How to Earn Income While You Hang Out With Your Friends in Internet Forums

by Greg Cryns

Using the Internet is an excellent way to associate with people around the world who share the same pastimes and hobbies as you do. Now there’s a way to make money using those social skills, all while you’re shooting the Internet breeze.

Step 1: Identifying the Right Forums for Your Product or Service

Becoming a member of the right forum is the essential first step in a forum marketing plan. This usually isn’t too difficult, since the Internet is an enormous web of social associations. No matter what product or service you want to market, there’s probably a ready-made crowd of interest somewhere out there.

Conducting a Google search is a swift and simple way to find forums suited to your particular topic. At the Google engine search prompt, type:

            allintitle:keyword filetype:html forum

Replace keyword in the above example with the word that best fits your niche. For instance, if you’re publicizing an eBook with tips on parenting, you could select “parenting” as your keyword. Don’t put any spaces between the phrase “allintitle:” and the keyword.

You will be presented with a list of online forums associated with your subject matter. Evaluating each search result to determine if it’s the best forum for your plan is the next course of action.

One important thing to determine is the amount of activity in the forum. Are there a lot of forum members, or are there only a select few that post over and over? Ideally, you want to locate a forum with a large number of different members. The more members a forum has, the more people you’ll be able to market your product to.

However, you shouldn’t immediately dismiss smaller forums. Sometimes the smaller groups can produce more sales. A well-focused group can produce a higher number of click-throughs, resulting in more sales. Also, be sure you are able to use a “sig” file in your forum of choice. This will contain links to your product, so it’s crucial to select a forum that allows one.

Step 2: Loitering is Encouraged, Even Necessary!

After you find a forum with a good fit, become a member. Usually, you are only required to supply an email address and username. Now, wait. Don’t immediately begin posting. You need to take time to notice the shape of the forum activity: what kind of posts occur regularly? If you try to post hundreds of sales pitches your first day, you’re likely to get quickly shut down.

Identify the different major characters in the forum. Look for the obvious roles, such as the subject “experts” or those who always seem to be needing help. Knowing who’s who can help you find the ideal place to fit in.

In addition, observe the forum’s atmosphere. Is it a flamboyant, trendy forum? Or do the members seem more restrained and serious? Are there a lot of graphics? Do the forum threads stick strictly to the announced subject, or is it a free-for-all?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you blend in with the other posters. You should “lurk” (observe, not participate) for no less than a week in order to determine the mood of the forum. Then, you’re ready to begin participating as an effective forum member.

Step 3: Building a Good Community Stance

Use your forum observations to guide your involvement in the threads as you begin to submit posts. Depending on what you have noticed, you might decide to create your “sig” file immediately or wait until you become more known.

Always post with care. Nothing destroys authority sooner than misspelling words and misusing English. Before submitting your post, make sure you’ve read it a second time; try to read it as if you didn’t write it, so you can make sure the intended message of your post is clear.

Your first post should ideally be a short introduction: something about yourself and your knowledge of the topic at hand. It doesn’t have to be too detailed.

Whatever you do, don’t start by dispensing advice. No matter how much you know about the subject matter, in the eyes of the other members, you’re a “newbie.” It will take some time to gain respect from the other members of the forum.

Also, take some time to contribute to open threads before creating any of your own. A few “me too” posts (a message where you agree with a previous post) will quickly enhance your influence on the forum. But take care: too many of these “me too” posts will cause others to think you don’t have anything valuable to contribute. Slip in some of your own information from time to time.

During this preliminary stage, suppress the salesperson inside. Give the forum members plenty of time to develop respect for you so you can earn their trust. Once that happens, you can start proffering advice and mentioning your service or product.

Once you begin giving advice, keep your posts simple and short. Nobody wants to spend pointless time searching for the valuable part of a long-winded post. Keep the rambling to a minimum; brief, intentional posts are best.

Always make sure the tone of your posts is pleasant and supportive. Sarcasm reads horribly online; it’s easily misunderstood, and it might even land you in hot water. It’s also good to remember that every forum has its “drama” characters. Don’t get sucked into that vortex! And always reply in a gracious, professional way when you perceive you’re under attack. Never post heated or spiteful messages.

Forum moderators usually quash eruptions of drama within a day. If you can stay out of the crisis and above the fray, you’ll emerge with your image intact.

Step 4: Submitting Posts, Reaping Profits

Straightforward product promotion is discouraged by most forums. But you can make it easy with your “sig” file. This signature is incorporated into every post you submit, and you can set it up to include your product suggestions.

The signature is the little text segment shown at the bottom of your posts. Consequently, the more posts you submit, the more your signature (and your product recommendations) will show up in the forum. By setting up your “sig” file to display links to products, other members of the forum can follow the links to your highlighted products.

Creating your signature file isn’t standardized across the forums world. However, most of the time, you’ll be able to edit the “sig” file when you click on the link to edit your forum profile. Look for the box where you can type a URL or link to a product.

Before you insert any product links, however, make certain you are allowed to display affiliate links in your signature. You will find this information in the forum rules, and each forum has different rules. Some only permit links to a personal website; others allow affiliate product links. Make sure you know the rules!

Make it as easy as possible for other forum members to find their way to your products by providing a “hyperlink” as your signature link. This means that members who select the link will be taken immediately to the link’s page. You may have to use HTML or a BBC code, but the fundamental setup for each is the same.

·        HTML: <a href=http://www.myaffiliatelink.com>My Site</a>

·        BBC code: [url=http://www.myaffiliatelink.com]My Site[/a]

In the above example, the words “My Site” indicate the text other forum members will see in your signature. You’ll probably decide to use a more attractive phrase; you don’t have to limit it to two or three words either. It can be a sentence.

For example:

·        “Looking for cheaper car insurance? Try this!”

·        “Here are the top 5 secrets of beautiful skin”

·        “Organic gardening made simple!”

By using special code that makes text bold, you can make your signature more prominent.

·        For HTML: <b><a href=http://www.myaffiliatelink.com>My Site</a></b>

·        For BBC code: [b] [url=http://www.myaffiliatelink.com]My Site[/a][/b]

The great thing about setting up product recommendations as part of your signature file is that you don’t have to submit “sales” posts on the forum. As you post messages to open threads, adding a positive contribution to the forum, your link is consistently available for other members to click on.

Step 5: Evaluating Your Posting Progress

Now that you’ve become known as a forum member and created your “sig” file, you need to evaluate the effectiveness of your posting activity. Examining your affiliate sales numbers is a simple way to begin, but those numbers don’t indicate exactly where the sales originated.

There is no way to tell which forums are generating the most sales, especially if you are a member of several forums and you are posting your affiliate link in each one. But this is critical information, since it’s valuable to known which forums are advantageous and which are meaningless.

If you plan to post on several forums, the GoTryThis program will assist you in discovering which forums are most useful to your sales project. The program assigns a unique tracking symbol to each affiliate link, allowing you to see easily which sales came from which forum.

With GoTryThis, you can also conceal your affiliate link, removing the temptation for other affiliate marketers to pocket your profit. An example of an exposed affiliate link is:

            http://www.affiliateprogram.com/youraffiliateid.html

When you display your affiliate link in this manner, anyone who has experience with affiliate marketing can exchange their affiliate ID for yours, thereby stealing your sales commission. But if you have the GoTryThis program, you can disguise your affiliate link to look like this:

            http://www.yourowndomain.com/recommendedprogram.html

In this example, your affiliate ID is totally undisclosed, and any forum members who click on the link get automatically relocated to the product page you’re advertising. If they subsequently buy the product, you’ve retained the sales commission.

You should also think about inserting a “squeeze” page that enables you to obtain the names and email addresses of your visitors before they are sent to the product page. Acquiring customer contact details is a vital part of forum marketing; it will assist you in creating an ultimate list of potential customers.

Adding a squeeze page allows you to gather information on your potential buyers, enabling you to continue promoting services and products to them in the future. Taking forum members directly from the link in your signature to your product page without collecting contact information is like walking past a pot of gold without looking twice. Creating one website page where potential customers leave information doesn’t take very long, but it will bring rewards for a very long time.

Once the contact information starts rolling in, use an autoresponder program, such as Aweber, to manage it. Autoresponder programs make simple work out of list management, managing tough jobs like routine bulk emails. After the initial setup, organizing your contact list only requires a few minutes every month.

Forum posting is one of the easiest ways to procure interested customers without any cost to you. Utilizing this free activity can be the first step in a successful online career. At the very least, you will make a lot of business contacts as you develop your business.

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Copyright 2006