How Forum Posting Can Help Drive Blog Traffic

Initially, forums were used to create backlinks to your website. Search engines did not see this as a reliable way to judge a website's authority. As a way to get backlinks, search engines have downgraded links from forum postings. This was done because you can post these links yourself. They do not require anyone else to see value in your website and link to it; however, forum postings can still be a great source of website traffic.

Forums allow you to connect with potential readers. Forums have the advantage of being viewed by live people. Unlike commenting in blogs, you can rest assured that in a forum, your post is going to get viewed. After all, you can look through the forum and see how often other people have posted. That tells you how likely it is that your posting will get viewed.

Forums allow you to begin a conversation with potential website visitors. When you place a forum posting, you are beginning a conversation. This conversation allows you to respond to other forum reader's postings. This series of postings helps you to build rapport with forum readers. As you build rapport, these readers are more likely to visit your website. Better yet, once you have built rapport, readers are more likely to become return visitors.

General forum posting is not always beneficial. Bodine stated, "Make sure the forums you join relate to your website topic." Forum visitors are very similar to search engines. Search engines give more authority to website's that are related to a single topic. For example, if you write an article about furniture on a blog dedicated to celebrity news then the search engines may not consider you an authority on furniture. Forum posting works much the same way. If you post about furniture on a forum dedicated to stamp collecting then forum readers are very likely to see your post as spam.

Rob Sutton runs a blog about building a successful online business. Sutton described the benefits of forum posting by stating, "Forums related to your niche blog topic are an incredible resource for traffic to your blog from targeted prospects. Every topic has some sort of large forum on the web. By becoming a valuable member in that community, you can see other members from that forum community visit your blog and convert into subscribers and commenters. Now...do not head over to the first forum you find and start plastering your articles all over the place. You are going to get laughed and ridiculed out of those internet boards faster than you can hit the submit new post button. Instead, become a useful member by participating in conversations and list your blog in your signature."

Do not spam forums. Spamming is the quickest way to turn off potential visitors. Some, less than reputable bloggers and website owners, will create a blog comment then copy and paste it on to other blogs. Forum postings can be picked up by search engines. If search engines see multiple identical postings then all your forum postings will get downgraded. At the same time, forum visitors are likely to be active in more than one forum. If the see the same postings on multiple forums then they are likely to see you as a spammer.

Before spending time forum posting, do a little homework on the forum. Not all forums have a large number of readers. Other forums may have a large number of readers but do not have many active forum posters. Luckily, this is not hard to do. Doing your homework on a potential forum can be simple and very quick. Just take a look around the forum. When considering a new forum answer a few simple questions.

How old are the newest conversations? The reason for this question is pretty self explanatory. If the forum's newest postings are months old then the forum's user's are not that active. You should move on to a forum with fresher content.

How many users does the forum boast? Many forums will show a cumulative number of users on the site. The more users that a forum then the more potential people for you to reach. Forums with very few users may provide a few new website visitors. The more visitors that a forum has then the more potential website visitors, you can reach.

How active are forum users? Marketing tells us that people do not buy a product until they have seen it an average of six times. This rule holds true for subscribing to blogs or returning website visitors. Forum readers may not visit your site with one forum discussion or post. Browsing a few discussions allows you to see how many different users are active. You want to see more than a few active forum users. At the same time, it is also important to see that the forum has users, with multiple postings.

The most effective forums are geared towards a specific niche. Finding forums that match your blog's or website's niche will make it easier to gain new blog and/or website visitors. For example, if your blog or website is dedicated to working from home then you should look for forums dedicated to working from home.

Finding potential forums is not very difficult. A simple web search will produce a list of potential forums. Using our work from home example, I did a Google search for "work from home forums". Of course, Google returned with multiple pages of links. These results returned several promising forums including; Work at Home Forum, WhyDoWork.com, WorkFromHomeBoard.com, Internet Marketing Mastermind Forum, Work at Home Forum, Work at Home Moms Forum, Home with the Kids, and Talk Home Business. These are just a few of the forums dedicated towards working from home.

Forums are a great way to build traffic to your blog and/or website. Forums allow you to identify people interested in your blog and/or website's niche. Forum posting allows you to introduce yourself to forum users. This helps to build rapport. Rapport makes it more likely that the forum user will visit your blog and/or website. These reasons make forums a great way to help build visits to your blog and/or website.

References
Bodine, Alicia. November 2006. 8 Ways to Advertise Your Online Business for Free. Associated Content. Retrieved on December 7, 2009 from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/82435/8_ways_to_advertise_your_online_business.html?cat=35
Sutton, Rob. October 2009. How To Get Blog Visitors and Subscribers - Promotion Techniques That Equal Traffic. RobSutton.com. Retrieved on December 7, 2009 from http://robbsutton.com/how-to-get-blog-visitors-and-subscribers-promotion-techniques-that-equal-traffic/