Forum marketing has more advantages than what you might think it has. Learning more about these benefits will grow your business even more. You see, unless you've spent a lot of time in forums for business reasons, then it's really easy to overlook some things. These considerations are so straightforward and out in the open that you may never think of them or notice.
Remember that your goal is to be viewed as an expert in your niche. It's important to build a good reputation in the forum. That's the only way to place yourself in a position for prime results. But you can't really get noticed as an authority without first being seen. What you want to avoid is spending a lot of time in any forum. After all, there are other things you need to do to market your business too.
It will also annoy regular members if you come on strong and make a ton of posts in a matter of hours. Create posts at times when the maximum amount of traffic is likely to hear what you have to say. Go for quality over quantity and you will win friends and influence people every time.
Forum marketing is totally about building relationships with other members. This is just another form of networking building. This time you should focus on the relationships and not the networks (or hopes for profit). People simply prefer doing business with someone they feel like they know. Everything you do and say should be done with the overall relationships in mind. If you're wondering how to develop relationships in forums, think about familiarity. You have to keep coming back day after day and week after week in order to build those relationships.
Take a little time to watch and figure out who's considered important on the forums before you even think about starting to network. You'll typically find there's really a handful of people blog here who have this potential. And of course much depends on the size of the membership. There are some large marketing forums that have been around a while, and there are many people who have social influence. The influencing figures are different on different forums. When it's a moderator you'll see a lot of people trying to curry favor. It's these members that you want to develop relationships with above all others. In conclusion, if you have spent time doing online marketing on forums, this is probably old news. Really, it's all about knowing the rules, and abiding by them. It really comes down to common sense and experience. Your goal is to offer value, and to contribute to the community in any way that you can.