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Driving Traffic Through Online Forums

Written by: michelle crossley

Article Overview: An Internet forum is an area for discussion made available on a website for users to post discussions, read and respond to posts by other forum members. Online forums allow members or users to start new topics and reply to existing posts too. Conversations on forums are called threads.

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Driving Traffic Through Online Forums

With the advent of the internet, businesses are leaving no stone unturned to promote their businesses online. Among the various other means to market websites online, forum posting is turning into a popular option. To top that, it has been noted that visitors to websites by way of forums are worth more than any average visitor. Why? Simply because, forum visitors are active information seekers and engaged users, who are more likely to be interested in your services. However, you should note that forums are primarily beneficial for driving human traffic to your website. Search engine rankings follow closely and with a signature link with every post, you are assured greater visibility in the search engines too. Here's how you can take advantage of internet forums to drive traffic to your website:

Introduce Yourself: Begin by participating in the ‘Introduce Yourself' section of the forum. Also, don't forget to welcome new members!

Become an Active Member: You could choose forums or topics, which interest you or are closely related to your business or service and actively participate in the discussions. Try solving problems and offer help and advice when required. Don't underestimate yourself and believe that you cannot become a moderator. The effort that you put in to become a moderator on a forum is worth it and you are assured increased visits to your blog as visitors already believe you are a subject matter expert.

Your Signature Tells All: A well-defined signature, with linked text to your URL, is essential if you want visitors to notice your link. Here's an example:

Your website and SEO: Do you know you can drastically increase your traffic with the help of forum postings?

Michelle Crossley, studio1c

Say NO to SPAM: Drop your links in the posts you visit or reply at. But, not in a spammy way! If you are dropping links before you establish yourself as an active contributor, it won't take you long to be ignored or banned!

Know the Forum Rules: Different forums have different and specific rules. Make sure that you have read them thoroughly (usually you can find a post on the forum rules prominently displayed in the forum index) so you aren't banned after you have posted.

Check for typos and missing words before you click ‘Submit'.

While you work hard to increase free website traffic, you should ensure that users find relevant information on your forum posts too! Have you posted on forums? What works for you? Any practices or no-no's to share?

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Home > SEO > michelle crossley > Driving Traffic Through Online Forums
Article Tags: active member, advent of the internet, blog, contributor, crossley, forum postings, forum visitors, human traffic, information seekers, internet businesses, internet forums, market websites, search engine rankings, search engines, signature, solving problems, subject matter expert, visibility, website search engine

About the Author: michelle crossley
RSS for michelle's articles - Visit michelle's website

I own studio1c, one point of contact for all website development, SEO, internet marketing, logo design, graphic design needs. Most recently, I have been starting to post blogs pertaining to increasing sales and internet traffic for your business. I provide website development, SEO, internet marketing, logo design, graphic design needs, print design services.


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Related Forum Posts
Re: I'm A Winner!! Re: I'm A Winner!! - Thanks Tami and Ideasuniversity! Traffic is up. Forums are good places to get your message out. I also do quite a lot of article marketing and blogging etc. Still a long way to go, though, on every front!
Re: What Do You Want To Be Taught? Re: What Do You Want To Be Taught? - Hi Jeff Thanks for this forum it is a big help. My biggest problem is very much like GT. Driving traffic to my website and getting more sales. MichelleJ
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":1yomg44b] 1.) 10 Recent Posts (takes you to the list of the 10 most recent posts) 2.) Forum Contest & Prizes 3.) How to get started in the EvanCarmichael.com Forums 4.) How to promote yourself in the EvanCarmichael.com Forums 5.) How to start a small business (list of threads with related topics) 6.) SEO Tips (list of threads with related topics) 7.) Better Blogging (list of threads with related topics) 8.) Business Book Reviews (list related forum threads, I know Barbara has tons. We also have threads that list our forum members favorite biz books) 9.) Newest Members (takes you to a list of the newest forum members so that you can help them out or connect with them) 10.) Kevin's Case Studies *I'd think this format would make the forums easier to navigate through, especially for a newbie (which are the main people we're trying to attract to the site).[/quote:1yomg44b] If you're accepting any suggestions for topics -- could SEO tips be changed to Online Marketing? SEO is just a small part of Online Marketing and that would give us some sort of place to zero in on Online Promotional posts. Shri
Signatures can improve your Traffic Signatures can improve your Traffic - Don't forget that in addition to directories that you can post your business URL and details on that you can also utilize signatures in highly trafficed Forums - like this one. Except make sure that your Signature is keyword dense instead of your company's name and that the entire phrase is URL'd to your site. Thought I'd mention this one even though it may be obvious as we were talking about Traffic as well.
Re: Alexa Ranking Goals Re: Alexa Ranking Goals - LOL, I spoke too soon. Within a few hours of my post, Alexa updated the Traffic Rank on the toolbar. Note however that the 3 month Traffic Rank on Alexa.com has still not been updated...


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