Finding Forums That Cover Your Niche

Forums that cover your niche subject are an important resource that can help you build your reputation and run your business.

You can use them for:

• Networking with people who share your interests

• Getting content ideas by watching which conversations attract the most interest

• Driving people directly to your website by putting links in your forum posts and signature

• Getting questions answered by people who share your interests

• Finding potential content contributors

• Finding partners who can help you commercialise your website e.g. by jointly writing books, creating courses, etc.

• Getting valuable back links to your website from links in your posts

• Find people who can help you with your business e.g. web designers, marketers, etc.

• And of course you can find customers for your products and services

Forum Etiquette

Over the years a forum etiquette has emerged which ensures forums run smoothly and are not abused by marketers trying to hijack discussions to push their products.

• Before participating in a forum spend time following some threads to get a feel for how it works

• Try to make thoughtful and valuable comments

• Avoid pointless and meaningless comments like ‘good post’, ‘I agree’, ‘lol’, etc

• Avoid blatantly promoting yourself, your website or your products

• Choose the best forums and participate regularly

How Can You Find Relevant Forums

To find forums dedicated to a specific subject my first port of call is Big-Boards (www.big-boards.com). This site has a searchable directory which lists hundreds of forums covering every conceivable subject. Each forum listing includes nationality, number of posts, number of members and whole load of other stats

If I can't find a relevant forum on Big Boards, I do a Google and Yahoo search. The best way to find a forum covering a particular subject is to do a series of searches. For example if i wanted to find a forum about wine the searches i would do are:

• wine forum

• wine discussion board

• wine bulletin board

• wine discussion forum

• wine vbulletin

• wine phpbb

Summary

Forums are great resource for content publishers and tend to be underutilised. Once you find a forum which covers your subject and has good quality contributors start building your credibility and authority by posting valuable information. The moe you give the more you will receive.

Enjoy!