Subscribe Feed (RSS)Forum Spam Sucks! Learn Forum Marketing the Right Way.
February 22nd, 2009 by Joshua Dorkin | Filed under Forums, Marketing.I was just going through one of my forums and noticed something I hadn’t seen in a few years. A 3 year old forum post was brought back from the dead by a brand-new member of the site, whose comment had NOTHING to do with the discussion at hand. While his post was not any form of SPAM, it was what I’d call a junk post . . . just some garbage posted for what you’d think was no reason. While I normally would move or delete such a post, I was curious if there would be some kind of follow up, so I decided to let it go for a bit.
Fast forward two hours
Another post showed up on the same thread, this time by another new member. This post, answered the non sequitur of the first new poster, but in doing so, pointed him to this awesome website that demonstrated what he was talking about.
Spammers will Never Learn!
Promoting yourself through forums is a great way to get traffic to your website, but pulling this crap isn’t the way to go. Its just amateur hour! Of course, upon doing a quick IP lookup, Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber had the same one . . . SHOCKER! The posts were removed, along with my two new friends (who, I’m assuming you now understand was the same idiot person).
How to Use Forums to Market Your Website
Forum marketing is one of the most simple, effective and FREE ways to market, period. Here’s how you do it:
- Join a forum that is related to the niche of your website, and after doing so, be sure to read their site rules. Every site has a different set of rules or guidelines to work within . . . break the rules like the idiot I mentioned before and you’ll likely be booted. That said, 75% of the forums out there (I pulled that number out of a hat, but from what I can tell, it works!) don’t do any kind of moderating, so the entire thing is going to be a haven for spammers – posting here is a waste of your time . . . move on!
- Create a forum signature. Again, be sure your signature complies with the rules of that forum. Make sure to include your website in your signature. I’d also recommend using your real name. People are more likely to have some kind of interest in you and your links if you’re willing to put yourself on the line by telling people who you are.
- Get active by posting RELEVANT content on the forum and by participating in different conversations. Don’t just post a bunch of fluff. Engage in conversation and get involved. As you spend time on the forum, people will get to know you (make sure you’ve got a personal avatar uploaded), and eventually, they’ll likely want to visit the link in your signature.
- It is that simple! You don’t need to post nonsense posts that link back to your site or manipulate the forums by posting a one-two combination like the aforementioned bozo. Just get involved and you’ll soon see actual gains in traffic from your engagement.
Good luck!
Tags: forum, forum marketing, Forums, spam, web marketing
I have not phpbb but i use mybb forums software. is it good?
good information. But to market through forums takes a lot of time. Also comments need to be intelligent and not drab stuff just for the link. That takes time. But I guess it is worth the time
Forums can be great. I especially use them to help diagnose problems with the car.
But true they can be painful if the owner does not maintain them.
To go along with that, the thing I find annoying are the people who essentially “spam” blogs by always posting “nice info, thanks for sharing” or something to that effect. Either contribute something useful or don’t say anything.
Thanks for the tips about forums. I have seen the idea of using forums pop up a lot as I have looked for ways to improve my traffic, but I didn’t know how to use them. These are good guidelines for me to start with.
“Get active by posting RELEVANT content on the forum”
There’s the rub, right there – if you’re not posting relevant comments, and have a spammy sig, you’re likely to find yourself on the outer quick-smart!
I just came across this post and totally agree with you Joshua.
Forum spamming (and blog spamming for that fact) just seems a massive waste of time. It’s so much easier to give great content, respond to what others are saying, establish yourself as an authority in your niche and use your signature box to promote your main website (such as your blog).
If you are good enough at marketing you’ll be able to convert people through your blog posts or sign-up forms that way. This also gives you the benefit of building a relationship with your own subscriber base.
This surely must out-way the odd affiliate commission that a spammer would get from doing the forum spamming routine (if they actually get any at all).
Although it is annoying I have to laugh at the blatant spamming attempts I get at my blog, at least Akismet is a saving grace for catching such comments.
Thanks for posting,
Karl
Forum spammers are annoying. I get a lot of people signing up to my forums and waiting a few days before full on spamming the site. I had to block everyone with a .cn email address. BiggerPockets.com is a cool looking site by the way. : )
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Forum marketing is a good way to build your list — as for driving traffic, it’s all right. Short term traffic ought.
I especially like Irfan’s comment – I’d like to think he/she was being ironic posting an unrelated comment after a post about unrelated comments – but I think it’s just Spam.
To add a bit of “meat” to my comment – I think that the traffic that you generate from active forum interaction, far outweighs the quick wins from spammy links. Take the time and effort to interact with the community and there’s more chance of users following the signature link to your RELEVANT site.
Forum posting is a good way to get the link from other site.i like this way.i agree with you.thanks to sharing this great tips .i will follow all of them.
Yeah, that’s one most common mistake in SEO – actively promoting your product on a forum which can get you instantly banned. The right way is to slowly build your credibility by posting relevant posts.
Forum postings are a great way to get link from your site. Forums are also a great place get answer from your questions.
nice tips especially for spam……… keep blogging to share everything………
There’s the rub, right there. If you are good enough at marketing you’ll be able to convert people through your blog posts or sign-up forms that way. This also gives you the benefit of building a relationship with your own subscriber base.
This surely must out-way the odd affiliate commission that a spammer would get from doing the forum spamming routine (if they actually get any at all).
Although it is annoying I have to laugh at the blatant spamming attempts I get at my blog, at least Akismet is a saving grace for catching such comments.
Thanks for posting,
Hello Joshua,
I totally accept your view relating people just participate in forums to just drive traffic to their website.This is not fair, the forum owner take pain in writing their post doing some research or putting their valuable years of experience into a post see what discussion can take place.The four points made by you are very important for any forum participant.Good post.
I did forum posting. It is kind of interesting because it pulls in fast traffic to my website. However, the traffic drops aggressively after i stop posting for a while, It is because new thread has “pushes” my thread to behind. Therefore, if we want to use forum posting to promote our websites, then we should do the posting consistently to drive consistent traffic.
Marketing in forums will take a lot of your time if your not just doing a one time post. Answering and answering posts can be a time consumer, and u should decide if its worth the effort.
I do agree that forums is a great way in promoting traffic to the website and comments should be related to the topic or the niche of your website.
my worst problem is false signups to my forums by users (usually with gmail or .ru mail accounts who are trying to sign up just to post spam. Complete waste of valuable time filtering them out, blocking ip’s etc every morning!
@garden tips – aren’t you doing the same thing by posting here using your URL as your name instead of an actual name?
@joshua, no because a) this isn’t a forum & b) i’m not posting about viagra
@gardentips Actually yes – 1) it is the same thing and 2) garden tips and viagra are the same to me, since you’re not actually representing yourself.
I allowed your comment on the site to make a point. Just letting you know that any comments on the site from people who don’t use their name will be removed.
@Joshua
ahh sorry i see your point now i hadn’t even noticed that i hadn’t used my name and will always use my name in future – thanks for the heads up!
@jackie – You’ve seen the light! Hooray. I’m glad that you see what I’m talking about. Good luck to you.
thanks for your post. i’m doing forum marketing at this time. the result seem to be okie up to now. however, it’s not easy to find out much more forum that is related to the niche of my website
website.
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Oh it is a great and nice article..!
and now em using my own name…sorry about that..:(
thanks for the tips … hope i get new updates here