Forum Marketing Has Many Powerful Faces

Forums and also forum marketing is extremely popular and getting even more popular. Websurfers have found out that meeting other people under mutual topic is useful, there is no filter between.

So it is fun, useful and a great way to get useful tips, traffic and incoming links to home business website.

1.The basic idea of the forum is to give and get useful information and motivation for our own businesses. All of us, who market an internet business understand how huge amount of tips it is needed to keep the business competitive. Forum marketing offers the best kind of tips, because they all are tested in praxis by approximately the same kind of people.

2. People, who post their experiences and ideas or ask questions, are highly motivated and eager to do better, all the time. This is important, because the attitude is, what makes the world goes around. This is why they spend so much time and energy here.

3.Some of the forums are extremely popular, among the most visited websites in the world. Think about the amount of marketers, who join these discussions and what an enormous opportunity that offers!

4.Forum marketing is one strategy, which works well if a participant honestly and actively asks and shares information. Forum is not an advertising media. That is a society, where members help members and that is the most effective way for all of us.

We all have the same target: to succeed better in our businesses by getting tips and advices. Ads we can see by surfing all over internet. We can use our sig files to get the reader a possibility to visit our site, if he will.

5.One strong benefit of forum marketing is, that an authority forum is the only place, where we can meet real internet gurus, marketers, who have succeeded extremely well in their businesses. Because those businesses are very similar to ours, we can ask and read their tips about various kind of topics.

Or read the posts of a certain successful marketer over a long period of time to be able to understand how he runs his business, how he reacts to certain changes in the market, how he comments to some other members tips. And this all is in our use day and night and almost in real time!

6.And more: with forum marketing we can build useful relationships with so many good marketers, build alliances and send private messages.

7.On the top of all above mentioned things, forum marketing builds useful backlinks and bring steady flow of visitors. These links and visitors are hot. They are so targeted than a visitor can be.

8.Forum marketing offers one thing, that no other methot can offer. You can build credibility or trust, become a brand name among internet marketers. But you have to plan your every single post, because there is always a danger, that with bad posts you actually build an anti-brand.

9. And the last benefit is that a writer must search engine optimize the posts with the right keyphrases to be able to raise high in search engines search results.

When the posts are well planned, it is possible to build an image with these posts, which is unique. That image is very important, because that attracts the target group or dig the right kind of visitors to you. That image also builds the credibility, which is needed in the long term.


About the Author

Juhani Tontti offers here more information about Forum Marketing and 3 free ebooks!,

10 Reasons For Exchanging Links

1) TARGETED LINKS

If you exchange links with websites that are related to the topics covered in yours (highly recommended), then visitors that click on your links will be targeted. They will already be interested in the site that you exchanged links with and so will be looking for more information on the topic.

2) IT'S FREE

Exchanging links is free (the only cost being that you have to put a reciprocal link on your website). This means that you will be getting targeted traffic for no cost at all, whereas you could be paying for targeted visitors from pay-per-click search engines, ezine ads etc.

3) LINK POPULARITY

Each time you exchange links with a website it means that there is one more site linking to you. Now that link popularity is becoming more important with search engine rankings, it is essential to build your link popularity.

And what better way to do it than by exchanging links? You increase your link popularity and get free targeted advertising at the same time.

4) BUILDS YOUR SITES RESOURCES

If your website offers resources to its visitors, then the websites that you exchange links with can be added to those resources.

In this way you can build up your resource directory with the reciprocal links, thus offering an extra service/feature for your visitors as well as advertising your website at the same time.

5) QUICK RESPONSE

Once you have exchanged links with a website, then you can start receiving visitors from that link straight away. In contrast, if you submit your website to the search engines, then it might take weeks or months to even get listed. This is a good way for new websites to quickly build a flow of traffic to their sites.

6) GUARANTEED LINK

Once you have exchanged links with a website, that link is guaranteed. You know that your link will always be displayed on that site, as long as you continue to display their link.

If the webmaster that you exchanged with decides to delete your link, then you can delete theirs, and vice versa.

7) WEBMASTERS ARE HAPPY TO EXCHANGE LINKS

Most webmasters are happy to exchange links with websites relevant to theirs. Remember, the exchange will hopefully bring traffic for both websites, and most webmasters are more than happy to receive more traffic.

8) PERMANENT LINK

With a link exchange you get a link on a website related to yours that won't expire. Unlike search engines or FFA links pages, your link can't expire or be pushed off the bottom of the list and so no re-submission is necessary.

The only time your link could become inactive is if the webmaster decides to delete your link, in which case you can delete theirs.

9) CUSTOMISABLE

You should be able to submit your website title and a short description for the exchange.

Obviously, it is up to the webmaster who you are exchanging links with to decide exactly what is written, but if you are not happy, it should be negotiable - remember you have the bargaining power of placing a customised link for them on your site.

If your link is being placed in a resource directory you should also be able to choose an appropriate category for your link to be placed in.

10) FAIR SWAP

A link exchange should be a fair swap. Don't try to take advantage of a webmaster in a link exchange and vice versa. For example, if your link is going to have a description, then put a description for the reciprocal link.

If you place a website's link on your main page, then expect your link on their main page (this may not be the case, however, if your website receives significantly less traffic than the one you are linking to - be careful and be honest!)

SUMMARY

Link exchanging is a free way to quickly receive targeted traffic, whilst building your link popularity and adding extra resources to your website. You should receive a permanent, customised link, in exchange for the same on your site.

In exchanging links you may meet other webmasters who run websites similar to yours who you can partner with later on for ad swaps etc. This is a great way to help yourself while helping others at the same time.

I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.


About the Author
Michael Biehn, SEO Consultant.

Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services.com

Link Popularity is Everything

If you have an online business, you probably spend most of your time fretting over your link popularity. Link popularity has become the most important factor for determining your search engine ranking. You need to know what link popularity is, why it is so important, and how to increase the number of inbound links to your website without spending 10 hours per day exchanging links.

Simply put, the link popularity is defined as the number of sites that are linking to your site. Some websites have thousands or even millions of sites linking to them, while others might have only a few. The search engines use the number of inbound links your site has as a measure of how important your site is, which translates into your search engine ranking.

The actual number of links to your site is not the only variable used to calculate your link popularity. The search engines also examine the relevance of the links to the subject matter of your site. For example, if a website that sells vitamins has 4,000 inbound links, but the source of most of the links are websites that have nothing to do with vitamins, then the algorithm that search engines use to determine link popularity will take that into account, and the link popularity score will not be very good.

It is possible for a website with a relatively small number of quality inbound links to be ranked higher than a site with a bunch of irrelevant or insignificant links. If I have a website that offers quotes for auto insurance, and I have 800 quality inbound links, then I might receive a much higher search engine ranking than another mortgage site that has 3,000 links that stem from link farms or Free For All (FFA) pages.

If you try to acquire inbound by using link farms or FFA pages, not only will it hurt your search engine ranking, but you might get permanently removed from the search engine listings. Links farms are sites where you can instantly exchange links with all the sites listed in that directory. FFA pages are pointless link directories. The search engines usually discount any links that come from either of these sources.

One way to improve your link popularity is simply by advertising. If your site provides a meaningful service or sells popular products, people will link to you after you start advertising and your online business becomes popular.

You should also submit articles to article submission directories, and you can also submit your press releases to press release submission services. You are allowed to include a link to your website at the bottom of the article or press release. So, as your articles and releases are put into circulation, you will receive a lot of quality links. Also, you can submit your website to bloggers for their review by submitting to sites such as Blogitive.

You might want to join a link exchange so that you can trade links with other sites, but the links you will receive are usually worthless. Instead, you should focus on advertising (such as pay-per-click), submitting articles and press releases, and submitting to blogs or blog review sites.

I hope you now understand what you need to do to improve your link popularity. It can take years to build solid link popularity. Just make sure you follow the procedures outlined in this article, stay away from FFA pages and link farms, and you should do fine.


About the Author
Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make free HTML forms.

SEO 2007: The Magnificent 6 of Link Building

As with any past-present or foreseeable search engine optimization strategies, effective link building is where the dust settles. If content is known to be the king, then linking would be no less then its throne. If your website is providing compelling content about a product which people would like to link to, but it is not visible or accessible to the users, then you may be lagging behind in adopting a strong link building strategy. As major search engines are pushing for high quality in-bound links as one of the major ranking factor, most webmasters and SEO Services remain jumbled till date about successful link building strategies. In this article, I have discussed link building techniques in an elaborated manner, ready to be adopted for any SEO campaign in the year 2007.

What are the different types of Links?

Deep Links or Internal links
In simple words, deep links or internal links are pages to which the HOME page of a website points to. For example a website may have pages like: PRODUCTS, ABOUT US, CONTACT US, SITE MAP, FAQ and any other service specific page. Your goal should be to analyze all the deep links of a website and make sure that they are:

a) Properly accessible by other pages
b) Should not be broken
c) Redirected for any 404 error

Full fill these requirements and you have achieved a crucial aspect of building strong infra-structure of a website, geared up for getting inbound links.

Back Links or Inbound Links
Back Links or Inbound Links are links by other websites to your Home page or Deep Links. All major search engines single out quality in-bound links as one of the key factor for ranking a website higher on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). The democratic nature of Google PR (Page Rank) is solely based on the number and quality of these inbound or back links. Higher the number of relevant back links, higher goes the PR, which in turn helps your website rank good on SERPs.

Link Building Strategies

Natural Linking Strategy
When you genuinely like some service, product, article or any other material over the web, it is more likely that you would like to share it with your friends over blogs, forums or online-communities. Your referral of that product on blogs or forums for the sheer purpose of appreciating the service (as you are not an employee of that firm or in any way related to it) makes it a NATURAL LINK for that company. Natural linking is something which search engines prefer, as it does not involve linking methods which may be controversial or are prone to get spoiled.

Reciprocal Linking Strategy
With this kind of linking, website A's link can be placed on website B, in return for website B's link to be placed on website A. In other words, it is a kind of an agreement which two parties make for building strong partnerships for promoting a specific product or service. Reciprocal linking does not come easy, as, disagreements may arise regarding:

a. Placement of individual links
b. Removal of links without notification
c. The time period of retaining individual links

Google does not prefer reciprocal linking and therefore it is slowly fading away. But if properly executed, this strategy can give you some important in-bound links and can give your rankings, a push!.

Deep Linking Strategy
As the term is self explanatory, this type of linking involves other websites getting linked to the inner pages or deep links of your website. A common practice by search engine optimizers is that they put too much emphasis on promoting the HOME page of any website. It is important to get more links to the HOME page in order to increase its PR, but, it is equally imperative to get your website's deep links promoted and marketed in the same manner. In that way, not only your HOME page would be getting a high PR and ranking, but your inner pages would be getting important clicks and visits as well. That will in turn give your site a strong backbone of High PR individual pages as whole and ranking them higher in SERPs.

Submissions
One of the foremost step in link building is the submission of you website to search engines and directories like Google, Msn, Lycos, JoeAnt, Yahoo, Dmoz etc. The basic purpose of submissions is to get your website indexed by all the major search engines and directories for appropriate categories they may offer. The only hitch is the time factor regarding reviewing and indexing your site, which varies from site to site.

Paid Inclusions
Paid submissions or inclusions to web directories carry a cost of submission, but, this cost is compensated with quick indexing of the website in their categories. Directories like Yahoo, Skaffe, Looksmart and Inktomi offer paid inclusions services of varying costs. If budget permits, this method should be given serious consideration to gain substantial incoming links.

Article marketing
Web searchers are hungry for information. Feeding them with authentic, factual and detailed piece of information can dramatically increase your website's popularity in the circles. Article marketing can be one such linchpin of your search engine optimization strategy. You can create keyword targeted, information rich articles for your prospective customers, in order to lure them to your business domain. Be care full in embedding website links of your website, as it is preferable to lead you prospective customers to the deep links of your website and ultimately making them stay and pluck more information from other pages.

Conclusion
Effective and clean link building will play a decisive role in getting tons of quality traffic to your website in the year 2007. If your website hosts lucrative content for both users and search engine, then getting it properly linked can get you higher ranks and profits of incredible magnitude. Link Building is like the Genie of the Magic Lamp, completely at your disposal. Exploiting it properly will remain the core for any successful Search Engine Optimization campaign in the near future.

About the Author
Adeel Ahmed Khero is a web marketing consultant for Centric Source, an SEO offshore outsourcing firm. CS or http://www.centricsource.com specializes in outsourcing multitude of services including: Search Engine Optimization, PPC campaign management, link building strategies and conversion tracking. Visit http://www.centricsource.com/Advantage.html to discover the benefits of Offshore Outsourcing & Graphic Design at http://www.logoguru.co.uk

Link Popularity Should be Top Priority For Your Blog

Link popularity is nothing to sneeze at. If you're building a website of any kind, you need it. The question is, how do you build the link popularity that makes you rise in the search engines?

Well, there are several ways. Here are just a few:

1. Article Marketing
2. Link Reciprocity
3. Link Purchasing
4. Social Networking
5. Blogging

You could, of course, build a website and just hope that other webmasters like you well enough to link to you. But that is an unreliable method for a few reasons:

1. You can't force webmasters to link to you
2. To get webmasters to link to you voluntarily you'll have to provide them with maximum benefit, which is possible but unless you are the top-notch in your industry and you know it this is not as reliable as some people would have you believe
3. Some webmasters will not link to you no matter how much quality content you have unless you link back to them and you should know that reciprocal links aren't as valuable as one-way links so that would defeat the purpose (NOTE: I'm not saying reciprocal links are bad, just not as valuable as one-way links)

While you can get one-way links to your website that are valuable links by relying on other webmasters to see the value you offer, to count on that method alone would be disastrous. For one thing, even if every website in the world linked to yours, not all of them would benefit you because in order for one-way links to have maximum benefit they need to be from websites with a high PageRank. That adds another kink in your garden hose, doesn't it?

In other words, if you want to build link popularity, you need to rely on a number of methods to grow your website's ranking and not just rely on one method. In my opinion, one method stands out above all others as the quickest and most effective method for building link popularity: Blogging.

Here's how it works:

1. Each blog post is a single page in the search engines
2. Every time you link from your blog post to your website you are building a one-way link
3. If the blog is on your domain name, links to your website will benefit you more at Yahoo and MSN
4. If the blog is on a separate domain name, links to your website will benefit you at all of the search engines

Build link popularity through your blog using anchor text and signature lines. In your anchor text, take a keyword and make that a link two or three times in the body of your blog post. In your signature line, make the signature itself the name of your website or the URL, your actual website address. Every time you do that, you are building link popularity. Go to http://www.marketleap.com and you can measure your link popularity and even look at historical trends. Make link popularity a priority for your blog today.


About the Author
Allen Taylor is the owner of Taylor and Associates, a full-service content provider. He also manages a local small business directory in South Central Pennsylvania, ghostwrites e-books for a worldwide list of clients and manages several commercial blogs. Additionally, he manages Articles.pn.

Article Directories or Link Directories: Options for Webmasters

While searching for optimal solutions when it comes to promoting websites, webmasters face lots of questions. Among them are questions about method of promotion to choose, time consuming factor, cost of promotion etc. The most important decision, nonetheless, reverts to choosing a method of website promotion. A common practice is to use available online resources such as web directories that provide links from their pages to the listed websites.

But even after preference was given to directory submissions (no matter paid or free), here are still two major things to consider / options to choose from: promote website through article directories or submit a request for link inclusion to link directories.

In general both ways are good when webmaster's request has been approved positively and as result - an incoming link to website - was created.

We need to mention here that the major purpose of website promotion is to put your website as higher as possible on the total scale of high-ranked websites, in other words to make it appear among the first pages and as closer as possible to the top when search engines return to users search results for keywords requested. Being at the top of the search results means more visitors to the website, and therefore better business.

To appear at this desired top a website needs to be known in the "online world", which means it has to have links from other resources suggesting this site. And here we come back to the need of having such links. (It also should be mentioned that websites with unique and useful content with time become popular without specially organized promotions, but during the first steps in their "life" a web promotion is vital for any online resource).

Between article and link directories the simplest way would be to choose the last one - link directory. Compare to article directory link directory submission is less time consuming as it requires only brief description of the website (keywords, URL and title) to be put and of course accurate filling of the forms. Webmaster then waits for approval, and if positive - the job is done.

On the contrary, promoting through article directories requires more dedication simply because article directories accept articles for submission, not bare web links. Therefore, in order to promote a website webmaster needs to take time to write an appropriate article. The article should be relevant to the main subject of the web site, contain rich keyword pattern that will benefit the web site promoted. Now let's take a look at benefits from each type of promotion: Link directory will keep only web site link and a brief description. Article directory keeps the whole article about a chosen subject and supports it with a web link. Let's imagine that user comes to find specific information. What are the chances for webmaster that user reacts on short description while scrolling down a big list of other links? Now let's analyze the same situation when searching with keywords user appears on the page where there is only one suggested link and a whole article relevant to the keywords typed..?

Link directory keeps from several to "countless" links on one page, which is less valuable for search engines such as Google, for example. Article directory has usually one article per page. One article per page means that webmaster's link will have its own "privacy" and therefore greater value for search engines.

When submitting link to link directory, webmaster can try to make web site description more vivid than it had been done by other competitors. However, limitations are obvious. Writing an article webmaster has an opportunity to tell more. Here everything will depend on the webmaster abilities to make article useful and interesting to readers. A well-written article that contains useful information will create trust to its author. Included links will gain more value for users and therefore chances to have users visiting promoted website will increase dramatically.

While links in some link directories are known to be pruned from time to time, articles are rare to meet the same fate. Good articles even after years can have the same value and carry knowledge and answers to its readers.

Talking about cost, many link directories have chosen to accept only paid submissions... It is sadly to accept that after a year or so your link may disappear from those directories as a result of an ending service/subscription or just because rules of the directory had been changed. This is not the case with article directories.

There is, however, an incontestable feature that works only for link directories submissions - an automated submission. Having a good database of websites which allow automated webpage submissions the job about increasing a number of back-links through link directories can be done in a couple of mouse clicks.

To sum up everything said in this article it should be said that there are big advantages in submitting to article directories, but there are also distinctive features available only with link directory submissions.

If article directory is your choice, welcome to our Free Article Directory at http://readers-choice.org Readers' Choice article directory will help your website to get readers attention!

About the Author
Arthur D. Revy is an Internet marketing specialist and co-author of Readers' Choice article directory: http://readers-choice.org