For the online marketer, forum marketing is one of the simplest and most effective investments of time and attention available. It's something that can be done in any niche by any one. Some products or services will have better forum representation but most will have some.
You'll even hear about many marketers who simply skip this marketing method. However, it can help you meet many of your goals as an Internet marketer.
One of the most important pages you can read at a forum is the one with the terms of service (TOS) on it. This is where you'll find all the things that can make your experience a long and profitable one. If you manage to violate the terms of service for a forum you run the risk of being banned from that site permanently. They generally aren't concerned with whether or not you actually read the TOS. If you violate a TOS, then they assume you've read them and violated it anyway. This is how they feel about it-and they have reason to feel this way. That's why it's so important to read and understand the TOS before you get started.
Don't forget to start a few threads of your own as well. It's quite common to feel a little bit shy about going out there and starting threads of your own. Think of something worthwhile you have to share and turn it into a thread. You can encourage people to reply with posts by asking questions.
A great way to get comments is to make a controversial statement. Just be wary of crossing lines or coming across as uninformed and/or judgmental. No matter what, you should never take your threads off topic or into the realm of the absurd.
It doesn't take long to see that some people always seem to be coming up with new ideas and beginning new threads. I don't really care about it, but it creates impressions in other people that are not always positive. Don't use all your great thread topic ideas at once. Spread them out over time.
Also remember to post on the other threads. Human nature will show quite often on forums. Don't forget to stick to your convictions-even at times like this. Gray areas abound with forum marketing. Share your knowledge with the forum members in many different ways if possible.
You can work a lot of forums and still only devote about five hours a week to the effort and, bring in a ton of profit from forum marketing. It really is an excellent webpage ROI for your time and attention. The key is to diversify as much as possible so that your business is somewhat insulated from the instability of marketing online.