Use Forums to Gain Website Traffic

One way of getting traffic to your website is to advertise on forums. Using forum posts to bring in traffic does so in ways that other methods don't. It's also a great way of marketing your website on a budget since it costs nothing but your time and effort. However, there are some things you need to keep in mind when you're promoting your site on a forum.

While the internet provides a great way for companies, especially small businesses, to market their products and their services to millions at little cost, if you don't know how to best use the internet for marketing, you may find yourself wasting time at best and actually driving away business at worst. There are so many different websites out there that you have to market your site in some way - you can't just expect visitors to find your website on their own - but you've got to be careful you don't market your site in the wrong way.

Forums, also known as message boards, are one of the places where you have to be careful about how you market your site. Forums are more or less discussions on a general or specific topic. Unlike chat rooms, you don't have to be logged in to read the messages - you can read posts from any day at any time.

One of the best ways to advertise your site on a forum is to find a forum that is in some way related to your service or business. Create a profile, and in the signature area, put a link to your site. Your signature, like an email signature, will appear at the bottom of every post you make on the forum. All you have to do is join the discussion and you'll be advertising your site with every post you make. Since you're posting on a forum that is relevant to your website's product or service, everyone who reads your post can be considered a part of your target audience. Many will probably be interested in your site and will click on your link.

You can also actually post a link to your site in your actual message. However, this is tricky. If you can legitimately discuss your business within the conversation on the forum, it's OK. However, if you simply post a message with a link to your site that does not really relate to the topic at hand, many will see your message as spam. This can get your message deleted, and your forum account may even be banned if you do it too often. However, you may get even more visitors from this type of post because your link is more prominently displayed and visitors have a better idea of what you're offering.

Just be very careful when posting forum messages that aggressively push your website and your business. It's very easy to get a negative reputation for spamming on message boards, and once you're banned, it's hard to get people to take you seriously, even if you do open a new account. If you don't contribute to the discussion, people will consider you another forum spammer and will ignore your posts and your website.