Gain reputation for yourself

Contributing in threads and helping others out with your advice and insight is an integral part of being a forumer. The long threads that have many posts in them are the best places to make an impression, since they garner so many views.

The more you help people out, the more your recommendations (on products you sell or affiliate market) will be favorably received by others. I’ve bought stuff from others in forums just because they took the trouble to help me out, even though I could get it without going through their affiliate links. It’s just a way of thanking others for the help. So, always have a helpful spirit as you never know when it could pay you back in dividends. It’s an ethical way of tipping and getting tipped, I would say.

You can add in your own bonuses or other promotions if you are running a sales thread, as these kinds of threads seem to be extremely popular in all forums that allow sales threads. There are some ways to maximize these threads to their fullest potential. Always reply promptly to any queries in your thread and always explain the benefits of your product or service at the given opportunity.

Many forums provide trader feedback points which work something like the eBay trader reputation system. At first, it won’t be so easy to get positive trader points, but eventually, these accumulate along with each successful transaction. You may want to start small and purchase a lot of small priced services at first (those in the $5 – $10 range). Having a large amount of positive feedback points is crucial to getting forum-based sales.

At the other end of the scale are people who over misuse the positive feedback system to use it like some form of forum currency (on forums that adopt a feedback system). For example, opening threads to promote a product and offering to provide reputation points to whoever comments or buys. Since reputation points cost nothing, this can be regarded as misusing the feedback system.

Don’t spam the forums or members

Some members misuse the forums to spam about an affiliate product and others do it via PM (private messaging). It’s not ok to spam, and these posts usually get deleted. Blatant spamming is not in good taste, and only reflects poorly on the poster. So think twice before doing it.

In summary, forums are great places to interact with others who share the same interest as you do. The savvy marketer is also one who knows how to milk forums to their full potential. Forums are the cafes of the Web world where the pulse is on, the interaction is genuine, and the addiction is real

Everyday, I see some dude racking up sales from his services and stuff that he sells in the forums without so much as batting an eyelid. Forums are such incredible dynamic places, where everyone from every corner of the globe is mingling, that the potential to make sales is practically endless. Yet, there are many people that don’t get anything out of helping others out and there are others that reap handsomely.

Here are a few practical tips to consider before joining a forum:

• Activity – There are forums with a huge number of members but low activity. Check the number of members online at any given time, and last dates of the latest posts. Activity is probably the most important factor in determining a forum’s value.
• Membership count – Just related to activity, but not really as important. For example, DigitalPoint Forum has long been the most active webmaster forum on the Web, but for a long time, the membership count was way below some other forums.
• Likeability factor – Do you find certain forums just click with you? I do. In some forums, you just “gel” with the rest, but in others – not. There’s no way of explaining it except that, if you like the vibe, the atmosphere, and the members, you’ll suddenly find yourself becoming a senior member over time.
• Good nickname/avatar is important – Get a good nickname which helps people to identify or remember you. A nickname with numbers and meaningless letters is not as good as one that is short, concise and easy to remember. Pretty much like domains (I can never understand the value people seemingly place on 3 character domains)…;) Also, a good avatar will show people you are a serious member.

Some thread posting tips

Forums have special protocols that are peculiar to each one but the main taboo is affiliate links. It’s all right to put your website in your signature provided it’s not an affiliate link, and the more threads you participate in, the more exposure you get for your website. You might want to try and use a catchy text link in your signature (it helps).

The best threads that draw people to comment are controversial threads and easy comparison threads. What I meant by easy comparison is something like, “Do you think Yahoo is now a far better search engine than Google?” or “Which is better, Hotmail or Gmail?”. These kinds do not require much thinking, and as a result, people cannot resist adding a line in or two. For controversial threads, just make sure to keep the tone down and err on the side of moderation.

If you want to advertise your site, try asking people to comment or review your site and then tell you what’s wrong or right. Not only is it a subtle form of advertising, it also helps you (with the help of others) detect the good and bad bits about your site. If you want to give a little incentive, try a little contest (this is a great linkbait technique) by offering $X to whoever does the best job of reviewing or helping you out.

As you can see, forums are effective in marketing your website if done right, but for me, the greatest satisfaction is still meeting other good like minded people (in the same field). Now that’s why I’m a forum junkie!

For part 2 of this mini series, go here.

Here are two other forums that have been invaluable to me.

NamePros

NamePros is the largest online forum for domainers. Head and shoulders above the rest. It is free to sign up unlike some other forums, and it is always active with very hot discussion threads, particularly the .mobi debates.

What I like best about NamePros is the warm and helpful atmosphere shown by most of the members, and this extends all the way up to the administrators. You won’t really find Web administration or SEO stuff of the highest caliber over here, this really belongs to the likes of WebmasterWorld and Digital Point Forum, but you’ll find a wealth of information on almost any aspect of domaining.

NamePros is “newbie friendly” and unlike other forums where asking dumb questions may get no responses or even rebukes, it’s not really the case here. In general, you will find this community to be one of the most helpful, even when benchmarked against other forums.

Well moderated, well run, and really a great forum in my opinion. I ‘d also give it a 9/10 rating. Just stellar!

The Warrior Forum

Okay, this is the number one Internet Marketing forum on the Web, bar none. You might not believe it, but millions of dollars have been transacted through the vaults of The Warrior Forum either in joint venture deals, or in sales.

If you’ve been thinking of buying that ebook but not sure of what you’re getting into, chances are that someone has already posted a review of that ebook on the forum. Mostly the reviews are positive in nature, and I will not be the first to deny that some of it may be biased; but in general, you can take them (with a pinch of salt, of course).

It is quite a good place to learn about Internet Marketing, even as a newbie with little to no experience at all. There are many experienced Internet Marketers there who do help newbies along, although the atmosphere in this forum may come across as a wee bit elitist to some. Also, since it is an Internet Marketers forum (after all), be prepared “to be sold”, and it helps to have your wallet on hand.

The best part of the forum, may be the Warrior Special Offers section of the forum, better known as the WSO. Not as large as the one on Digital Point, but probably ranks as one of the best online marketplaces to get a good deal. Scams and hype do show up frequently, so as with anywhere else, be careful. But there’s still no doubt it is a good place to shop for online merchandise to help boost your Web businesses and knowledge.

You may find certain posts of yours getting deleted if they are deemed to be, “not in the interests of sales”, as well as the community at large. However, don’t let these quibbles get in the way of participating in this great forum. Despite the flaws, it is still a helpful and great forum to learn a thing or two about Internet Marketing. And yes, joining is free.

I would rate this forum as 7/10.

Web Hosting Talk

I seriously recommend Web Hosting Talk as the first to go to, when you need some feedback on the host you have been planning on signing up. Practically all the web hosts out there, are reviewed and critiqued daily, before the eyes of thousands of daily visitors.

This forum keeps web hosts honest, and so you have Web Hosting Talk (or WHT as its fondly known) to thank for acting like a web hosting watchdog, which in its role, it does brilliantly.

Everyday, brickbats are thrown, and kudos are administered generously, at the many web hosts that support all those websites. If you think about it, choosing a good web host is one of the most crucial steps you need to undertake to set up your website. Get it wrong, and you could be facing premature aging; get it right, and you will find success one big step closer.

This is the place to dig up info on a particular web host, learn about VPS, server administration, and security. If you’re tired of bouncing around from one web host to the other, you may well find your web host on Web Hosting Talk forum. I found mine from there.

A rating of 8/10.

There’s lots of other big forums I didn’t mention, simply because I’m not a regular over there. SitePoint, WebmasterWorld, V7N and Webmaster-Talk are some other big forums that are interesting as well. Do check them out…

Digital Point Forum

First on the list would be without a doubt, Digital Point Forum. Often referred to as DP forum for short. This is the highest Alexa ranked webmaster forum in the world and with good reason. Guys like Shoemoney and many others first learned their trade on this forum. So did I.

I’ve found it to be a great place to get to know other fellow webmasters and there are many threads that you can learn a deal from. Also, it’s probably the most updated forum when it comes to Web news of just about any kind.

Digital Point Forum was one of the first forums to implement Adsense revenue sharing. This means you can give them your Adsense publisher ID and it will display in the Adsense Ads for threads you start or participate in. The earnings are as far as I know, minimal.

The most busy part of Digital Point forum has to be the Marketplace. Indeed, you could find almost any type of deal there is over there. The biggest puller is the sites-for-sale section. If you can find your way through flipping and selling websites, (some people do that for a living), then this is a good place to learn the basics.

The downsides to Digital Point Forum are the excessive one liner posts that contribute next to no value to the forum. Although I understand it is usually done to increase post count, I think the forum would be a better place with less of those one liners.

A thing to be careful is the fact that scams do occur in the DP Marketplace. True, many of the deals are honest deals, but I’ve noticed at the same time, lots of fake stuff being sold. A thing to watch out is fake traffic being pumped to a domain or website for the purpose of ramping up their prices. Many newbies could get suckered without knowing it. Best thing to do, is to research first before reaching for your wallet.

I’ve seen many people who had good reputations on Digital Point getting banned for probably dubious conduct. On the other hand, some people who are otherwise banned on many other forums, are doing well at Digital Point!

Digital Point offers some really good tools for free. The one I’ve always used is their keyword suggestion tool. Although it doesn’t work well these days due to the frequent updates to Overture and Wordtracker, it is still quite reliable to give a rough picture of a certain keyword. These days, I use Aaron Wall’s SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool.

In order to post something on the Digital Point Marketplace, you need to be a member for 2 weeks and have 25 posts. Also, you shouldn’t accumulate infractions until your reputation is red.

A system that DP uses is the infraction system, which penalizes members with a negative point score if they infringe on the rules. Administrators are allowed to issue “red reputation points” if they feel you have done something wrong. Although its open to debate if this is a good system or not (since other forums don’t have this), I think overall does keep the system clear of spam, abusive posts and other negative behaviour.

If I were to rate Digital Point Forum on a scale of 1 to 10, I would have to give it a 9.