The latest post in our series on garnering traffic for your website discusses forum marketing.

Many of us in the IM world dedicate some part of our marketing plan on participating in message boards related to our website topics, offering (we hope!) valuable information to get clicks. Thanks to the web, there are forums and bulletin boards on practically any topic available, so if your website focuses on pet rats, there’s a forum for it. Got a site about tattoos? Then yep, there’s a forum for that too.

So what’s the best way to market your business on a forum? In our opinion, it’s by offering users helpful information. Don’t spam, don’t toss up posts that say “yeah, me too!” just to pimp your sig. Keep it real, keep it honest and you’ll get the clicks. When registering with a board, make a point to read the community’s TOS and follow the rules. Each forum varies on their policies regarding affiliate links, self-promotion, and the like, so be aware of how each site works. If there’s an “Advertise Your Business” folder available, don’t head over there first thing. Introduce yourself to the community, contribute to some relevant topics, and ease your way into promotion.

How much time you spend on forum marketing is something you have to consider for your overall plan.

Depending on your niche, the more time you spend on forums, the better. In other categories, little to no marketing may work just fine.

In my experience, I always see traffic to my website(s) after a visit to the forum communities I frequent. However, I’ve only got so much time in my day and we all know that forums can easily become a big time sucker, so I focus my energies on two forums and promote only one of my sites (this one) since it relates directly to those boards. I utilize different traffic generation methods for my other sites.

I do know of some marketers who promote their sites or services solely through message boards; their sites have little or no PR, few links in, and no large traffic volumes. But they’re getting the results they want. So evaluate your goals for your site and see what kind of forum marketing fits best into your plans.

Do you promote your business on message boards? What methods do you use that seem to work best for getting visitors?

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