Today is Day 26 of the Be A Better Blogger series. We’re using the outline offered by Collis Ta’eed in an article titled 31 Days To Becoming A Better Blogger, and our topic for the day is:
Day 26. Join a popular forum in your niche. A link back to your blog in your forum signature can generate more incoming traffic than a dozen comments spread over multiple blogs...
Today's task will be an easy one, but there are some things to keep in mind before you head off to your favorite forums in a posting frenzy.
This is a great strategy because people who frequent discussion forums are community-minded people, so they make ideal blog visitors. They are the kind of site visitor that enjoys interaction, and likes to comment on content.
The same holds true when you are promoting a newsletter - the best place to reach potential subscribers is through another publisher's newsletter, by recommendation or advertising or having one of your articles published.
If you dont already have a few select forums that you frequent that are in the same niche as your blog, a quick search on Google will fix you up. For example, if you blog about pets just do a search for pet forum.
The first thing you want to do is register as a member, and set up your profile. If the forum allows signature files, set one up. If they dont, look in the profile area and see if they allow you to include a link to your site there. Obviously you want to find a forum that allows signatures if you can.
As a new member on a discussion forum you want to start out by getting to know the community and keeping somewhat of a low profile. If you jump in headfirst being self-promotional, it will send up red flags. Not only can that get you banned, but it will ruin your chances of gaining respect with the readers and getting positive exposure.
Post an introduction if that is allowed and encouraged. From there look for the current popular threads and get involved by asking a question or adding your own thoughts on the topic. The regular forum members need to get a feel for who you are and what you do before they will begin to trust and like you enough to take interest in what you offer.
As for your signature, I would recommend that you link directly to one of your best blog posts. Choose a post that you know would be of interest to this particular group, and link to it with descriptive text. Your signature might look like this:
Lynn Terry, author of ClickNewz.com
How I Make Money Online
You can switch it out as frequently as you like. If you are fairly active on a particular forum, you may want to change your signature link every week on Monday morning. Regular members will notice the trend and take notice 😉
Also See: Forum Signature Tip to Increase Clicks & Sales
Best,
About Lynn Terry
thanks for the post. i hope to read some more.
Best regards from Sebbi
It's nice to come across a post that talks about visitors and traffic instead of backlinks. Ultimately you need a healthy combination of the two to make a serious difference, but generating traffic is the goal and forum sigs are a great way to do that.
Thank you Carlo 🙂
I agree, Dan. Its always great when you can gain a combination of both results from one link too. The best being a mention in a post on a related blog usually, or recommendation on a popular site in your niche.