Why Promotion Forums Are Completely Worthless ... To You!
Do you have enough fingers to count all the times you've seen people chanting the same mantra over and over again--"Promotion forums don't work"? I know that I don't! The users chanting this mantra, though, are the ones who are using promotion forums incorrectly. Even the most effective services in the world can be worthless to you if you don't use them correctly!
First of all, using promotion forums exclusively to advertise your site is not a good idea. Promotion forums, like anything else, are merely a resource. Promotion forums are meant to complement your other efforts. Promotion forums, however, can also be a proxy that connects you to other resources. Promotion forums double both as a resource and a gateway to other resources. Promotion forums can lead you to other tools you can use to promote your web site such as other promotion forums, forums that have a similar genre, directories, topsites, search engines, etc. Searching the discussion sections on a promotion forum can give you a lot of tricks to use to promote your site.
One of the greatest myths that exist is that you can't get long-term active members from promotion forums. I know first-hand that this is untrue because I have gotten long-term active members from promotion forums before. While members who will be willing to post for a very long time rarely show up on your site out of the blue, promotion forums are great places to meet other people who are interested in forums. If you sustain a good amount of activity on a promotion forum, you can sometimes make friends with some of the regulars. This may cause them to want to check out your site! Making friends is a great way to get active members! Friends make great active members for your forum; they are generally less disruptive because they respect you and your rules. If you are active on a promotion forum for an extended period of time, provide helpful responses, etc., then you will almost certainly gain at least one or two active members on your site!
Promotion forums can also be used to gain tips on what works as far as promotion goes. While promotion forums are mostly made up of newer administrators, there are some administrators on promotion forums who have attained a reasonable level of success. Many of these administrators post tips on promotion forums in order to help the "little guys." The search feature on promotion forums will be an invaluable resource to any new, aspiring administrator.
Furthermore, it is important to be sure that your forum is marketable. Many of the people who chant the mantra--"Promotion forums don't work!"--are the same people who run forums that have been done billions of times before. If there are way too many large, established forums with the same niche as your forum, then it may be time to come up with a new idea that is more marketable.
As you can see, promotion forums can be useful in some ways provided that you're willing to get your hands dirty. Too many people simply post up a basic promotion thread and expect their sites to grow exponentially within the week. It doesn't work like that; you have to be willing to get out there, talk to people, follow advice, and improve your forum for the better. It's not easy; nobody ever said that it is. However, the progress you see will be directly proportionate to the amount of effort you invest.
This article was first posted on our blog on 31/05/2010. For this reason, the information may be outdated and no longer reliable/correct.
This article was first posted on our blog on 31/05/2010. For this reason, the information may be outdated and no longer reliable/correct.
