should be something of relevance and value
to the type of person you are trying to attract.

You could even have something exclusive for
the forum in question, that outsiders would
either have no access to or would otherwise
have to purchase.

Once they’re at your site, use an opt-in form
to request their email address in return for the
freebie.
You will then be able to follow-up with them and
build your relationship with them.

Start new threads too

Don’t always just respond to other people’s
threads, start new threads from time to time
too.
Ask questions, survey people, ask for
feedback.

By starting a thread, you’ll be be top of the
tree.
That means your own profile and links in your
signature file will gain maximum visibility for all
new traffic clicking through to the thread.

Be responsive to people’s replies to your
original post in order to encourage further
interaction.
More interaction of course means more
content, which can attract additional traffic to
the thread.

Some threads continue for years – and most
people look at the originating post to find out
what it’s all about.

To Conclude

In conclusion, posting to forums can be one of
the most effective (though often most
overlooked) methods to build your traffic for
the long-term.
However, as this post has shown, it has to be
approached in the right way to make it
effective.

Why not start now by following the advice
above to find some initial forums and
communities to participate in?
You may be surprised by how effective this
becomes for you as a traffic generation
method.
But there are many ways to build traffic ...

Join our community and get
immediate access to our FREE
training, 101 Ways To Increase
Traffic To Your Website.
Get access now - go to:
http://trafficono.me
trafficono.me: Our mission
is to provide a variety of
resources to help increase
your traffic, boost
conversions, and grow your
long-term profits.

How to increase your traffic using forums

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Featured

Featured (20)

How to increase your traffic using forums