Definitive Guide to Driving Traffic With Forums

Posted on May 17, 2010 by Melvin

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This topic has been covered several times but I do feel most articles are just junk ones. Either not really adding anything significant, or not covering the topic properly. With that in mind I decided to write this in-depth article on how to drive traffic to your blog using forums.

First and foremost, forums are always a good source of traffic to your blog because its highly-populated by nature. A lot of people lurk in forums, people want to engage in talks and debate and more importantly they know how to appreciate something good that’s done to them.

Due to the intrinsic nature of forums, a lot of bloggers abuse them badly. I’d like to be honest and would like to share I was one of those. During my early years, I was one of those morons who annoy the members by posting as much as I could without really adding anything of good value. If you feel guilty of doing this, then I highly suggest you read this post more and quit what you’re doing right now.

1. Pick Forums Carefully

It all starts by doing a small research and picking the forums that you would want to join in. Obviously it has to have some relation to your niche. In this niche, I am fortunate to have so many forums related to what I’m talking about.

This is the first step and this is a crucial step. Targeting the wrong demographics is a serious mistake so make sure you pay attention to that a lot.

2. Start By Building Your Identity

This may seem to be a basic one but I bet you a lot of people are doing this completely wrong. When you are just signing up, make sure to pick the appropriate name, a name that people could easily remember. In most forums, my screen name is Melvin and because of that they easily recognize me as a blogger who blogs at this site.

Do make sure to complete as much details as possible. You will be easily surprised on how a lot of forum members actually look at the profile of other members (voyeurism at work eh?). Make sure you add an avatar or a real pic. Lastly carve out a good signature. Do take note that the main goal of the signatures is to make other members engage, not and never for search rankings.

3. Help People Out

The main reason why forums exist is to help people out on certain topics. Yes we want to get traffic but our main goal always, should be helping people out. A lot of people in forums give good quality advice for free and do take note that it is costing them energy, time and other stuffs.

What I like to do is go to the “new posts” section of forums and then respond on those things. Since most of those are basic questions, there’s a good chance that you can help them out and start gaining good karma.

4. Explicit Promotion

I am guilty of this before. Never ever post anything that doesn’t add value and then explicitly put your link there. People don’t need half-baked information, what they need are quick-fix ones. A lot of bloggers make this mistake and not only it annoys the members, but it also does tune you and your blog out.

5. Its Ok to Argue, But not that much!

As I’ve said forums are a good place to debate and share insights. There’s a good chance that you would be encountering instances where someone would disagree with you and criticize you. It’s important to argue and stay competitive yet not have so much negativities. Too much hating will do no good and may even harm your reputation in the end.

We cannot please everyone but it’s good to side with the majority.

6. Write Precisely, Be Cool to them

Whenever you present your answers, make sure you tell it to them in an organized manner. Although forums really aren’t too strict with grammars, spelling and punctuation, do take note that any sentence your write, any help you provide reflects directly to you and the brand of your blog. We don’t want to sound like the most intelligent person but at least we want to look good.

Being cool is just all about helping so you could easily see if you’re being helpful by observing your reputation icon. People on forums aren’t too shabby on hitting the icon especially if they know you’re genuine interest is helping them out.

Final Words

Like in your own blog, you build yourself first before you benefit. If you’re a newbie this may sound a bit overwhelming especially if we are about to combine it with other marketing tactics like commenting, guest posting and etc. What I’d like to do with this is set at least one day in one week where all I would do is build my expertise and credibility on those online forums. I highly suggest you to do the same so that you are highly focused on what you are doing.

By following all the rules I outlined above, you don’t only get to gain additional traffic, you are also presented to a large number of people as an expert. By being cool to them, following rules and just being like a genuine person, its a win-win situation for everyone.

How cool is that?

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Discussion: 17 Comments

17 comments so far (is that a lot?)

17 Responses... What Say You?

Daily Smash

- 17th May, 10 10:05pm

nice tips but are you have any suggestion about good forum that we can join in???
Daily Smash´s last blog ..16 Standard Blogging Tools

Melvin Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
it really depends on the niche but im seeing your niche is blogging so theres really a lot of forums for that.

bloggeries.com
forums.digitalpoint.com
sitepoint forums
bloggingtips.com/forums
problogger.com
and many more.

A basic google search would reveal a lot as well.

Sean Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 2:19 am
Perfect… Thanks for sharing Melvin..

Choosing the right forum, should it be necessary related to your blog? Seems there are a lot of forums out there but i think i don’t need to register all of them… right?
Sean´s last blog ..Cebu House Finder

Melvin Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 7:52 am
yep you don’t. But quantity goes hand in hand with quality so if you can join as much as you can and then leverage your rep there then it would be better.
Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella

- 18th May, 10 08:05pm

This is an excellent article! I commend you on your ability to boil it down to the essentials and at the same time, be very clear. Being genuine, helpful and articulate are central to success on any forum or community based site. I am truly impressed with this article.

Would you consider writing a guest post on http://blogswithwings?
Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella´s last blog ..Contest Alert! Mike Roosa Is Giving Away The Farm And Other Great Stuff!

Melvin Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Hi Joella Im glad you like this article and I appreciate your kind words.

I love to guest post on as many blogs as possible so I’ll see.
Curtis

- 18th May, 10 10:05pm

Very nice post! I think I have already made all of the mistakes you mentioned though. Ah well. One of my favorite forums is Bloggeries. Everyone has been very helpful so far.

Melvin Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
yep bloggeries is a great forum. Anyways, all of us make mistakes but as always its never too late to change, lols.
Sally Neill

- 19th May, 10 01:05am

Hey I totally agree, and if forum members suspect your just in there for traffic you will get a frosty and hostile reaction from them, great post, Sally
Sally Neill´s last blog ..Back On The Slippery Slope To Nowhere
Tinh

- 19th May, 10 12:05pm

Frankly I am not supportive of forum models for blog. May bloggers started forum beside their blog platform but the traffic to forum is not good in terms of MMO.

Most of forums are now sharing pirated and copyrighted materials, that is why they receive a lot of traffic, but the traffic only come for freebies. No advertisers are interested in buying advertisement there. Many of my friends asked me but I refused for that reason.

I am sorry as my ideas are contradictory to what you mentioned above. If you guys are really interested in setting up your own forum, you should follow these guides together with:

- Assess your resource available, who to moderate, can you?
- Strict rules for members
- Prevent sharing copyrights materials
-….

Thanks
Tinh
Tinh´s last blog ..eBlogTip April Earning

Melvin Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 7:56 am
You opened up some good points Tinh. But that could be just a small number of forums (like wickedfire) as most forums are legit.

And why would you join those kinds of forums in the first place? It would be good to just join with the reputable ones as its more worth it.

As far as money is concern, monetization is never a model in joining forums.Its not about getting clients, getting advertisers but its more of building relationships and establishing expertise which would pay off better in the end.
TechGyo

- 21st May, 10 04:05pm

Yeah this seems to be a Good idea. Not only that you’ll get traffic but also backlinks. I read about Adobs Forum which has PR10. So one backlink from there would worth a lot
TechGyo´s last blog ..How To Know Which Is The Best Decision For You?
George

- 21st May, 10 08:05pm

Great article! I have a forum of my own and I delete any post that seems spammy. On the other had, if someone writes quality posts I’m more than happy to let them have signature links.
Andy

- 4th Jun, 10 12:06am

There are pros and cons of forums. While they can be effective platforms for exchanging of ideas, people can also use it as advertising opportunity and yes, spam. There are a lot of forum sites worth visiting, and surprisingly, I get some pretty good ideas from what random people contribute. This had been a nice read.
Andy´s last blog ..What do you do as a living?