Does forum posting bring you quality buyer leads & sales?

by 53 replies
69
Does forum posting bring you quality buyer leads & sales?

I've been using all sorts of free strategies to drive quality laser targeted traffic to my various websites for case study purposes related to product creation ideas. I know most marketers use forum posting to establish themselves as an expert and to get backlinks for SEO purposes, but does it help to bring in quality buyers these days and not just freebee seekers who wouldn't invest a cent in their own online marketing education. Most people search forums for free advice.

I will admit that in the last week alone I have been posting on multiple internet marketing related forums to see if the leads from the forums actually will convert to buyers. On the 07 April from one forum thread alone, I generated about 32 clicks to one of my lead capture pages and got 7 new subscribers to my list in one day.

Forum posting is great for SEO, getting targeted leads related to your niche, but do you think that those leads will eventually buy anything from you?

I also understand that if you join the paid private groups in the forum and market to those people in the private groups, that you are already marketing to a buyer who has already paid to join that particular private group. But then in essence you are paying for those leads.

Or do you feel that forums remove your good threads once they reach a certain view count in the thousands so that the forum owners can motivate you to use the forum's paid advertising services and prevent you from getting quality buyer leads from your free marketing efforts.

What I want to know from you is, are the free methods suggested like posting in forums to get you quality buyers? Or is the hype about forum posting just to get you viewing threads and getting you to use their paid services. bearing in mind that forums are an online business too and they out here to make money from you.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #bring #buyer #forum #leads #posting #quality #sales
  • Well, did they buy anything?

    Do you feel this way? I've never ( that I'm aware of ) had a "good" post removed for any reason.

    My experience from WF: Before FL took over the forum was an excellent way to get some quality subs. and make some money. Presently about 80% of the traffic I get from the forum is from non-T1 countries. This traffic is completely useless.

    I use this forum for a diversion, which is fortunate for me because it's not much good for anything else anymore.
    • [ 5 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • and it is getting worse by the day. I am thinking of starting a 12 step program to break the addiction. It is like watching a train wreck, you just can't look away.

      al
      • [ 7 ] Thanks
      • [2] replies
    • They didn't buy anything, and I agree " Presently about 80% of the traffic I get from the forum is from non-T1 countries. This traffic is completely useless."
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I think that the quality of the post or thread always is the major factor. If I am solving a problem or helping the community with my input that that pays out with people signing up to my list or buying my services. I think the more researched my responses are or the more quality the information is, the better conversions that I see. In the last year, I do enjoy forum posting because I learn something new each day from members too.
  • Is there a good list of most active forums going around?
    • [1] reply
    • you can easily find it on google, just google it and you will find more than couple of good lists of forums but you should only target those forums that are related to your niche to get maximum benefit.
  • Truely there are no free methods, in free ones you invest your time, time is money (:
    But anyway if you asking about forum posting, it works but not as well as other paid services.

    If I could advice you something give a try buysellads , you can gather very targetted traffic really cheap, from very good quality websites.

    The better is to pick good paid service and focus on doing business
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • It seems that paid services is heavily promoted, not only because they work very well, but also because you can get an affiliate commission from most of them for promoting them.

      So you saying paid traffic also = qualified buyer leads and more sales
      • [1] reply
  • Some members here have 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 posts to their names so forum marketing looks like it is working well for them.
  • Banned
    That's highly unlikely. It would take months to actually find a good one.
    Most people now are just posting endless dross just for sig file exposure.
    It's quite obvious they are making nothing online or they wouldn't be using
    desperate methods like that.
    So the chances of anyone in their right mind buying anything from people posting
    endlessly is about zero.
    • [ 5 ] Thanks
  • About 3 weeks ago I saw a post here on the WF asking about the best way to create recurring income online.

    Since I make most of my income from Membership Sites I posted a short helpful response recommending they OP look into membership sites.

    It wasn't a long post, no where near my most helpful post and I quickly forgot about it.

    About a week and a half ago I was doing my daily stats check in Improvely and saw a massive amount of email opt-ins coming from my signature on the WF. I then noticed I had over 20 PM's here on the WF all asking me about how they can start their own membership sites.

    It turns out the thread I had posted in was selected as one of the top WF threads and they had emailed it out to all of the members here.

    My signature is a link to a case study of how I built a highly successful membership site, which was a perfect match for the people who were reading my post.

    By the end of the week that one short post (took me about 2 minutes to write) had brought in 172 email subscribers as well as over $4,200 in profit. The profit was from new email subscribers joining my flagship program as well as people PM'ing me here on the WF asking for private one on one coaching.

    So yes, forum marketing ABSOLUTELY works! You just have to do it the right way.

    Throwing up random, short and non helpful posts won't work. You should be targeting and posting in threads that have a relevance to your signature (if your goal is to get more email subscribers).

    The more helpful you are to members, and the more value that you put out on topics that you are knowledgeable about, the more you will get out of it.

    Do forum marketing the right way and it will drive a TON of traffic and sales.
    • [ 4 ] Thanks
  • You are really reading too much into the Forums and their Admin.
    I have never seen this happen at all in any Forum I have been too !!
    Never has been an issue !!


    - Robert Andrew
    • [1] reply

    • Simply no. Mostly these clicks end up 'just checking...' type.


      Before jumping any conclusions, I am talking in general of forum postings. Not any specific forum.


      BUT if that thread is indexed in SEs, that person will be a potential buyer like any other regular visitor.


      .
  • I'm on the fence about this myself.

    If you look at the quality of a forum (for example this one is amazing) you have some hungry for knowledge seeking people. If you are going to do forum marketing you have to give something away for free. Trying to 'SALE' them immediately is going to have a very low conversion whereas if you give someone something for free, you can get their email and get a general idea of what they are looking for.

    Once you have their email (make sure you make them verify it - this will ensure that it's good one and not going to be wasted time and hurt your bounce rate ). Build up a relationship with this person, send them an email asking them if they liked the report,ebook,app (whatever) they don't have to engage back but if they open the email it's just another signal to use for quality (track email opens where you can).

    If they do respond ( great a stronger relationship is being built ). Keep on building up a relationship by sending the emails that relate to what they downloaded, don't sell them directly but just encourage them to have a look (building up relationships).
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • You've said it very well. I'm going to make myself as an example and I'm sure a lot of people will agree.

      When I was just starting out, I often check the forums and learn from the free guides that WF is sharing. Heck I even went to the War Room to download all the free stuffs there.

      I refuse to pay for premium guides but a few months later, I decided that I'm ready to move my business fast so I invest and pay for a premium/ quality guide to multiple reports out there.

      My point is, people will buy from you months down the road if you add value and built a relationship with them. Most of the people will not buy from you upfront especially with free traffic.

      If you want to get instant credibility, I highly suggest you go for "Solo Ads" (the quality ones) as these are referred traffic where the subscribers trust to the owner is being transferred to you.
  • Here are my stats ofrom the last 3 weeks from my signature:



    I see big dots in the US and the UK.

    Yes forum marketing obviously works, and yes people buy.
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Nice results, Jens. By the way, what stats program do you use?
  • only about 20% of my posts here on wf have a sig. I am not in this market so i just dont bother with it usually.

    occasionally, i would get a wild hair or just be bored (mostly during winter) and i would offer some consulting for $50 or so an hour. which is cheap really.

    anyway, anytime i have that link active, i average about 1 hour sold a day. some of that is repeat customers, but most of it is new buyers who aer just overwhelmed and looking for some direction.

    of course, if you read my posts and such they are usually pretty knowledgeable business advice so i would imagine that has something to do with why i am actually making some $50 sales from a forum sig.

    i would say that for most people who are not able to position themselves as an expert, the forum traffic is going to be pretty hard to convert. the few weeks a year i have that sig on, my posts do the preselling.

    thats just my experience.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • [DELETED]
  • Forum traffic can be great, but it depends on your niche as well as the forum.

    On here, my email signature does generate a decent number of leads, but the leads from here tend to open my emails less than the leads I generate from a different smaller webmaster forums.

    By the way, forum posting does little to nothing for SEO. The links are nofollow, and even if they aren't, they are worthless.
  • I have 3 links in my signature to my blog. I don't sell anything. They are just links to my blog posts.
    They bring me about 10 visitors daily.
    I wouldn't say, it's a big amount of visitors, but it's a good way to get a constant amount of visitors to your blog, forum, services FOR FREE.
    I don't catch their e-mails, because I'm not going to sell products or services in MMO niche.
    What about sales? I wouldn't say, forum posting is the easiest and the most effective way to gain free traffic. This traffic is not free.
    The maximum amount of posts you can post on a certain forum in a hour is 50-60.
    60 posts on WarriorForum = 30 visitors (my experience).
    If you're a beginner, it's a wonderful way of getting free traffic.
    If you're an experienced marketer, it's better to buy solo ads, or facebook ads.
    It's also possible to use forum posting for long-time purposes, like building your own brand. (Remember Alexa Smith? )
    Smart forum posting can bring millions.
    If I were a native English speaker, I would become an active member of WarriorForum and other marketing and webmasters' forums. But it is difficult to be a trustworthy person, if your posting is not perfect.
    • [2] replies
    • "Position themselves" is a key word above. Pushing to "position myself" just looks pushy after a while. If you are answering every question - or if your answers are the short, motivational, general comment type answer...you often don't end up with the rep of "professional, sucessful IMer" you are going for.

      When you are using the forum to boost your biz or to ad a bit of income (coaching, etc) here or there - and you have participated over time and are known - forum marketing works great.

      If you are trying to build your entire business and rep on forums...not so much.

      Criniit - I'm not surprised your forum posts work well. I've read them - and I've run membership sites. You know what you are talking about - you give SPECIFICS - you don't hesitate to give credit to other people's products and your posts have no arrogance or self importance to them that I've seen.

      There is a narrow path between helpful posts that can also promote you as an expert - and post dumps meant to increase count, point to sig, or give the impression of "IM success" without the substance to go with it.

      I don't know how to describe it except a forum is like any group of people. If you appear to be working hard to be 'popular' - you usually don't end up as one of the cool guys. If you post with integrity - try to be helpful - aren't afraid to speak out when needed and give honest opinions rather than fluff....your rep builds on its own here.
      • [ 5 ] Thanks
    • I sure would like to see the verifiable evidence on that.

      Lets not get ahead of ourselves.

      Iam not saying there has NEVER been any Warrior through Joint Ventures , Coaching, Mastermind Groups etc...that has gotten to that point.

      There very well could have been.

      But it is far and few between. I can tell you that


      - Robert Andrew
  • You can post, post and post on forums for traffic, traffic and traffic. Yes, you'll get traffic... How it's about conversion?

    FORUM TRAFFIC WITHOUT REPUTATION IS USELESS.
  • Yes, forum marketing..

    (Whether it's linking with your signature link or whether it's banner ads and WSO's)

    Does bring buyer traffic.
  • There are MANY MANY ways to benefit from a forum besides direct leads. If you're just measuring your success at WF based on leads or direct traffic, you're missing out. The amount of benefits is LIMITLESS... Well, correction, the only limit is your imagination and creativity.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Some of the limitless benefits would be building backlinks and your credibility in your niche. But what are the other benefits, if it doesn't bring you targeted quality buyer leads?
      • [1] reply
  • Obviously it's right. Forum posting is a great way to get targeting traffic from your site. It's so importing that bring you quality buyer leads and more sales.
  • Forums can bring you traffic, leads and buyers but it still takes a lot of work and is not a short cut or easy route for success that most new marketers 'perceive' it to be.

    It works for some 'experienced' marketers but won't work for everyone.

    Pick a traffic generation strategy that works best for you.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Forums are generally used to create a repo in the industry by discussing and sharing the ideas with other experts in the same niche. In forums, you generally find people who are experts in the same niche and just looking for creating ideas to promote their stuff. I dont think you would find a buyer using the forum link building strategy.
    • [1] reply
    • I agree with you!

      You won't find buyers immediately anyway with forum posting, but it does make you look like an expert in your niche when you leave valuable information that help fellow forum members get results.
  • Wanna hear something weird?? I currently get most of my traffic from forums. But **all** of my sales occur through Twitter! So I don't know what's going on!
  • Forum marketing definitely does work but it just takes time and effort. There is no real scalability.

    Although, it does bring in targeted leads which eventually turn in to sales.
    • [1] reply
    • It seems like a marketing strategy, I never thought of. Shame there's no like button on forums as this may help?
  • Forum postings can't get you more number of leads and traffic, yet the leads that we got will be the right target. Only if we get good authority in that forum, we can gain more leads/sales.
  • From direct experience, we've worked with a number of successful warrior forum members in reselling trump iras white label sms solution so it's been a great relationship for us. We provide sms mobile marketing expertise to the forum and for members that are interested in advancing their mobile business we can directly help them as well.
  • If the forum posts are targeted with the subject, the effect will be great. But you must posy everyday and almost every hour.
  • Forum posting works. But they do only to get free traffic for you, just like Jens said here..

    But to convert them as leads and buyers, it depends on your sales funnel and offers so I guess it's a two different things working here.. As long as you have a solid offer and funnel, you will get those leads and buyers with forum posting


    It's LeadSwaps tracking link.. I have found it very useful and really help me to save time to track my conversions, especially for optin leads..
  • Yes, forum marketing does bring you sales leads, however you need to be active on quality forums which is less of spammers.
  • I think YES. IF you had provided good info for them, they will click to your link and learn more from you.
  • Lol you asking this to others though in your signature your revealing the great secrets of getting 1,000,000 views and tons of free cash
    • [1] reply
    • Obviously I didn't get 1 million views with forum posting...and that's the reason I'm asking if forum posting in general has produced instant or long term sales for anyone.

      Is forum posting one of the avenues that brings you tons of free cash?
  • Best uses for posting at forums for me:

    * Recruiting affiliates
    * Recruiting people to my forum when I had it
    * Not having a sig just posting gold to collect karma points
    * Monetizing marketers was never my thing, even though I'm confident I can dance circles around most guru's just based on the 'I walked your talk many times' factor so it's kinda awesome being able to just give out intel based on experience for free to contrast tons of others trying to monetize you for the same info dripped and high priced haha. I admittingly cringe in most threads here because I see most posts are just padding for sig clicks and most still have luda claims which is an oxymoron imo (29,000 posts, and you're still here selling info products claiming you've made it)..

    Sorry for that last one I just ran with it - but yes forum posting can be lucrative farrrrrrr beyond trying to just monetize readers as end users (most lucrative obviously being recruiting strong affiliates to leverage each other).
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed

  • 69

    Does forum posting bring you quality buyer leads & sales?

    Does forum posting bring you quality buyer leads & sales? I've been using all sorts of free strategies to drive quality laser targeted traffic to my various websites for case study purposes related to product creation ideas. I know most marketers use forum posting to establish themselves as an expert and to get backlinks for SEO purposes, but does it help to bring in quality buyers these days and not just freebee seekers who wouldn't invest a cent in their own online marketing education. Most people search forums for free advice.