How to Enter a Forum
That sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Why would I have to learn how to enter a forum? I just sign up and post right?
It would seem on the surface to be that straightforward, but I see a lot of people have a real hard time. The trend of bad first timers to my favorite forums goes in waves. This being the holiday season, people have more time off and start hitting the forums. So I thought now is the time to remind people of the best way to get started on a forum.
Over time forums create a very tight neighborhood. Everyone learns the rules and looks out for each other.
That’s the first thing a new member of a forum should do, “Read the Rules“. Different forums approach how you display links differently or even what you can discuss.
The other thing is don’t come in gang busters! Don’t try to substantiate yourself and get to eager about showing everyone your vast level of knowledge with regards to the forum topics, etc.
Get to know the community first. Hang out for a while and introduce yourself respectfully. Normally there is a separate topic area set aside just for intros. And then start browsing the various threads.
Get to know the other forum members and remember a lot of these people have known each other for some time. They may even be doing business behind the scenes.
Once you have a feel for it, start assisting others in any manner that you can. If someone is asking a question that you know a lot about then provide it.
Learn… Read… Learn… Read some more… Ask questions… Then let it rock if you want to.
The bottom line is very few people can go crazy right off the bat. There is an exception here or there, but usually the community wants to see you contribute for a while before you get bold. They need to get to know you first.
Definitely, don’t present a sales pitch in your first post to any forum. Doing this will be seen as SPAM by the majority of regular visitors to the forum. You will getting flaming posts, anger the community, and alienate yourself with-in the community for the foreseeable future.
Participating as a member on any online forum is just like building a new relationship. Take it easy at first until you get to know each other.
Forums are powerful tools for online business success. Don’t abuse that power and ruin your reputation in your businesses marketplace.
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Vote On The Best Marketing Video of 2008
My partners and I have scoured the Internet for the best (funniest) marketing videos of 2008 and we want your help. From now until the New Year I will be accepting votes via a comment to this blog post on which one you like the best.
We will tally up the votes shortly after the New Year and then randomly select one of the people that voted for the winning video to receive an Internet Marketing related gift package worth $97.00!
View each of the videos below and then leave a comment, (using the email address you would like me to contact you at if you are the winner), about which video you like the best and why. I will contact the winner by email and announce the winning video and winner in a future blog post.
Choice #1
Choice #2
Choice #3
Don’t forget to leave a vote with a comment below! I hope you enjoyed the videos and GOOD LUCK!
P.S. By popular demand you will find a “HINT” picture of the winners Internet Marketing Package below.
Innovative Outsourcing Ideas
There are all kinds of online business particulars that can and should be outsourced, but people don’t even consider it. One thing that I abhor about Internet Marketing is setting up my own websites.
I took the time to learn html and all the other things that go into it, but to me it’s like learning algebra. It’s flat out boring and time consuming and when I can avoid doing things that resemble those two traits, I most definitely will.
Most online business owners don’t even think about outsourcing site creation. Why not? It seems like such a basic skill that Internet Marketer’s possess, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because if it saves you time and is cheap, it can really help you out, if you outsource this undertaking.
That’s just one example of mine and something that I should have been outsourcing more rapidly than I did back in the day.
Think about forum posting in your market. This is a task that can be outsourced. If you aren’t a complete expert in a market and can find someone that enjoys that market and talking about it, you have struck GOLD!
Go ahead and pay them to post about it. It’s that simple. They like talking about it and they will definitely like getting paid to talk about it. All you have to do is make sure that they include your offer in the Signature area.
Most of us know about hiring Virtual Assistants or secretaries, hiring ghostwriters, hiring people to write articles, hiring professional copywriters etc. Let’s think about some other things that you could be outsourcing.
Think about outsourcing traffic. I talked about one way of outsourcing traffic, by paying people to post on online forums for you, but there are many other ways.
You can outsource link exchanges and Blog commenting. Simply hire a person to go around the Internet and place your links on relevant websites and place constructive comments on related Blogs. When they contact website owners, they can say that they are working for you and can contact you at your e-mail, if need be.
Again, these tasks are very important to my traffic strategies but are as boring as it gets and I don’t like doing them, as I feel like my time can be better spent doing other things, so I outsource them.
Every person is different and different people like or dislike different things, and are better or worse at doing different tasks.
The New Year is right around the corner and now is the time to start to organize your time better and take a step back to analyze your current business operations. Find out what things you should be outsourcing to maximize your efforts and output and find ways to outsource them.
To assist you I recently created an “Outsourcing Quick-Start” guide. Grab your free copy today and kick-off 2009 right with a more productive business structure. Click here to grab your free copy right now.
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