All Entries in the "Forum Posting" Category

Traffic: The Single Most Important Thing To Do For Your Blog

You’ve set up your company blog and optimize every post to achieve high rankings in the search engines. Now what?

Don’t rest on your laurels. You need to market your blog. But how do you do that?

There are several ways you can market your blog and drive traffic to it. Here are a few that we recommend:

• Article marketing
• Social bookmarking
• Social networking
• Forum posting
• Pay per click advertising
• E-mail marketing
• Directory submissions
• Sending out link requests

Each of these methods of online marketing is effective in its own way. Article marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing online and is great for driving traffic if you do it on a consistent basis.

Chances are, if you have a blog with Blog Content Provider then we’ve talked to you about social bookmarking. If we haven’t then you should give us a call because this is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your blog.

Social networking is different from social bookmarking in one aspect – the emphasis is on building relationships with people with similar interests in order to bring them to your website so that they can see what you are doing. Social bookmarking focuses on the content; social networking focuses on the relationships.

Forum posting is also effective in driving traffic to your website. The idea is to simply join a conversation and be a contributor. When people see how valuable you are in giving contributions to the group they will trust you more and visit your website.

PPC click marketing, aka pay per click, is very effective, especially for the short term, but it’s the only method of marketing mentioned here that requires a fee beyond any service provider that you hire to act on your behalf.

E-mail marketing is still effective and even in this day many people use e-mail without being fully connected to the Internet. We always recommend marketing your blog through RSS feeds, but you should also have a way for people to receive notice of your blog through e-mail such as a blog promotion newsletter (be sure to ask about Blog Content Provider’s newsletter services).

Directory submissions and link requests are on the bottom end of the spectrum for blog marketing, but I wouldn’t leave them. You never know how people will find you so you should give them every opportunity to do so.

You can rely entirely on SEO for blog marketing, but why limit yourself. While most of your blog traffic will come from search engines, there is a lot more potential out there for getting traffic to your blog. Some bloggers report that Twitter, StumbleUpon, or another social media source is the biggest driver of traffic to their blogs. By focusing on marketing your blog, you can increase your traffic and your conversions. Don’t just leave it to chance.

For more information about blogging, talk to a blog consultant.

Blog Marketing Through Forums

One method of marketing your blog is through forums. But forum marketing isn’t an “in your face” blatant advertising medium. In fact, in many forums, if you go in just posting marketing messages all over the place, you’ll get banned. That’s not what they’re there for.

Most forum moderators and participants see their forum as a community. They don’t want it bombarded by advertising messages. That’s what they go to the forum to get away from. People in forums are tired of being hit with advertising messages every five minutes – on TV, radio, billboards, magazine ads, you name it. Online they just want a place to relax and be themselves.

So how do you connect with people online? You join them in community. You enter the forum just like everyone else – as yourself. You can let your hair down and just be your grisly old self. But you are allowed a 2-3 line signature link in most forums. That allows you to link to your blog and/or website and as you carry on conversations with people, you’ll be marketing your business indirectly. Through forum marketing, you don’t need blatant advertising messages. You just need to be a real person who connects with real people.

Forum Posting Or Company Blog?

Two days ago I talked about some of the differences between forum posting and writing a company blog. Today I want to go a little deeper with that subject. I don’t want it to seem simpler than it is. It really is complicated and the strategies for each as well as the strategies used for both combined can get quite complicated. That’s why it’s best to start out with some goals and you can employ both a company blog and forum posting to help you achieve your goals.

Two Types of Company Blogs
There are likely several ways to categorize blogging for commercial purposes. The way we do it at Blog Content Provider is to frame it in terms of where your blog is located. You can put your blog on the same domain in a separate folder as your company website or you can put it on a separate domain name altogether. Either way is OK, but the benefits provided by doing it each way are different so it helps to understand what you are doing and why.

Putting a blog on your own domain name can help you add new pages to your website daily. This increases your search engine saturation and provides people looking for the information you provide with more ways to find it. Every blog post is counted as a separate web page by the search engines. Therefore, if you blog every day for a whole year then you have 365 additional pages on your website. If each of those blog posts is optimized around a single keyword phrase then you have 365 highly optimized web pages on your website in addition to what your main website has.

A blog on a separate domain name also builds search engine saturation, but it does so for the blog, not your website. However, a blog on a separate domain name can help you build link popularity. Link popularity is an important aspect of SEO. The more you increase your link popularity, the more you increase your overall search engine positioning. Each blog post you create this way can link to your website and help you build your link popularity and trust with the search engines.

Both types of blogs can be used for branding, for promoting your products and services, for promoting your affiliates, for driving traffic to your website, and for reputation management purposes.

The Benefits of Forum Posting
Forum posting is a little different than owning a company blog. Unless you own the forum, you are really at the mercy of someone else and that includes, but not limited to, the search engines. That’s not meant to scare you. It’s a fact. Nevertheless, forum posting does carry benefits.

It can build link popularity the same as a company blog. Every time you leave a post on a forum and link to your website then you are building link popularity. Links you build this way remain in the forum over time so don’t get shortsighted and think that the traffic numbers you see the first couple of weeks is all there is. You could still get excellent targeted traffic from forum posting a year later due to the reputation of the forum and how well the thread that you comment on is SEOd. Many forum post threads end up on Page 1 of a search engine and that leads to additional traffic. I’ve even seen individual forum post comments land on Page 1 of a search engine long term and that too will lead to a good source of traffic.

Forum posting can also be a good way to brand your company. By posting in forums with your signature link pointing back to your blog or website, you are building your brand through relationship marketing. Not everyone who visits your blog or website through the forum will make a purchase, especially the first time they visit your website. But when they are in the market for what you have to sell, they will think of you because they recognize your company name from seeing it in the forums so many times. This is called Top of Mind Awareness and it works. It has been used in traditional off line marketing for years.

Another benefit to forum posting as well as your company blog is reputation management. The more you get your name out on the Internet associated with the positive benefits of doing business with you then the more you are building a solid reputation. This is important for the long-term success of your company. With a solid reputation management strategy, you can stay active in all the right forums and maintain positive relationships with the people most likely to do business with you.

How To Make The Forum Posting/Company Blog Combination Work For You
You can employ a combination strategy with forum posting and a company blog to achieve the benefits that you want. Depending on the type of blog that you use, you can stay on top of

• Your link popularity
• Your search engine saturation
• Your reputation
• Traffic building
• Product or service promotion
• Company branding
• And relationship marketing

All on a daily basis. By staying on top of these important company reputation issues every single day, you can ensure that your reputation online is handled with finesse and that you build solid relationships with your targeted customers – relationships that last.

What Do Blogging And Forum Posting Have In Common?

Not much really. But there are some similarities.

First, blogging is all about communicating with your audience. It is relationship building. So is forum posting. But the strategies are different.

With blogging, you are communicating to a mass audience from a platform. Yes, they can talk back, but you are always aware that there are lurkers listening in and so even if you are comment to one person who has commented on your blog post, you are still communicating to a mass audience.

Forum posting has lurkers to, but you have a tendency to forget about them. They aren’t as important as the lurkers on your blog, but they are significant. Forum posting is more about the conversation. Blogging is more about the reputation. Here’s the explanation:

Your company blog is your branding tool. It tells the world who you are and what you stand for. It is more like the corporate boardroom where you stand up and give a speech and all eyes are on you. After the speech is the question and answer period.

On the other hand, forum posting is like the company picnic or potluck lunch. You are there with a group of people from every department in the company. They all have different backgrounds, experiences, skills, and ideas. Everyone can join the conversation and anyone can contribute to it at any time. There is no designation Q&A period because the entire event is a question and answer with all the participants asking the questions and providing the answers. Can you use it for branding? Yes, but that’s not its sole, or primary, purpose. It’s primary purpose is relationship building. It’s secondary purpose is your definition of your company, just the reverse of blogging.

To make the best use of relationship marketing, I recommend starting your blog first. Get those definitions out there right up front. Then, after a month or so of real heavy daily blogging, jump into a few forums and make a splash. Build relationships and drive traffic to your blog. People will respond to you if you are courteous and respectful. That’s how relationship marketing is done.