Traffic From Discussion Forums

Website Optimization Secrets

The first time I went to a forum, it seemed a little too much like a chat room - not my style. Then, after posting my opinions and advice, and leaving links to my site at the bottom of every post, my site traffic, and revenue, jumped up for days. I was convinced. Why not talk about topics that are of interest to you, and make money doing so? Here's how.

Search the topic of your site plus "forum" on Google, Alta Vista or another search engine. When I started my first backpacking site, I searched "backpacking+forum" and in the numerous pages of results I found three or four good forums. I also searched "hiking+forum." You can also check places, like about.com, that have forums on many topics.

Registration is usually nothing more than your email address and choosing a password. Some forums even allow guests to post without registering. Once registered, browse the forum topics, and post a response to anything, just to "learn the ropes".

Income From Discussion Forums

Traffic is income, right? (If not, sign up with Google Adsense. If you never make a sale of your own or your affiliate's products, you should still make a few cents per visitor from your Google ads on most sites.) The point of posting in forums is to get readers to come to your web site. Sure it's fun to give advice and discuss things of interest to you, but that's secondary. With that in mind, do the following:

1. Always have a link to your site. Learn to use the "bb code" or HTML or whatever they allow. If they don't allow any links, find another forum.

2. Don't "spam." Posts will be removed from most forums if they're just sales pitches. Offer honest advice, or express an opinion, and then sign off with your name and the link to your site.

3. Ask for help. An effective way to "advertise," is to ask for help. Enter the topic as "Can I get some advice?" and post something like, "I just started a new meditation site. If some of you could visit and tell me what I'm doing right or wrong, I'd really appreciate it." Have a link, of course. People love to help, and they love to give their opinions, and they'll click on those money-making ads while they're at your site.

4. Look for total "views." Many discussion forums show the total times each "thread" has been viewed. If you see some with many more than others, those are the discussions you want to get in on, or use the topic to start your own "threads." Go where the traffic is.

5. Ask questions. Again, people love to give their opinions. You'll get twice as many readers with a thread that asks, "What are your favorite movies?" than one that says, "My favorite movies."

6. Find acceptable ways to invite readers to your site. Some forums are more sensitive than others about these things, but the following example shows a way to try: If you start a discussion about peoples favorite ways to make money online, you could mention that you will be tallying the responses and posting the results on your web site.

7. Post in more than one forum. Forum links to your site are considered relevant links for purposes of search engine rankings. They will help the placement of your site in search results eventually, and they stay for a long while (some forums don't ever delete posts). Get in more than one forum, so you'll have greater "link popularity."

8. Keyword optimize your posts. This may be worth the trouble if the forum ranks high in the search engines. I've noticed that searching certain keywords brings up my forum posts, even when I can't get in the results for my site pages. If the searcher goes to the post, they may click through to the site.

9. Start your own forum. I haven't done this myself, but the software is getting easier to use, and you can even get it for free here and there. A visitor that posts a question is sure to return more than once to see what others have said, so this is a sure way to generate return visits.

10. Be efficient. Using discussion forums can take time, so keep posts short, and automate what you can. For example, many forums let you create a "signature" that includes a link to your site, and is automatically placed at the bottom of your posts. That speeds things up. I also have a file with the addresses and passwords and my "signature" ready to copy and paste, to save time.

Next Time: Getting free traffic - How many ways are there?

P.S. This course is now entirely on-site. To get the other secrets, you can go here to subscribe: Free Website Optimization Secrets.

The Money Make Site | Discussion Forums