Despite the growing popularity of social networks, internet forums haven’t lost any ground when it comes to getting people together and interacting, in fact, forums are more popular now than they were a few years ago as more people are online exchanging and discussing ideas.
Leveraging the most popular forums in your niche is a fantastic way to drive loads of highly targeted traffic to your website because on every post you make you can include a signature with a link to your site and believe me; people can’t help but read it! If it has a great call to action as well, lots of people will be inclined to click it and check out what you have to say on your site.
As you post more and more on the forum you will begin to create a reputation for yourself as a knowledgeable person in the industry you have chosen – regardless of whether you have any actual expertise! The simple fact that you become well known is enough to make you the guru in many people’s eyes and that equals more free traffic to your website 
There are a few guidelines you should follow if you want to take this approach to building free traffic which are:
- Choose an appropriate username: using your website name as your username is usually frowned upon by many forum users and admin’s as it’s considered a cheap form of spamming. Using your real name is usually the best option because you are branding yourself as the expert, or if you are not too keen on that then try using the niche name in your username like “golfcaddy” if you register on a golfing forum.
- Do not sell! This is the most important aspect, you are joining the community to contribute and network, not to go in and sell your product in every post. People can get quite sensitive about this so leave the selling for when they arrive at your website. Don’t even name drop your website because this can irk people as well.
- Don’t reply to every single forum topic because again it looks quite unnatural – especially if you are promoting your site in the signature. Answer a few posts a day, every day.
- Don’t write ‘me too’ posts: Your replies should be compelling and informative, writing things such as “I’d love to know as well” or “I was thinking the same thing” doesn’t help to brand you as a guru in your field Similarly, and this is a real problem on Internet Marketing related forums, having a link in your signature claiming to teach someone everything they need to know about bowling techniques and then asking how you can score more strikes is not a clever thing to do!
At the end of the day you are going in to a forum to try and get people to come to your website and I know it sounds counter intuitive when I say don’t sell and don’t ask people to go to your website, but once you are seen to be helping people and contributing to the community you will eventually find that people will start recommending your website or product themselves! (Assuming you are providing good, useful content of course!).
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Backlinks: Why You Need Them, And Where to Get Them!
Why do I need backlinks?
Who cares if you have any backlinks! Well, actually the search engines do… quite a lot actually.
They take into consideration, how many sites link to your webpage, and consider it to be a kind of “vote” for your site. I mean who would link to a site that had no useful info on it, or provided no value?
Another thing that gets factored into the equation is the quality of those backlinks pointing at you. Do you have 30 PR0 sites linking to you? Perhaps you have twenty or so links from sites on the same IP? (All from your other websites, it’s assumed) Perhaps you have mastered the art of blog commenting to the 9th degree, and have 10,000 of those, and only those?
It’s a good idea to have a healthy mix of backlinks; your goal here is to target three things.
Building backlinks should be an ongoing part of any website’s marketing plans. Do some keyword research, calculate just what you need in order to rise to the next level, or SERP (Search Engine Ranking Position) and decide on the number of links you’re going to build on a monthly or weekly basis. If you’re not comfortable you can always outsource work like this to other companies, or even other website owners.
I have to be constantly building backlinks for my own sites, so I have no problem taking on a handful of clients each month, and adding their site into my own backlink building program.
“Remember! The more roads that lead to your website or blog the more potential traffic you’ll receive”
Where Do I find Backlinks?
There is one question that I seem to answer at least once a week.
“Where can I find more backlinks?”
Here are some of the backlinks I personally build for my sites, you can implement some, or all of them depending on your needs. Not all niches will need a ton of backlinks, if your company or website is in a specialized niche with very little competition, you may only need a handful of high quality backlinks to ensure a first page rank.
These are in no particular order, use the one’s you feel most comfortable with.
Forum Links – A good way to build traffic to your site (and pick up some backlinks) is to join a forum in your field, if you start answering questions in an online forum you will soon be considered to be an expert in your field, and people will be inclined to click on your signature link to visit your website.
Add a small link to your site at the bottom in your “signature” (remember to follow the forum rules, and don’t spam simply to get your link out there)
Social Bookmarking – Social bookmarking sites allow us to bookmark our favorite sites, stories, blog posts, pictures, etc, all around the web. Some of the more common one’s that I’m sure you’ve heard of are Digg, Stumbleupon, or Delicious. There are literally hundreds and even thousands more, and at each one you can create a bookmark (which is also a backlink) to your site, as well as any other you find interesting! I receive thousands of visitors a month to each of my sites from just one of the bookmarking sites I’ve listed above. Bookmarking should be a part of everyone’s backlink building strategy!
Article Marketing – This is probably one of the oldest methods for driving traffic, and building backlinks. There are thousands and thousands of article directories on the internet today. How do you get a backlink from them? It’s simple, just submit an article you’ve written, or have the rights to, and voila! You now have a backlink from their directory to your site. Remember, not all directories are created equal, start at the top and work your way down. Choose the highest quality article directories first. Again, decide on your backlink schedule, and build accordingly. Whether or not you decide on submitting to 20 directories or 200 directories a month, the most important thing is to try and stick to a schedule.
“Consistency is the key to a good backlink building strategy!”
Blog Comments – Commenting on blogs in your niche (or others) can also be a great way to build backlinks to your site, or blog. When leaving comments always go for quality over quantity, if you leave a comment that adds value to the discussion, or post then it’s much more likely that someone reading the comment will click through to your website where you will then have the chance to convert them to perhaps becoming loyal readers on your site.
Guest Blogging – Want a backlink from an authority site in your blogs niche? Write a great post and offer it up to the site you’re trying to get a backlink from. It’s a good idea to start by leaving some decent comments first as the site owner will then have an idea of who you are, and will know that you’ve already been contributing in some fashion already. Remember when you leave comments on a blog, your adding content. Who loves content? Google does! So you can be assured that a blog owner will value the added content and will be more open to the idea of having you guest blog for them. It’s a good idea to offer up your best work at times like these! (Hint – if the article you offer up doesn’t work for one site, keeps it and offer it up to the next blog on your list!)
Directories – There are a vast number of web directories out there. I take advantage of two different kinds, SEO friendly free directories, and paid directory listings. When looking at paid directories I’ll usually only consider a few like Yahoo, Best of The Web, or Eaton Web Directory. There are also some great free one’s, dmoz is one not to be missed, though in past years it’s been getting much harder to get included into their directory for one reason or another. Always be sure to choose the most relevant category to submit your site to. Directory owners receive dozens of submissions each and every day, and you don’t want them to click the “delete” button, simply because you’ve listed your site in the wrong category. It’s also a good idea to keep a list of sites you’ve submitted to, as well as another for sites you’ve been accepted into.
Press releases – Sending out a press release can be a great way to announce your website to the world. You will end up with backlinks, exposure, traffic, and possibly more sales if done right. It’s also a great way to announce new products or services you’re launching.
And there you have it; these are just a handful of methods you can start using today to build up your backlinks to your blog or website. There are many other one’s out there as well, but I’ll save those for another day!
Once again, thanks for reading, and have a great day!
Warren
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