Selling via Forum Marketing
Published January 9th, 2008 in marketing
Forums are a useful platform for marketing a product or service and they have been gaining popularity amount the viral marketing crowd of late. Unfortunately because of this popularity, many marketers go to online forums with the sole intention of selling their products or getting recruits for their business, which can bring the quality of the forum down. So even if your main reason for joining a forum is to open up a new avenue for sales it is important to contribute something valuable to the forum community as well.
While you can successfully market a product on just about any type of discussion forum their main purpose is not to be an online marketplace. When viral marketers join a forum simply to market products, services or gain recruits the only thing that they really accomplish is making other members mad and ultimately getting themselves banned altogether. To be a successful in forum marketing you need to have the commitment to act respectfully and responsibly. You need to take a genuine interest in whatever the main topic of the forum in that you joined. This means you need to make regular visits to the forum in question and form a good relationship with other members of the forum. If you feel you have quality advice to offer then by all means offer it. Following the rules and regulations of an online forum is an absolute must. Do all of this and you are well on your way to building a solid reputation and a good reputation will take you a long way in the world of business. When trying to sell a product or service via an online forum you will find that buyers will assess your trustworthiness on your reputation gained from that forum, be it good or bad. Forums such as Digital Point Webmaster Forums actually have sections dedicated to selling products and services. You will also notice on Digital Point that each user has an iTrader rating, this allows other forum users to rate any transactions they have had with that user (similar to Ebays feedback system).
Because of the on going abuse of the rules by many in viral marketing, forums have set up strict rules for their users. For instance, many forums do not allow members to have a signature file including promotional links until they have made at least 10,20 or an even higher number of posts. Some forums have completely banned the use of signature lines on their forums. This protects forum members and allows the owner of the forum to present a fun a professional forum where people can feel safe to exchange ideas without being plagued by advertising.
Forum marketers need to start a marketing campaign with the knowledge that the purpose of an online forum is to be able to connect with others and exchange ideas on a particular subject. By respecting the rules and regulations of a website and establishing good relationships with other members your reputation will develop and you will be able to increase your potential to make sales without sp@mming any forums. So to be a successful forum marketer and run a successful forum marketing campaign you need to be respectful of forum rules and forum members and make the commitment to be an active member. This includes contributing constructively to forum discussions and posting threads with valid related content that you feel the forum will find interesting. If done correctly you will develop a great reputation and have people contacting you about your business without you saying a word.
Technorati Tags: Forums, Marketing, Linking, Ecommerce, Internet, Community
20 Comments to “Selling via Forum Marketing”
- 1 Pingback on Feb 22nd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
- 2 Pingback on Apr 25th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Good day!
new to the forums. just thought i would introduce myself!
My name is Rick
Hello! I got valuable information about forum marketing,To be a successful in forum marketing you need to have the commitment to act respectfully and responsibly. You need to take a genuine interest in whatever the main topic of the forum in that you joined. This means you need to make regular visits to the forum in question and form a good relationship with other members of the forum.Thanks!
thanks for the webmaster forum help topic,
Good job.
HellLabs Proxy Checker Pro
Hi! I’m Lorry un cori.
How are you?
Welcome
agedayevacE & lorryuncori
Hope you enjoy the Webmaster news and advice on NetStartupBlog
Hello all.
On what script do you recommend for running a forum for work? We are looking to create a website project about web-design for webmasters etc. for a website project and want to know the best forum software to use.
Can anyone experienced in running forums recommend the best forum platform?
It is necessary to find the best forum software asap to get my forum up and running, any ideas or help would be appreciated.
Very much look forward to some suggestions from this blog community.
A Realistic $250K First Year Income is possible using powerful Forum Marketing
A few years ago I drove a beaten up old banger. Now I am making more a week than most professionals do, working less than forty hours from home each week. We are a group of entreprenuers that have gotten involved in web marketing and forum marketing in particluar to really boost our revenue and website marketing power.
Good
site.
Thanks for the ideas regarding forums and using them to market products, will be trying this. Cheers
hi,
This message to say I will chek for this forum regular as the tips seem useful,
ya ya!
Hi all!
I’m starting my forum marketing efforts right now because of this post.
Bye
Hello. Let’s get our forums together and helping each other!
My name is Jess.
Perfect advice for my business model. This is first on my list of things to do marketing wise when I get the chance.
Forums are great marketing goldmines. Hit all the niche community sites you can find remotely related to your own niche. Build some standing at these related forums and then suggest your links and post relevant information with your own sites links. Traffic is targeted to your niche from these communities and more likely to convert
Hello my friends
Good advise and I agree with this for start up and established business online.
I have carried out research work and collected the most worthwhile sites and forums about online business to post to. Active often updated forums are best for this type of internet marketing project.
PS Sos if off topic message and hope it is interesting to community net start up here.
Good morning mates!
I’m looking to buy and sell ipods on the internet. Do you guys think this is a good idea for a net start up business idea or is that market too saturated.
Have a nice day
Very nice site! Thanks for all the tech business tips!