Online home business owners, otherwise known as Internet marketers, are always looking for new and innovative ways to drive targeted traffic to their websites to help increase the size of their email list and to increase sales and profits. Online forums are just as popular as ever or maybe even more so because of the explosion of social media sites on the web, and they present a unique opportunity for attracting their members to your web page.
If your website theme is home based business opportunities online, for example, you can conduct a Google search in order to find the most popular forums on the web related to your topic. Once you have your list of the top ten discussion boards related to your theme you can then subscribe to each of them and begin employing the following 5 techniques to attract these pre-qualified visitors to your home business opportunities.
1. Whether you’re new to Internet marketing or you’ve been on the web for quite awhile ask the other forum members to visit your site to offer some constructive criticism on your website design and layout. This is a great way to get people to visit your home page without having to openly pitch your product offers to them.
This can provide a two fold advantage for your home business because these targeted visitors will subscribe to your list and if you don’t mind being critiqued you can receive some invaluable Internet marketing tips for your website conversion. You can make it a point to ask their opinion on the effectiveness of your squeeze page by inquiring how they would improve it. This could also help you increase your list size faster and more effectively.
2. If someone asks a question that’s in your area of expertise create a video explaining all areas of the topic and add a link to it in your forum post telling people about it and where to find it. Even if the subject isn’t up your alley you could research it and then produce your video. Once you have them on your home business site you can then advertise your products and make some sales.
3. When you visit a forum try to find out what the hot button topic of the day or week is and then write an article, perhaps playing the devil’s advocate, to attract the attention of the other members and post it on your website. Try to solve the problem if there is one or address directly what’s being discussed in your editorial and post part of it in your forum with your back link attached of course to lead those who are interested back to your website.
4. If you’ve just created or you’re in the process of creating an Internet marketing product make mention of this fact and advertise in the forum for beta testers for your merchandise. Explain that you’re looking for 50-75 volunteers to test your product and provide feedback about its performance.
Tell the other forum members that those accepted for the trial will be rewarded with the product, to keep free of charge, for their participation. Also explain that the application is on your website for those interested to fill out and provide the link in your signature file. This should attract a lot of attention and many targeted visitors to your home business page.
5. If you’re new to Internet marketing and doing business online you could ask for advice and or suggestions on the best way to get started with list building. You can explain that you’ve written an article on the subject and then post it in the forum and ask the members to go check it out to see if there’s anything they would add or if there’s any misinformation contained in your piece. At the end of your editorial you will have a compelling offer with your opt-in form attached so the other members can subscribe to your list and check out your product.
Before attempting any of these tactics make sure you read the user’s agreement in each forum to discover what’s allowed and what’s not permitted to insure you aren’t barred from the discussion board by the moderator. Targeted or pre-qualified traffic is like gold and is the life blood of any home based business online and there’s no easier way to find and attract these people than at online forums or discussion boards related to your website topic or theme.