Participating in forums related to your niche can be a great way to build your reputation and sell products. However, there is a specific way that you should go about doing this. If you join a forum and immediately begin trying to advertise your product or service, you will quickly get shot down and branded as a spammer. This is no way to do business, and it won’t be beneficial at all. Instead, you want to adhere to the following guidelines. They include being helpful, having something to say, being honest, forging partnerships, being consistent, giving away something free and always create a signature link. We’ll talk a little more about each of these guidelines below.
Be helpful: You want to be seen as a valuable resource in a forum and not as someone that is looking to make money. So if you come across a post where an individual is struggling with something that you are familiar with, offer to help them. Give them advice, point them to good resources. They will be very thankful and the other readers of the post will notice that you are knowledgeable on the subject and you almost instantly, become a mini expert.
Have something to say: Don’t only give two word posts like “thank you,” “me too” or are “too bad.” If you ever try to sell a product, you better believe that some people will go back and look at your posts and see what type of things you have contributed to the forum. If all of your posts consisted of two word answers, this will discredit you.
Be honest: If someone asks you to give a review of a product or service, be tactful but be honest. If you are not honest and give a glowing review for a bad product, you will damage your reputation. If someone goes ahead and buys the product or service and it sucks, you will look bad.
Forge partnerships: Develop relationships with other people on the forum. This will help when you are a looking to launch a product of your own. You will have people that can vouch for your integrity, your skills and your work ethic.
Be consistent: Don’t post one-time, and then don’t come back for three months. If you can’t get on the forum everyday, get on there at least once or twice a week.
Give away something free: if you find a really good resource or if you have a product that you have written or that you have free rights to, if you think it will benefit people on a specific forum, give it away. This will endear them to you and will make them much more willing to spend money on a product or service that you advertise down the line.
Create a signature link: This is a simple link that advertises some type of a product or service that you are selling. It will show up every time you make a post.
Advertise: In forums, there is generally a place where you can advertise. Make sure to advertise in it. If you have followed the above guidelines and have contributed to the forum you should have no problem. If you are new to a forum, consider giving the forum members a big price break on your product or service. Maybe even give a few products away for free, so that you can get some feedback and testimonials.
These are all ways to build your reputation at forums. If followed, they will help you sell more products and make more money.