Forum-Sites.com, the directory of active forums, is still accepting links to your forums. These links are free and the more traffic the directory gets, the more chance of someone finding a link to your forum and following it.
Just go the main page here at forum-sites.com and click on Add A Site.
Forum Participation Leads To Brainstorming
Another valuable use of forums for the web savvy businessperson is as a source for more ideas. I’m not speaking of stealing people’s ideas, although adapting others’ strategies to your business may be a good idea. The concept we’re exploring here is that of assisted brainstorming.
You may read a thought provoking post by another forum member and that may be what gives you the nudge in a certain direction towards a unique business idea. Take someone else’s successful idea towards their online pet food business and apply it to your online DVD sales business, for example. Read about someone else’s successful web development idea, and then twist the idea and turn it on its head. What if instead of its original plan, you geared it towards user created content?
Many of the most creative people in the world frequent business development forums to share and tweak their ideas. Sharing and getting feedback about the ideas you currently have is also a valuable thing for you to do. But, don’t underestimate the ideas of others, they may be just what you need to kickstart an idea of your own.
Jump-starting Your Forum Community
By Dax Christopher
Forums are an excellent addition to a website to attract visitors to interact with the site and to return to the website freqeuently. While there are many other website additions that can retain visitors and have them coming back for more, forums are perhaps the most engaging for visitors to your website and offer the most benefits to both the website’s owner and the visitor.
Unfortunately, having a forum addition to a website does not guarantee its success and usefulness in gathering the hypothesized attention and attractiveness. A new forum with no content, no members or no active discussion is like an empty hall. Anyone who steps into such an empty room would most definitely get the creeps and run away as fast as they can. Similarly, your forum can quickly lose its purported usefulness if it is empty and bare.
Starting and building an active forum on your website is no mean feat. It requires a lot of time, patience, and hard-work. Why is that so? Well, there are several important factors that scares away visitors and you have to remove these factors in order to convince visitors to stay, read, and then post and join in the discussions. If there are no discussions in the first place, no one would be around to discuss! It is exactly a chicken and egg question that you have to answer. There are several methods to overcome these issues and to get content/discussions started on your forum.
1. Write good content and request feedback
Having good content draws visitors to read and if they have questions or concerns, they can always find a link to discuss it on your forum. Make sure you provide them a link and the outlet to voice out on your forums. The hard part is in writing quality content on your site.
2. Offer free incentives
Some forums offer active members special advertising opportunities such as banners or text links on the website and in the forums. Members are then encouraged to start threads and post and participate in order to obtain free advertising. Other than free advertising, you might want to consider giving away a free copy of your product to the top poster or hold a lucky draw for active posters. Nothing beats promotion than free products and competition. On my webmaster community (www.buildtolearn.com), I provide free cpanel web hosting for members who have accumulated 50 posts. This incentive has been in use for the past 2 years and our community now has close to 10,000 members!
3. Exchange posts with other forums
There are many other new forums started on the net everyday and you could work together with other websites to generate content on your forums. It is a ‘I’ll post in yours and you post in mine’ exchange where both webmasters participate in each others forums in order to get the ball rolling in the forums. This exchange makes it more interesting for both parties.
4. Pay for posts
If you have deep pockets or have a budget from your website, you can always get people to come to your forum and start discussions. Quality checks are in order to ensure that your ‘free-lance posters’ are not simply submitting 3 word posts or copying posts from other forums.
5. Talk to yourself
If all else fails, due to low budget or having nothing else to offer, you can create ‘virtual copies’ of yourself and start discussions with yourself. To new visitors to your forum, they see an active community and discussions, which helps them overcome the inertia. Once you have a handful of active members talking, you can stop talking to yourself and let your community grow itself!
The above are just some tips that I have gathered from participating in forums and from building forum communities on the net for the past 2 years. The tough part in setting up a forum is in the initial stage. Once you have overcome that hurdle, it gets easier for the forum to grow and mature.
Dax Christopher maintains a two year old webmaster community at http://www.Buildtolearn.com, a forum community that discusses web-hosting and webmaster related issues such as web-design, page coding, SEO and many others. Visit www.buildtoLearn.com to learn more about developing and growing large communities.
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The Importance of a Home Based Business Forum
By Kevin Hansen
A home based business forum can provide valuable insight into work from home opportunities. It is comprised of members who have experience in working and earning money from home. The forum members can give tips for how to make a successful home based business venture, tell you what to avoid and how to work more efficiently. A forum can also give you valuable advertising opportunities to get your product noticed.
A home based business forum will provide users great tips on the ins and outs of how to make the business successful. It can give you information on how to effectively work and what to avoid. Because the members already have experience, their comments can ease the troubles you might find when developing your business. All new ventures can be difficult when starting but there are particular issues associated with working from home. Allow the members of a forum to assist you in smoothing the process of building your home based business.
A community forum will also provide information on the scams that are present on the Internet. Many sites will offer opportunities that may seem too good to be true and they probably are. A forum can provide valuable information from experienced members before investing money in something you may think is a scam. Members will likely have personal experience in these and can tell you what to avoid. Remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is.
Use a home based business forum to screen potential opportunities. There are many successful business ventures that can be worthwhile. The members of the business forum can give you advice on the most lucrative work from home opportunities available. Ask questions about the amount of time and money they invest and the return on their investment. Choose the opportunity that has the highest success rate and the one that interests you the most.
Home based business forum members can also give advice on how to be more efficient workers. Because working in a home based business has its own unique issues, members of the forum can share tips on efficiency, time management and organization to help you optimize your work procedures. Many forum members have families and varying time commitments. In order to succeed, they have to make the most of their available time at work. You can benefit from their experiences.
You may also use a home based business forum to network with your peers or for related services. You will be able to outsource functions to trusted people and market your own products. Advertising on a forum will help attract potential investors into your own home based business. People browsing a forum dedicated to home based business are already interested and you can make your prospect stand out.
Use a home based business forum as a resource for knowledge and for advertising. You can get advertising and marketing tips as well as efficiency advice. Being active in a home based business forum will help you succeed in your own venture and will also help those starting out with their ideas.
He has been a successful online business owner since 2003. He is also owner of http://www.ezymoneyathome.com/forum/phpBB2/index.php, http://www.sheetmusicweb.com, and http://www.travelinsurancedot.com
If you need help with a homebased business contact Kevin at ezymoneyathome@yahoo.ca
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How To Do Niche Market Research Using Forums
By Fabian Tan
Forums are a great place to conduct market research. Why? Because that is where people discuss about their favorite topic, their likes and dislikes, their wishes and what problems they want solved to make their life. This makes forums an excellent place to ‘spy’ on your market and their problems and needs.
Certain forums will contain leading figures and experts. Look out for their posts as they usually provide quality information. This is how information entrepreneurs create completely new products in niches in which they do not have expertise in. They simply spend a little time studying their niche carefully.
One way to do market research is just simply by reading through posts. You can even find out about any topic that you want to know about simply by using the ‘Search’ function in the forum. This is a great way to acquire information for writing your next book, ebook or article.
You can even join in the discussions by posting questions you want answers to. For example, you might want to know about the most popular acne cream or which photography book provides the most timely photography techniques. It’s almost like a survey of your marketplace, and instead of paying employees to go and survey people, you are doing it completely free of charge.
Visit forums to learn the language of the niche too. This allows you to speak their language and when you are ready to produce a new product or service in that niche, you will be seen as one of them. Forums are a great hunting ground for ideas and market research, so use it! It’s totally free and only costs a little of your time.
Fabian Tan is the author of the free 51-Page Report:
“Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!”
Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your free copy now before it’s gone!
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