Forum Marketing...

As in any sort of marketing,
using the existing search engines is my primary tool =)

Just do a search on whatever your niche area plus forums, and you'll find great results that are potentially the places where you can do your posting and gain from this activity...

How?

If your niche is dog food, type into the search box:
"dog food" + "forum"

If your niche is affiliate marketing, type into the search box:
"affiliate marketing" + "forum"

... get it?

Visit the sites and use your logic, intuition, discretion and whatever wisdom you can muster and decide which forum has members who would be your ideal market. Yes, you need to have your target market clear in your head first =)

After selecting the relevant forums after going through things like the following:

- What's the size of the forum population and how active is it?

- What are the popular categories or topics being posted and viewed?

- Are there any potential, relevant and content-based postings you can make?

- Will you be affected by the limitations imposed in the terms & conditions?

- Is there a real demand for your product?

This is not exhaustive list... just a guide.

Now, this is only the basic research part. Usually, after the research, many marketers somehow slow down... Why? It's registration time =D

Ok, here's an unorthodox tip... (Hush hush, ok... some underground marketers wouldn't want this out...) You need not register yourself all the time. You can build yourself a creative profile and enter the market as a person unknown to the world. Why? Some forums just won't welcome the actual person you really are. For example, if you're a man, how do you enter a women's forum if it's strictly for women?

You may ask whether this is unethical. Well, I call this undercover work =) LOL
Have you ever wondered why top affiliates usually have multiple ClickBank accounts? Here, you have it =) To remain anonymous. There are pros and cons to this. Use this tip only when you have no choice, ok =) Yes, this tip might be what you're hoping for if you're the "ultra shy and don't want a high profile" kind of person =P

Yes, when you're online, you're dealing with all kinds of people. Even criminals & ex-convicts who are just trying to make a living in a world that finds it easier to pass a lifetime sentence to any wrong-doer than to try to re-initiate them back into the society. Whether you like it or not, the internet world is a virtual world, and lives can be transformed. enriched and empowered here if we play our cards right. If you have a need to be anonymous for whatever reason, it's easy over the internet... However, there'll come a time when you'd personally need to rise above the world's opinion of you and be recognised as someone you're meant to be.

Ok, for further discussion or more views from me, just post a comment and ask me =)

Let's return to the registration part. It's tedious but necessary. After that, you're free to post! Bookmark the forums under a specially created Forums folder and use the same username and password for convenience. Now, to me, in forum marketing, there are basically 2 important parts:

* the part where you place your signature (make it simple with a little teasing if you may)

* the part where you track your posting by requesting an email alert for any posting activity after you so that you need not use any special software to do such a simple task for you.

Well, you'll sometimes need to respond to posts from people, but it's worth the effort.. Start a new discussion or topic if you can as that would put you in good light (you may be viewed as an expert sooner than you expect) if it's relevant and you'll have lots of opportunities to pump in content in your responses...

Be tactful and do not to post trash or unfocused replies or anything that people can mistake as spam. Use your discretion and do your research if you're unsure before you post anything. It's really enjoyable, so enjoy it!

If you're doing it with a sense of dread... People can somehow sense it and you'll not get good sales conversions that way. It's all about attraction. Cheers!