A method of driving traffic to your new niche blog that you may not have considered or possibly have forgotten about is forum marketing. Most bloggers belong to at least one of the social blogging communities. But before these came into existence with Web 2.0, forums or even farther back message boards fulfilled the same function.

Many forums are still alive and well. You can find a forum in your niche by doing a search for your keyword+forum. Take a look– poke around. You’ll want to check out the post dates…if the posts are old, you may get a backlink, but it’s unlikely you’ll get a traffic boost. You want to find a forum with active members.

Forums are a different context. It’s a community. Hopefully, your readers feel something similar when they visit your blog. There is a sense of trust there among the readers…

However, when a new visitor comes from a search, this potential reader knows somewhere in the back of their mind they are probably going to be sold to. So, unconsciously their guard is up.

In a forum, the reader is there to get and share information. Your information and opinions are open to comment and criticism just like in your blog. The information and opinions aren’t always the best. You want to be the one to provide your high quality content.

Since a forum is a community, you’ll be the new kid on the block. Try to spend some time following the threads, before you jump in with both feet. Posting in a forum is similar to participating in a group on Facebook. If you spam or try to hard sell, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

This why you’ll take some time to get to know the dynamics of the forum. Most forums, like the article directories, allow you to have a link in your signature. You’ll want to use one of your best keywords in your title. This is basic linking strategy.

Next time, we’ll talk about posting strategies in a forum. How they can attract readers to your blog, and how you can use a forum as a research tool.

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