How to talk about my site on forums

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Forum sites on my niche directly say not to advertise on their sites, (unless you upgrade, or purchase banner ads.)

Yet I hear this is one of the best ways to get traffic to my site.

Any advice? Or is the best advice to spend money and upgrade to merchant status?
#forums #site #talk
  • Profile picture of the author wikifiki
    Check if the forums allow signatures and if you can put your website link as a signature.

    Most forums allow you put your website link on your profile too. Also, your website might address a need on the forum, simply post your website links in appropriate places, I hope you find this useful.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    There are actually a lot of various strategies you can use on forums - it depends upon your goals.

    If you're wanting to focus more on link building (and at this point, I'm not really sure that you want to - I've done some testing on forum links, and we're not seeing any boosts at all), then consider developing a persona that is not related to the business. Register he/she on the forum, get in there and genuinely participate in conversations for a spell, then CAREFULLY insert a link to a product page or piece of content on your site when the time is right. If forum links that pass juice do work, then it's probably best to link on a thread that pre-exists but is neither brand new or inactive.

    If you decide to register as an ambassador of your store, there are sometimes opportunities to have a signature link (I haven't seen any SEO advantages from them in the last 3 months). Otherwise, I recommend trying to engage and help people on the forums each day with your expertise to further brand yourself and your store. This will give you referral traffic and reputation, and if you're into content contributing, you will likely run into site owners there in your niche that will get to know you, and your reputation could help generate guest posting opportunities.
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    • Profile picture of the author ChefChris
      Thx, that is really useful info.

      Yeah, I'm looking for a mix of building links, and driving quality traffic. Thats interesting to know that the signature URL didn't make any significant impact for you.

      I guess it just takes time and becoming a part of a community and being strategic.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        Setup multiple accounts, one for you, a few for your "friends".

        When you bring something up, make sure your friends vouch for it.

        Or your friends post up links to your site when it becomes relevant on the forum.

        Then you've got a squad helping you promote it, without being labeled as a "self promoter".

        Don't spam though, homie. Provide legit help and nobody will know it's you.
        Here's how to cheat - but don't spam? Seriously???

        How about avoiding the lies and sleaze - and upgrade or pay for an ad on forums in your niche? Forums that don't catch people running multiple accts to promote themselves are forums that don't have credibility for long.

        Forum signatures don't count for much now because they are 'no follow' - the WF was one of the last marketing forums to make sig links "no follow".
        Pror to that 'no follow' rule, a link here could help your site.
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        • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
          Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

          Here's how to cheat - but don't spam? Seriously???

          Forum signatures don't count for much now because they are 'no follow' - the WF was one of the last marketing forums to make sig links "no follow".
          Prior to that 'no follow' rule, a link here could help your site.
          Depending on the industry, there are still an abundant amount of forums that give follow links (they pass juice). I've found over a hundred in just one industry last month. A free, simple tool to use to verify follow links is the Moz toolbar, then select the drop-down pencil, and then select "follow." It will make follow links on the page teal-blue (that's the color of link juice if you have ever wondered, lol!).

          Still, as I mentioned before, I've only seen a bit of a kick from them in ranking on some deep pages. I still think Forums are very worth doing for referral traffic. Everyone's advice here is sound: no spam, try to help people, and don't view posting links as the end of the forum conversation. Keep engaging afterwards if it's actually relevant to your store.
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  • Profile picture of the author Synnuh
    Setup multiple accounts, one for you, a few for your "friends".

    When you bring something up, make sure your friends vouch for it.

    Or your friends post up links to your site when it becomes relevant on the forum.

    Then you've got a squad helping you promote it, without being labeled as a "self promoter".

    Don't spam though, homie. Provide legit help and nobody will know it's you.

    You can't control how other people advertise your site. Or just happen to bring it up in conversations on forums where you also happen to hang out.

    Get my drift?
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  • Profile picture of the author Synnuh
    It's not popular, but it works. Manipulating traffic (cheating), and spamming are two different things, Kay!

    Spam is what we have on the WF when people attempt the strategy.

    You can't tell it's being done when it's being done properly. That's what I meant by not spamming.
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  • Profile picture of the author st0nec0ld
    Originally Posted by ChefChris View Post

    Forum sites on my niche directly say not to advertise on their sites, (unless you upgrade, or purchase banner ads.)

    Yet I hear this is one of the best ways to get traffic to my site.

    Any advice? Or is the best advice to spend money and upgrade to merchant status?
    Timing. The best thing you can is to just go with the flow.
    If you can't talk about your product then just be active and engage in the community.
    You'll not just increase your brand presence but also your reputation.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChefChris
    All the input has been really helpful. I guess this all goes along the same lines as what I've read about how to get traffic from reddit; be a part of the community and VERY occasionally drop a link to your site when applicable.
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