In this article, I’m sharing lessons learned from my own mistakes when I first started doing forum marketing several years as an affiliate marketer. By explaining the missteps I made initially, you can understand proper strategies for effectively marketing through online forums.

Forums are very good places for discussing any topic. Affiliate marketing forums are places where you can discuss about your affiliate marketing problems. SEO forums are online communities of like minded people that discuss about Search Engine Optimization. Do forums are places where you can discuss about.. dogs..

You can get answers to questions you may have or get help from other users for issues you might be dealing with. You can post comments or reply to other people’s comments and start discussions that would help you become more educated on the subject.

Also, forums are good places to drive more traffic to your affiliate links and actually make sales.

When I started with my online journey 10 years ago, I’ve made some terrible mistakes with forum marketing that cost me a lot o valuable time.

In this article I’m going explain how to properly use forums for marketing. I decided to write about the 7 things I wish I knew from the beginning in regards to forum marketing.

How To Use Forums For Marketing

Use the table of contents below to navigate through the article.

1. You need to be helpful

Forums are places where you can help and get helped by other members. When I first started promoting my affiliate links on forums I didn’t care about solving other members problems. I was just trying to “game the system”.

Well, big mistake..

I got banned from a couple of forums and a dozen of subreddits because I was just “sleazingly” posting my referral link and promotional articles on different threads..

Admins were banning me almost immediately..

After a while I understood that by helping others on forums by giving solutions to their problems and by giving them the answer they were looking for I was building a reputation around me as a knowledgeable to the subject person.

People started to trust me and even if I shared a tool, program or service that I was affiliated with – they didn’t mind because the service/tool was indeed going to help them.

And when they do that, they are more willing to join you because they feel safe. They want to have a good sponsor that will help them succeed.

To have success with forum marketing, then you must develop a helpful habit towards other users. Don’t start promoting your affiliate links at once. Spend a month or so answering questions and commenting on threads. Then start introducing your affiliate links into your posts.

2. You must add an avatar (your logo)

An avatar could be a photo of you or the logo of your website – if you are a small business. By adding an avatar on your profile people trust your more..

7 Insider Tips to Boost Your Affiliate Earnings with Forum Marketing — No, not that Avatar. I mean a profile picture of you.

Let’s face it.. You are more probably to trust a real person with socials and everything than an anonymous user with an alien for avatar.

When I first started on forums, I never uploaded an avatar. Maybe I was shy or maybe I never took the whole forum marketing thing serious.

After I realized that people trust you better when they know who you are then I uploaded an avatar to all the forums I had a profile on.

Combined with the helpful answers I was giving, I literally became an affiliate rock star.

3. You must Add an effective signature

Your signature is probably the most important part of your forum marketing efforts. Don’t do the mistake to write things like:

”Software X , the best Software for X. Join Now”

”Join me on Program X. 8 years paying”

and stuff like that..

Nor you should publish your software banner.

Big Mistake !

Why should anyone click on the link on your signature? Because you say them to?

Believe me, you will experience greater results if you use phrases like:

”Still think that you are going to make money with [doing something that requires a lot of time]? Think NOT ! Click here to learn why.”

On the above example you will link your signature to a blog post that talks about how for example, rented referrals are not going to help you earn money and you will offer an alternative method to earn money online.

Do you understand the difference now?

Of course, you must have a blog if you are going to use this method.. If you don’t want to start a blog, you can use free blogging services like medium.com, telegra.ph or even Linkedin Pulse.

4. Being active in the community

The more active you are in the community the more trust you will create around your name, people are going to like you, and your signature will be available to more and more threads for people to click on.

Even if the forum you are on doesn’t offer a signature feature, you can still include your affiliate links in your bio. People WILL check your bio and they will click your links.

As simple as that.

Always try to login to the forums you market your affiliate links at least for 1-2 hours per day and answer as many question as you can or take part in conversations.

When I first joined these forums I was just going through the different topics, reading them, but not posting anything. I guess I was bored.

Being lazy is bad for business.

Now with the advent of Ai writing assistants, there is no excuse.. You don’t even need a paying AI assistant. You can use ChatGPT, Claude or even Microsoft’s copilot.

Just copy the question or the comment your want to reply to and use this prompt:

“Answer this question” or “Reply to this comment using a conversational style. Be [Witty/Pessimistic or any other tone of voice you want]. Write using plain vocabulary. Answer must be around [insert no of words].

5. Don’t spam your affiliate link

Don’t spam your affiliate link. You look desperate and unprofessional. People don’t want to have anything to do with spammers..

You also give affiliate marketing a bad name..

Believe me.. I know..

Instead, use the methods I discussed above to build your personal brand and have people want to interact with you.

6. Advertise on forums

Forums have advertising spaces. I strongly recommend to advertise your affiliate links there. You will get very good results since you are promoting relevant products or services to hyper-niched communities.

It’s like you are promoting a 30-day free trial of an SEO tool to a forum with SEO marketers..

How many signups and referrals you thing you’re going to get?

Promoting your affiliate links with the methods I mentioned above, will get you results but not that fast..

Buying advertisements though, you will get referrals and clients without spending time. You spend money instead.

7. You must be patient with results

Getting referrals, clients and sales from forums, Q&A websites and social media groups is not something that can be done overnight.

You must be patient with your results. You must be patient and continue promoting your affiliate link by advertising and by utilizing the points I mentioned above.

I remember that I was about to give up with the forum marketing thing because I thought that it was not working and not because I was doing mistakes. After “fixing” my mistakes, things got a lot better.

I just had to be patient with my efforts.

Bottom Line

Forums are an underutilized resource for marketing. With their targeted audiences and ability to generate buzz, they can be a powerful tool in any marketer’s arsenal.

Just remember to be genuine, provide value, and engage with the community, and you’ll be well on your way to successful forum marketing. Now go forth and conquer those forums!

I hope you enjoyed reading this article. If you want to help me, then spread this message around the web. The more people see this, the more people they will stop making any of these mistakes.

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