It’s amazing really. The longer you hang out online the more you realize how small the internet community is. Sure there are millions of people online, but there are tight communities people hang in.
Yes, I am talking about forums. I run into people I know in different forums all the time. I had someone e-mail me today in a private forum that I’ve bumped into on numerous occasions at WebProWorld.com … out of the blue.
It’s not the first time. It happens all the time.
That’s a good thing. That’s part of doing business online, building relationships, but you also build personal relationships with some. You share personal experiences; you help each other through good and bad times.
It’s amazing.
If you haven’t already done so, find a good forum to hang around, like Worrior Pro. There are some bad ones, but if you look, you’ll find the good ones.
There are forums for everything, whatever you’re involved in. If you got a career, there is a forum for it. If you have a hobby, there’s a forum for it. I hang around mostly internet marketing, tech, and other business related forums.
If you are new to the forum, you should learn how to enter a forum first!
That sounds silly doesn’t it? You may say why would I have to learn? I just sign up and post right?
It would seem on the surface to be that easy, but I see a lot of people have a real hard time.
Over time forums create a very tight community; everyone learns the rules and looks out for each other.
So the first thing you need to do is read the forum’s rules.
Different forums have different approach toward how you display links or even what you can talk about.
The other thing to do is don’t come in gang busters! Don’t try to prove yourself and get too excited about showing everyone your knowledge etc.
Get to know the community first, hang out for a while, introduce yourself politely, usually there is a separate area set aside for intros.
In your first post, definitely don’t provide a sales pitch otherwise you will get flaming posts and anger the community; everyone will see it as spam.
Get to know the other posters, remember you are a new comer, a lot of people in the forums have known each other for a while. They may even be doing business behind the scenes. It’s just like building any relationship, easy at first until you get to know each other.
Once you have a feel for it, then you can start participating and helping out others, which means if you have any knowledge to contribute, provide it, help people with things you know about.
Then learn… read…learn… read some more… ask questions…
Let it rip 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.
Beyond relationships you can learn endless things, not just anything. You will learn things drawing from experience, hanging out in the forum better than read a textbook – it’s interactive.
If you ask is there usually someone waiting with an answer? The answer is if you go do a search on the databases of threads, you will find out those untold information.
Getting active inside forums related to your niche and submitting useful posts there can creating multiple streams of traffic to your site or blog.
Remember, forums are powerful things, thus, don’t abuse that power and don’t ruin your reputation.
Experience the Power of Forums… Explore and Grow now!
