4 Unusual (And Long Term) Ways to Promote Your Blog Using Forums

Every­one knows that using forum sig­na­tures is a good way to gen­er­ate some back­links. How­ever, there are other ways to use forums to your advantage.

The ideas I came up with in here are ideas that may take a lit­tle longer for you to accom­plish than the aver­age forum pro­mo­tion tac­tic. While you should always go with reg­u­lar forum post­ing, you should try and work your way towards com­plet­ing these strate­gies as they have very ben­e­fi­cial results.

Con­sider Your Reputation

Most forums, espe­cially vBul­letin pow­ered forums, have a rep­u­ta­tion sys­tem. The way to earn a high rep­u­ta­tion is to post help­ful posts and reply with use­ful com­ments. If you’re only focus­ing on post­ing for the sig­na­ture link, then chances are that your rep­u­ta­tion will remain low. This is a bad thing con­sid­er­ing mem­bers are more likely to click on your links if you have a high reputation.

There are plenty of ways to build up a rep­u­ta­tion on forums and start get­ting your blog rec­og­nized. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Wel­come new mem­bers as often as possible.
• Post funny/interesting thoughts in gen­eral discussions.
• Review mem­ber sub­mit­ted web­sites or projects (where applicable)
• Post related links and arti­cles in threads.
• Cre­ate help­ful and inter­est­ing new forum threads.
• Pro­vide great feed­back and suggestions.

Be care­ful of forums with neg­a­tive rep­u­ta­tion sys­tems. If you make an enemy, your rep­u­ta­tion could be held back by them low­er­ing it. Always try to find forums that go with­out the neg­a­tive rep­u­ta­tion. In addi­tion, never ask for rep­u­ta­tion, or com­plain about being neg­a­tive repped. This is a sure-fire way to lose respect and authority.

Another aspect of gain­ing rep­u­ta­tion is giv­ing it out. Peo­ple love being com­pli­mented and pos­i­tively rep­re­sented, so pos­i­tive rep­ping other mem­bers will make them twice as likely to rep you back. When choos­ing other mem­bers to give rep­u­ta­tion to, try and pick mem­bers who are inter­ested in your niche, and who seem to be reg­u­larly active.

The more rep­u­ta­tion you give out, the more those mem­bers will notice you. Just remem­ber that there is a limit to how much rep­u­ta­tion you can give in an hour, and you don’t want to give it out on a whim. Be gen­uine with your recommendations!

Spe­cial­ize in Your Niche’s Forum Category

If you have a blog about foot­ball, then join sports forums and become a reg­u­lar in the foot­ball cat­e­gory. If you join a forum about foot­ball, then become an expert in the offen­sive or defen­sive cat­e­gories. Always try to become an expert on the board con­tain­ing your website’s niche. If you want to estab­lish your­self, you can try:

• Cre­at­ing new threads in your niche’s forum.
• Answer­ing other mem­bers’ questions.
• Build­ing and expand­ing on dis­cus­sions using your own knowledge.
• Ask­ing interesting/well thought out questions.
• Find­ing and shar­ing related arti­cles and links.

Build­ing up posts in a spe­cific cat­e­gory will help you to estab­lish a name for your­self, and will get you rec­og­nized by an audi­ence inter­ested in your blog’s niche. The more you par­tic­i­pate in a par­tic­u­lar forum, the more you will build up your poten­tial cus­tomer base.

Con­sider Your “Cre­ated Threads” Count

Any­one can post on a forum. The mem­bers that get noticed are the ones that cre­ate new and inter­est­ing threads. This shows other mem­bers (and the admin­is­tra­tors) that you’re will­ing to go the extra mile in par­tic­i­pat­ing in the com­mu­nity. Cre­at­ing new threads on forums is a great way to increase your rep­u­ta­tion and recognition.

Be care­ful of how use­ful the threads that you cre­ate are. Mak­ing threads that are ben­e­fi­cial to the entire com­mu­nity will gain you more author­ity than threads that per­tain only to your­self. Some exam­ples of uni­ver­sally help­ful threads are:

• A recent announce­ment from a major web­site in that forum’s niche.
• Free resources that might be use­ful to members.
• An inter­est­ing “what if” scenario.

If you run out of ideas for thread cre­ation, look at other forums in your niche. What threads are most pop­u­lar on those forums? If you find one that hasn’t been posted on the forum you’re active on, then post it your­self. Remem­ber not to cre­ate too many threads at one time, lest you be marked as a spam­mer. It’s also impor­tant to main­tain the threads you cre­ate, reply­ing to other mem­bers com­ments and ques­tions and prompt­ing fur­ther discussion.

Cre­at­ing and main­tain­ing new threads is a fan­tas­tic way to get noticed by the com­mu­nity. In addi­tion, those who view your mem­ber sta­tis­tics will be impressed at your thread count, and will prob­a­bly be inter­ested in vis­it­ing your blog.

Become Friends with the Admins

Forum admin­is­tra­tors are friendly peo­ple, and if you become friends with them, you can gain perks that other mem­bers might not have. Even if you’re a lit­tle bit shy, there’s no rea­son not to leave a “what’s up?” or “great job” mes­sage on the administrator’s pro­file. You can also check to see if they have an instant mes­sag­ing client listed, and attempt to chat with them.

Get­ting to know the admin­is­tra­tor will help you in ways you can’t imag­ine. Admin­is­tra­tors always go to loyal and active mem­bers for favors, and per­form favors in return. Need a quick stum­ble or digg? Ask the forum admin and they’ll be happy to trade with you. Need to get a ser­vice com­pleted? Ask about mem­bers that can help out, and the admin will point you in the right direction.

How­ever, you don’t want to irri­tate the admin­is­tra­tor. If they don’t seem inter­ested in being friends, then move on to a dif­fer­ent forum, or focus on other promotional/beneficial tac­tics. Admin­is­tra­tors have sway over the com­mu­nity, and you don’t want to get one angry. Here are some more ideas for becom­ing friends with the admin­is­tra­tor of a forum:

• Make small talk — dis­cuss com­mon interests
• Offer to help with a small task that needs to be done for the forums
• Talk about projects and the sta­tus of your endeavors
• Ask them how they’re doing from time to time
• Be friendly and approachable

Those are the four unusual yet effec­tive ways to adver­tise your blog on forums. While these meth­ods take more time than your aver­age pro­mo­tional method, they come with major benefits.

Photo by Toni Verdú Carbó

Go to top