Hi! I'll be posting a series of articles that I hope you'll find helpful. Please feel welcome to post feedback or ask any questions that the article may inspire. ======================================== How To Make Profit Through Public Forums ======================================== A lot of people start out online selling affiliate programs, and that's okay! When you think about it, brick and mortar stores are a lot like affiliate programs. They don't actually produce what they sell. They sell someone else's stuff. Same concept, so the concept itself is solid. So, why is it that so many people who have a solid concept are having such trouble making a profit? Because they use methods that are ineffective. No one uses ineffective methods on purpose. They use those methods because it's what they see everyone else doing and think it's the way to go about selling online. A very common example is the way people post to public forums. Let's look at some examples. ========================================== EXAMPLE #1: Hi (name) Will you be my friend? Get noni juice today and join my downline. www.my-noni-site.com/id?4509576340958475 Get tons of traffic here; www.my-traffic-site.com/id?4978305457 John Doe ========================================== This is a blatant ad and no one is going to respond to it. That sort of message, in Adland, will get ignored. At other forums, the moderator would remove it from the board. ========================================== EXAMPLE #2: Hi (name) Great post. Great forum. Thanks for sharing John Doe Get NONI juice today and join my downline. www.my-noni-site.com/id?4509576340958475 Get tons of traffic here; www.my-traffic-site.com/id?4978305457 ========================================== In this type of post, "John" is comlimenting someone. But, really, the post doesn't contribute anything except a pat on the back. Pretty soon, people start thinking "That John Doe never has anything to say. He probably just posts to get his affiliate url up there again." Everyone will be polite to John. But they won't click his links. ========================================== EXAMPLE #3: Hi (name) I couldn't help replying to your post. Yes, I know that there is a lot of people talking about these health drinks. But, that does not make them a scam. Through all of time, there have been products that experienced a craze of sorts. In 1953, the top item on people's Christmas Wish lists was a hula hoop. Were those scams? Of course not. A "craze" is really just an indication of a mindset in any given block in time. I'd like to think that all the people talking about health drinks these days means that we are more conscious of our health today than we were in the past. When ever there is a heated debate, such as this thread about health drinks, it's a given that there are strong emotions on both sides. I personally think the people who are the loudest protestors probably have not tried them, and are really protesting all the blatant ads by people that have not learned good marketing techniques. The truth is that illness and aging have a lot to do with free radicals in our bodies, and a lot of these health drinks have high antioxidant properties that combat free radicals. Some are overpriced. Other's aren't. Some are better than others. It's no different than any product on the market. But - I don't like all the blatant advertising any better than you do. I just don't think the methods people use to promote something necessarily make the product a scam. Just my two cents... thanks for reading it. John Doe Get a free side by side comparison of the top 5 health drinks www-my-natural-health-site.com ========================================== We have a clear winner here. Do you see the difference? The third post is not a blatant ad. There is NO ONE that would find the third post annoying because John is truly interacting. For that matter, anyone that has been thinking about looking at health drinks will probably check out John's page before they would check out any of the blatant ads. And, by taking a little time to create a one page review of the top drinks, John has made it easier for people that are interested in health drinks to choose which one they'd like to try. If he's smart, he's signed up as an affiliate of all five of them. Of course, "John" does not have to limit himself to just posting into threads about natural products. As long as he is truly interacting, he can leave that signature file in his profile no matter where he posts. Perhaps John loves fishing, and also posts to a fishing forum. So John goes to the fishing forum regularly and swaps stories, and compares bait and lure, and talks about the best fishing lodges. The others grow to like and respect him because he's interacting, not posting blatant ads. And, in that crowd of fishing people, there are people that have been thinking of taking better care of their health. Because they have grown to like and respect John, they'll go check out his page before they'll respond to a stranger's blatant ad. Just like when a friend recommends a hair dresser or a restaurant. So, John is making a profit from his little review page while tons of other people are wondering why this Internet thing doesn't work. Erma Bombeck once said that we all walk around with an invisible sign hung around our necks. The sign says "Respect me." She's so right. When you post to forums, really and truly post to forums. Reply the way you would if it was your friend or your sister. Join in. Be you. It really does make a difference. ========================================== P.S. If you've received as many blatant ads as I have, would you do us both a favor? Send this article to your friends list or ask them to come join my friends list so we can all learn together. Thanks! ==========================================

Linda Great forum for all to digest. Thanks Linda

Perals of wisdom. I have to say that I agree with you 100%. The ability to tpye a response, that contributes is one that we all have, but seldom use. The interaction on each of our parts is so important to making forums such as these work. Often times I feel people read, but they might not digest the subject matter fully. They might feel that if they ask a question that others might ridicule them or think less of them. It migh also be that people are trying to participate but don't know what to say, so they say as little as possible. I have seen in may responses that the sig. file portion will often times be longer than the actual post. I haven't been here as long as a lot of people and perhaps this is how they think these forums are supposed to work. I for one would like to see a lot more interaction and questions being asked of the original creator of the post. Perhaps the sig. file that we each use should be alterd and just direct prople to our profiles, if people read what we have to say and find it to be a contribution of value then they will want to go view our profiles and learn more about us and what we have to offer. I wonder if that were to happen would we see as many one line posts. At any rate great thread and I hope to see many more.

Hi hon; The ability to tpye a response, that contributes is one that we all have, but seldom use. That could be. I actually suspect that Pareto's principle is showing itself. I suspect that 20% of the people post 80% of the content. I haven't been here as long as a lot of people and perhaps this is how they think these forums are supposed to work. Exactly - in a nutshell. And that's why I posted the article. In my first post (on my other forum) I'd made a comment about a letter I'd received from member David Cunningham on my first day. When I thanked him he replied that one thing he's learned is that no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. Those are very true words... and that's the sort of thing I'm hoping to teach here. Life is too short for any one person to make all the mistakes that can be made. My thought is that perhaps we can learn from each other. Perhaps the sig. file that we each use should be alterd and just direct prople to our profiles, if people read what we have to say and find it to be a contribution of value then they will want to go view our profiles and learn more about us.. One of my favorite "lists" from the olden days did that. No one was allowed to post a signature that was longer than a one line link. It was a great list. People actualy posted stuff worth reading, because if one's posts impressed the group, a lot of people clicked the link to find out more about the person that posted it. I was sad to see that list go. (Health problems of the list owner, not failure of thelist) : ) Linda

Hi Linda, Excellent, a top Forum you've start here. I might add, one that is truly needed. I believe part of the problem as with much of the Internet, lies with in the information that most Newbies are expoused to . Which is all you have to do is Promote, promote, promote, and our system will do the rest. Then they are given hundreds of places to go to do this (usually including a large list of forums), but Rarely are they given instructions on How to properly promote! They are given banners, blatant ads (maybe a solo)and some signature files. 98% of the time that's it. So it is hard to blame them. Hopefully though, your forum will help those lucky enough to stop here, to Learn not just the proper way of promoting in forums, but the most effective also. So thank you for sharing and I look forward to reading more of your posts. _________________________________ Increase your SE traffic, Visit these blogs & post a comment along with your Signature/URL Mastering the Masters- http://2-b.us/?i=12442/ Self Help & Improvement- http://2-b.us/?i=12443/ Free Mentoring- http://2-b.us/?i=10345/