Forum:

A Forum is a website which provides a platform for users with a common interest in a specific subject to exchange their opinions about this subject, to share experiences, to seek and find help and support or to find new, like minded friends or business partners. There will hardly be a subject for which there is no Internet forum.

The usual Forum procedure is that a user either has to say or ask something new or he takes up an already existing communication and adds to it. In the first case he posts his statement/question with a relevant subject line and other users can post a reply. There can also be replies to a reply.

The sum of original post and all replies to this post is called a thread. Threads are archived under their original subject line, are organized into categories and can be accessed by Forum users from the summary page.

Screenshot from www.warriorforum.com , one of the most popular Internet marketing Forums. Here you see the home page with the various categories. Opening the category “Warrior Special Offers Forum” (3^rdfrom top) leads to the list of individual threads as can be seen here:

The list shows how many replies were posted to the original post, how often the thread was opened and read by users and when was the last posting and by whom. Clicking on an thread entry of interest opens the whole thread with all the postings to it, most recent ones on the top.

This is the example of a thread with it’s first two postings.

In most Forums visitors can only read the threads. In order to post themselves they need to register as Forum members.

Forums are of considerable interest to Internet Marketers out of several reasons:

• Research in niche Forums is one of the best ways to find out what people need, want and therefore probably will or will not buy. So if you consider to create a product check in Forums of your intended niche if there is a demand or if a demand could be created

• In most Forums direct advertisement is forbidden and frowned upon. But as you can see in the 3rd picture above a member is allowed to display a signature with a link to his website at the end of his postings. So visiting Forums and posting, like answering peoples’ questions, is a method of getting your link out in the web. This can create direct traffic by Forum visitors and indirect traffic as the link popularity of your website rises and consequently its rank in the search engines. Beware of spamming , though, by posting irrelevant or senseless stuff just to get your link displayed. This will harm your reputation and you can easily get banned. The more helpful and interesting your posting is the more visitors will click on your link to find out more on your website.

• Adding a Forum page to one’s own website is a great way of adding new and original content without having to do much for it. This will be rewarded by search engines if done right.

[Forum  is of Latin origin meaning marketplace or public place]

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