Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

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.

Yes, I have finally reached the breaking point. The lame forum posts are starting to drive me crazy. Folks, it’s time for the yawn brigade to leave town or I’m going to have to start drinking coffee again. Yes, in case you haven’t guessed, this is yet another rant from your favorite Internet marketer. (What…I’m NOT your favorite?) Anyway, read this tirade at your own risk. You’ve been warned.

There isn’t a morning that doesn’t go by that I don’t head on over to the Warrior Forum and find yet another thread on some lame subject. Today, it was another one about the gurus. First of all, I hate that word. These people are NOT gurus. They’re just hard working people who have made a name for themselves. I don’t hear anybody calling Donald Trump a guru.

Anyway, this thread was going on about how some guru launch was being met with great apathy. Seems all the people this guy asked (probably all of 10) loudly proclaimed “I’m not buying!”…as if that means a hill of beans. Contrary to what YOU might be thinking, the 10 people or so who responded to the thread proclaiming their disdain for the gurus are NOT the target market. There are plenty of people out there who WILL be buying. And you can take that to the bank.

This sort of ranting goes on all the time…members complaining about long sales copy, video squeeze pages, being emailed too often, being emailed too seldom, too many product launches, and on and on and on. I keep asking myself this question. With all the ranting that these people do, when do they find any time to actually work on their business?

Bottom line is this. I’m tired of the ranting. Actually, I’m bored to death from it. Can we maybe have some discussion on the forum that’s meaningful? Oh, I don’t know…like maybe how to effectively build an opt in list. Yes, that would be a very meaningful discussion. It might actually make a few people some money. Maybe we could discuss ad copy strategies. Believe me, there are a ton of people on that forum who could use a lesson in writing.

What do YOU think? Am I being too critical? Is there a room for ranting about the same old thing day after day? Am I jaded because I’ve been doing this for so long? Or maybe, just maybe, I want to talk about things that will actually improve my business and make me a better marketer.

After all, isn’t that what we all want?

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.

I am totally convinced that we are our own worst enemies. If we can find a way to totally screw things up, without any help from outsiders, we’ll do it. What you’re about to read is a little story of what happened just today at one of the forums I attend. It’s not a long story, but there is a moral to it. I think you’ll want to read this.

One of the members of this forum, and a long time member, started a thread about how he had all these “interns” (whatever that means) and that he was going to be bringing them to the forum and he asked everybody to be nice to them and not to underestimate them. I found the post a little odd.

For starters, why announce that all these people were coming to the forum? I send people to this forum all the time and I don’t make a big deal about it. This got me to questioning what was going on. What was this person up to, if anything? Well, needless to say, a lot of the members, including a moderator of the forum, confronted him on this post.

To make a long story short, it was determined that this person’s ideas WOULD violate several of the forum’s rules and thus, it was not a good idea to pursue the matter any further. Of course, before it got to that point and the thread got shut down, it started to get a little ugly and I have no doubt that the member’s reputation had taken a hit, if only a small one.

Now, how could have all this been avoided? Simple. When you start a thread at a forum, leave out the mystery. Tell people up front what your plans are. Then ask if they’re okay. That way, at least you’re up front and IF there are any problems, the mods can let you know…end of discussion. But when you cloak things in mystery, good intentions or not, it puts people on their guard…even some folks who are normally very trusting.

As I am not the moderator who handled the situation, I don’t know what the exact intentions of the OP were, but the point is, it was the mystery of the thing that caused all the problems…not the actual intent itself.

If you’re up front with people, all they can do is say to you, “Sorry, you can’t do that here.” At least they can’t accuse you of trying to pull something devious, because you know how people can get. Many will suspect the worst.

So, in conclusion, before you post a thread at ANY forum, read it first and make sure it’s something that you REALLY want to show up there.

Sometimes you’ll be surprised at how bad your posts REALLY are.

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.

Let me start out by saying that what I am about to tell you to do is easier said than done. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have to write about it. However, if you are going to survive in forums, you MUST stay out of the drama…not only for your sanity, but for your reputation. If you don’t understand why, don’t worry…this article is going to spell it out in plain English. Keep reading to find out how to survive in forums.

Okay, there are basically two main reasons why you want to stay out of the drama at forums. But first, before we get to them, we need to define the word “drama” because a lot of people don’t know the difference between drama and important discussion.

Drama is anything that isn’t relevant to the issue being discussed. For example, if a thread is discussing the benefits of affiliate marketing over freelancing, drama would be people bringing other things into the mix that have nothing to do with the topic but do so in order to discredit both business models and start a fight. We call these people trolls and they are to be avoided at all costs. Don’t get sucked into the drama they try to stir up.

As for the two reasons, the first one is for your peace of mind. When you get sucked into stupid arguments, it distracts you from the things you need to be doing that actually help your business. You end up getting angry and ultimately, can’t concentrate on the things that you need to concentrate on. In the long run, your business suffers…period.

But there is an even bigger reason. Your reputation. See, when you get sucked into the drama, you usually end up saying things that you regret saying. This does nothing more than hurt your reputation. Everything you say at a forum stays there for a very long time. And people don’t forget. Sometimes, you could end up alienating a whole group of people who used to look up to you. It just isn’t worth it…not in the grand scheme of things.

As I said, this is easier said than done…especially when people go out of their way to push your buttons. But trust me, no good comes out of getting sucked into the drama. Stick to the topic. Give info to help other members. Stay calm. Be somebody that others will look up to.

Like I said…easier said than done.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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My grandmother had a very wise saying. “As long as there are two people in this world, there will always be war.” She was a wise lady. Her point is, people don’t always agree on things…even married couples. When you participate at a forum, you’re going to run into quite a few arguments. In fact, I just ran smack dab into the middle of a whopper the last couple of days. Seeing both sides of the argument is important. I’m going to explain why in this article.

First of all, let me qualify this just a bit. There is a HUGE difference between seeing both sides of an argument and flip flopping. You don’t want to be a flip flopper. Trust me, you will be spotted and called out on it…fast. Whatever your personal feelings are on a subject, you want to hold onto those feelings unless you are truly swayed by the argument of the other side…something that truly rarely happens. But seeing both sides of an argument is important. Why? Let me explain.

To have a healthy debate and to be able to maybe point out where you believe the other person is misinformed, you have to understand where they are coming from. For example, a recent argument was about whether somebody should have copy protection on ebooks and software and whether or not ebooks should be PDFs with no protection or EXE files with all kinds of protection. The actual argument for or against, for the purpose of this article, is irrelevant. However, here is what’s not.

If you truly believe that products should have some kind of copy protection because of loss of sales, piracy or whatever your argument is about, you need to understand the other side of the coin and where that person is coming from, for example, the inconvenience to the customer. If you don’t, you can’t efficiently debate the point if you’re only seeing it from YOUR side of things. Needless to say, for this particular argument, I don’t think either side is getting much of an advantage.

Point is, by being able to see both sides and actually express both points of views, you ultimately come off as more knowledgeable than the members who just continuously beat their point into the ground. By coming off my knowledgeable, and maybe even more reasonable, you just might get people on the fence over to your side of the argument.

In other words, be open minded and objective about the subject. Try to see the other person’s point of view.

Watch how much respect you get from most of the members if you can do this.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of busting your behind for peanuts online? Go to my web site and find out how I earn a monthly income that exceeds 5 figures and how I can help YOU do the same. Get your free report at http://www.mysecretarticles.com/report.html

Just when I thought I knew it all (actually I never thought that) I learned something new today. Well, maybe not new, but certainly something I don’t think about often. This article is going to give you a glimpse of forum life and how it’s not as confined to the forum itself as you’d like to believe. What you are about to read is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.

Somebody had started a thread on the Warrior Forum about spammers on blogs. What this person did was a little experiment. He set up a blog post that was actually nothing but gibberish and in a foreign language no less. At least it looked like a foreign language. Well, can you believe that he actually got comments posted to this nonsense blog entry? Shows you that comment spammers don’t care what they comment on. But that’s not the point of the story.

Another forum member, we’ll call him John Doe, said that he applauded people who had the guts to do things that are illegal. That these people take more risks than the rest of us and he admired them. Well, don’t ask. The forum totally jumped all over him. I didn’t even know what to say. I added some comments but to be perfectly honest, I was just plain stunned. But this STILL isn’t the point of the story. It’s coming.

Somebody did a search for John Doe Scam and the forum thread came up in the third position on Google. So if anybody wanted to do some research on this person to see if he was somebody they’d want to do business with, that forum thread popped up in the third position on Google for everybody to see. Think this person is going to get a lot of JV opportunities once their remarks are read?

Okay, the point of the story is simple. While you might think that your posts at a forum are for forum eyes only, they are not. Google indexes everything that’s out there…including what you say on a forum. Now, you can use this to your advantage if you’re smart. You can make posts at the forum you’re a member of that actually HELP other people. There’s a novel concept. Then, if somebody does some research on YOU, they’ll find THOSE posts.

I can’t tell you how many people have found me via the forums I attend. So remember, what you say goes well beyond the walls of the forum.

Your words are there for the whole world to see.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of busting your behind for peanuts online? Go to my web site and find out how I earn a monthly income that exceeds 5 figures and how I can help YOU do the same. Get your free report at http://www.mysecretarticles.com/report.html

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve had a good old fashioned rant so I figured, why not? This article has to do with forum etiquette and this one thing really burns my cookies. Doing this is a sure way to get me to ignore you for the rest of your miserable existence. If you want to find out how NOT to get on my ignore list, you might want to read this article.

Today, I went to the Warrior Forum to see what was going on and was greeted by a PM message. They pop up automatically. Well, this one was from a member who had just joined, had something like 22 posts, and was contacting me to ask me if I’d review his product. No, “how are you, I really think you’re a great guy” or anything like that. Just, “Would you review my product?” I don’t know the guy from Adam and he wants me to take time out of MY busy day to review HIS product. Guess what I did? You got it. I closed up the PM and went my merry way.

And I’m not the only one getting these. In fact, a thread was started on this very thing just this morning. Seems these people are contacting a bunch of us to try to get their product reviewed. So, I’m not even special. I’m just one of the herd who you’re trying to get something from. Yeah, that’s going to go over real big with me. And what gets me is that if you don’t respond, or say no, you get some kind of nasty response back. The entitlement attitude of these people just boggles my mind.

Okay, so you want to know how to approach me for reviews? Get to know me first. Do something nice for me. Make me feel like I’m special. After all, you ARE asking me to give up MY time to do something that in no way is going to benefit me one little bit. Where is my incentive to review YOUR product? If you can’t think of one, then most likely, unless you’re a 7 figure a year marketer, your request is going to be ignored. I only have so many hours in my day and don’t have time for people who can’t even take the time to get to know me personally.

Think I’m a jerk? No problem. Wait until YOU get 10 PMs a day for product reviews and can’t get YOUR work done and see how YOU like it. Ah, it’s different when the shoe is on the other foot, isn’t it. Like I said, the entitlement attitude that people have just drives me nuts. Well, let me tell you. People with that attitude usually don’t get anywhere. Oh, there are exceptions to every rule. But in this case, they are few and far between.

So, if you want another marketer to do something for you, especially through a forum, get to know the person first. Do something for the person…FIRST.

You might actually stand a chance of getting somewhere if you do.

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.

I get a real kick out of some forum members. They seem to think that the forum they belong to revolves around them and THEIR needs. Well, I have a newsflash for you. It doesn’t. But for those of you who don’t get that, this article is going to set the record straight. If you’re easily offended, I’d skip this one.

One complaint I hear a lot is this one. “My post was deleted…why? There was nothing wrong with it and there was no reason to delete it. At the very least, the mods should PM me and tell me why it was deleted.”

Okay, first order of business. To begin with, posts get deleted all the time. It is a fact of life when it comes to forum participation. Each forum has its own rules and certain things aren’t allowed. Plus, posts may get deleted for other reasons if the mods feel that they may lead to problems.

Secondly, if a moderator contacted every person who had a post deleted personally, they wouldn’t get anything done. There just isn’t enough time to do this. They don’t do it for anybody else so they’re not going to do it for you. Again, the forum doesn’t revolve around YOUR needs.

Another complaint I hear a lot is this one. “Why is there a requirement for number of posts before I can use the PM function? I have customers here who I have to contact. How can I do that if I can’t PM them?”

First of all, nobody should be using a forum as a means of business contact. If you have your own business, you should have a web site and/or an email address where people can get a hold of you. I mean for crying out loud, who uses a third party site (that’s what a forum is) as a means of contact?

Secondly, there is a reason why many forums have PM requirements. There is a lot of spamming going on at many forums. By placing a requirement on forum participation (how many posts you have) it greatly reduces the amount of spam that members send to other members. This is probably the main reason why some forums have this requirement.

Here is the bottom line and take it for what it’s worth to you. A forum is NOT your home. It is owned by the admin and thus, gets run the way the admin wants to run it. You therefore have two choices. You can accept the rules of the forum and abide by them or you can go someplace else and play.

It’s really THAT simple.

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.