Well, when the owner of a forum brings this up, you know that there is something to it. If you read the title of this article, then you know it’s about keeping your forum posts on topic. Why is this important? The reason I’m asking is because some people seem to think that it doesn’t matter, that forum participation is just a lot of BS. Well, contrary to popular belief, how you conduct yourself at a forum, IF forum marketing is a tactic you intend to use to put MORE money in your pocket, is critical to your success. And that means keeping things on topic. But again I ask, why? This article answers that question.

First of all, what you need to understand about forum marketing is this. If you’re going to utilize forums to your advantage (i.e. make more sales) then you have to give people a reason to want to buy from you. Well, with forums, there are really only two ways to do this.

The first way is with your forum signature. Now, this by itself doesn’t really require any special type of participation. As long as you make a post at the forum, somebody is going to see your signature. That’s a given. If the content of that signature is something that they find interesting, they’ll most likely check it out and maybe even buy something from you.

However, what do you think is more likely to get them to check out your signature… a meaningless post that has nothing to do with the topic being discussed OR a post that either answers a question the topic brings up OR addresses some issue related to the topic? My money is on the most relevant post to the topic at hand. Certainly I’m not going to check out somebody’s signature off a post that says, “Thanks for the great tip.” Yeah, that adds a lot of value to the discussion… NOT.

Use your head. If you want to be recognized as an authority on the subject being discussed, contribute to the conversation. And by contribute, I mean add something of value.

Ultimately, what’s going to happen if you and others don’t do this is that the forum deteriorates and the members who DO post information of value will stop coming and stop contributing. I’ve seen this already happening at one forum in particular. Too any conversations that have nothing to do with what the forum is SUPPOSED to be about.

Bottom line… if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

And YOUR bottom line will end up suffering because of it.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to know what the 7 Deadly Sins of Internet Marketing are? Get my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/7deadlysins/7deadlysins.html and save your business from going down the tubes before it even has a chance.