Forum Marketing Tips For FREE Traffic

As you know, there are MANY Free ways of marketing.  There’s Article submission, Social Networking sites, Web 2.0, SEO, and Forum marketing.

The list is large, but for the moment we’ll be talking about Forum Marketing.

First of all, what are forums?

Forums are communities where people gather to talk about a certain subject.  There are millions of forums on thousands of different subjects.

For example, if you make a Google search for “dog training forum”, you get hundreds, if not thousands of results.

So find your particular niche and here’s what you do…

Let’s say you want to market an ebook that teaches the reader how to train their dog to be house-broken, do tricks, and be obedient.

First thing you do is determine if there’s a market for that book.

You research the forums and find that many people are asking questions like, “I just bought a puppy and pees inside the house, how do I teach him to go outside?”

Or you see someone else asking, “When I say ‘NO’ to my dog, it never listens, what should I do?”

Those questions are good signs.  People are looking for what you’re selling.

So how do you get it in front of them?

Like this…

*** The Mini Course ***

You create an email mini-course based on the book.  The mini-course should be seven to ten emails (or more if you can).  Give it a compelling title like, “Dog Training Tips and Tricks The Professionals Don’t Want You To Know About.”  Or maybe something like, “7 Secrets To Successful Dog Training Revealed!”

Make sure the mini-course is information that is valuable and useful, but not complete.

What I mean by that is that you should deliver quality content that people can use, but don’t deliver the whole enchilada.  Leave them wanting more and the only way to get it is to buy your book.

For example, let’s suppose the title of your first email mini-course is, “7 Deadly Mistakes To House-Breaking Your Puppy”.

You then go on to explain the mistakes that owners make when they’re trying to house-break a puppy.  You merely point out the mistakes, but you don’t offer the solution.

At the end of your mini-course, you could say something like, “If you simply avoid these mistakes, you’ll be better off than 90% of pet owners.  However, if you want to learn the 5 tips to successfully house-breaking your pet, visit the link below and get your copy of ‘Dog Training Strategies Revealed’ before all copies are sold.”

As you can see, the information was useful, because the owner is now aware of the mistakes he/she was doing, but now wants to know what is the right way to do things.  The only way to know that is to buy your book.

The second email on the course could be a portion of one of the chapters of the book.  The third email could be testimonials of people using the techniques on the book… and so on.

Okay, so now you have your mini-course, let’s go on to the next step.

*** The Capture Page ***

If you know how to create a good capture email capture page, do it and simply promote your FREE email mini-course on the capture page.

If you don’t know how to create your own, then simply go to ScriptLance.com and hire a programmer to create a lead capture page for you.  Simply explain exactly what you need and you should be able to find someone to create a page for you for under $50.

Then get an autoresponder service, like Aweber.com, upload your emails and make sure they go out every other day.

Test everything to make sure it works properly.

Once you’re sure of that, then you start getting traffic to your site.

Here’s how…

*** Posting In Forums ***

When you post in forums, you need to be really careful about blatant advertising.

You need to deliver value in the forums and gain people’s trust.

Pick between five and ten forums and post three to five posts in each on a daily basis.

Answer people’s questions and then simply mention that there’s a free mini-course that answers their questions and gives them a lot of free tips as well as points out mistakes pet owners make when training their pets.

Then mention that you’ll send them the link if they are interested in getting the free mini-course.  As them to PM you for the link.

What will happen is that many people will begin sending you Private Messages asking you for the link and simply reply with the capture page link to the mini-course.

Often times, people will get interested that they will ask you to simply post the link in the forum.  When that happens, it’s a good sign that you’ve done things right and you’ve built credibility for respecting the forums and not trying to sell there.  Only then can you simply post the link on the forum.

Some people will post a link and get away with it because they ask for a “critique” of the website and email course.  Although that works, I don’t recommend it because the people going to your site and subscribing to your course are only doing it to critique it, not because they are interested in your product.

So, there you have it, Forum Marketing in a nutshell.

Give it a try and prove to yourself that it works.

Sincerely,
Jaime Ojeda