A while back I wrote an article entitled power forum tag teaming.  It was a three part series in part three of three was one of the most commented posts in the history of the TaggZilla blog. Part 1 and Part 2 are here.

So I wanted to revisit the topic since clearly it’s of interest to you.

Forum marketing is one of the oldest forms of Internet marketing and yet still one of the most effective and powerful.  Forums were the original Web 2.0 style of communication where one could communicate with many and many could communicate with one.

It was a great way to get answers to questions from experts within a certain market or topic area and also be part of a general conversation with people who are interested in the same things you’re interested.

You can do a search on Google for “topic + forum” inserting of course your chosen topic area and you’re certain to find forums specifically dedicated to that topic.

What you want to do is figure out who the main demographic for your chosen topic is.  This is of course assuming you’re looking to do a product launch or marketing for your product by participating in the forum.

Once you know who this most common demographic is you’ll want to choose a username which goes along with this.

For example if you’re in a pet market where the main demographic is women from the ages of 40 to 49 you’ll want to choose a name like petloversSally or feistyFelicia.

Start answering questions and being part of the conversation for topics specifically about the kind of product you have to offer.

Hint: you can use forums as a research tool to find out what the most popular topics and problems are and obviously create a product to solve that problem.

Once you’ve answered 4 -5 questions a day for 10 to 14 days you’ll have some pretty good street credibility built up within the forum community. Don’t get too excited…this can be done in under 30 minutes each day.

Then what you want to do is have someone in your company or one of your friends online choose a username based on that main demographic and start answering a few questions from days 10 to 14.

At this point you’ll have answered 40 to 50 questions and your partner will have answered 20 to 30.

So both your usernames will be recognized in the community (assuming you’ve given good value and answers to the questions in the discussion) and now you can start” leaking” whatever value giving freebie you’re offering as an incentive for your product launch or to get people to purchase your main product.

I recommend having your friends start off a topic asking a question which will specifically lead you to give them an answer and refer them to that value giving freebie as the answer to it.

Of course you can ask questions at the end of your response of the other community members asking how much they liked it or how good of an answer it was to the question. This tells you whether you’re on the right track or need to rework something.

The more conversation you get started and people talking about your product, especially in this way where you’re not just overtly hitting them over the head telling them to buy, you can get very good results.

Dan Raine, one of the gurus who worked with Ed Dale, did a 30 day challenge where all he did was forum marketing on a mass level for 30 days and made his goal of $15,000 in profits.

This is a somewhat ignored marketing tool these days because of all the new Web 2.0 tools like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Digg and the like but it is still extremely powerful and personal.

I recommend having it as part of any launch process and product marketing process in your business.

Leave me your comments about what kind of strategies and tactics you’ve used which have been successful and also those which have failed.  I look forward to hearing from you.

• "Power Forum tag teaming" Part 3 of 3 Part three (if you missed part 1 go here increase website traffic thru forum marketing) In the previous two pieces of this article we talked about increasing website traffic to the opt in page, sales page, blog or other product pages of your website. We had talked about teaming up......
• Blog Posting Software - Fast, Unique Content I have been using this new blog posting software which is optimized for seo. It allows you to be a "reporter" for your market. Basically, the idea is the software is a search engine for the blogosphere. You type in your main keywords, it finds blog posts, then you can......
• One Super Key to Social Media Success The super key to unlocking the vast potential and viral nature of social media is understanding what it is...a value exchange. You're here reading this because you either like social media or understand the power it's going to have for your business and want to capture as much market share......
• Content Syndication and Content Marketing Friday Podcast: Effective Content Marketing Strategies with Lisa ... - ... Product Creation · Razer · Reader Questions · Robert Allen · Search Engine Marketing · search engine optmization (SEO) · SecretBlogWeapon · SecretWebHostingWeapon.com · Shoemoney · social networking · social traffic · speedlinking ... I've been doing some blog......
• "Power Forum Tag Teaming" Part 1 of 3 So what is this concept 'Power Forum Tag Teaming'? First off it does a couple of things for you to increase website traffic: #1 -- it allows you to take advantage of your pre-existing built up credibility in a forum that you've been posting in for a while. This way......

• How to Write Articles For Online Success Writing articles can seem to...
• Skil 18V Circular Saw Product Review This review is for the...
• Guidelines For Effectively Building A Large Facebook Network It's easy to fill your...
• linklings: I am your father, Luke I finished up my taxes...
• The Real Costs Of Depression It is no secret, I’m...