Forums
In my first part of this series, I investigated how content can affect the way that traffic is attracted to your site. With our Internet Marketers this was a huge subject that resulted in days of discussion. While there was duplicate information, I was surprised at the sheer numbers of different ways to affect site traffic. In this article I want to investigate yet another way to drive traffic to web sites.
Getting traffic with forums
Our IM professionals agreed that targeted forums are a great way to bring traffic to your site. A forum is a medium that allows people to gather and discuss topics that are important to them. There are numerous forums on the Internet covering just about any topic a person could imagine. Generally the forum is subdivided into groups that make keeping up with your specific interests easier. Those groups they are further divided up into threads with a thread essentially being a line of discussion. So if I was a dog catcher I might go to a dog catching forum. I might be interested in Great Danes so that would take me to the Great Dane group. From there I could pick out various discussions on how to run from Great Danes or what types of nets to use or even start my own thread asking what size cage to stick them in. Now there aren't many of you interested in catching Great Danes, but you get the idea. In some ways it is like a group chat except a thread stays on the forum pretty much forever. Ahh so now you are starting to see the value. Any brilliant thoughts are inserted into a discussion that people can search out and find a year later. These threads will show up on search engines and everyone searching for such brilliant ideas will see them. But how do you get from the forum to your web site? Many of the forums allow custom signatures and will allow you to insert a link or two. In this way everyone reading your post will also see your link. If they like what you say or just like what your link says, they may choose to visit. So there is a direct referral benefit. In addition as the threads start to make it into the search engines, your link will show up and assist your site in its search engine listing. Keep in mind that each forum has its own rules about links. Some don't allow them. Some only allow a couple. You need to make sure you take time to understand the forum's rules before posting or adding links that will get you removed. Finally, not all forums are equal. Some are new and just starting out. They may not have enough users to achieve decent referral or search engine links. Others may be off topic. Our dog catcher might not be welcome on the dog lovers forum or posting to a cat forum may not give him a per tenant link.
Conclusion
Forums are generally free and are usually filled with people that are already interested in your topic (assuming you picked the right forum). They are a great way to move traffic to your site and improve your search engine results. In addition you may find information that is useful and you may be able to help out others with your knowledge.
This is Part 2 of a multi-part series on Traffic Generation.
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