By now, you probably must have heard about or know what an internet marketing forum is. Yes, there are plenty of them and they usually keep popping up in search results every time you are searching for questions related to blogging and online marketing! Isn't it? But the question is – why should you join a forum and how can will it benefit you as a blogger? My post aims at explaining all these major benefits in detail…
1. More niche knowledge
No one is born as an internet marketing ninja, right? Those who are an expert in this field today have gone through years of perspicacious efforts and dedication.
Internet Marketing forums is definitely a great place to consummate your current niche related knowledge as you get an awesome opportunity to learn and share your ideas with other like minded people in the industry.
2. Awesome opportunity to build quality backlinks
Most of the popular internet marketing forums enjoy high authority, credibility and obviously a decent amount of traffic. So, while posting a reply, if you believe that your link is going to add some true value to the thread, then please do it! By doing this, you are not only creating a quality backlink for your website, but at the same time, you are also attracting a highly targeted stream of visitors to your website. That's the best form of traffic that you can ever had for your blog – it converts and it engages!
3. Opportunity to build your social media network
Most of the IM (abbreviated for Internet Marketing) forums allow their users to link to their social media profiles. And the good thing is, these social profiles are often displayed beneath the user's avatar whenever a new reply or a thread is posted. A great reply or a thread is more likely to attract people to follow your social media profiles, thereby giving your social network a real boost! Again, I would like to point out that these are targeted fans/followers – the best type of fan-base that you can ever had for building a great social network.
4. Get help in a forum
Whenever you are in any kind of trouble, just start a new thread under an appropriate sub-section and the entire community would be there to help you out! Isn't that awesome ?
5. Stay informed of all the major updates
Whenever there is an algorithm change, a new penalty, Google PageRank update, OR anything that can possibly affect the normal lifestyle of a typical webmaster, these forums get updated with tons of new threads very quickly! So if you are as active on these forums, as you are on Twitter or Facebook, then you won't be missing out any important update that might probably affect your website tomorrow in a positive or a negative way!
Which Internet Marketing Forum Should You Join?
There isn't any dearth of forums on the internet. You will find plenty but quite aboveboard, i would agree that it's impossible to have an active profile on all of them! If you would like to have my advice, i would recommend you to stick to just 1 or 2 forums of your own choice. Personally, i'm having an active profile on Warrior-forum & V7n forums – both of which have an active and a helpful internet marketing community. If you follow Ms. Ileane you know that she often talks about Lisa Irby's Website Babble forum.
Forum Etiquette For Maximizing The Benefits
There's always a code of conduct for everything, and forums are absolutely not an exception. If you would like to enjoy all those aforementioned benefits permanently, then please do stick to the following important etiquettes:
- Read All The Guidelines – Before you start using the forums, make sure that you have acquainted yourself with all the important rules and guidelines
- Never Spam – Having your signature link is OK, but posting irrelevant or affiliate links in posts can invite a ban
- Never Abuse – Forum moderators have zero tolerance to profanity
- Stay Focused – Starting irrelevant threads (like tips on dating, photography, blah blah blah…) can very easily get you banned
Your Thoughts?
Finally, I would love to listen to you. What's your experience with IM forums? Do you find them useful? And if you are a forum member, are you using it to your advantage the right way?