Forum Marketing 101: n00bs Listen Up

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So, you've found a great Internet Marketing forum. It has tons of members all sitting around holding their breath until you present your very special offer to them. It even has several sections where you can list your services or product for a small fee and make thousands. Right?

In your haste to get that sales pitch out and start raking in those bucks, there's one thing you've overlooked. Forum marketing isn't about getting your ad up or about posting hundreds of not very useful one-liners to get your signature file seen.

Think about forum marketing as a long-term marketing channel for product(s), instead of just a target to blast your hot new product or service to. You need to build trust and credibility, establish relationships, and gain a reputation in a forum before attempting to throw out your sales pitch.

Establish yourself as an authority. Try to build a connection and rapport within the community. Find the topics that relate to your area of expertise or products and services and provide helpful, informative posts. In the beginning, give away more information than you sell. This is how you build trust and establish yourself as an authority.

How do you feel when someone cold calls you or sends you an unsolicited commercial email when you haven't opted in to their list?

That's exactly what you are doing when you join a forum for the sole purpose of running a WSO, putting up a Classified Ad, listing yourself in Warriors for Hire, etc. without participating in discussions and adding value to the forum. What you don't seem to realize is that building a reputation first on a forum is key to being successful. You are marketing to people, and if you aren't willing to build a relationship with those people, you are doing nothing more than cold calling.

It's not just forums ... the same is true with blogs, email marketing .... pretty much any kind of marketing. Building trust and a relationship with prospective customers is key to success. It might not be everything you need to be successful, but it is a key ingredient.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #101 #forum #listen #marketing #n00bs #newbies #noobs
  • THANK YOU for saying this in such explicit terms. It's about relationship building. People need to think of forum marketing the way they think of email marketing. You'll do so much better when you've built rapport with the members. Engage. Be active, and not just the one liner nonsense posts. It seems so obvious, but I guess it isn't to a lot of noobs. Boobs. Nooboobs.
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  • Hi! You should buy my sh!t.

    K THX BYE!

    (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
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    • Well-written......there have been many six (and some seven) figure businesses built in this very forum by following what you just wrote here. It's the "money-maker" versus the "long-term business" mentality at work here and you just laid a good foundation for it. There are people here who sell their products / services now just because of their reputation and name; many people don't even read the sales letter because they know they're going to get VALUE.

      For example, and most people will agree with me on this one, but when Paul Myers comes out with a report, I buy it without hesitation because every time I have bought one (or downloaded one of his free ones) I have always gotten value from it. Good will goes a long way and people's memories are a lot longer than people think.

      I've seen people establish themselves here as authorities in as little as 3 months because they networked and gave tremendous value.

      RoD
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  • I disagree with you here. With forum marketing, it depends on what your final goal is: do you really want to establish yourself as an authority, or are you trying to test a market and see if it is worth getting into? If you're an internet marketer, then no doubt you want to build up a reputation over here at WF. But if you just built a brand new product about acid reflux cure from a PLR ebook, and just want to get the word out, I don't think you need to spend endless hours building up your reputation.

    In other words, spend time with forum marketing only when you really know you want to get into that niche.
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    • If you're just testing a market has a newbie here, this forum may skew your test results. In my observations newbies generally aren't trusted until they've been around a while and have contributed value to the forum. We are kind of protective of what we have here in that way.
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    • I see a lot of this testing the market through post on forums .

      The best way I know of testing a market is a little feature called the search button.

      You can learn more lurking than you can posting if you just do your due diligence
  • I couldn't have said it better myself. I could add one thing though...

    Chiming in with "I agree" on a thread is not relationship building. Everyone knows you're only agreeing to increase your post count. If you want to agree, cite your reason(s) and add something of value to the thread.
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    • I agree.. lol

      I always try to add value to the discussion, things that have worked for me or problems I've had. But sometimes its hard when others have hit the nail on the head. You really can't make that much more of a point then.

      But on the other side of the coin, You really can't do too much on the forums with not being able to Private Message sometimes. There are certain topics that perhaps should not be discussed in open or questions that are better left discussed in private...etc (Because you don't want to start a flame war or whatever your reasons are, nothing nefarious)

      So its a catch 22, to be come this "authority" on any subject you're in. You'd have to be able to respond to private messages.. yet for like this particular forum you need to post your little heart out til you hit 50 posts then you can PM.. :rolleyes:

      So maybe time on the forums like she is saying is what is needed..
      Plus also isn't there some rule to always listen to a woman in latex??
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  • Being a newbie, it is very tempting try and get as wso up very quickly, I know this because I've done it myself as I desperately need the cash. However what I've learned in my short time here is that newbies should treat this place as more of an IM College than a market place.

    My mission on this forum now is try and learn as much as you can in here then ply your trade outside of the forum.

    Tell me if I'm wrong though!
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  • Wait, you can market on forums now? Since when!?



    I kid. To me, the "right" way to do forum marketing is to view it just as a brick and mortar business might view a community that it's physically located in. You don't just walk down the street yelling in people's faces about your business. You put your messages in the appropriate places, along with your contact info. Then you go about being a model citizen. Participate. Add value. Make people feel good. Trick them into liking you. (I say "trick" only because to do this on purpose, you really have to simulate in writing the things you would typically only naturally do in person.)

    The goal of forum marketing is really not so much to sell anything as it is to become a known and influential figure in the community in question. Then people naturally trust you and follow your advice and recommendations. You don't ever have to "sell" anything if you spend more time just being awesome to people.
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    • I often think that people who are on forums just to take rather than give are very apparent and obvious.
      When they run WSO's within days of joining I almost feel sorry for them as they are so naive as to think making money would be that easy.
      Most forums have an etiquette and character that you need to spend time learning to fit in.

      kenj
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  • Nah, Sissy, John didn't invent the term. The plastic sturgeons did.

    Tina
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    • How do ya know I'm not a plastic surgeon in "real life?" Hmm? How do ya? I might be.

      OK, naw, I'm not really a plastic surgeon in real life. I'm a gigolo.
  • Amen Suzanne! This thread should be required reading for all nooboobs.

    It really bothers me on sales threads.

    If your only contribution to the forum is posting cheesy one-liners on another seller's thread, in an attempt to hijack their customers with your sig line, then you need a spankin'.

    It's even worse when they try to be "tricky" about it and fail, like asking something that was clearly answered in the listing with a bold red font. I understand that sometimes legit customers will miss a thing or two (heck, I do myself sometimes! lol), but it's easy to tell when it's a stinky hijacker.

    The worst part is, some of them actually think that what they're doing is "smart forum marketing".

    Cheers
    Jay
  • i learn the hardway here... just making a thread on seo services at warrior for hire, but still got no sales... i know i'm new (though i've been reading the free knowledge here for a few months)...

    i think i must build reputation first... surely will follow all the tips given in this thread...

    i know my seo service will be a long term business... and i wont quit that easy...

    i'm sure i'll succeed...
  • Suzanne, you really nailed this one. I teach "Building Relationships" all the time. The internet in some peoples eyes is untrustworthy so you have to establish a relationship to build trust and credibility.
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    • Suzanne, you nailed it on the head...

      Tina, I caught a plastic sturgeon once. The caviar was really chewy and tasteless... :p
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    Forum Marketing 101: n00bs Listen Up

    So, you've found a great Internet Marketing forum. It has tons of members all sitting around holding their breath until you present your very special offer to them. It even has several sections where you can list your services or product for a small fee and make thousands. Right? In your haste to get that sales pitch out and start raking in those bucks, there's one thing you've overlooked. Forum marketing isn't about getting your ad up or about posting hundreds of not very useful one-liners to get your signature file seen.