As a matter of fact there is. Yet this particular form of Free website promotion doesn’t make the headlines and requires no software to install, no backdoor tricks into the search engines, and it’s totally free. What is it?

Now, Before I reveal this technique, I want you to promise you won’t go near the delete button and you’ll give me a chance to lay this thing out to you. Promise? O.K. The Technique is “Posting to Forums.” In the first couple days of “Going Live,” you can hope to attract a couple of hundred visitors, at the least. This will be small in comparison to the knowledge you’ll attain, by allowing the members of these forums to critique your site. You’ll then be able to make whatever changes necessary before the search engines crawl your site. Having your site critiqued by experienced marketers, For Free, Well, Let’s just say, “You Can’t Beat The Price.”

If you’ve never visited or posted in a forum. Don’t be intimidated. These are people no different than you and I. Merely a group of like minded individuals seeking to get answers to their questions or providing answers to questions asked. Usually on a specific topic or topics.

Side Note: Before you Post make sure you read the rules for posting. Read some of the posts being made. Stay on Topic, You’ll get the hang of it in no time.

Once you get the hang of it you’ll want to make sure you don’t go announcing your new site to every other forum you come across. This is viewed as Board Spamming and is definitely a No No. There are boards that will accept this sort of post but on a whole you’ll have to remain on topic and wait for the opportunity to legitimately slide your announcement in. Sometimes outright and others in your signature.

Finding forums to fit your needs is easy. Just type “forums” into your favorite search box, you can then refine your search from there. Check to see if the list of sites meets your needs and go from there.

As a newcomer you’ll want to keep your initial posts simple. Remember to mind your manners. Be polite and friendly and always maintain the prescence of the Business Professional that you are. When the time is right, simply ask them to look at your site. You’ll recieve a pretty good cross section of positive and critical comments. Don’t go getting your shorts all in a knot because someone has posted, what appears to you to be, a negative comment. Keep in mind that you’ve enlisted them to critique your site. Be prepared for all the comments. On a whole, the folks in these forums want to help. However, from time to time you may run into those that seem to have nothing good to say about anything or anybody. Take all comments “Buffet Style.” Take what you want and leave the rest.

Initially you may want to go look at one or two other members sites and supply some feedback before asking to have yours looked at. This will give you valuable insight. What you may find wrong with someone elses site, you can apply it to your own and make the necessary changes. When looking for a site to be looked at, look for the post who has little or no responses to it. By responding to their post they’re likely to express their gratitude by visiting your site when you ask in your post. This technique may seem a bit sly but nonetheless effective. Just don’t get in the habit of operating in this manner.

You’ll not get a ton of traffic from forums but you will have engaaged in an effective form of site promotion and all forms of site promotion need to be entered into the mix. As has been said by someone other than myself, “You don’t need to get it right, You just need to get it going.” By applying the above you will have “Indeed Got It Going!”

Forums are a great place to make new friends and interact with those that are trying to accomplish pretty much the same things we are. So keep things rolling right along by “Posting to Forums!”

As an online marketer, you face the challenge of building trust and loyalty without the benefit of a physical handshake, a face-to-face meeting, or even a smile. To this end online forums can provide an excellent way to build meaningful relationships with people and attract new customers.

By joining a forum in your area of expertise, you gain access to a community that shares your interests as well as a pool of potential customers. There are countless forums dealing with just about any topic imaginable.  The vast majority of forums do not charge you a fee to register or post messages.  Many allow you to include with your posts self-promotional “signatures” that you can use to promote your business and link to your website.

A good way to locate a forum relevant to your line of business is to do a keyword search using one of the major search engines.  Why a major search engine?  A Google search for “website marketing forum,” for example, will not only return dozens of relevant forums on website marketing, but will also give you an indication of how highly they are regarded by the search engine giant, as gauged by how high they rank for that key phrase.  Forums that rank higher on the search engine result pages (SERPs) are the ones of which you’ll want to become a member.

Forums allow you to share knowledge and gain reputation as an expert in your field.  Offering concrete advices that are immediately useful to other people is an especially effective marketing technique. Once you’ve gained credibility in your field, you will be sought after for your professional expertise without your having to promote yourself.

Participating in forums is also an excellent way to humanize yourself and your business.  When people deal with you, they’ll know that they’re dealing with a real person, not a nameless, faceless business entity.  By staking your reputation online, you demonstrate that you are willing to accept some degree of accountability for your actions.

If you’re a generally honest and agreeable person in the real life, there is no reason to hide behind a company name when conducting business online. The personal qualities that make you likable in the real world will also make you likable in cyberspace.  Indeed, establishing meaningful relationships online is a lot like making friends in the real world. After all, on the other side of the terminal is a real person with real emotions just like you.

Another key to meaningful online relationships is to create an atmosphere of openness and transparency.  Although you normally use a nickname to start and respond to posts in public forums, you should use your real name in private correspondences. It is good practice to begin your messages with a salutation, addressing them by their real name whenever possible. A little courtesy can go a long way in building loyalty and trust.

Apart from selling your personal qualities, you must have something of value to offer to people– and at prices that are fair to everyone! On a venue where your personal reputation is not at stake, you can price a widget for any amount you want and hope someone will come along and buy it.  When you do business on forums, however, you must be extra value-conscious when pricing your product or service. If you overprice your widget, you risk receiving flames from other members that could harm your reputation. This is why it’s so important to research what other members are charging for a similar widget and to price yours competitively.  Often you’ll end up charging lower prices to members of your forum than to other customers with whom you have not developed as close a relationship for the same widget.

Building positive relationships is about making people feel important. Just as you want to feel good for having sold your product or service, people want to feel good for having bought it. This is why it is so important to promptly answer their questions and attend to their concerns. Listen to their inputs and incorporate their ideas into your business practices.  This is how you make your customers a part of your team.  It’s not a stretch to speak of your customer as a member of your team. When you really think about it, no business can exist without its customers.  Teamwork is not limited to interacting with other members of your company.  It also takes teamwork to build a constructive, mutually beneficial relationship between you and your customers.

Chat – What forum isn’t complete without a chat room. PHPBB2, for one. Yes, you have to install one yourself but the IRQ chat add-on is certainly worth it and it works much better than some that I have seen on sites that contain this feature. EZBoard is one such site that comes to mind.

Who Is Online – As an administrator you already know who is online at any given time. Unfortunately, the “stock” version of this feature shows people who have been online only for the past five minutes. Fortunately, a mod has been developed that can extend this feature to fifteen minutes or later. Is this important? No, but it gives you a more accurate picture of what your real time traffic figures really are.

Google Ads – A special mod has been developed to permit you to run and display banner ads, much like Google’s AdSense. Hey, you want to make a little bit of money off of your site now don’t you?

Smilies – You do love emoticons, don’t you? Well even if you don’t, they can certainly spice up any forum. Lots of neat “paks” have been developed, some containing animated icons too. Especially nice to have around Yuletide for easy access to Christmas themed emoticons.

Disable Board Message – Being able to customize the message you have posted when your site is down is essential to clueing in your members as to the time when your forum will once again become activated. This mod does just that.

There are numerous other mods and styles from which you can choose. Some are easy to install while others are moderately so. A small group of mods are difficult to install and will take you well over one hour to complete. Choose your battles wisely and be careful when you install updates to PHPBB2. By not selecting a “patch” file update you can erase any modifications you made in just moments.