Yeah, I know. The title's not that original, but maybe it made
somebody click thru and read at least this far.
That's the idea, isn't it? To get somebody interested enough
to wander in and look around?
What this is really about is the value of forums to the
internet marketing process.
You see, internet marketing CAN be what Ford, or GE, or
Verizon does. They have a lot of money and build these big,
beeeeooootiful webpages, as Trader Jon would have said. However,
I'm talking about you and me. Our budgets are a little bit
smaller. Some of us have actually had to go to the extremes
of learning a little basic html coding so that we could build
our first webpages ourselves because we didn't have the money
to hire somebody to do it for us.
How could somebody like that compete against major corporations?
Obvious answer....They (we) can't.
There are, however, ways to make your product or service
of interest to a large enough audience so as to generate
some sales. Using forums is one of these ways. Not only is
it an effective way of attracting interested visitors to
your website, it falls under the heading of network marketing
(here I suggest reading my article, "Network Marketing In
Its Purest Form"), which, lo and behold is essentially the
easiest way for most of us common internet marketers to attract
potential customers. Notice how I snuck that plug in for
my other article? That's actually something you might be
able to do in a forum.
In the other article, by the way, I hinted that one of the
benefits of network marketing was that you got to make friends.
Well, that's what often happens in forums. You meet people
who share your interests. While those interests can be as
serious as you want them to be, many forums also give you
the opportunity to have a little fun. As I write this article,
a forum I belong to has a story being written three words
at a time by members who wander by and feel the urge to be
creative. I have copied a list of one-liners from one post
and sent them to my sister-in-law who cracked up when she
read them. From the same forum, I have gathered information
on how to use traffic exchanges to generate traffic to my
website, I have learned how to use RSS feeds to enhance the
value of my website to my visitors, and how to create splash
pages to build my email list, just to name a few topics.
I have corresponded with members from Great Britain, Ireland,
Australia, and Malyasia. I have watched as other forum members
jumped in, one after the other, to explain and clarify a
point which confused a member who was having trouble getting
a web page set up properly.
I have had the pleasure of seeing articles, comments, jokes,
and encouraging remarks of mine appear on the forums I am
a member of, as well as reading the articles of others, their
comments, jokes, and encouraging remarks as well.
I have gained a lot from being a member of these forums,
both as an internet marketer, and as an idividual.
And you know what else? At the bottom of every comment,
article, or joke I post, there are links to my websites.
That's another great thing about forums. No matter whether
I post a joke, a serious comment, or a thoughtfully crafted
and written work of art such as this article, there will
be links to one or more of my websites either in the article
itself, or in a signature which the moderators of the forum
allow me to add to my comments. The search engines pick up
these links and follow them back to my website(s). The readers
of the comments follow them back to my website.
Talk about free traffic! I get to interact with friends,
maybe offer something of value to them, get something of
value from them, learn some new techniques, and maybe a few
new jokes. Can't beat that!
The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service.
He has worked as an accountant, purchasing agent, optical
lab manager, restaurant manager, instructor and long-haul,
over-the-road truck driver. He has been a member of Mensa
for several years, and has written and published poetry,
essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40
years. He has been an active internet marketer since 2000,
and now makes his living online. To learn more about improving
your marketing performance, please visit http://marketingsecrets.xtramoney4me.net You
may read "Network Marketing In Its Purest Form" at http://xtramoney4me.net/internet_marketing_links/articles/network_marketing.html
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