Authored by Michael Grisso in Internet Marketing
Published on 12-13-2008

If it is your first time trying to make money online, building traffic is the biggest obstacle. While many individuals believe you can simply come to the Internet, set up a website, and start raking in cash this is hardly the case. It takes time (especially if you are trying to do it for free). So we decided to take a few moments and go over the best ways to utilize a forum.

However, when you first get started make sure you have a schedule. Having organization for your new business is going to be one of the key ingredients of becoming successful. Even if you only have 30 minutes a night to work, then do it. Just make sure you stick to the plan like you would a diet if you are trying to lose weight. This will allow you to be more productive and hopefully make enough money to build a secondary or primary income.

Finding the Right Forum

Let’s face it, if your new business involves child care you won’t want to join a sports forum. Having a targeted audience for your business is essential to whether or not it works. So make sure you take the time to research different forums and find out what they are talking about in there. If you have a virus software and find a place where people complain about theirs then this would be considered a targeted audience.

The Signature Link

Signing up for any forum is the easy part. The difficulty is figuring out the best ways to make it work to your advantage. After you have confirmed your registration go straight to your “User CP” link under profile. Here you will be able to provide people with a link to your business. We recommend reading the directions on how to do this because each forum is different.

While the HTML may be different in the back office, the end result should still be the same. The best way to do this for more traffic is by having a catchy advertisement sentence as your link. For instance if you are selling virus software, then put something like, “Get rid of all Your Virus Problems Here.” People will want to know more and will click on your link to get the information needed. Just make sure you save your changes.

The Free Advertising

Now comes the moment you’ve been waiting for all along. In order to get the free advertising you are searching for, you have to start posting in the forum.. However, there is a trick to doing this and we’ll explain why in a moment. The whole idea though is to come across as a contributor as opposed to a seller. So answer questions, but do so without plugging your product.

This is the best way to build trust in a forum. People will begin to take notice, which in turn will get more clicks out of your signature link. The more time you post in the forum the more free advertising you get. If you have 100 posts that means there are 100 different areas where people can see your link. Over time this will build tremendously, it just depends on how much time you have to invest.

The End Result

We love forum advertising because a lot of the threads remain hot and new. This means that if the site allows guests to view them, you will get more advertising from people who aren’t even forum members. There is a lot more we can share with you, but start out with what we’ve shared so far. The end result could help you build an online empire for your business.