Just like various other Web 2. 0 -type platforms, forums are fantastic spots to market using articles. And this is due to the fact that the more established you grow to be inside the forum “neighborhood”, the greater the rewards you’ll enjoy out of your content articles and backlinks.

Where I’m aiming here is that even though you are not experiencing quite as much referral traffic as you anticipated, keep it going for a little bit.

As members of the forum community come to acknowledge the value you provide (backed up by a reasonably long membership), they will start to regard you as an indispensable expert for the niche your marketing in. To put it in a different perspective – whenever you make recommendations for products or services (with your affiliate link) people are more inclined to seriously look into your proposals because you now possess influence that’s gained by smartly advertising your expertise within particular community.

Not to mention that the more (quality) content you put up, the larger your “backlinks portfolio” will grow.

Tip: You don’t even have to conduct the forum article marketing campaign personally should you not desire to. You will find plenty of freelancers to hire to write and publish on community forums in your behalf. Nevertheless, you ought to be cautious with these providers, particularly if you are looking to develop a healthy standing on a forum.

How you can master the forums with article marketing…

[STEP 1]: Decide upon the keywords and phrases you will be targeting.

I suggest you go after the long-tail keywords in your niche.

[STEP 2]: Produce articles around these long-tail keywords.

Quite a few forums will let you submit articles, in which case you can easily publish standard three hundred to six hundred word articles along with your bio.

A few might permit you to publish your content in the actual discussion thread, therefore enabling forum members to comment and make suggestions on the subject. On the other hand some forum webmasters reserve an exclusive forum section just for posting long, in-depth content.

Even though the article won’t receive as much traffic right from members reading it, once submitted to these so-called “knowledge base” sections it’ll nevertheless be indexed by the search engines – granted that it meets a required level of uniqueness – and possibly rank well in the SERPs.

Insider’s Tip: Dull articles don’t get outlined. When your article doesn’t generate buzz in the forum, it won’t remain at the top of the thread list for long. If it’s an active forum, it will be pushed lower and eventually disappear from the front page within hours.

The answer? Produce helpful articles that are marked by controversy. Take a sturdy stand. Express strong opinions and ideas. Never be fearful of polarizing individuals.

Without a doubt, polarizing your target audience is exactly what will retain your forum post at the top of the category listing for days, receiving tons of responses.

If you wish to find out what subject areas polarize or inspire individuals, simply go to your corresponding forums and browse the threads most abundant in views and also with the most responses. Typically niche trends obtain lots of interest. Subjects built around opinions divide people. “Fellow member crisis” plots-type also receive attention. But really don’t shill to produce drama… and remember that people associated with a forum drama might be disconsidered by others.

Surely there are community forums that don’t permit articles to be published. When faced with such a strict editorial policy and the forum really deserves your marketing efforts, you can still promote using articles – the only requirement is that your article must sound more conversational.

Simply put, you must write articles that appear to be personal replies and not distinct raw blocks of text stripped from existing articles. The easiest method to work with this strategy is to write article tailored on your niche’s FAQs.

For instance, for an Online marketing discussion board you could develop articles targeting concerns like:

• Just how do I generate traffic to my website?
• What should I consider when writing a sales letter?
• How to go about finding keywords that convert?

Since these rookie issues are so frequently asked, persistent members usually copy’n paste their prior responses, merely to avoid keying in the solution to the exact same question again and again. You can adopt this tactic also – but your own responses are going to be conversational articles formulated around your targeted long-tail keywords.

End of Part 1, go to the second part of his guide on how to implement article marketing in forums.