You're right, Forum's do work, I bought the Associate Program Marketer's Handbook, by Marlon Sanders and here is a chapter about posting in forums:
Plan Twelve: Use Your Sig Line and Forum
Postings To Distribute Your Free Report Bait
and/or Ebook and/or free service
How to Promote The Program With Your Sig File
Whether you use Netscape, Internet Explorer, Eudora, Pegasus, Microsoft
Outlook, or some other program to send and receive email, they all allow you to
set up what is called a signature file or sig file for short. This sig file is added
automatically at the bottom of every email you send to your friends and
business contacts.
You can use your sig file to promote "The Amazing Formula." All you do is use
this line as your sig file: "Do you know the amazing formula?" And you have it
link to your reseller URL. Or, you can use most any of the classified ads I listed
earlier.
For a screen capture that shows where you set up your signature file in
Netscape, xxxx.
In Netscape Messenger 4.61 you select edit, preferences and identify. However,
the procedures are slightly different for new versions of the mail programs. If
you search on the help file under the word "signature," you'll get instructions on
how to set up a sig file in whatever mail program you use.
In addition, if you make helpful posts in discussion forums and newsgroups, you
are usually given a place to list your web site address and a 5-7 word
description. You can place your "Do you know the amazing formula?" tag line
there.
In the resources chapter, there is a web site that allows you to search 250,000
online forums.
A secret few people know
There are ways to search message boards and forums by the topic or key word
of post. That way, instead of just monitoring a few forums, the whole Internet is
your playing field.
With this knowledge, you could spend 1-3 hours a day just making posts using
this promotion method, depending of course on your topic.
OK, let's discuss specifics on how to do it.
Here's an example of how you put your tagline in most online discussion forums.
xxxx.
Just be sure you don't spam forums, mailing lists or discussion boards with
commercial posts. The proper approach is simply to give intelligent answers to
the questions other participants ask and list your reseller URL and a brief
description. That's it.
Placing pure commercial posts or hyping products in discussion boards can get
both you and me in heaps of trouble. Don't do it!
Listen up: Do NOT post your reseller URL in newsgroups. Only use your
autoresponder address. Why? Because if you screw up and offend someone,
our site will get shut down. People in newsgroups don't screw around!
I encourage you to post your reseller URL in forums and discussion boards. But
not newsgroups! If you do, you'll lose your reseller privileges and forfeit
commissions earned in that month. Newsgroups are dangerous and not for
beginners. It's fine and even encouraged for beginners to participate in online
forums. You're much more welcome there.
When you scan down the posts in the forums, you'll see people asking all kinds
of questions and requesting resources. You make a helpful post answering their
question and then type in your URL and tagline in the place provided. That's it.
The KEY to a post that gets you lots of hits is the subject line. You are always
allowed to give your post a title. Here's an example of how to type in your
subject line. xxxx. I like to post a subject line that promises valuable
information. Think of something that will make other people want to read the
post.
Here are some examples of subject lines I have used:
"I made $1,300 from 2 ezine articles"
"6 traffic tips"
"Killer 3D graphics in under 5 minutes!"
"Free online secured ordering"
Please understand -- these are ONLY for my product. I can't possibly cover the
wide variety of products you may be reselling. But I can tell you that you'll get
some excellent headline ideas by reading the titles of articles on the cover of
Cosmopolitan magazine. Study those and it should come easy to you.
Beyond that, all you do is place helpful posts in online forums. You can post brief
tips that CONTAIN USEFUL INFORMATION. Do NOT under any circumstances
post an ad for a product. Always, always, always post valuable information and
then refer to your free report in your SIG line.
I don't care what product you're selling -- computer software, a dating service,
or bananas to Eskimos. You can always come up with problem-solving tips for
the target audience.
How to track your posting results
In the chapter on how to eliminate long URL's, I give you a free way to track
your advertising results. You can also use a commercial tracking service.
The subject line of your post determines most of the response to it.
Be careful of a practice called cross-posting. This is where you write one tip or
article and post it to multiple forums. This is generally frowned on.
However, you can write these tips quickly with practice. So write different tips
and rotate them to different forums. You could place a tip in one forum. Then 3
to 6 weeks later place it in another forum.
Or just write fresh tips. What you can and cannot do depends greatly on the
forums you are posting to.
A routine for making sales every week
Develop a list of 10-50 forums that target your market or different markets for
the same product.
Then every day write a tip or two and post to several forums. Get a system
going and track results. You will soon learn what works and what doesn't.
Two routes to success
Route 1: Respond intelligently to questions that are asked on the board. Include
your url in the space provided. You can do posts like this every day and create a
regular income. You can make the rounds to 5-20 forums daily.
Route 2: Create canned posts that are tips and post them. They should contain
valuable information and NOT be a pitch for a product.
If you post an obvious pitch for a product, you're going to get fried! DO NOT DO
IT. What you do is post valuable information and include your sig line or your
URL in the space provided. If people like your post, they will check out your web
site.
THE KEY IS A SYSTEM. YOU DO IT REGULARLY AND CONSISTENTLY. A
ROUTINE. Hit and miss does not work. Get a system. A routine. And do it all the
time without fail.
Here are examples of several of my canned posts from the old days when I used
this method:
6 free traffic tips:
1. Buy banner ads on smart clicks and let their system select for you the most
responsive categories of web sites to promote on.
2. Go to those web sites and exchange links. Use a CGI program to automate
this.
3. Submit 500-word articles to targeted ezines. There are a number of lists of
ezines for free on the web.
4. Run ads in targeted ezines. You must track your results with affiliate tracking
software. That way you know where you orders come from. The same
suggestion applies to #1.
5. Start your own banner exchange on a 2 for 1 basis and use the 50% free
inventory for your own promotions.
6. Make posts in targeted forums once a week.
For many more ideas and cool tools, see my info at:
http://www.higherresponse.com/track/t.cgi/8025/monster2.htm
Marlon Sanders
Here is a post I added to a forum that was not in response to a question.
Sometimes if I have neat ideas or find a cool resource, I pass it along in a post
in several forums. If I come up with a killer subject line, this always generates
sales. In this post, I shared a few cool ideas:
Two Cool Email Tricks & 1 website
Hi,
If you use Eudora Pro to manage your email,
here are two tricks that can save you tons of
time and make you money.
If you don't use Eudora, maybe other members
will post how to do the same things in Pegasus,
Outlook 98 and other programs.
I recently discovered that I can access all
folders in Eudora (where I file my mail) using
any word processor. In your word processor, just
locate Eudora and the folder you want to open.
Click on it and presto chango -- instant access!
Once you open the file in your word processor, you
can search for any info you want. For example,
I have visitors to my web site sign up for a free
ezine. They fill out a form that gives me their
name, address, phone and other important info.
When they click the submit button, I automatically
receive the info via email. I use the filtering
feature to identify those emails by the subject
line and transfer them into my responses folder.
If I want to access all that info, all I do is
pull it up in my word processor. Pretty cool, eh?
By the way, if you'd like to set up a form like
this at your web site without CGI techie stuff
and without spending a dime, just visit:
www.freedback.com.
I have a sample at my website when you click to
subscribe to my ezine. I use the form to QUALIFY
prospects.
In addition, you can set up your own autoresponder
in Eudora by saving any document as stationery (Select
File, then stationery.) Then select "Tools" and "Filters."
Under actions select "Reply With" and select the
name of the stationery file you saved.
Best wishes,
Marlon Sanders'
Associate Program Marketing Handbook
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