Friday, December 7, 2012

How to Use Forums for Backlinking


A really easy way to get backlinks and traffic to your site is to join forums in your niche and just hang out. What you're basically doing is hanging out with your target market online. They get to know you and a number of them will check out your site to see what you have to offer.

For example, let's say that you're in the self-help niche. You would join some self-improvement forums, offer some helpful advice, and people would eventually wander over to your site and buy the self-help product you're offering.

Finding Forums

The first step is to find some good forums in your niche. There's a forum somewhere for every single type of interest, hobby or topic on earth. The best way to find good ones is to simply type your niche or keywords related to your niche into Google's forum search. Start at the top of the search results and work your way down.

Look for forums that have lots of activity going on. Most will tell you how many members they have and how many are on the forum right now. See how current the posts are. You want to sign up on forums that have lots going on.

Another important thing is to make sure that they allow you to put a link in your sig file. The 'sig file' is the little blurb at the bottom of all of your posts. If it has a link back to your site, this will make it much easier for people to find you. If you see sig files on posts, that probably means it's good, but you can always check the forum's terms of service as well. Some let you have a sig file but you have to have a certain number of posts before you can put a link there.

It takes some time to register on all of these forums, so make sure they're active and you can put a sig file so you don't waste your time.

What to Say

Once you're registered, what do you do? If you haven't already, read the posting guidelines. Spend some time just reading on the forum and getting to know people before you start posting. When you post, you're not promoting your site or your service. All you should do is chat with people. Offer helpful advice, ask questions, give your opinion and participate in discussions. Most sites allow you to add friends, so add people.

The whole idea is that people who are surfing the forum (your target audience) see your posts and then click on the link in your sig file to see what you've got to offer. If possible, put a strong call to action in your sig file. Using the self-help niche example from above, you might say something like, 'Tired of being stressed out? Click here for the 7 secret stress-busting techniques.'

How to Make It Work

Devote some time each day to work the forums. Work it into your daily routine. Keep tabs on your analytics and see if you're getting any traffic from each forum. If any forum isn't pulling its weight, drop it. You're not going to get an incredible amount of traffic from forums, but as long as it keeps being worth the time you devote to hanging out in them, keep doing it.

Backlink Building: How to Use Q and A Sites to Build Better Links   Backlink Building: How to Get Quality Backlinks From Facebook   7 Reasons You Should Start Your Link Building Campaign Today   Backlink Generator: How to Get Your Website Found Online   



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