Search This Blog

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Promote Online Business - Online Forums 101

Years ago, joining in online forums is only meant to interact with people having the same interests - asking questions, getting answered and all that stuff. But who knew that even online forums bring money to one's online business?
Why Go For Online Forums?
In the recent times, online forums have been growing in number. If this medium is used properly, it could be another way to promote anything - including products and services without rendering too much cost on the part of the individual running a business. But how could one use it for such purposes without sounding too direct?
How To Make Use Of Online Forums:
1) Look for an online forum that caters topics about your business, field of expertise, or perhaps field of interest. Look for them on the search engine. For instance, you want to be involved in a forum about hair care. Type "hair care forums", "forums about hair care", and any other keywords until you find what you are looking for. Register for free, and start interacting!
2) Post a topic. In most online forums, the most activities are going on in the "Main Discussion". It would be best to visit this portion first before anything else. Ask questions, ask for their opinions about your articles, blogs and etc. This will not only expose your business discreetly, but will also help you form relationships among other users in the forums. Make them your friends, advisers and even critiques. You'll never know - one of these users might be your client soon!
3) Answer questions from other posts. Don't just ask, but also share what you have. If there are any questions related to your field of expertise, go and share your piece of mind. Likewise, be someone's friend, adviser and critique. Most common scenario would be, a huge percent of online forum users are like you - an online entrepreneur. Who knows you might be finding something you thought you would not need for the business?
4) Post anything that would give information about you. If there are videos, blogs or articles that tell about you and the services you offer, post a topic about it so that users could see and know more about you.
5) Once in the forum, make sure to have a link of your site as your signature. It would be helpful to add hints that will lead them to visit your website (e.g. visit this site if you want to know more about what I am talking about, etc.). Never ever forget about this because this would serve as your main advertising tool.
Additional Points To Remember
Never, ever promote your products or services directly. This will lead to other users to think that you might just be probably after advertising, not building an interaction with them. Well, anyhow, there would still be interaction, but not as lively as one could get if they are only talking like peers inside the forum. Just make your signature (with the link on it) is large enough to be seen and attractive enough to be clicked. Remember, most of them might have joined not only for marketing purposes, but also for learning some online business strategies.
Leval Ainah helps people succeed online. Did you find this article helpful? If you did, then take a look at the step-by-step free video tutorials here. http://www.mavericmoneymakersyearly.com/

No comments:

Post a Comment