Gone are the days when online forums were “geek-only” territory. Now, not only is there a deluge of forum posters for every possible subject, but even more people are finding & reading forum posts – and they may be your customers.

Building Business through Forum Posts

Knowledgeable posts and interesting discussions on forums and message boards can benefit your business in four ways:

1. It helps establish you as an authority. Think about someone searching for family trust or tax issue that you answered back in 2006. You had it answered, think they may want to give you a call if estate planning is on their mind?
2. Direct Web Traffic. And it’s targeted too. Let’s say you answered the question “What’s the best time of year to fly fish for tarpon in the Florida Keys?” Potential clients can follow the link in your signature to check you out your charter operation.
3. Search Engines Love Them. Posting on boards that allow you to include a link to your website is a cheap and non-technical way to increase your search engines by building relevant, in-bound links to your website or blog.
4. It keeps working for you. Although message boards normally list current topics first, your post content still shows up in the message board’s search function as well as search engines proper. The post is still their linking to your website, so the in-bound link isn’t going anywhere. Lastly, on many forums, when a visitor comments on an old post – it jumps right back up to the top for it’s category!

Pick Your Forum Wisely

Nearly all forums and message boards are free, with few exceptions, skip any that have membership fees. There are three criteria you should evaluate before joining a forum and posting on it regularly.

Subject Matter

Sounds like a no-brainer, huh? Well, back up for a minute and think about where your customers or clients might lurk. Are they going to be in a national fishing forum discussing redfish and marlin, or are they more likely to be zeroed in on a Florida fishing forum before they book their next outing? Every business niche will have a different posture on this, but take a look at who’s posting around the message board and ask yourself is the subject matter relevant to your customers?

Popularity

Nobody likes talking to themselves, and web forums are no different. Look for vibrant, active communities to join, it will help you more in search engine rankings and human trafficNobody likes talking to themselves, and web forums are no different. Look for vibrant, active communities to join, it will help you more in search engine rankings and human traffic.

Signature & Linking Policies

Last, but most important. Make sure to read the message board’s terms/rules/guidelines and find out if you are allowed to add link(s) to website in your signature. Without links, it may be fun and/or informative, but it’s not doing anything for your business. Even if you can put your company name in a signature, will the interested parties “Google” it? If they do, will they find you? Speaking of Google, and all major search engines for that matter…. The web is a democracy, and think of links as votes. The more votes, the better the rankings. If you write an excellent post or tutorial on tying salt water flies, they won’t know who wrote it if your link isn’t in the signature.

How do I find them?

A simple search on your favorite search engine should suffice. Just enter your trade or industry name, along with geographic keywords if appropriate, and take a look at the top results.

What is a signature? What’s the best setup?

A signature, in forums speak, is text, links, and even images that are automatically inserted underneath your forum post as shown below:

Each forum may be different, but somewhere under “Profile” or “User Control Panel” or the like, will be an option to set up your signature. While adding your name, company name, an image, or anything else is up for debate – you certainly want a link (or more if allowed) to your website. If possible, you want to include keywords into the actual text of the link (called anchor text), because it tells search engines what your site is about. Links will most likely be inserted in one of three ways:

1. Bulletin Board Code. Just copy this code, making the necessary changes of course: [URL=http://yourwebsiteaddress.com]Your Website OR Keywords[/URL]
2. HTML. Again, copy this code making the necessary changes: <a href=”http://yourwebsiteaddress” mce_href=”http://yourwebsiteaddress”>Your Website OR Keywords</a>
3. Code Editor. There are many variations on this, but anything that pops up and asks you the name/text and address for a link that you wish to insert. Just enter your website’s name or keywords in the name/text box, with your website’s URL in the link box.

Tips on Posting

• Don’t be a spammer! Nobody likes spammers, and quickly posting “Have boat, can fish, call me” will annoy board members, potential clients, and possibly get you banned from the forum.
• Do make worthwhile contributions. You don’t have to give up the farm, or for example, list GPS waypoints of your favorite fishing hole. But lending your knowledge or perspective on an issue can demonstrate your command of the subject matter, and build a solid foundation for building personal relationships and sales.
• Strong, concise titles. A great title is half the battle in getting readers to check out your post. It should be as concise and descriptive as possible, and never post generic titles such as “Fishing?”
• Provocative posts are actually good. Controversial posts are often replied to more, and also linked to more often from external websites. This keeps your post up at the top for longer, and increases the value of that signature link in the eyes of search engines.