Liz Roberts |
Liz Roberts is a credit analyst, a writer and a sharp internet marketer
in her own right. For years, she has mastered the art of online
strategies to snowball online success. She currently gives her share of
online marketing for students who are still on their first steps of the
online marketing ladder.
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Liz Roberts
has written 5 articles for SB Informer. |
View all articles by Liz Roberts... |
Forum Discussions and Getting Traffic for Your BusinessLiz Roberts
July 10, 2007
Participating in discussion forums can mean profit for your
business. How so? Any business with a website aims for traffic. The
more people visit your business website the more chances you have of
making more sales and acquiring new customers. Granted, not everyone
who visits your website will make a purchase. But it’s not just about
making a sale. Name recognition is just as important for a business.
The
more people are introduced to your business, the better. That is what
building a good business reputation is all about. People may not buy
your products or hire your services at the moment. But sooner or later
when they need the products or services that your business offers, they
will more likely patronize the name they already know. Hence, by
building a relationship to as many people as people, you are also
establishing a solid foundation for your business.
As we
have mentioned on the start of this article, discussion forums or
message boards provide a venue where people can exchange ideas, views
and make recommendations. If you’re in a business, you can take join
message boards that discuss topics that may be relevant to your
business. You may be able to provide some advice or suggestions that
people in the forum can find valuable and useful.
Here are some tips on how to get the best out of forum discussions:
Leave
links. Message boards allow you to leave links to your website. This
presents an enormous opportunity to advertise your business for free.
By posting relevant messages for the forum, people will be interested
to know more about you. Thus, they will click on your links from the
message board and discover that your company can provide the products
or services that they may need.
Build friendships. Some message
boards allow participants to upload a picture beside their posts.
Providing your personal photo adds to your credibility and presents a
friendlier impression. This allows a more personal interaction between
you and other participants in the forum. In time, the friendships you
formed from these discussion groups can only help in building your
customer base..
Participate regularly. If you can participate
with the group discussion on a daily basis, the better it is that
people will recognize you. A discussion forum is a free and effective
internet marketing strategy that requires some time and effort from
you. You don’t have to spend your whole day in the forum. Sometimes, a
few minutes is all it takes to read a post and respond to it
appropriately.
When participating in a group discussion, don’t
just leave links to your website. Instead, give your opinion, provide
some suggestions, offer help especially if you have some expertise on
the subject being discussed. Thus, it is a good idea to find forums
that discuss topics related to the nature of your business or topics
that you’re genuinely interested about. Your interest in the topic can
be perceived through your messages. If the group senses that you’re not
really sincere about your participation and that you’re just doing it
for the purpose of getting back links, chances are they won’t even
bother to check out your links.
Don’t forget to use relevant
keywords on your posts. Keywords are valuable tools in increasing
traffic for your website. However, make sure that you use your keywords
sensibly and that they have a relevancy on the messages you post.
Be
polite. When people do not share your views, do not respond with an
attack of harsh words. Learn to respect other people’s opinion. You can
post your own contrasting opinion in a clear, simple and polite way.
Don’t forget to use courtesy on your all posts. Always, remember that
you are not in the forum to start an argument. Be professional.
Copyright 2007 InternetMarketingStudents.com
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