Hi Fellows,

I got so angry, when I read a post from one forum, where the writer
gave so negative picture of forums, how useless they are, that I took
my PC and put my ideas about forum marketing on paper. So here they are:

1. The basic idea of forum, like Webmaster-Talk, is to give and
   get useful information and motivation for our own businesses.
2. People, who post their experiences and ideas or ask questions, are highly
3. motivated and eager to do better, all the time. This is why they spend so
   much time and energy here.
4. Some of the forums are extremely popular: Webmaster-Talk has Alexa
   rank of around 3.600, which makes it one of the most visited websites in the world.
   Think about the amount of marketers, who join these discussions and what an enormous opportunity that offers!
5. Forum marketing is one strategy, which works well if a participant honestly and actively asks and shares information. This is not an advertising media. This is a society, where
   members help members, that is the most effective way for all of us. We all have the same
   target: to succeed better in our businesses by getting tips and advices.
6. One strong benefit of forum marketing is, that an authority forum, like Webmaster-Talk,
   is the only place, where we can meet real internet gurus, marketers,
   who have succeeded extremely well in their businesses. Because those businesses are very similar to ours, we can ask and read their tips about various kind of topics.
   And almost in real time!
7. And more: with forum marketing we can build useful relationships
   with so many good marketers and send private messages.
8. On the top of all above mentioned things, forum marketing builds useful backlinks and bring steady flow of visitors.

I cannot imagine my internet business without forums,
so important they are.


Juhani Tontti

that person just want to create gimmick in order to get more attention, therefore it also can create more visitor for him.

forum is a platform for all people in the world to get connection with each others, so by involving in forum marketing is not waste of time.

Forum marketing is a great way to network and meet others in your business field.

Advertising a product or service related to the forum in your signature also seems to work pretty well. Maybe the person who wrote the original article was trying to advertise on the wrong forum? I wouldn't try to sell SEO services on a gardening site or something like that.

Where's the original post that you saw this on?

If someone's going to make that statement, call 'em out. Let's hear their side of it.

I spend most of my time promoting my website on forums, submitting to directories, etc. And this give me good feedback.

I think forum is a very important resources for backlinks, knowledge, etc.

So far i didn't get any business from forums, yet it is great place for learn new skills, to be up to date in your skill set and make friends.

Forum marketing is what made my company <link drop removed>

Anyone who states that forum advertising is worth less is wrong....

Originally Posted by SecureSearch

Forum marketing is what made my company eHDMI.com

Anyone who states that forum advertising is worth less is wrong....

I cannot say that our forum 'made' our business, but it has contributed to it quite a bit. Even though the actual members are low the page views are pretty high for what we sell.

www.pondkoi.com/forum

So it depends on what your goals are for the use of the forum.

Forums do indeed help a lot. I'm glad that I found this one and a few others. I suddenly don't feel so alone.

***Hold Me***

When I first opened my brick & mortar biz, I lived on the local forums. If I didn't have an answer for someone, I quickly looked it up. Forums are a great place to network and bring in business.

He's either trolling, ignorant (as in he doesn't know what he's talking about) or he/she's spammed forums and has been banned from the ones he visits.

Forums are great if you can help people or ask questions others want to ask but don't (lurkers).

Being helpful in forums is a good thing. Spamming is a bad thing. If you can walk the line you'll do okay. If you post "Hey come visit my site xxx.com is the best thing there is" you'll probably get banned from the forum, and be hated by most of its visitors.

Forums are a great way of advertising. However, you have to come across like you're not advertising. The contributions you make in the forum have to actually be informed and helpful--not to mention friendly, which seems to be lacking in some forums--not this one though

forums are great way of marketing your site . you will have links on these forums when you write a reply

There are some sites with a credit system (mainly graphics sites) you can purchase credits and pay people small amounts to put in their signature space, I have had positive traffic from these, but your site must be relivent and something that someone from that site would visit.

I find forums to be of great benefit....where else can you connect with people on a massive scale? I am new to this forum but it looks great and I look forward to helping in any way Ican and also learning as well!

I don't think forum marketing is a wast of time. Actually, I prefer forums to other marketing options. There is no other form of marketing that can bring the response that you find on forums.

I finally hooked up Google Analytics this week and was encouraged to see that about 20 to 30 percent of traffic to a few of my sites is coming from forum back links (posts I've made with a link in my signature).

There's real proof that forums work!

Forums are also a great way to contribute to the success of others, and a great place to get some new ideas along the way for others.

Forums are great, you get to make personal relationships with people that can lead to good things in the future, if not immediately. To simply dismiss them so quickly, to me, seems like someone is trying to create a bit of hype.

i find that forums don't provide much traffic compared to search engines. Forums are great ways to learn. i sometimes find things that are so unique that i never thought of especially in this forum.

any other good forums about website building?

If you're prepared for brutally honest commentary, www.ihelpyou.com/forums (warning though: if you try to get a review on that Deal Comet site, you'll end up feeling like your cojones have been ripped off and shoved into your ears.) That's about it.

Forums are, as you said, places to learn. Everyone can always pick up something from a forum if they look hard enough.