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There is a powerful marketing and networking tool right under your nose. Forums are not only fantastic resources for business advice, they enable you to help others by sharing your experiences and they allow you to market yourself to a highly targeted market. Read on to learn how to unleash the power of forum advertising and receive maximum results...

Forum advertising is frequently overlooked as a powerful tool to develop relationships and lifelong customers.

You likely already know the social benefit of online chat rooms and forums. Social networking has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years and offers many people the opportunity to connect over a shared interest. Business forums are just as useful for people to connect on a professional level.

What you may not consider when posting or reading comments in a forum, is that they can also be a valuable place to find customers and clients.

Here are 3 tips to unleash the power of forum advertising and receive maximum results

1. Start Small.

Find a forum or two, no more than three, that cater to your niche or target market and register to become a member of the community. Why not register with more? Many reasons, it will take too much time, you'll be reaching many of the same people, and your content/posts can begin to sound repetitive.

Begin by posting in the forum introductions section (most good forums will have one) and tell people about yourself. Talk about your business, but don't just drop a sales pitch. Let people know what your interests are in the topic beyond your business.

2. Post regularly.

Your goal is to become an active member of your chosen forums, which means that you must post regularly. Set aside time each week to visit your chosen forum. To make sure that you stay on task, give yourself an hour and begin reviewing recent posts, and providing answers/help where appropriate.

In time, the members will see you as an expert in the topic. With more posts, your site/business will have more exposure, and you will see results.

3. Choose appropriate forums.

In addition to searching for forums that are relevant to your business, you can find these by using your favorite search engine and entering your topic, product, or service keyword with the keyword 'forum'.

Look for forums that have:

A large number of members. This information is usually available on the home page, which means that you don't have to register to have access to it.

You'll also want to look for a forum has an area for members to advertise in. If an advertiser's area is not available, don't blatantly post ads in your posts. This is considered extremely rude and can get you banned from the forum.

Make sure that your chosen forum allows you to create a signature. Your signature should include your name, website/business name, web address, contact info, and a detailed description of your business.

There is a lot to be said about the benefits of forum advertising. They cannot all be fit into this article, of course. For reall great forum marketing tips, I highly recommend the free e-book:

Forum Marketing SuperTips, grab this great resource here: http://www.mindyrecommends.com/forum-marketing.php