Forum Traffic Gold By Cindy Battye

Table of Contents.

1. Getting Started 2. Finding The Right Forum For You 3. Using Your Signature 4. The Power of The Avatar 5. Targeting your Traffic 6. Becoming the ‘Expert’ 7. Posting Frequency – Earning Respect 8. Wording Your Posts For Optimum Success 9. Forum Revenue Sharing & Advertising

10. Networking with Peers & Customers. 11. The Fine Line Between Promotion & Spam 12. Last Minute Gold

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Chapter 1

Getting Started

If you have never stepped proverbial foot in a forum before then you are in for a treat! I know that some of you might have seen forums as a place where you can find answers about how to fix the latest virus, or find a nice tomato soup recipe – which is about as deep as the general internet population goes. This is why it is exciting! If you can learn to implement these strategies,

YOU will provide the rest of the internet with the information. They will look to YOU as someone who ‘knows their stuff’ YOU will be able to point them directly toward your website!

The truth is that around 90% of internet users will not sign up at an informative forum. Is that good news? Bad news? Well, for you, it’s fantastic news! Did you know that out of that 90%, if they use any search engine that 100% of them WILL find their way to a forum in search of answers to their questions? In the forum world, this 90% are called ‘lurkers’. These are people who will regularly show up at a forum, but never register or post. If you have gone past the boundaries of the registration page and made it into the actual forum, you will soon realize that there can be a huge opportunity to network and build your online exposure. We will get to that later, but for now let’s start from the beginning. If you are already active in forums, then you are off to a good start. This book will help you to hone your posting skills so that you will be more productive, and get much more effective results.

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Chapter 2

Finding the Right Forum for You

There are several things to be considered in choosing a forum so that you can post with maximum effectiveness. This part is absolutely vital, to ensure that the traffic that you get is as targeted as possible. Subject Matter Obviously the content of the forum will make a difference in your interest, and in the type of people who will be reading the posts which you make. You can look at sites such as big-boards.com to find information about the content of the forum, the number of members and the number of posts included in the archives. Take the time to review the categories and choose several which reflect your area of interest or niche. Look at the specifics about what is covered in the statement of subject matter. Although it may be tempting to go to the forum with the largest membership, you are far better off to attempt to find a mid-sized board which is a better match with your niche. For example, you may want to consider 'natural foods' as opposed to 'food'. We will look deeper into this, in chapter 4. Size Does Matter! Forums are typically ranked by number of members and by the number of posts present in the archives. In choosing a forum, bigger is not necessarily better since your post must compete with more entries and may not stand as much. On the other hand, a large and active forum will provide you with many backlinks (which will be discussed later) as you continue to post. Your signature and avatar will be seen by and become familiar to more people. A forum which is very specialized or has very low membership will make your posts stand out, but there may not be enough draw to those people searching for the subject with a search engine to warrant spending your time and energy there. Technical Factors You should be aware of the techniques for submitting your posts. Are you able to use your signature block? Are avatars allowed? Can new members submit immediately? Is there extensive blocking or editing of posts done by an owner

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or moderator? Is there a history of spam messages on the board, and if so, what steps are being taken to combat it? Ego This is an area that's hard to define, but you often see it in niche forums. One or more people generally monopolize the board with posts, often using the forum as a sort of public email. These people often have strong opinions and promote them strongly. Even worse is if there are two people who rarely agree with each other and a great deal of the time and space on the forum is spent watching them pick at each other. Finding forums Well, you can’t go past Google. Do a search for your keyword, and the word ‘forum’, so it could be ‘Affiliate Marketing Forum’, and see what the results are. Generally, the ones that show up in the first page are the ones that you should try out first. Before you sign up, have a look at the stats (generally found at the bottom of the forum index). Are there active posters coming in regularly? Does it have more than 1000 members? Check the topics in the headers, do they relate to your niche? Another way that you can find good forums, is to find a leader in your field, whom you respect, and ask them where they hang around. There are some forums that are limited only to invited members, making them less of a target for spammers. Forum Know-How is one of these, which provides a place purely for networking and business planning with people in the Internet Marketing industry. Most people will be flattered if you email them to ask what forums they spend their time in, which will also help you to be welcomed in more warmly. Choose your name When signing up, use your real name. It is easy to find security in anonymity, however, if you want people to identify with you and feel comfortable that they are dealing with a serious, competent person, then using a forum name like ‘basementbob’ is not going to give them that assurance. The only exception that I can think of is if you are targeting a specific niche, such as gaming – where you might need to adjust it according to the generation that you are trying to network with. In the case of general internet marketing though, promote yourself. Let people relate your name to your words.

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Chapter 3

Use your Signature

Many people overlook the value of the signature as a method of free internet advertising for your product and business. The signature is a three or four line follow up to your post name. Each time you post on a forum or respond to an email, your signature is being used to identify your valuable information to the readers and to provide a way for them to find your company website. The signature you use should contain a link to your web site. In some instances you will be required to pay for the use of signatures, but in many other forums, the internet advertising provided by the use of signatures is absolutely free. You should take advantage of this marketing tool. Links in the signature block can help in several ways.

• PROMOTION - The signature link acts just like roadside advertising, especially if it is done in such a way that it doesn't annoy. In other words, no animated smileys. The repetition of the link and the helpful information above your signature are an effective and long-lasting way to promote your company and your product.

• TRAFFIC - In addition to the promotion which you get from adding your

business web link to your signature, you get the traffic from people who see the site promoted and follow through by clicking on the link. A link that regularly appears on a large and trusted forum is often seen as being more trustworthy. Because the link is visible and the messages are never harsh or divisive, there is a level of confidence in the web site itself.

• BACKLINKS - Each time you post at a forum you are not only promoting

your web page directly, and adding to the traffic coming to your web site, you are also growing the number of back links on your own site. When the search engine crawls the forum site, your link is counted as a backlink, which provides you with many backlinks, within a very short period of time.

• PAGE RANKING - Increasing the number of backlinks can assist you in

increasing your page rank. Page Rank is Google’s measure of importance that they put on your page, and will affect how high up the page your website will appear if a person types your keywords into a search engine. You can easily increase your page rank without the need of purchasing

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any links. All you need to do is include your web site link within your signature. Although not instantaneous, your signature-based link will soon give you an increased page ranking.

Set your signature up correctly. For the best result, use keywords that you want to be found for when people are searching in Google. For example, if your online business is in web traffic, then use a commonly searched for term – eg, free web traffic, and then hyperlink that phrase with your website url. Google will then identify your site with that phrase, giving you a higher opportunity of being found by people who are searching for free web traffic. If you are having trouble with the html, don’t worry – most forums use this format. Just open your UserCP, click on change or edit signature, and put this information into the box. Depending on the type of forum software that they are using, it could also be in the profile area. Here is one that I have made, which will show up like this: Free Web Traffic [URL="http://www.traffic-splash.com/?referer=Cindy"]Free Web Traffic[/URL] You can follow this guide to make your own specific one. [URL="http://www.yourwebsite.com"]YOUR KEYWORD/S HERE[/URL] When you are setting it up, don’t forget that you can usually use colors, and add special features such as bold, italics or underline to make it stand out. Making your signature look great! A lot of people get confused by the terms used when trying to make their url look nice. If you have used html, it won’t look as scary but there are a few things that you can do to make your signature look good. Just remember that you will need to check each particular forum’s TOS, as some things that I am suggesting here will not be permitted. The two most common forum scripts that you will find are vBulletin and phpbb. Each of these requires a slightly different method for setting up your signature. 6

Editing vBulletin Signature vBulletin forums require you to go to the UserCP. Most forums will do a bit of customization, so they might look different colours, and have slightly different layouts, but most of the control panels are similar. Here is a screenshot at what you should see when you click on the UserCP button.

Some of the forums make it really easy for you, and use a system that is as easy to edit as msWord, you just type in your keyword or phrase, and highlight it, and modify it as you would like. For example, here, I have made the font larger, underlined it, centered it and made it bold.

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Some will allow you to use a similar editing system, but will show the bbcode as you edit it. If the default editing style is like this, and you are not familiar with bbcode, then you can click on the button on the right, to change the edit mode.

Editing phpbb Signature The term used on the phpbb forum, is ‘Profile’, so you will need click there to change your details. Editing your signature in phpbb is a bit more difficult as they don’t have an editor, so you will need to write what you want in phpbb code.

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There is a detailed tutorial in the phpbb forum system, so I will not repeat their information. To read it, you can click on the link demonstrated on the previous page. You will find this page when you go to post a message. I have provided some examples for you to follow if you are still having trouble. For your link to look like this: Visit The Members ForumUse this: [url=http://www.themembersforum.com] Visit The Members Forum[/url] For your link to look like this: Visit The Members ForumUse this: [b][u][i][url=http://www.themembersforum.com ] The Members Forum [/url][/b][/u][/i] For your link to look like this: Visit The Members ForumUse this: [size=18] [color=red] [b] [i] [u] [url=http://www.themembersforum.com ] The Members Forum! [/url] [/b] [/i] [/u] [/color] [/size] Some forums, like Net Marketing Forum, allow you to put images in your signature. Using images in your signature gives you a great opportunity to brand you website even further, allowing the people viewing your posts to associate a larger image, with your comments. To make your signature look like this:

Use this: [url=http://www.trafficbunnies.com][img]http://www.trafficbunnies.com/ref/bunnies1.gif[/img][/url]

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Change your keywords Mix it up a bit. If you are posting in 4 different forums, keep your same web address, but have a different keyword or phrase for each. Maybe choose 4 different ones and change them each week so that you can test the effectiveness of both the forum, and the keywords. Make yourself a plan – eg

Week Three Week One Week Two Week Four

Forum A – Forum A – Forum A – Forum A – Ultimate Safelist Survival

Safelist Guide Using Safelists Safelist AdvertisingForum B – Forum B – Forum B –

Forum B – Ultimate Safelist Survival

Safelist Guide Using SafelistsForum C – Forum C –

Safelist GuideForum D – Ultimate Safelist Survival

Safelist AdvertisingForum C – Forum C – Ultimate Safelist

SurvivalUsing Safelists Safelist AdvertisingForum D –Safelist Advertising

Forum D – Forum D – Safelist Guide Using Safelists

Post in each forum for at least a month, preferably two months so that you can get a more accurate view of which forums really deliver the traffic. Tracking your signature You should always track where your members are coming from, to save you from spending your valuable time in places that do not deliver any traffic. My favorite tool to use for this purpose is found at HitsConnect, you can click the link for your free trial. Hits Connect also let you add a feature so that you can monitor how many people click on your site as well, letting you calculate how profitable your promotion has been. As you can guess, tracking is important for determining the value of your posting efforts, but there can be a drawback because if you are using a tracker, you will be given a tracking url to put in place of your website url, resulting in the backlink being given to the tracking company. A good technique to use, is to use your website url when advertising your own websites, and if promoting an affiliate link use a tracker. If you are concerned about how well a forum is performing you should probably track it for a while, maybe one or two weeks, and then replace the tracker url with your own again.

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Chapter 4

The Power of the Avatar

The avatar is a representation of the internet user of themselves, commonly found in internet forums. It’s that little picture that goes in the place next to your name. Many people have caught on to the amazing influence that it can have as you will notice an increased usage in many applications, including that of marketing or web presence. The use of avatars on web forums is increasing dramatically, although it is not know where the practice originated. Avatars on the forums represent the person, their beliefs, their interests or their business. Using the avatar as another reminder of your business to other forum users is another way to increase your promotional efforts at no cost to your advertising budget. The avatar is usually a small sized, often 96 x 96 pixels to 100 by 100 pixels, box with an image, text and a border which is place at or near the forum post of the contributor. Many forums allow for the uploading of an avatar from the web page or other location. This means the user has the capability of creating or designing an avatar which embodies the philosophy, message or belief of the company or owner. It can be as simple as your business logo, which provides continuity for all your advertising, and in all likelihood has been used on your web site already. However, other avatars are developed to embody a belief or a philosophy and to attempt to convey that value by means of an image and a few words. An avatar doesn't necessarily have to include the name of the business, although you can if you want. Some forums allow for an auto-discovery algorithm which will extract an avatar from a preset web page. Although small in size, the avatar should represent a good deal of thought about the qualities of your company which you want to portray. Commercialized avatar systems allow for a pixelized representation of a person or creature which can then be modified as desired. Some avatars are even animated, with four or six different but related views following in sequence. This often will appear busy which can be a problem if you want your product to reflect calmness and tranquility.

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There is growing recognition of the power of the avatar in internet marketing, to represent a company image or qualities of a product. Look at the possibilities for your own business, as many companies are now doing. The avatar can be another way of expanding the recognition of your product or business without the cost of advertising. If your website does not have a logo yet, make it a priority because people’s memories are visually stimulated. They are more likely to recall the name of your site, if they can relate a visual image to that name. I would recommend either using your own picture in the forum, if that is commonly practiced in the particular forum, or using a miniaturized version of your logo. If you promote multiple products, or affiliate programs then you should use your own photo so that people can identify you with your products.

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Chapter 5

Targeting your traffic

Earlier we discussed searching for specific forums, and finding the perfect ones for you to participate in. That is a great starting point, but I want to expand on it a little more. The word ‘niche’ get’s bandied around a lot when discussing website promotion, and now I am going to talk about it. Don’t shut off! This is important information, because if you can choose your niche properly, it can really pay off. The key to niche marketing is to find a need and fill it. Most of the time, the emphasis is on finding an area that not many people have done and then market it. Due to the fact that this is a world-wide-web the chances of coming up with a completely unique idea are pretty slim, which is why I wanted to suggest this. Let’s take an example of something really general, like Web Hosting, which results in a mere 261 million search results! If you are trying to compete with the top ranking sites in this field you have lost before you have even started. So, is it worth doing still? Well, with forums you can if you use a targeted approach. Do you have a theme for this hypothetical web hosting site? Let’s say you have chosen a design with lots of pinks and flowers and pretty things. So, start talking in a WAHM forum. Find a forum where the room is full of middle aged women seeking to start out a new at home business. I know this is controversial, because I am being very stereotypical here, but that is the point! Think about every generalization and stereotypical genre that might be attracted to your site and then think about the things that they would be interested in. Find forums about these topics, and start posting! Choosing your keywords This is probably not the right chapter to put this, but if you are stuck trying to find good keywords I thought I would show you this program. It’s called Wordtracker, and you can trial it for free. It allows you to find keywords that are not just specific to your niche, but which also tells you which words have the least amount of competition which helps to find keywords that are going to be more likely to produce decent traffic.

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Chapter 6

Becoming the ‘Expert’

Even if you've chosen a niche for your product or company, there is still reason for further specialization, and this is where you can really shine. If you are recognized through your forum posts as being the person or company where answers and information about a certain area can be found, you will have people not only looking for your posts on the forum, but coming to your own web site to find out even more information. The area which you choose should be something that interests you and is likely to continue to interest you over the long haul. It should be something that relates to or is crucial to your company business. Finally, it should fit within the purview of the forum site where you post regularly. If you find a forum which is a broader treatment of the niche market in which you participate, and it doesn't have information on your area of specialization, try starting a thread about the subject and work at increasing interest and participation by the questions which you ask. You can direct questions to other members of the forum in order to have them participating. Eventually the thread becomes strong enough to become a sub forum if that is a feature of the forum where you post. As an example, Nutrition is a big subject, and there are numerous forums which deal with the subject. If you are interest in the subject of natural foods, that's an area which you might learn more about, but if you are in the business of selling exotic herbs from India, you can be come respected in that specific area, become the ‘Indian herb’s guy’. Your posts can contain information about specific herbs which boost nutrients in a needed area or to combat a specific illness. You don't even have to mention your company in the posts. Your signature and avatar will take care of that. Visitors to the forum can find the information which you provide and follow the links back to your personal web site where you can have even more information about specific products and treatments. This is just one example of how specialization in one area can benefit your business and the forum where you post as well. Information which you have

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should be presented in a helpful courteous manner without making wild claims or being critical of other products. For forums using the vBulletin script, and some that have had modifications they have an inbuilt reputation system. By clicking on the ‘scales’ icon you can either compliment or criticize the member’s posts. This system works well to make friends too. Not that you give positive feedback just to impress someone, but it can be a non-confrontational way to say, yeah – I appreciated what you had to say there. When you leave feedback for someone, check that your name is on it. Some forums will do this automatically, but others don’t. I would recommend leaving messages like – “Thank you for showing me that link, great resource – Cindy Battye” Don’t over-use the negative feedback button. Use it if you think it is really warranted, but try and be kind and if you have to leave negative feedback, be constructive about why you felt it was necessary. You can see how well respected a member is by their reputation points shown in the panel on the right, next to any of their posts.

In your own UserCP you can have a look at the comments that members have made about you.

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Just because someone gives you a positive feedback point does not mean that you have to give them one just to be nice. This doesn’t help the points system, as it just makes the ‘nice’ people look really good – regardless of their skills or ability contribute to the forum. Keep an eye out for that person though, and look for a chance to legitimately reward them. One of the most massive forum etiquette rules is to NEVER beg for positive reputation. It is the fastest way to lose respect in a forum, and you will probably end up with much more negative, than positive reputation. To increase your reputation, offer help when asked. Give reviews, constructive comments, complements (when deserved) etc. If you contribute to a forum, your efforts will be recognized eventually.

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Chapter 7

Posting Frequency – Earning Respect

Once you have selected an appropriate niche forum and prepared your signature so that it links to your web site; once you've chosen an avatar which represents your company or your products and you've determined the approach you want to take in your posts, you are ready to begin posting. The frequency of your posts will vary according to the size of the forum and the volume of other posts. You will want to be cautious early in your membership on the forum to avoid asking questions which have already been asked and answered, but this is probably a good way to break into the forum--asking questions. You may also find a thread you are particularly interested in and ask a specific question of a poster in that thread. Ask for clarification or further discussion on that point. Chances are, the poster will appreciate the chance to respond and you are contributing information by asking questions. You can judge the frequency which you should use in early posts by how eagerly others respond to your posts. After you have built up the number of posts you make gradually over two to three weeks or a month, you can then add posts in another thread in the same forum. This will show that you are eager to learn, but that you can contribute information as well. Remember, the more you post, the more your name and web site is showing up on the forum. At the same time, don't overwhelm the forum with post after post after post with your name on it. This begins to look like spam. The importance of spacing out your comments and providing only quality information when you do post is more beneficial than multiple posts which contain little information. You want readers to look forward to what you have to say about a subject. Fortunately it's usually easy to get excited about some area of your niche and your enthusiasm to share with others will show through in the quality of your posts. Keep those posts coming so that the forum user won't have to scroll through pages and pages of posts before one of yours appears. You can maintain the respect by posting frequently, not perhaps at the rate of several times per day, but at least every other day, with more frequent posts as the subject and the volume of posts overall on the forum warrants.

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Chapter 8

Wording your Posts for Optimum Results

There are several important things to consider when you are preparing your posts to a niche forum. Keep these tips in mind and you will increase the effectiveness of each post and thereby increase the traffic to your own web site.

• CHOOSE YOUR AUDIENCE. Presumably you've chosen your forum carefully already so that the people who are members of the forum are those who are interest in the subject which you represent. Don't waste your time talking about internet marketing if the forum is about raising roses and expect to get much of a positive response

• INDIRECT APPROACH If you join a forum of your peers and present only an advertisement for your own company as your contribution to the subject, you are also wasting your time and that of everyone else in the forum. First you should prove that you have something of value to contribute to the groups. If that contribution is recognized, then people will visit your web site because they trust your information.

• DON'T FIGHT THE TIDE If you're in a forum promoting the use of pay-per-click, it seems rather pointless to post about the benefits of newspaper classified advertising, yet some forum posters seem to take delight in being critical of one or more facets of the forum. There is room for discussion, but ask yourself whether this forum is the proper location for your particular post.

• RESPOND TO QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ABOUT A POST Often a frustrating experience in a forum will be to read page after page of questions from forum users with no effort being made to answer the questions. Unfortunately the lack of response, particularly in mature forums is because the questions have been asked and answered previously and those answers could be found with some effort on the part of the questioner. On the other hand, sometimes it is useful to review previous information, perhaps even state it in a new way.

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• REPETITION

Try to find a fresh way of making every statement you post, even while you are posting the same thing. This keeps your signature before forum readers. It helps in the learning curve for readers too. If you simply repeat the same words over and over not only do they lose their effectiveness but you are not presenting new information so you become boring and the forum becomes boring as well.

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Chapter 9

Forum Revenue Sharing & Advertising

If you participate in a forum which provides for forum revenue sharing you've increased your opportunities to not only increase your traffic, but to receive revenue in the form of cash or credits toward additional advertising. This advertising can be used on the forum itself. Most forums use Google Adsense to generate some income, so if you want to have your adverts show up in that specific forum you can use an AdWords campaign and specify the fields for a higher chance of them being shown there. There are some sites such as Traffic Bunnies which allow you to create advertisements in the form of banner advertising, traffic exchange and text exchange. With a large member base, there is ample opportunity to increase traffic flow, provide banner clicks and share text advertising. Trafficbunnies is unique, in that they allow you to earn free text and banner displays, and then display your ads on their forum Net Traffic Chat. By joining this forum you can network with other people who are in the same interest area, meet and get to know your customers and potential customers, promote the web site of your own company, educate yourself in new and innovative ways to attract traffic to your web site, utilize existing traffic generators more effectively, increase communication with others on the forum via private messaging, find out others viewpoints on a subject by initiating or participating in a poll. This forum is designed purely to discuss ways in which our members can generate more web traffic, so it is also a good idea to check in from time to time and see if there are any new ideas that people are using, as well as networking with people who are in a similar situation as you. With this type of a format, there is no spamming. There is only information sharing by people who want to receive the information. It is a network of people with similar interests that of increasing traffic to one's web site, and seeking inexpensive and innovative methods to accomplish that goal.

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Chapter 10

Networking With Peers & Customers

Forum posts are a great way to network with your peers and communicate with customers and potential customers as well. By finding and regularly using a forum which is in your niche, you are in the best position to be reading and reaching others who are in the same niche. A carefully chosen forum is like an exclusive club in one way. The people who are in the forum are of two types. First are those who are in the business or niche which is represented. This group represents those who understand the concepts, the language and the needs of the niche. Often one or more will have a business which is related to the subject of the forum. These forum members can and do network with each other to solve problems, to discuss advances in their area of interest, and to assist one another in building up the niche over all. There will undoubtedly be competition amongst the peers, but the forum puts them all on pretty much the same footing. They are peers, which connotes those who have similar interests, values, ideals, knowledge base or experience. The other type of visitors to such a niche based forum is the customers. Presumably customers have arrived at a forum to find out about a particular subject or product and were directed to the forum by means of an internet search engine. Communication with these potential customers is vital. The forum can provide information about products which will help the customer know exactly which product will be the most likely to meet specific needs. The network of peers represented on a niche forum often contains a depository of knowledge which the customer can tap for information, applications and problem resolution. While a personal web site rarely is a complete authority on a subject, by linking to a forum where additional information can be found, the customer perceives that he's getting better service and answers to questions. Niche forum marketing works another way to help your customers as well. You can invite a customer into a forum where they can learn and participate in information at a deeper level than that found in just one on one communication. Following a particular thread can spark interest in another facet of the subject, for instance.

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So, to use niche forums as a way to maintain good network tools with your peers and as a way to communicate with customers and potential customers is an effective use of time and resources to market your product.

Another vital suggestion is to train your own affiliates to use forums. If you run a membership site, or are part of an affiliate organization where you have contact with your members encourage them to become active in a few specific forums. Using the methods that I have outlined, choose some forums for them, and then remind them on a weekly basis if necessary, to show their faces on the forums. The benefits are huge!

• It gives you regular contact with your members, some people are a little shy in contacting their ‘upline’, and will never email you, but if you can ask them things in a public forum they are sometimes more likely to respond.

• It lets people know that you are real, not just a computer program set up to earn them money.

• It builds a sense of team work and responsibility. If you are posting a question to a member, then you encourage a response. It will allow them to feel that they are a necessary part of your team and promote loyalty.

• Provides accountability. You have a written record of anything that is discussed, and a whole forum full of witnesses. This brings an ability to not only have proof in case problems arise, but also allows people to view your integrity and how you deal in situations of potential conflict.

Another great feature of the forum is their Private Message (PM) function. This allows you to send messages to people in the forums, which is invaluable for networking. This should never be used as an opportunity to spam people. Here are some things that it could be used for:

• Communicating with your customers • Contacting your affiliates • Networking with peers • Planning JV projects (Joint Ventures) • Developing relationships with like-minded people.

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Chapter 11

The Fine Line Between Promotion and Spam

If you follow the principles which have already defined, you won't have any trouble complying with this aspect of successful forum marketing by using forums. We all know what Spam is, and most of us have at some stage been on the receiving end of a whole heap of it. Spam has the connotation of fraud, get-rich quick schemes and dubious products. It often is a commercial message. The use of spam on an niche forum has no place. Not only does it not contribute to information, knowledge, or ongoing discussions, it often so frustrates forum users that they cancel membership on the forum, or quit visiting it. Spam hurts the forum reader, other forum posters, the owners of the forum, and even the entire niche where the spam is occurring. As a responsible member of the forum, you want to be sure that you are not one who is contributing to the spam on the internet. Make sure that content of each post is useful and informative information about the subject, not specifically about your product or company. Providing company or product specific information can be done indirectly through the use of your signature link and your company or business web page. By providing good information rather than spam, you are helping to build the health of the entire forum which benefits you directly, but also each and every other member of the forum. The forum becomes recognized as one which provides quality information and little or no spam. The members can help to police the posts, or it can be left up to the forum administrator. Either way, the forum gains a reputation as a place where information and discussion can occur without having to wade through acres of spam and thinly disguised commercial advertising. Some forums reduce the amount of spam delivered by limiting or banning posts by new members for a period of 30 or more days following membership. Others monitor directly by requiring individual approval of all posts. Some monitor posts only by new members. Forums may ban members who consistently disregard any of the forum rules, including that of no spam. Most forums have regulations

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which specifically prohibit the posting of spam messages, but it may be difficult to determine what exactly constitutes spam. By each member monitoring their own content and usage of the forum, it will improve the usefulness and reputation of the entire forum. 24

Chapter 12

Last Minute Gold Now you know the tricks it is up to you to implement them. This ebook really is no benefit to you unless you get out there and start putting it into action. So where to start?

• Fire up Google. Find 4 forums that fit into your niche and meet the suggested guidelines I have spoken about.

• Sign up, add your signature and your avatar. • Drop into the ‘Introduction’ Forum and say hello to your new potential

customers, and opportunities for exciting new promotional prospects. And if you have any questions, or want to discuss some of the things you have read please drop into my forum, Net Traffic Chat and let me know what you thought. I would really love to hear from you, Cindy Battye

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