One of the best ways to drive targeted traffic to your blog for free is posting on forums. Posting on forum is very easy and free to join. You can increase the exposure of your blog post by posting regularly on forums when you include link to your website in your signature. How it works is rather simple, you post on forums and you include link to your blog or website in the signature. Every time you post reply or start a new thread you signature will appear under every post. Other members and visitor can see the link and click on to visit your website.
Forums are great place to have a discussion with people with similar interest. That is the reason why visitors coming to our blog from forums is very targeted although the number of visitors may not be very large as compared to other traffic sources.
Reason why you should use forums to drive traffic to your blog
- Becoming a member is free. There is no need to pay anything to join forums. There are lots of forums online from various niches like forums about SEO, web design, marketing, health and fitness. To join all you will need is a valid email address.
- Traffic coming from forums is high quality. Forums exist for people to exchange ideas, experience and advice with people who have similar interests. Forums exist for people not for search engines. People go to forums to find information they need. Visitors coming from forums tend to return more than visitors coming from other sources, have lower bounce rate which mean they view more than page and stay longer than other visitor.
- Visitors coming from forums are interested in the content of your blog. Learning new things is why people join forums. If you are valuable member of the community and contribute regularly other forum members are forum guests will click on the link and visit your blog. If they like your content they will stay longer and read more than one post and on come back regularly to read your new posts.
- You can learn new and usefull things from forums. Forums can be excellent traffic source from your blog, but also you can learn many new things from forums. Even if you don’t drive much traffic from forums you should by all means participate. You can learn new things and connect with people who have similar interests. Forums can also give you ideas about what to write about and what is more trending.
- You can boost your search engine rankings. You can also increase the page rank of your blog if you post on forums that have dofollow links. However backlinking for SEO is secondary and you should not select the blogs based on do they or do they not have dofollow links.
Tips for driving traffic to your blog using forums
Forums are a great way to drive targeted traffic to your blog if you do it properly. If you think that just joining many forums as possible and posting as many times as possible just to have links to your website displayed is all that it takes to have lots of visitors coming to your blog may not be the proper way to do it. Here are some tips to help you make most of your hard work invested in forum posting in terms of driving traffic to your blog.
- Make a list of forums you should join. There are hundreds, even thousands of forums online that you can join and start posting to promote your blog. You should find forums where your target audience hangs out. If your blog is about web design then you should search for forums about web design where you can connect with people who might be interested in reading you r content. Start posting on several forums and after some time check which ones bring you most traffic and concentrate your efforts there.
- Check the forum rules. All forums have posting rules and posting guidelines which all members must follow. Before you start posting check the rules for posting on the forum. If you violate the rules you may be banned from the forum, which you want to avoid.
- Create a profile. After you join any forum you will need to create a profile. Creating your profile is important step. You should include as many details as possible in your profile, choose a username that is unique and provide a link and description of your blog if that is possible. As a name for your profile you can choose your blog name.
- Create your signature. Signature is your tool for driving traffic to your blog using forums. Whenever you post something on forum, responding to a thread or start new thread you signature will appear below every post. This is where you can place a link to your website that other members and guests can click and visit your blog. Before you create your signature you should read signature guidelines about what is allowed your signature to contain. Some forums put restrictions on number of line, links and charecters that a signature can contain. Your signature should be well written and invite others to visit your blog offering to give them more information on the topics that interest them.
- Start posting. To have the link to your blog displayed in front of your target audience you should start posting new thread and responding to threads started by other members. The more you post the more the link to your blog will be displayed in front of your target audience. You can start posting by replying on threads started by other members and try to posts at least several responses every day.
- Post useful information. When posting on forums you should not spam but post useful information. You need to be useful member of the community and add value to the forum by sharing information that may help other members find answers to their questions and solve problems. Don’t post just for the sake of posting to have the link to your blog. If you establish yourself as someone who has knowledge about the topic of discussion oter members will want to visit your blog. If you write useless and posts unrelated to the topic you will be considered spammer by others in the forum. If your blog has posts that may answer to some questions posted by other members you can include link to the post in your reply.
When it comes to making money with a blog driving targeted traffic to a blog is the greatest challenge. Forums can help you increase the exposure of your blog and reach your targeted audience. If you are not using forums for driving traffic to your blog then you are missing many interested readers who might be interested in the content of your blog.
