Although online business owners are being dazzled by social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, the old-style method of participating in highly-targeted forums or message boards is still one of the most effective traffic-generation methods used today. Your link can be prominently displayed in front of the exact audience you’re attempting to lure. Don’t overlook this strategy. You may be surprised with the results it still brings in.

These suggestions will ensure that you are using forums effectively and to the best advantage.

Choose wisely

Forums are extremely popular on the internet. You can more than likely find a forum related to just about any subject you can think of from fantasy baseball to purses. Because of the abundance of forums, you should be very picky when choosing which ones you’ll frequent and post on. This will save you time and allow you to achieve optimum results.

Basically you want to decide on a forum that relates either directly or indirectly to your niche, but there must be a connection. Otherwise, your posts will be just a time waster. In fact, the more you can “niche down” your topic, the most effective your marketing will be.

For instance, if you’re selling NASCAR memorabilia, then targeting a general sports forum may generate some results, targeting a fantasy football forum will probably get very little results, but finding a NASCAR forum will get the best results.

Read the Rules

Your next step after deciding on a forum to join would be to read the rules of the forum. There are forums that may not allow you to include a signature file (where you would put a link to your website) at all. Others have rules that dictate how many posts you need to have before you can add a signature file. Some allow zero marketing – so you’d skip those.

Once you read the rules, remember to always adhere to them no matter what. If you violate these rules in any way you may be pegged as a nuisance and kicked out of the forum, while possibly ruining your reputation and wasting your time.

As long as you’re a valued contributing member of the forum offering great advice and content, more often than not you will be able to include a link to your site in your posts.

Create a Compelling Signature File

After choosing a forum or two and familiarizing yourself with their rules, it is time to decide what you want your forum signature file to express about you. Since you want people to click through to your website, you need to make sure that your signature line is targeted and entices people to learn more about you.

This is a wise opportunity to utilize your copywriting skills. Make sure those one or two  sentences gets prospects attention and curiosity as well as alerts prospects that you may be able to solve a pending problem of theirs as well.

It is wise to test your signature file and tweak it to see which advertisement gets the best results. Keeping it fresh also gives the added benefit of attracting the eye to those who’ve gotten used to your old ads.

Build Trust

People may be a bit suspicious of new members when they first join a forum. There is a dynamic in any forum, and believe it or not, often cliques are formed. If you want to have hope of getting people to click on your signature file and eventually buy from you, you’ll need to earn their trust first.

There are many different ways to accomplish this, and you can get an idea for which way is best by looking at the profiles and posts of the most prolific and respected members.

Examples of how you may build trust with forum members include…

• Having a profile picture.
• Using a real name (or a real sounding pen name) as your username.
• Filling out general info in your profile like location or birthdate.
• Including some personal information in your profile bio, to make you seem like a real person that they can relate to.

People generally want to know something about who they are speaking to or considering doing business with.

Forums can be a source of highly-targeted web traffic when used smartly and correctly. Choosing a related forum, following the rules, creating a great signature file, and proving that you can be trusted are all excellent ways to ensure that you’ll get traffic to your website and benefit from increased “expert” status while networking in online communities.

The importance of a powerful squeeze page can’t be stressed enough. An excellent squeeze page can accomplish many things from building your list all the way to increasing your sales by leaps and bounds.

One of the primary reasons to have a squeeze page is to “squeeze” the email address out of your reader so you can use the information they provide to you for follow up marketing.

Used properly, your squeeze page has the power to boost your visitor-to-subscriber conversion rates allowing you to send follow-up communications that will then help convert your subscribers to buyers.

These 4 quick tips will be easy to implement getting you on the right track to success in no time.

K.I.S.S. It

Keep It Simple Silly. A squeeze page is meant to serve one purpose – to get subscribers to your list. Don’t clutter it up with other offers and affiliate links. As a matter of fact, it is better to have less on a squeeze page than to overwhelm your visitor with too many options.

Make your intent clear – do you want them to subscribe or click away? If your squeeze page is too cluttered your reader will not know what you want them to do. If you give them too many choices they won’t make one at all.

Compel Them

There are other people on the Internet offering basically the exact same things you are. All those other Internet marketers want your reader to sign up for their site too. So, what makes you so special? Why should they give you permission to continue to contact them?

Speak to your reader in terms they understand. Speak to their problems and their pain. Solve their issues and tell them what you want them to do.

Let your readers know exactly what to expect when they sign up for your list. What are the benefits to being on your list? Figure it out and then tell them how being on your list will solve every (fill in your area of expertise here) problem they have.

A Tip: Under Promise & Over Deliver –

You hear it all the time but it is so true. If you promise a weekly newsletter you’d better send them a newsletter every week or be prepared for the mass unsubscribe when you haven’t mailed them for months and your readers no longer remember who you are or why they subscribed in the first place.

Follow Up

A powerful squeeze page will make your prospect want what you’re offering so badly they don’t hesitate in giving you their name and email address.

We live in a society that loves immediate gratification. If you’ve offered an ebook or ecourse as an incentive for them to sign up to your list – give it to them immediately! Don’t make them wait for the information you’ve promised them. Use an autoresponder to send out the information right away. Then continue to send information and make offers to them.

Test, Tweak and Test Again

While we hope that every decision we make with our online business will result in enormous success, unfortunately, this is not always the case.

If the copy on your squeeze page doesn’t seem to be drawing your readers to sign up, you might need to take a look at how you’re driving traffic to your squeeze page. You might also split test multiple offers and see which one converts best.

Never be afraid to ask a mentor or someone with some background in Internet marketing their honest opinion of your squeeze page. Open your heart to what they have to say and what you need to hear. Then, make the necessary changes. It is often in our failures that we find our successes.

So there it is: K.I.S.S, Compel, Follow Up and Test

Now, go out and create the best squeeze page you can. It doesn’t have to be perfect but, it does have to exist to draw your readers into your list building process. You do this using persuasive copy that gives them a reason to opt-in.

Your conversion rate will increase as you make your page simpler and pleasing to look at and creating compelling, benefit driven copy. Don’t forget the “thank you” page once they’ve signed up!