We have all faced hard times trying to get free targeted traffic to our blogs.
In fact, if you were to ask around, you’d probably find that traffic generation is one of the hardest things that we face as bloggers and website owners.
But, it isn’t as hard as most people make it out to be!
In fact, if you do it right, driving traffic can be as easy as driving to the supermarket for a gallon of milk.
Sometimes, we get so caught up in what is new out there that we lose sight of old school traffic generation tactics that still work their magic, sending free targeted traffic where we want them to go.
Just like Ana mentioned a couple of weeks ago in her post about 3 Common Web Traffic Strategies, there are many tactics that are still valid, but you have to use them the right way, or you will lose the best traffic that they can offer.
For example, forum marketing has been one of my biggest sources of referral traffic over the last 3 years as I built up my blog, yet most people seem to fail miserably in getting targeted traffic from these sites.
Today, I thought I would share a few of my favorite tricks for getting traffic from forums onto my blog, and into my email list, subscriber list, and becoming my regular customers.
Using Forums For Free Targeted Traffic To Your Blog
A lot of people tell me that forum marketing isn’t worth the time or effort that it takes.
Although you won’t get thousands of visitors through forum marketing, you can get some decent traffic numbers for the time invested.
Here is a screenshot of some of my own traffic from just one of the forums I use:
Now, this might not look like much, and this is why most people think forum marketing is worthless.
However, take a deeper look at what you can do with forums.
After a lot of questions concerning forum marketing, I set up a separate Clickbank account just so that I could get some clean numbers that were from forum traffic alone.
By using a special landing page for forum traffic, I was able to trace my forum marketing sales directly:
These numbers reflect the direct sales I made through this forum, and don’t take into account people who joined my email list and followed my social circles after visiting my blog.
I have a lot of other sales that I know came from forums, but these are the only ones that I can directly trace.
However, you don’t get these kind of numbers by just randomly posting on forums for backlinks.
In fact, the traffic and sales I get is just a minor part of using forums for my business.
Like with anything else, in order to be successful, you have to have a strategy in place.
Today, I am going to share one of the many tactics in my forum marketing strategy that I use to bring people to my site, build my email list, and my sales funnel.
A Simple Trick That Brings More Forum Traffic
The other day, I was over at one of my favorite forums, and someone asked a question that I had just mentioned on my blog.
Being the nice guy that I am, I went and wrote up a brief answer to their question, and included a link to the post in question on my blog.
(NOTE: I know that linking to my blog this way is okay with the rules of the forum before attempting this tactic! ALWAYS KNOW THE RULES AND FOLLOW THEM!!!!)
Doing this brought quite a few people to my blog, and I got several opt-ins to my newsletter.
This is all well and good, but you don’t always have a fresh post on your blog that just happens to answer their question. When this happens, there are one of 3 things that you can do to get around it.
1. Give Some Link Love To a Friend
Trust me on this one, your competition will not mind if you happen to mention THEIR latest blog post in the forum.
As long as it provides value (I only do this with a REALLY great post…), most forums won’t mind you linking to someone’s site, although some won’t allow any external links.
I know what you are thinking… “That sends the free targeted traffic to THEIR blog! I don’t get anything.”
Networking is always beneficial, and I find that “If you scratch my back, I will scratch yours” attitude runs rampant in the blogosphere.
If you link to their content when it is relevant, they will often notice.
They will usually wind up repaying the favor, sending you more free targeted traffic.
I find it a great way to help people in the forum and build the relationship with another blogger at the same time.
If the post really helps, the next time I share a link, those same people will be 10 times more likely to trust me enough to click that link and check out my site.
2. Link to an OLD Post on Your Blog
If you have an old post on your blog answering their question, you can always dig into your archives and find the URL.
This way you still give people the answer they need and it helps you get the word out about your blog.
Sometimes this can be a bit of a pain though.
Also, if it is a really old post, you better read through it and make sure no links are broken and that the information is still relevant. You wouldn’t want to send people to an old post that is outdated, right?
That could do your reputation more harm than good. It should just take a couple of minutes, and it could be beneficial to you for a long time to come.
3. Backlog a Post
This is probably the sneakiest thing I do and this is the first (and ONLY) time I will let this one out of the bag in public.
I am always seeing people use the post scheduler to post to their blog later, but you can also go backwards in time to log a post.
Sometimes, if I don’t have a post, I will go and make one. When I do, I will look at the thread, and backdate the post to be posted earlier than the thread was posted.
Then, I go in and say something like “Hey that’s funny, I just posted on my blog about that a few hours ago. Here is a brief rundown of what I said….”
Then, I would conclude with something like “… And that is how I would solve that problem if I were you. If you want more info you can check out the full post here <<insert link to my site>>.”
This tactic is not something I use very often, maybe once a month or so.
You don’t want to get a reputation as a link spammer in the forum.
However, done in moderation, and as long as you are an active member of the community, this tactic can help bring you a ton of targeted traffic.
Again, you always need to make sure that this is not a violation of the forum rules. Some forums will allow it and some won’t.
Always play it safe and follow the community guidelines.
James Pruitt
I love online marketing, and enjoy helping others achieve success through their marketing efforts. I specialize in Relationship Marketing Strategies to help people build and brand their business through relationships built through blogging and Social Media. If you want more relationship marketing strategies to help you build and brand your business, I highly recommend checking out the best Relationship Marketing Tips that you need to succeed in this ever changing online world.
Thanks for the informative post. I don’t use forums much, and you don’t even hear about them that much anymore with all the social media everything. But I think you can build some good relationships in forums, and that’s going to make a difference.
Choose a few good forums in your niche and frequent them. Don’t try to be part of too many because it will be difficult to maintain that kind of schedule.
hey Laurie, Forums are just an old school form of social media, and they are just as effective as any other type of social media, when used right.
Although you can get really caught up in them, you don’t have to. I spend 1-2 hours per day on forums myself, and have a couple of VA’s who do a lot of the niche forums for me. In fact, a big part of why I wrote my recent Forum Traffic Guide was to teach my VA’s how I want them to do their job.
James,
Thanks for the great tips for driving targeted traffic. Forums is an area that I’ve stayed away from in the past simply because I have a limited number of hours to devote to my online business. Clearly, based on your tips, it’s something I need to pay more attention to. Targeted traffic is the key to all of our success, and any way that we can increase that is important.
Thanks again for providing such valuable information. I hope you have a great day!
~Barry
Hey Barry, one of the critical steps to finding the targeted traffic is finding the right forums. For example, I get a ton of traffic through various private forums that are paid memberships. Either people pay a monthly subscription, or they got access through buying a product, and it is a support forum for that product. Those forums tend to bring me TONS of traffic, and they are all proven buyers, which are people I want coming to my blog and opting in to my list. But, those forums are usually also not indexed by Google, so they wont do any good for SEO, which is why most people ignore them.
Nice post James, I will definitely be giving this a try.
Just wondering though which are the best internet marketing forums to get started on, other than the Warrior Forum (which is the most popular as far as I am aware).
Any tips on what other forums you would recommend? My site is based on low cost marketing strategies
Hey Scott, sorry it took so long to answer you. For some reason I didnt get the notification that I had new comments on my post. I am mainly in the Affilorama forum as well as a private forum called IM Super Elite (paid forum membership only), as well as several product support forums for different tools and services that I use myself.
There are hundreds of IM forums out there though. I actually don’t use or really like the Warrior Forum. In my experience, most of the “experts” there are over rated scam artists ripping people off. Most of them have never made a dime outside of the WSO section on that forum, although there are a handful of decent people there.
James
I use forums to drive website traffic. what I do is I pick the top ten most popular internet marketing forums that gets a lot of traffic, and I post in the forums around my blog post schedule, so in other words every time I post a new blog post, I make sure I post in the forums
some of the forums let me post links and some of the forums just let me get a link in the signature so thats how I drive the traffic
that is a really important point, and one that I covered in detail in my forum marketing myths report. You always need to understand the rules of the forum. Not all of them will allow links, but that doesn’t mean they cant be useful.
Like anything social in nature, often the engagement is more important. I also get more traffic from PMs than the direct traffic through links in my signature.
Hey James,
Great Post (a good comeback to blogging :D).
You have great tips here to get traffic from forums. I would use these techniques, but I really can’t as I don’t have that much time (It is becoming really hard to keep up with college work, blogging, social media and all kinds of things at the same time).
But, I guess I will use these tactics in the future!
Thanks for the tips,
Jeevan Jacob John
HEy Jeevan,
it can become time consuming trying to find the time to be everywhere. One critical aspect is being able to leverage other people to help you do more. Now days, I have a VA that handles a lot of my forums for my niche sites, freeing me up to focus on the IM niche. The more you have going, the more important it is to outsource what you can.
Hi James,
This is a great post.
I just started using forums last month. I haven’t received a great deal of traffic from them yet, but it is getting there. Getting traffic to my website is only one of the things I like about the forums though. They also have a lot of useful information as well as members willing to answer any questions you have.
Hey Laurie, that is absolutely true. Forums are great for a variety of reasons, and traffic is really just a small part of it. However, since traffic generation is the focus of Ana’s blog, I decided to focus the post on that aspect of it.
Hey James,
I absolutely agree on this with you; forums are still a great way to get traffic. I have been a member of a few forums and have been active especially on warriorforum and I have to tell you every single day I am getting some traffic from these forums especially warrior forum.
The trick is to be genuinely helpful on these forums and try to help people. If people see that you are providing free useful information on the forum, they are more likely to click your link and check out your site, thinking that hey if this guy shares this much great info on a forum, he must be sharing lots more on his own site.
being realy helpful is the key. the people who struggle to see results are usually either doing themselves more harm than good by trying to fake their expertise, or they are just spamming for links. being a genuine member of the community is the key to making it work.
Hey James I experienced something similar on the Warrior Forum where I purchased a wso for a specialized redirector plugin then posted about its functionality citing a blog post as an example…not only did i get lots of traffic but also lots of sales before the plugin owners removed it from the Warriors Forum to its own standalone site.
Another thing is I keep getting optins from just a few posts on the Warrior Forum through my sig..
Great tips!
The Warrior Forum is great once you can get known, but it tends to be too noisy for me. Personally, I get in trouble with the attitude from most WF members. I don’t use them much personally. However, I have had a lot of luck with other forums outside of the WF.
Pretty cool strategy there, I have to spend some time on forums now. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks James ,This is really a nice article ,Forum marketing works great if you do it properly
James, I left one post on Warrior Forum and have been getting a trickle of hits ever since. SEO ranking sites also cite that one link as coming into my site and being influential.
Forum marketing isn’t about leaving one post and getting a trickle of traffic. Honestly, it comes to building relationships with forum members and branding yourself within the niche. The more you participate and show that you are a valuable member of the community, the more you will get out of it.
Of course, James. My point was that even a single comment on a high ranked forum has an effect on webcrawler-determined SEO. Taking the effort to interact meaningfully with humans, on forums or their own sites, has benefits that well exceed the baseline.
I used a little bit of Digital Point forums and got great amount of traffic from there but I have not been using since long time. But after reading these tips I will start doing it.
Nice post, James.
I went through a stage looking for quality forums for my niche, but gave up when I couldn’t find anything decent. But you’ve given me renewed motivation to keep looking and to become a part of that community.
Thanks.
sometimes it takes a while, and some niches, forums have been so hard hit by spammers that the good ones don’t allow links. Still, I find these forums good as a networking tool and research source. Although they can be a great source of traffic, the direct traffic is only one of many benefits I get from forums.
Hi James,
thanks for sharing !
I have never tried forum marketing, I will put it in the “things to do”.
I think also that if you join forums related to your niche, you can learn a lot.
My best wishes !
Yep, you can learn a lot Erik. primarily, when I started using forums it was for niche research. it was later that I built enough of a reputation to become the goto guy that people ask for help.
I agree. but, the biggest benefits to forums for me are the direct relationships that I have built with influential people within my niche. many of them may never actually visit my sites, but if the forum owner is a well known Guru within the niche, and they want to help me promote my stuff because of the time I spend helping his members, that is a huge benefit.
There it is … RELATIONSHIPS
I liked the article, but I kept thinking that where I have found the biggest benefit is in building relationships with others in the niche. Those may be with leaders, peers, or customers - but it is the relationship building that seems to come best out of spending times on forums. That time is what slowly builds into authority-points.
hey Troy, thanks for your comment. you hit it right on. everything that you do online to promote your site should be focussed on the relationships that you build. that is the key to success in this business.
I generally don’t care about do follow or no follow. personally, I am more concerned with the direct traffic that those sites can bring to my business.
if you are into Affiliate marketing, you can check out the Affilorama Forum. you could also check into Warrior forum, although I personally dont spend much time there anymore.
there are several thousand IM related forums out there. just depends on what you want.
Honestly, now days Affilorama is the one I spend the most time in within the IM niche. I spend a lot of time in other forums as well, but now, I am moving towards having other people do most of that for me, rather than me doing it all on my own. It is something that is really time consuming to do well, and I have other things that I am now spending my time on.
Hey James this is a great post about forum marketing. You can get really useful leads through doing this the way you have said to do it well written and constructive enough for people to do as well.
Mike
Hey Mike, thanks for the compliment. a Few years ago, forums were my primary source of traffic and leads. now days, it isn’t quite the same, but I do still use them a lot.
People usually stay away from forums (unless they spam them to death with bots), and that just may be to your advantage. There’s less competition and when you throw in a link, it doesn’t look spammy.
I just hate forums because it’s easier to get traffic from, say, a blog. Easier, not necessarily better.
Hey Stan, I have seen the bot thing a lot too, it really gets me going when I see people who think forum marketing is about spamming links. honestly, I don’t find it easier or harder either way. I get traffic from blogs and forums alike, but they are each unique and different.
Hi James, I’m a member of Lisa Irby’s Website Babble forum and I’ve used your second tip many times. I share links to my friends blogs all the time to answer a question. Self-promotion isn’t allowed on the forum so this is an excellent way to give back to those who support me and who have taught me through the years.
I do get a lot of traffic from the forum and you just reminded me that I need to update my signature with my email optin link. 🙂
Thanks for the post James!
your welcome Ileane. as you mentioned, sometimes self promotion isn’t allowed. but often, in those cases, when my friends in the forums see me sharing their stuff, often, they will share mine in return.
Just wondering, James …
I know it would be tough to be absolutely “precise”, but approximately how much time do you devote to participating on forums every day?
I’m just curious about the time factor involved because I haven’t yet explored the option of utilizing forums as a traffic strategy since I have very stringent time constraints. Long story short … I’m a single mum and I work three part time jobs offline in addition to my online marketing efforts.
One of the other readers already posed this question — something I’d like to know, as well: How do you research forums in your niche? More importantly, for a novice like me, how can I spot the worthwhile, reputable forums versus those that may be a huge waste of my time?
Thanks for an exemplary post!
when it comes down to researching the forums, the hardest part is going to be decididng which ones are good for you. REally that comes down to your personality, and how well you actually know your niche. How would you know if a blog is a good fit, or any other site? use the same standards when looking at forums.
For me, I look for frequently updated threads, I look at the info being shared and how well the questions are answered, as well as how much activity there is on individual threads. look at quality and quantity, as well as the tone of the forum. is it laid back, or strict and formal? which one would you better fit in with?
As for your first question, I usually spend 1-2 hours/day on the forums, although a lot of that time is multitasking, so its really hard to say exactly how much of it is spent doing the actual forums. I usually have 10 windows open at any time and am going back and forth between all of them.
I really appreciate your reply, James — thanks!
Looks like the most time-consuming activity for me, initially, is going to be seeking out the right forums that suit my personality and communication style. At best, I’ll be able to spend an hour here and there throughout the week on forums — so I better choose carefully to get the best return on my time invested!
Once again, super post!
The back posting idea is particularly useful…first time I’ve heard about it. Thanks for sharing! Something to put to test for sure! You are right in saying forum marketing is perceived by many as a waste of time.
But it certainly produces good results if you join with the intention of being part of the community and providing valuable input to discussions.
Hi James,
These ares some awesome little tricks! I am always on the lookout for more traffic. After all, traffic is the life-blood of our business. So thank you so much for sharing your (secret) strategies! I’ll be sure to implement them.
All the best,
Ilka
Great article, thanks James,
Okay… probably a really obvious question. But how do you find really great forums that are related to your niche and have high traffic volumes?
By the way… I write an inspirational seven sentences daily blog (sevensentences.com) for creative people.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
Geoff
well, the short answer is Google, but really, I spend a lot of time early on searching various forums. The forums that I am in right now I have been involved in for a long time, so haven’t had to go out searching for new ones. However if I did, I would start with basic Google search with a few Keyword + forum searches. Then just start browsing the forums that come up and find the ones you like.
I really like the idea of posting links to other people’s blogs. Genius!
All very helpful info. Thanks for sharing, James. I was debating adding a forum on our website but it is just a little too time consuming with everything else I have to do on a daily basis. Visiting other forums is something I do not do often enough. I disagree that it “isn’t worth the time or effort”, like you mentioned you heard others say, but making the time is difficult for me. Your article is very helpful and inspires me to get busier. Engage !
I’m just getting into participating in forums and so I haven’t been linking to my sites too much yet as I want to appear as someone who’s there to talk and help, not there to get people to her site. But I see the potential!
Don`t feel too guilty about backlogging a post. I’ve done it in places like yahoo answers. I mean if there is a need for an answer then why not give it? You are killing two birds with one stone – writing a great post and helping someone out.
Generally, I recommend waiting a while to build your authority within the forum itself before linking to your site anyway. Often, what gets people into trouble with the forum owners is trying to link to their sites without adding any value to the community. Once you establish your presence though, it can be a great long term strategy for your business.
Yes I do agree that the old fashioned forum/community scratch a back where you can and you will get a return of attention in some form or other will never be wasted. Done in just the right way, economically not putting too much time in, it does build personal relationships and visibility or links in the long run….
Great post James. I need to get more active on forums and I love the “posting back in time” tip
Any mums reading this who want to advertise their businesses on my forum, you are very welcome. All links permitted and you can tweet about the posts and like them on Facebook too. Just follow the link below and go to Mums forum.
James,
You have some great points on forum marketing here. It is simply a aspect that I have underutilized.
It seems to me most of the people who knock forum marketing must be like me. Sometimes commenting and using forums…but not with regularity.
It would seem to me that the “power” of forums comes from being genuine and really being a noticeable “regular” in forums. Being a dilettante might not get you nearly as great a response as those that are known for being a part of the community.
All that being said, I will have to work to improve my own use of forums.
Thats right steve, forum marketing is like any community. you need to be a regular member of the community. For example, at Affilorama, I have been active for over 3 years, and as of right now, I have the highest post count even over the staff members. I get a lot of people coming to my site through theirs, plus almost every week, I have people asking me for aff links to products, recommendations, and sometimes, giving me their products and services free (that all saves me time and money) so that I will talk about them in the forums
I like most of your suggestions, and my own experience bears them out. I’ve not specifically identified the traffic I receive through forums, but I can say that my overall traffic is increasing steadily and that relationship building through forums has contributed to that growth. I’m a little leery about putting into practice your last suggestion, though, because my blog has longer posts that take me eight to ten hours to write. Attempting to generate traffic by quickly generating a post that is relevant to a thread on a forum would be too ineffient for me to justify. Thanks for the insights!
hey Doug, thats okay, WOW 8 hours for every post. I do spend that long from time to time, but I don’t think I would last long as a blogger if I spent that long on every post.
But, this tactic in particular may not be right for you. However, this is just one of many that I use to generate traffic from forums.
Good luck!
Hi James,
Thanks for explaining a good strategy to generate traffic, I used to use this method to get more traffic for my website well I didn’t think about forums marketing, but I do search forums related to my niche and participate helping members by linking to some of my articles. it works perfect, you will gain traffic and build links at the same time.
it does help to generate traffic overall. I love forum marketing, although I do spend less time on it now than I did several years ago. It is one of my top 3 traffic tactics along with guest posting and blog commenting.
I just started getting involved with forums… Would you consider LinkedIN a forum because I love LinkedIn and get a ton of traffic from the various groups I am a part of.
For anyone looking to get experience in Forums LinkedIn is a great place to start.
Thanks!
Ryan H.
LInkedIn is more of a Social Community than a forum. However, the way I look at it, forums are simply one of the oldest forms of social networking sites out there. If you treat them like you do any other social networking site, the benefits are very similar.
Thanks James - great strategies. Bookmarking this for when I get my blog up and running 🙂
That’s great, but even if your blog is not up and running yet, start the forums now. I generally find forums to join as soon as I decide on a niche, because they are a great research source as well. A lot of my blog posts come from answering questions people ask on forums, and you can find loads of keyword ideas that you may not think about.