What are the Benefits of Forum Marketing

The most often overlooked and underestimated forms of online marketing is Forum marketing. Not a little number of marketers dismiss the benefits of forum marketing due to the typical "nofollow" attribute to links. While it is true that many popular forums do not follow links, some still do. Forum marketing should be considered valuable for the visibility and credibility it creates among your community. I also look at is as a way of giving back. It can also be a fantastic way to increase traffic to your site or blog.
Here are a few reasons to consider integrating forum marketing back into your online marketing strategy:

1. Forums are free and there's a forum for nearly every niche. If you can't find one in the market you're looking for, chances are there are a bunch of other people with your same problem. You know what yo do next!
2. Adding thoughtful and valuable commentary to a forum can positively impact your credibility.
3. Posting regularly on a forum can be a great source of targeted traffic.
4. You can use anchor text for your signature, which will help you gain traction for targeted keywords.
5. It's a great way to build relationships with others in your online community.

The most important thing to remember about forum marketing is that, like blog commenting, you need to be adding value to the thread or conversation whenever you post. Random and/or off-topic posts will not only get you banned from the forum for spamming, it can also damage your site's credibility and your online reputation. Forum marketing does take time and effort, but so does just about any other effective marketing method.If you are new to forum marketing, I recommend picking one or two high quality forums (Warrior Forum and Digital Point are two of my favorites), and just start reading them on a daily basis. Set up your signature to include a targeted link to your website(s), but make sure the signature meets the rules of each forum you post in. If you start reading forum posts each day, you'll quickly find areas where you can add value.

Tyler Stample is an internet marketing consultant and the Co-founder of applications, a technology holding company with diversified interests in internet, mobile & software products and an incubator for new product development. He also writes about internet marketing news at his blog eMarketing Newsletter.