Is forum marketing dead?

Hey Max,

Great question! I'm not sure there is such a thing as forum marketing now. Not if you want quick traffic anyway. However formum contribution is alive and well!

What to I mean by that?

Well, if you spend time contributing real value to a forum (or anywhere else for that matter), then people will be interested to find out more about you, and perhaps what other value they can get from you! But it takes time to do that. You need to build a reputation. And forums are an excellent place for doing that!

I misunderstood them for a long time. But now totally believe that signatures should not lead to a sales page. They should lead to a 'value' page - where people can learn something for nothing.

In the long run this will contribute to building a solid, long lasting business.

I think the problem today is that everyone wants instant results. We live in a Mc Donalds society now where everything is instant. But that's for the consumer! The producer (the provider to the consumer) needs to have a longer term strategy. And 'forum marketing' as it's known is more of a long term, producer type strategy.

That's just my humble opinion. I hope it helps or is at least thought provoking :-)

Oh boy. Not yet another 'death of' thread.

Everything is dead. Nothing to see here guys. Move on.

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...d-threads.html

It's not dead at all......
Most of the people use forums for marketing purposes, a small minority doesn't use it for this purpose though.. [forums are best for Learning new things as well marketing + interacting with people]

You have joined recently, maybe that's the reason you have this concept, you will realize with time that it does work very well.

It still works. Why? Because people are on forums. Duh. If there are people congregating in one spot who are all interested in the same thing, and you can get in front of them, you will get traffic. But here's the problem...

Actually, there are a LOT of problems. Let's take the marketing "triangle" for example; you got your three classic issues: Market, message, media.

Well, obviously the forum is the media or medium you are using (in this case) to get in front of people. So that's one problem. In reality, it's just one media and you should be using (and tracking the results of) several. Not relying on any one given thing.

That's what they call putting all your eggs in one basket. We're all guilty of it. To start, it's just normal to work on one thing and get it working, and move on to the next.

So you've got to diversify your traffic. When it comes to any one single offer... it's not really multiple streams of income. It's multiple streams of traffic that leads to the income.

Problem number two is the match between the market and the message. Take my signature for example at the time of this post. It sucks. I'm well aware of it.

See, the market that's congregating on this forum is interested in quick ways to make a fast buck, and they want to see income claims. They are also very receptive to plugins, automated software that does things for you, and SEO products and services.

Now, a tiny little slice of the market knows they want and need to create a product because it's a really good tool to have in their tool belt, but basically if I just relied on this I would be in a lot of trouble. It's not really compelling and it sounds like work.

That being said...

Since I just said my signature sucks, I will take the liberty to say that yours isn't that sexy either. You're trying to be cute with this phrase about milking the stars, but that doesn't really mean jack you know what to the market place. It's cutesy.

Cutesy really sucks for marketing. As far as structure goes, it's much better to hone in on a specific benefit that appeals to people in clear language, tie an impressive time deadline to it, and say it in a way that makes you stand out that is compelling. None of this vague cutesy stuff my friend.

Then, as for the actual "substance" of message, it's super important that you're on target. Change your signature to a SEO offer with a specific income claim in X period of days, WITHOUT doing any back linking or whatever (<--- point of difference) and watch your click through rate go up dramatically. Not saying you have that offer, just saying if you did have it, it would perform better.

But what you offer the marketplace is ultimately up to you, isn't it?

Case in point: Pretty much anyone who offers SEO services here, can sell it halfway well, actually delivers on their promises, does what they say they will do, and who get people results, guess what? They have no trouble finding customers on this forum. Just talk to some of them about their business and that will become apparent. It's not really that surprising when you consider the marketplace: Internet Marketing.

Marc

PS. Then there are things like building relationships with people who have a following. I mean, you have to do that actively.

By the way, forum marketing is content marketing. Plain and simple. Content marketing doesn't always reward you immediately.

If you read Napoleon Hill's work, you will often come across the principle of delivering value to people, without the expectation that you will receive something in return immediately. Or even directly from the person you helped. Instead, that it may come from elsewhere, and at a later date.

Also, he talks about how you shouldn't contribute to other people with the sole purpose of receiving something in return, as it can compromise the quality of your work and the effort you put forth if you don't immediately meet your expectations. There ought to be other reasons like a mission.

He says that you should have faith that by doing good work, it will come back to you ten fold. Even if what you receive in return is not necessarily monetary in value. Say, e.g. the long-term, lifetime value you gain in understanding your marketplace better, for example. Or new, valuable connections.

Marc

Hey Max,
It's alive and well. Sure enough in a lot of niches, the volumes of traffic/interest are not there. Or take a lot of digging to find. But it's very much alive, and when it comes to linking. Is more beneficial now then ever before.
At least for me anyway.

btw. Citations normally work better than Sigs in my experience.

It really depends on the niche in my experience. Some are very responsive, some could care less.

@Mitch, good points!

Forum marketing is not dead. Maybe you are on the wrong forum.

Warriors make money $$$ from this forum for internet marketing niche. This is one example.

No, you are wrong forums marketing is still effective but you have to do something more with forums.

I agree with you when you say that forum marketing is a time consuming marketing technique and many times the results are not encouraging. I stopped doing it.

First of all the forums in my field don't allow signatures... but if you are in a niche related to internet marketing forum marketing works. You have many facilities, everything is allowed.

In different niches, there are many complications. Some things that work for internet marketing don't work for different niches.

They are profitable, but you have to use different marketing techniques.

Hi Max
Everything works if done properly....
Article marketing works, Google Plus works, Pinterest works, Twitter works.. yeah...Twitter...

But you have to do it properly and knowing that exact proper working method is the challenge.

I know some guys in India wo are earning thousands of dollars per month through adsense using blogger... and people say adsense dont work... blogger is this... blogger is that... and you can imagine what 1000$ pm in India means.

It depends on:

1: The people on the forums
2: You

If you're on "lousy" forums where there's hardly any activity, then you could be wasting your time. (I'd be hesitant to make that claim, even. A really slow moving forum is easier to "target", and you can kind of "colonize" it better.)

It's far more likely (I'm sorry, just being probablistic here) that your efforts aren't paying off because you're either not contributing to the forums you're participating in, or maybe you're expecting too much too soon. Possibly both.

I like to think of forums as an opportunity to receive an education from the people you're hoping to sell to. You want to be genuinely valuable and useful, and to do that you need to get to know your audience better. If you're thoughtful and hardworking, it'll ultimately influence the what you're selling, too- you'll tailor it better for your audience (who you now understand better), which improves the base rate of your sales.

So as Mitch suggests- stick around. Don't worry so much about selling. Focus on learning, and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the sales (or positive input/criticism) that come your way.

Cheers

...as a dodo. Yes.

Along with article marketing, list building, googlemail, seo, affiliate marketing, bookmarking, spinning, product creation. All dead and gone.

The only reason people go online these days is to create "is xxxxx dead" threads. Soon "dead" threads will be dead. Then all will be right with the world.