Archive for April, 2008

Increasing the traffic to your website can only mean one thing. More sales. The more traffic you get to your website increases the amount of people that know about your site and the products you offer. The more people that know about your products and services the more opportunities you have to sell. Of course traffic will only bring the customers, it won’t sell your products. So if you feel like your products are ready to be seen and sold, then your next step is to make sure that the people that need to see your site, and the products and services you offer, do actually find it.

One of the best ways to create traffic is to do so through social websites. People naturally phase out un-original and pushed advertising, so talking to your customers, without pushing anything is one way to get their attention.

Social news and social forum websites are generally specific to subject areas. Which means that the people who are using the forums are interested in particular areas. So for example lets have a look at one business owner. Mark Duncan owns a business that sells gardening products, like clippers, shoes, and so on. About three years ago he started trading online. Duncan Gardening offers fantastic prices and plenty of variety. Duncan had problems getting traffic to his website and even when he did, the traffic wasn’t specific enough to create sales.

Duncan decided to visit gardening forums in order to talk about his interests. After a while Duncan told fellow forummers about his business and what kind of products he sells. As time went on and word of mouth (or type) spread Duncan noticed that the traffic to his website started increasing. And over time Duncan started visiting a range of gardening websites and forums, and told more people about the products that his website offer. Duncan found that after visiting and posting on these forums for one month, his traffic increased 5 fold and his sales increased 2.85 fold. And the sales and traffic was still growing. The best part? This didn’t cost a cent.

Social news, bookmark sites and forums, are driven by the community. The community maintains it and the more interest your post gets the further it moves up into the first pages. Not many people travel to far back into the forums, so it’s important to any poster to maintain and drive interest. Social news, bookmark sites and forums are not for boring and pushy posts. In fact if you post something that reads too much like advertising, you post will likely be ignored if not deleted. So it is up to you to be interesting and in return you will get a ready made market for the picking.

To get your start in forums and increasing your website traffic through them, have a look at the terms below.

Drive Traffic: social networking sites use these words to describe traffic that has been delivered by forums and their traffic.

Reach Influencers: forums and social networking sites have the ability to reach influential people. These influential people will often help you by linking their website to theirs and so on.

Build Authority: by taking part in forums and social networking sites, that are particular to your field, you will build authority in the area. People will generally buy from someone with authority rather than someone who doesn’t.

Brand Growth: social networking sites will give you the opportunity to grow your authority and grow the recognition of your brand.

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Using Forum Marketing to Build Your Business

Forum marketing and taking part in social networking and business networking websites can considerately boast your brand and traffic to your website. Forums give you the ability to reach your target audience and develop an image for your brand and yourself. The best part? IT’S FREE!!

Forum marketing a new term that often gets put in the Spam pile. But in reality forum marketing is a worthy activity that can boast more than your sales. Basically to take part in forum marketing you need to take part in forums. You can do this by answering people’s posts or starting your won threads. Generally to consider forum marketing actually marketing rather than just taking part in a forum you will need to have your own website linked every now and then (when appropriate). Although many people have their website link on their signature so that their link is always there without being pushy.

How can boast your traffic and brand identity at the same time?

1) Your profile should be well done and correct. Make sure you have a fully functional profile that actually has your contact details, name, link and information that readers can use to establish your authority in this particular field.

2) Never be to sales driven. If you are online trying to establish traffic and brand identity, people will be turned off if your posts, profile and threads are too sales driven. Forums are more about directing people rather than pushing people.

3) Take part in the forum topics. If you have an active presence in the forum people are more likely to trust you and your website. So take some time each day to answer questions and be part of the community.

4) When you post make sure that your posts make sense, are intelligent and offer something to the community. The more questions that you answer and the more people that find your posts relevant, the more authority you will form.

5) Make sure than you forget about your products and services. When posting you should be trying to build up authority for yourself, then your site and finally your products and services. People can smell a salesman a mile away.

6) Put a photo or picture on your profile, so that your posts can be recognized immediately. This way once you have trust you will develop more brand recognition.

7) Always remember that you’re representing yourself on these forums. So don’t swear or say/post things that you might regret later on.

Popularity: 68% [?]