Driving Traffic to Your Site Through Discussion Board Marketing

If you had a crystal ball and could use it to predict what promotion method is the best for internet marketing, what do you think it would be?

Search Engine Positioning

Free Classifieds

Ezine Advertising

Newsgroup Marketing

Advertising on online services like AOL
What if I told you that each of these was a viable way to promote your site? I am sure that this issue may generate some feedback from people who have used these or other methods of promotion and swear by their method(s). I have only one thing to say about that: Whatever works best for you, do it.

In the world of Direct Marketing, you want to convert leads or prospects into sales. There are two key forces that you then must have:

Hungry customers or prospects.
These should ideally be people who have money to spend on your products.
Hot sales letter.
This is your marketing M16. You want to get a sales letter that works and then rapid fire it at the prospects who visit your site.
With these two key forces in place, you can increase the sales of any product or service on the internet.

It is really a simple equation: You have a website that attracts visitors and then converts them into sales, what you then need to do is strategically bring in more and more visitors to your site. That's not exactly brain surgery, is it?

One of the tools that we have used to generate traffic to our site is Discussion Board Marketing.

Discussion Board Posting

Discussion Boards are not the place to advertise your products/services. Be helpful and knowledgeable and you will be able to leave your link as a reward for doing so. Keep this in mind and do not blatantly advertise!!

There are many people on the forums who have their own product(s) or service(s) to market. However, many of the people who visit the marketing forums are also looking for quality product(s) that they can buy either to use as a learning tool or that they can resell in order to make money. When you post something on a discussion board you can leave a link to your website where you may have a product or service for sale. If you have intelligent and helpful posts people will follow your link to see what your website is all about.

The 5 Factors That Make People Follow Your Links

Through my experience on discussion boards I realized that people will respond to your links if:

You have established yourself as credible and responsible.

You are someone who they feel is down to earth and can be reached with no trouble should they have any questions.

You have provided them with assistance or answers to their problems/questions.

You are seen as an authority on the topic at hand (or the one that interests them)

You have been "endorsed" by the well-known people on a forum, especially the owners.
These 5 factors will influence others to follow your links and then possibly (considering how strong your sales material is) close the sale.

Let me show you exactly what I do and have done on a regular basis to build a stream of pre-qualified leads to my website.

I have always posted only when I had something valid to share, either a similar experience to a particular problem or a solution to a problem or answer to a question. This helps to meet criteria 3.

For example, someone may ask a common question on a forum:

Has anyone purchased Don Lapre's material and is it any good?

I will usually take the initiative and try to be the first one to post my feelings about the course and what I know about these television infomercial products. This usually results in one of two things happening:

A flood of other people begin talking and a discussion thread forms.

The person responds to me either in the forum or privately in email.
In the meantime, what I have done is left a link to my website with a catchy description in the hopes that the person reading (and many others) will follow the link. They usually do. Especially, when I have made an intelligent, supported case for my views. When the hits come in they are usually from people who may want to become involved with the Direct Marketing business. These are the opportunity seekers. They may be searching for that one good product, maybe they too have bought or are considering buying Don's course. They see me as an authority on this kind of business and so they may want to see what I am involved in.

This satisfies criteria 4, people see you as an authority. That is nice, but fame is not what I am after. I simply want to help others succeed. I have had experiences similar to theirs and maybe many of you have also. However, I have a unique perspective in that I refuse to be beaten. I try to convey that in my posts and from what I have heard, people appreciate the honesty. They see me as a down to earth person and they feel as though they can trust me. They can. I try to make that perfectly clear in my posts. I have satisfied criteria 2.

There have been times where someone has come right out on a board and asked if anyone has heard of my business and or if I can be trusted. I LOVE THIS!! This is the kind of publicity that money can't buy. Do I rush in and defend myself and my company? NO not at all!!

I let others do it for me. And they do. I have made a lot of friends in this industry and a lot of people know me as an honest and reliable person. There is a reason for that: I want to be the most reliable and credible marketer around. There are so many people selling scams and internet opportunities that are the scum of the earth. They will do anything to get a buck. I can't. I won't do that. I have to live with myself. I would never sell something that I did not know could work. Others know this and they will often defend me and endorse my company. This creates a virtual traffic storm that begins to generate leads and sales. When the well respected forum owners endorse you, you can bet that people will come knocking on your door. I have then met criteria 5, receiving industry endorsements and criteria 1: being credible and responsible.

You may be saying, fine this works for you, how can it work for me? Easily. In this business, I see people fail for many reasons. The one that I see more often than not is that people do not model after someone who is already successful. I am giving you the 5 criteria that will make people click on your links from discussion board posts and drive traffic to your site.

Let's say that your business is selling a "How To Avoid Traffic Stops" manual and you sell that manual to truck drivers. You sell a specialty product to a niche market. Anyway, you know of a discussion forum where truckers go to hang out and discuss life on the road. If you jump in and tell everyone about your manual, I guarantee that you will get stomped. However, if you are intelligent, and helpful to others in your postings, then you are well on your way. Here is an example of what could happen:

Someone posts a message one day:

Anyone ever have any bad experience with the police on County Rd 611 in Nebraska?

You notice this post and respond like this:

I have. One time I was traveling cross country in my 18 wheeler (Satisfies Criteria 1: You are credible) on Route 611 and this cop pulled me over and boy was he a harda**. I found that being very polite to him worked well and he let me go even though my insurance was expired. You gotta be careful though, I have had many experiences with the police as I traveled the countryside for the past 20 years (Criteria 5: You are an authority on the subject). Some will let you go while others may detain you for any number of reasons: I suggest the following:

Be polite.

Call them "sir" a lot.

Make sure that you don't offer a bribe but have a 20 ready just in case they ask. LOL! (This satisfies Criteria 2: You are down to earth)

Hope This Helps,

John Trucker www.trucker.com

(Here is the link you use)

Visit the Truck Stop: 500 ideas that you can use to avoid Traffic Stops.

You have managed to satisfy all the criteria within this post. Do you think that other people including the one that you replied to will visit your link. I think so.

If the owner of the forum (or other participants) made a follow up like this next example you would be on your way to success:

I agree with Joe. His ideas are great, here are a few highways I have found to avoid.....

Do you get the picture? These are concrete examples of how to sell anything to a target audience through discussion boards.

Did you notice that not once did Joe Trucker advertise? He gave good advice on what to do. He did not say: Oh my book explains how to deal with that or for all the info on The Secrets of Traffic Stops, stop by my website, www.trucker.com

These are the methods that I have used to build a steady stream of targeted traffic, pre-qualified traffic to my site every single day. I won't give up.

I enjoy my time on the forums. Some people think that it is a waste of time to help others. I don't. Where would we be if we did not help each other out? I don't want to think about that.

About the Author

Article by Marc Goldman, Goldbar Enterprises subscribe to The Marketers Resource Weekly: The Free Internet Marketing Resource for the New Millennium. Subscribe at http://www.goldbar.net Discover the exclusive members only website that will propel your business to dizzying heights:To contact see details below.


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