One Forum Post For Long Term Traffic
Very often, entrepreneurs who first started out online end up losing money and wasting time trying to get traffic to their websites and I have to admit, I was once there….
It’s a fact that …
I was once a newbie…
I once lost over 5 grand on advertising
I was once a victim of a Nigerian scam that nearly wiped out half my entire savings…
(Yes, my journey isn’t all a bed of roses…)
Well, I’m not sure if it’s something to be proud of but I can look at it from two perspectives…
One, I got smarter! In fact I would attribute it to my current online success from the lessons that I’ve learnt from these mistakes…
OR
Two, I can whine about it, live in regret and spend the rest of my life telling my sob story to everyone that crosses my path…
(I’m not sure about you but I sure do come across many such people boozing in those rundown cafes.)
You see this is the side of my story I’m not particularly proud of but I realized the success that most of you see from gurus really did not come easy.
Many have walked the path I did, committed many blunders…some were even sued by FTC.
But that’s not the point here….
What I’m trying to get at, is these mistakes have taught most of us (entrepreneurs) to be smarter…to start thinking out of the box when making business decisions.
And today I’m going to show you how thinking out of the box can help you get traffic lazily & gain exposure to your website with just one or few forum posts. Yes, you heard it right.
(if it doesn’t intrigue you, why would it be thinking out of the box otherwise? :=)
Before I tell you about the forum method, I want to set the record straight.
I know some of you would like it to be like “Craig, can you show us step by step how to do it…to the very exact words to say and do.”
I’m sorry I’ll have to disappoint you if you ask to be spoon-fed.
But if you feel what I’m about to share make good sense, you’ll be able to do it instinctively. That is the spirit about doing online business.
You need to understand that when it comes to marketing, you are dealing with a real human being and not some robot you can feed some sentences and it’ll hand you what you desire.
OK, Why Forum Marketing?
The context in which your customers get to see your offer is very important.
Eg. If your potential customer is searching on Google, his guard is higher. But if he knows he searching in a forum, he is less guarded because forums creates a sense of community where everyone’s opinions are open for others to criticise.
Visitors in forums are usually there to look for new information as people constantly want to be in the know…
They are also there to seek for opinions (The trust there is enough that they would be open to other people’s suggestions)
Everyone someone wants to have a say and give their own opinions whether they are competent or not.
So how do you get traffic to your web site from forums with just one or a few posts…
You get them to give you their opinion.
Let’s say you’re in a Yoga niche.
You could pose a question like:
“I know some of you may not like Kundalini Yoga but I also know that it helps to awaken your body’s energy…which camp do you belong to? Do you prefer Kundalini Yoga or others?”
You will certainly get a heated debate here automatically and you can recommend the exact Kundalini Yoga DVDs in your forum signature.
You can also post again to comment after other people’s replies for added boost.
With so much content on your post or topic, it’s like creating a long article of content, not created by you but by the forum users.
What this does is that it creates new content that Google will easily indexed (generally forum pages are highly indexed by Google), therefore bringing trafic not only from forum users but also from the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN…and for a long while.
When visitor traffic arrives, your signature will be exposed to them, so make sure you use a good headline for your signature.
A few proven signature lines are:
(if you’re in a weight loss niche and your post is about a pill called X)
Benefit Oriented:
Melt off 200% more fat when doing this exercise with X…
Special Offer
Eg. Special Offer For X For Members of Yoga Forum
Your Case Study
(people love to read about people..that’s why blogs are so popular)
Read My Journey With Pill X and how I got rid of 30 pounds of FAT in 17 days.
And these are just the tip of the iceberg for ways to generate traffic.
You can get many times more detailed “think out of the box” and controversial techniques on traffic as well as increasing your online earnings from Affiliate Rescuer. All for only $9.
You will get 100% commission also for promoting it, paid instantly into your Paypal account.
I’d love to hear from you, so please share your thoughts in the comments section below, will you?
Talk to you soon,
Craig Johnson
P.S: The 20+ testimonials on Affiliate Rescuer speaks for itself.
P.P.S: Most importantly, you need to implement it and let me know your results ….because most people just keep buying stuff (though some are good stuff) and let it sit on their duff.
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January 11th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
That is good info and always useful to be prompted into action. As a newbie I find there is so much to do and so many distractions. By being prompted helps you focus.
January 12th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Thanks Craig for great tips.
By the way, following your very good tip on starting a forum topic, have you heard of Dr Brown’s gas? A dead cheap fuel alternative which basically is HHO or 2 hydrogen + 2oxygen, made by your car to enable you use more water than gas.
Most people think that water for gas technology is a scam, though I know otherwise, because I use water for gas succdessfully.
Read more at The Benefits Of Using Water For Gas if you have no idea… so you can take a stand in favor of water for gas or against.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
We have a highly googled forum, people in the weight loss and nutrition are welcome to join as long as they dont spam and just keep links to their signatures.
We also have adsense sharing so if you join, you can share in the revenues generated by people clicking on the google ads.
forums.w8lossreviews.com
January 15th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Hi Craig,
I have decided (much due to getting older and being somewhat nostalgic) to do a blog site that brings back the memories of musicians I have known in El Paso (I am one of them) since the 60’s to present. What appeared to be a fun
quest of great memories has grown and continues to grow literally daily. I am debating on converting this to a web.
What do you think? Would it be more user friendly or do you think the Blog is okay and just stick with it?
Also, I am wanting to drive more traffic to it. I am on page 4 or 5 in Google. I have also been thinking about selling ads
of local clubs and restaurants since I am getting some decent traffic. My wife wants me to refrain from that because she doesn’t want my friends to feel like they are being used for my financial gain. What do you think?
I have Google Analytics and have been watching the site since I launched it. Can you answer my questions and give me some advice?
Thanks,
Rick Kern
915-820-8002
January 16th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I am very thank full to your videos on yahoo answers right now i am able to generate few cents from nothing. But still my earnings are not good enough to be proud about. Need your help.Can you please take a look at my blog on which i am working right now
January 16th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Hi Giridhar,
You’re most welcome. Anyway I did not create any videos on yahoo answers….
Are you referring to Winston from smart business formula?
You should use yahoo answers to get people to optin to your website to get something free.
Build a list..and profit from it…
To Your Success,
CJ
January 16th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Hey Rick..da..man,
I suppose it’s a very niche topic and there might be demand for it since you know many people with similar interest in your age group. I’m not sure if it could serve much purpose as a way to generate income from affiliate marketing.
The only products I could promote off hand would be music albums from amazon.
You might also want to use
to check if the kind of information you’re providing is in demand. (Considering you might want to think long term).
Just enter a keyword of your niche and you’ll instantly see if there is a trend or demand for your niche topic.
Selling advertising space would be best since the only other monetization I know best is pay per click, pay per view and pay per 1000 impression…
CJ
January 20th, 2008 at 5:18 am
Hey Craig,
On your post 79, I watched the free video that Winston from Smart Business Formula offers if you opt in.
According to him, you find people that have a need and you fill it and he actually suggest putting your affiliate link right in the answer using tinyurl redirect service.
I could be wrong, but if I send them to an opt-in page, wouldn’t they be more apt to think that I’m trying to sell them something? Instead wouldn’t it make more sense to casually recommend a product to them?
This seems like MAYBE the wrong market for optins.
Your feedback please…
Thanks!
Ruth
January 20th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Hi Ruth,
It really depends on the person who is clicking on the link. You have to understand that the people in the market outside of internet marketing is mostly unaware about optin pages and the certainly do not understand the purpose of it like internet marketers do.
To accurately put in, you have to put yourself in the shoe of the one reading your yahoo answer post but with a twist. That is you have to disregard your internet marketing knowledge and take it as if when you were just starting out.
Remember, when you were starting out, you knew nothing about optin pages and you still went ahead to optin.
We have to learn to see from the eyes of a targeted visitor rather than a business owner.
I’ve learnt that only after a couple of yrs.
I guess it’s the reason why most people are deterred form taking action.
Sometimes what you know can deter you from success.
Secondly, I think Winston’s video is based on what he did a couple of months back when Yahoo Answers was less stringent. (You have to take whatever you learn with a tinge of salt, knowing that changes are bound to occur.)
Try not to use tinyurl.com as I think it’s currently being baned. You might want to you use your own domain and cloak it instead or try pinurl.com (It allows you not only cloak but also track the number of clicks)
Of course, if you really want to be 100% safe, instead of sending them directly to an optin page, you could send them to your blog with a post that answer their yahoo questions in more details followed by adding an attractive offer at the end of the post which points them to your optin page.
*That way, you’re gaining trust with them first before they optin. And if they do, it means they trust you and you have a more responsive subscriber.
I hope this helps,
CJ
January 28th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Hey Craig,
Thanks for your very responsive answer. I also took your advice and signed up with pinurl. Man what a great service! I love the fact that you can actually mask your links instead of just redirecting them. I also couldn’t believe the service was FREE. I purchased a cloaking script and I just about tore my hair out trying to install it..then I just gave up
But anyhow, thanks for recommmending it.
Also, I like your advice about Yahoo answers. But since I’m involved with lots of different niches, should I be creating an optin page for each of them? I do build my own optin pages, but if you can recommend a less time consuming method that is free, I would greatly appreciate it.
Lastly, I was reading a book about blogging to make cash focused on a niche using maybe a couple of affiliate products and adsense. She recommends that you only create about 5-10 static pages using Wordpress blogs for each website targeting different niches…that way they don’t require your constant attention. Actually, it sounded like a great idea. What is your opinion about that?
I have about 6 blogs and keeping them all updated is a pain..
Thanks again for all of your help!
Ruth
February 1st, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Hi Craig,
Thanks for the great info. I have used forum marketing in the past and had great results doing so.
But, somehow as time went on I seemed to forget about it. I guess I was just getting involved in other forms of marketing and let this one slip away.
Reading your post opened my eye’s again and I am certainly going to get back to my forum marketing.
Thanks much,
Guy
The Adsense Money Tree
March 6th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Hi Craig,
This is a very good, common sense article. I’ve
never paid much attention to forums because
I get disgusted over the hot-heads who sometime
frequent forums.
However, having read your post, I think I’ll try
your aproach and see what happens.
All the best,
Laurie
May 15th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Hi Craig,
Great post!!
I will for sure apply this in to my Online quest
Regards
Krystian
www.filiksco.com
May 27th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I guess I’m really new at this although I’ve been reading almost everything that’s come by me. I don’t understand the forum thing unless It’s a lot like a blog.
I have several blogs out, but am not getting any response. I don’t know how to RSS.
All I know is……I need to start getting responses. Think out of the box? DEAL !!
I’ll go to my blogs and see (really) how creative I can get !!
Thank You for the idea !
June 25th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
hey I was serfing the net and found this site called
www.thechurchofheavenlytruths.com
i loved it you all need to see it they need donations to support there causes i looked they are real good causes and i contacted the church and got a reply the donations are tax deductable and the funny thing is the more you donate to the church the more you get back is this great or what donate and help save our planet and take a duduction for it kool
June 30th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Thanks for the info, it seems great to send an extra traffic to my blogs.
Mike
June 30th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Craig, thanks for that gem of information, It must be telepathy, fate, magic, or what ever, as only last night I was checking out some forums hoping to find a topic I could post some useful information on,
well you know what happens, by the time you get into the thread of the post and start to get ready to join in, Its been an hour, the wife gives you “THAT LOOK” and you know your time is up,
So next time I’ll pass on the home work and start my own thread on maybe automatic Blog header creators or the pros and cons of fully monitised
article niche site building software Hmm…
June 30th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Hi Craig.
I’m till a NEWBIE!
I’ve been looking at Internet Marketing now for 10 months and tried a few affiliate programs.
Purchased a few ebooks and other stuff, that has been sitting on my hard drive collecting dust or what ever it is that software collects when not in use.
I’ve spent several thousand dollars for no return on investment. It’s an expensive lesson, the experience has been worth it. Money well spent when I look at what I’ve learnt so far. Which is not much in the whole scheme of things on the net.
I’ve purchased Michael Cheney’s Affilate Income System, set up four Websites (step by step) and the above Blog.
My Blog is incomplete or, to be honest I’m struggling to figure out what I need to post on it.
Should I get articles for it from ezines.com or articles.com to start with?
From what I’ve read so far on your Blog Craig, I’ve still got a lot to learn. I do how ever have your advise regarding the Forums to start with now to get traffic to my Sites.
I enjoy reading comments on your Site.
Thank You
Grateful Newbie.
Tasi.
www.tasireckons.com
June 30th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Craig,
Good post man… I can’t believe you had experience with Nigerian scam. Well, I had to admit, I kind of had something similar to it, too. We all go through this. It’s just part of the internet age.
July 1st, 2008 at 7:21 am
Hi Craig. I am pretty new at the marketing game.I have bought a few programs but everything I buy seems to be incomplete.The whole story on how to market and all the tools I would need is never there it seems like somthing is always left out so I will have to buy somthing else to make it happen.I feel like I am chasing my tail .Is there a complete marketing program out there with videos and step by step guide lines to get me in the game and making money ,and not milked to death by these affiliates pushing bogus programs.Oh. and, PS. at a reasonable price.Some good advice please.Thanks
July 1st, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Hello Craig,
I am so glad I happened to read your email today (out of about 200 others I could have read). I have a new found respect for forums now. I always read that they are useful in marketing but for some reason the light came on in my head today. You explained how it can benefit very well. Thank you.
I’m off to give it a whirl.
Have a great day!
-Ann
July 26th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Hi Craig,
After twenty years of hard work I wos fired from my work.I started with online marketing two years ago.
it is a long story, the bottomline is that I lost all my money.now I have two websites that trying to sale other products online.your advice on the forum posts was very helpful,by increasing traffic to my websites.
thanks for your help
david
July 27th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Hi
I have a forum up and running. www.lovespath.com. I believe if I could free up a little more time I could promote it, build membership and later add some advertising and end up doing quite well. with less maintenence than a blog. Sigh if I only had more time.
dianne
July 28th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
hi Craig
thanks for all the information , i was online for more than two years before i was able to know some of this lessons your are now giving and i was cleaned by some of these guys who call themselves gurus. you are great man. as a result i have decided to help out any newbie that comes my way
cheers
August 27th, 2008 at 5:01 am
Hi Craig,
I like your sincerety and truthfulness in accepting that you have progressed in Internet Marketing after facing many problems but the success could be achieved only due to your continous efforts.
Lots of new entrants into Internet should understand this fact and try sincerely.
There is certainly an urgent demand for a true guide who could show the right path to success in Internet.But whom to follow
Can you suggest three names–including YOU?
What is your opinion about Alvin Phang,Gobala Krishnan, Yaro Starak,Ben Hart or some other authority who could rightly guide.
August 27th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Craig, this is a great piece of advice that works like a charm. It took me a while to get around to doing that - must say I wish I started to get involved in forums much earlier. It definitely helps with well-targeted traffic. For me, quality content, article marketing and blog and forum comments and posts work really well. Just make sure you have a good affiliate marketing system to help you to make the most of follow-ups.
August 27th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Hi, Craig and to all his subscribers.
i have read over your advice from time to time (even unsubscribed-shame on me) but still ended up back here (Grateful) My comment is about internet marketing in general, as that`s how I see it. Marketing a product on the internet. It is to general to stick labels on it and say there is a right and wrong way to do it.
I was luckier than most (or just to tight to part with my cash:) )
But I did buy the iprofit package way back in November 2006 and read just about every single book in there and still continue to get the updates. Anyhow the upshot of all this is my knowledge about website build was gleaned and that includes RSS feeds - I see a few people here who might benefit from some of my knowledge - if so with my website inoneplace247.com I have tried to summarise certain aspects about marketing on the internet. I also have started a newsletter which I am trying to make interactive for people to get ahead. I give out lots of `useful` freebies.
the basics as I understand making money from the internet is to create your own product (ebook - software) and a sales page and add an affiliate system to it - plus an autoresponder to collect emails from those that don`t buy immediately but showed interest. There are several programs out there that give you all this in one and charge you for the hosting service. (taken from a Jimmy D. Brown ebook) If you have any thoughts on this yourself Craig I`d be interested because for all my website build and marketing knowledge the only money I`ve made is from designing websites for a few local businesses here in the UK. Not from promotion of affiliate programs or selling on products. Stumped. Thanks for the opportunity to rant and will never unsubscribe again - good blog. Steve.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Yes, forums are a great way to generate traffic and get new business but I’ve noticed lately that many of the forum rules have changed and they no longer allow advertising in their signatures or in the body of the message. So it varies with the forum and one needs to check before posting.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Good Morning Craig,
Thanks for the refresher regarding Forum Marketing.
As Guy Simmons expained above about leaving it behind for one reason or another, I too was involved with Forum Marketing when I worked the Home Business niche; and it did prove to be a source of continuous ongoing traffic, especially when you went in and did some real educating and kept the thread alive with follow up answers to people’s questions.
It occurred to me months later that one topic I was answering a question on actually turned out to be a full-blown article on the subject! LOL
Anyhow, this is definitely one avenue of free publicity that is highly recommended for branding and trust development purposes.
Warmest Regards and Best Wishes,
F Torres, Founder/Director
The Insurance Information Centers
www.InsuranceInformationCenters.com
August 27th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Hi Ajit,
With regards to Alvin Phang,Gobala Krishnan, Yaro Starak,Ben Hart, I’m sure they are successful in their own rights…
Every guru gives advices based on their experiences and some may even have conflict with each other..which is common…You really need to judge for yourself to see which advice is applicable to you…
As much as I learn from the gurus, I do not take their advice literally. In my experience, it’s best that whatever they are teaching must fit into your context…
Eg. Adsense makes lots of money but from my testing, it is only most applicable in the non-internet marketing area.
Again, I’m speaking from my experiences…
Take your advices with a pinch of salt…
August 27th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Craig,
What do you mean my “non-internet marketing area” when talking about Adsense? Maybe I’m missing your point.
I place Adsense ads on my site and see doing so as just another way to generate some extra cash. It’s not a great deal of money but over time it adds up.
But like I said, maybe I’m missing your main point.
——————————————————————————–
Hi Gary, in my experimentation with Adsense, I discovered that the clicks from Internet Marketing Niche
do not perform as well as in non-internet marketing niches…the main cause of it is, perhaps those
in the internet marketing niche knows what an adsense is and tend to overlook the adsense ads…
That’s just from my testing…
CJ
August 27th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Hi Craig,
Great info, especially about the Yahoo answers to get opt-ins, I am going there now.
Thanks,
James Nichols
August 28th, 2008 at 6:17 am
Hey Craig,
I’ve tried forum marketing before but it was kind of a waste of time. Perhaps I’m not doing it right, or there is a key element that you are not mentioning? I tried to post often and keep my answers short and keep an affiliate link in my sig. Also, what do you think about paying for people to write forum posts for you? Can you recommend such a forum-posting outsourcing website? But actually, I’m beginning to realize that the best way to generate traffic fast may be to pay for it, i.e. PPC, although it’s a bit intimidating.
I found a review yesterday for a newly released product called Commission Blueprint and wondering what you thought of it for beginners. It seems to be an AdWords-oriented product, which is exactly what I want to learn now, but I’m a little bit wary of spending a lot of money to generate traffic, potentially to lose it fast. If you can recommend a better PPC course please let me know. Thanks so much! Please keep up the great work; I love reading your posts.
-Gunther
Hi Gunther, it’s confirmed that you’re not doing forum marketing right…read what you just posted…
“I tried to post often and keep my answers short and keep an affiliate link in my sig”……….
Frankly, you have not read the post I wrote, i did not ask you to post short answers often..and using signature…
Most people are losing lots of money in PPC cos they are not targeting the right keywords….
Start with Geographic targeting and long tail keywords…(you have less traffic but you get to test if the product is
selling before you pump in more of your hard earn money into more keywords with PPC, some people dangerously pump in worldwide ppc campaign and end up losing their soul)
I’ve not tried Commissin Blueprint, so I’m not in the position to say anything. Thanks For Your Comment..
August 28th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
What a brilliant idea! And then you can social bookmark the post as well…
August 31st, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Hello Craig,
I belong to a number of forums and post regularly, but having read your information realise I have been using them the wrong way.
Many thanks for this post.
Barb