Forum Marketing - A Fantastic Source of

FREE Money For Affiliate Marketers

Forum posting is one of the best ways to build relationships, generate leads, and get lots of sales (with no advertising costs).

The purpose of this mini-course is to give you some fantastic tips, tricks & secrets that will make your forum posts MUCH more powerful (and make you a lot more money).

Since teachers are very, very fond of forums this is a praticularly excellent way for you to promote the Magic Classroom Management ebook (as well as the other ebooks we produce). All forums are a place for anyone who is passionate about their topic, hobby, career etc. to congregate so they are an excellent place to share knowledge. If you share good knowledge you will gain respect. If you gain respect you will make sales.

Before you start, there are a few  things you MUST understand about forums...

Firstly,  NEVER post a blatant ad like "Here are some great classroom management tips - follow this link". This doesn't work - trust me I know. It will get you banned by the forum and it invariably comes back to haunt me. So Please don't do it. (Sorry if that seems harsh but there is absolutely nothing to be gained from this type of post).

Secondly, take a few days to build yourself an identity on the forums. If you steam in posting link after link with no ther posts of value or without taking part in discussions and debates then people will be very suspicious of you and respond negatively to your posts. If they think you're ONLY interested in selling something then they'll be less likely to follow your links.

Instead, if you build a reputation as someone who gives good advice, people will see your name and automatically be in a reassured state of mind when they read your posts - the trust will have been built up.

So, always, when visitiing a new forum, spend a few days posting replies to other posts rather than your links. Leave it a few days before you even think of putting a link in - this will pay dividends. On some forums you can search a persons name and see all the posts they've made. If anyone does a search on your name and sees that you've only made a couple of posts and they both had links in they will smell a rat.

Treat the forums with respect and you will find your efforts will go a lot further.

Thirdly, treat this as a part time job. At the time of writing one of my affiliates has got 12 sales in one day. Now I'm fairly sure this level of activity won't carry on forever but it does show the potential. The real trick to success however is to do 'little and often'.

If you can commit even 1 hour per day to the business of forum posting you will make a very nice second income - that's definite. But the trick is to stick at it. Too many people see the first few sales come in and then sit back expecting it all to just keep coming. But life's not like that. It's true that this is probably the easiest money you'll ever make (getting paid to wrtie messages in forums!!!) but you do have to stick at it.

Try and put in 1 hour per day across a range of forums and I guarantee you'll see some very nice cheques coming your way!

Now let's learn how to craft your posts so that they get some seriously good  results...

Technique 1 - The all-important 'P.S.'
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We all know that posting blatant ads in discussion forums is a definite 'no-no' and that the only way you can get away with forum posting as a marketing tool is by offering positive contributions with a subtle signature. This way, regular forum posters won't be offended and many will actually follow your signature link if the post is of value. The main problem with using signatures in your forum posts is that, because they're so common, people generally are starting to ignore them (unless of course you've crafted a post which is so riveting, it has readers eager to click your signature for more of your information - which we'll come to later).

Although some people ARE making money with their signatures, I've discovered a much more powerful way to get people to click on your link.

Here's how it works...

At the bottom of your posts, you add a little P.S. that increases the URGENCY of your message. That way, people click your link immediately,
instead of ignoring it.

But there are some rules to the P.S.

The P.S. should not  be the same message every time that you automatically slip into every post. It should be different each time, so that people don't get trained to ignore it. Putting the same P.S. screams 'money grabber'. Your posts need to be as individual and tailored to the thread as possible

It's important to remember that your P.S. shouldn't be a blatant promotion. You want to create it so that it comes across as a "personal note".

Here's a post I placed in a forum a few days ago about classroom rules.  Notice how there is no blatant 'visit this link if you want some really good information' and pay particular attention to the P.S. at the end...

{name} I agree totally with everything you say. I'd be more than happy to share some of the strategies we use in our setting (Currently PRU but part of a large service).

The behaviour plan we use was brought in a few years ago by a very experienced psychologist. It's not too complicated, relies on positive reinforcement and a very simple points system which links closely with specific behaviour targets. There is also a comprehensive tutorial program which links to IEPs.

The success lies in the fact that the exact same strategies are used by all the staff - there is total consistency - and pupils know exactly what the outcome will be for any specific behaviour. And the sanctions are always applied - consistently - by all staff.

Good behaviour is rewarded - though not with bribes or over-the-top treats,  we rely simply on the correct use of positive praise.

{name} is quite right - without this consistency, the techniques simply won't work on a whole-school basis.

Rob Johnson

P.S.

If you need more information on these strategies I've put together the nuts and bolts on my website here {LINK}.

Technique 2: How to get many more people to view your post...

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Have you ever written a really good post that you've been extremely proud of? You know - the type of post that makes you stand out from the crowd because you obviously know what you're talking about? I'm sure you have but here's a question:

How many forums did you post it to? I'm guessing one.

But that's such a waste!! If you want to get exposure you need to maximise your time and your efforts. Here's how...

Once you've written your posts, cut them and save them to a folder. That way you can paste them lots of times in many different forums with almost no effort.

First, you choose the forums that you really like visiting and put them in your favourites.

Then you construct your post (I use wordpad for mine but you can post direct to your first forum or use a similar text editing program), and save it. Next, you visit each one of the forums in your favourites and paste your discussion post into each one of the forums.

Simple.

I also save my replies to other posts if they're particularly good and then I can add them to another similar thread on another forum. You'd be surprised how many threads are similar to others!!

So the next time you want to get some really great traffic from your forum posts... be sure to place them in multiple forums... not just one. You'll get a LOT more traffic (and sales) from your efforts than you ever imagined.

Technique 3: Ask for help...

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Asking for help on a forum is a fantastic way to get your post read and therefore a fantastic way to get your P.S. read. This is a very simple technique that can be adapted in lots of different ways. Take a look at this for an example:

Post...

Can Anyone help me please? I'm looking for extra tips to add to my 'classroom management tips' newsletter. I'm particularly looking for ideas to get boys to read. I have some good ideas of my own but I know there are a lot of very skilled people on this forum so I'd appreciate anything you can add.

Many thanks in advance,

Rob Johnson

PS 
Any tips I receive will be added to my own free resources and posted on my site here: www.classroom-management.org/free.html

Now, you may be thinking how you can use such a post to make yourself some money. Well, instead of my link, you could add your own link to a little site you put up with a few free tips. On that site you have your affiliate link at the bottom of the page taking visitors to my site and netting you a sale. Alternatively, you could just put your email at the end of the PS (or an autoresponder email) and send messages to your new contact with your affiliate link in. 

Technique 4: Keep your post near the top of the page...

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Most forums are designed so that the newer posts are at the top of the list, and they get pushed down as more and more new posts get added. But guess what... it's not ONLY new posts that make it to the top. The ones who get replied to also get pushed to the top!

If you made a post last week about something, and nobody replied, it would keep going further and further down the list, until it made it to page 2, (and beyond) which nobody looks at. So, to keep your post at the top of the list... make sure you REPLY TO IT.

That's right, simply reply to your own post, and add some extra information that you "forgot" to put in your original post. Think about it, if there's a reply to your post every day for an entire week... your post will NOT get pushed to the bottom, and most of the "regulars" will get to read it.

It's actually possible to keep your posts "stuck" at the top of the list for weeks on end if you're creative about it! And if your post is up for weeks rather than days, you're likely to get thousands of views rather than hundreds of views!!

And a post getting thousands of views is going to get you a lot more traffic and a lot more sales than one only getting a few hundred.

Here's how to do it...

One way is to craft your post so that it doesn't have to be you that has to reoply to the post to keep it near the top. If you write the post as I'm about to show you, you will make people really want to add their own input. And that makes your job much easier! The type of posts I mean are 'open ended' posts. By 'open ended' I generally mean posts whic consist of a question. Now, if you make that question about a hotly debated topic, the chances are you'll get lots of people wanting to add their opinion.

But the questions have to be slightly different to your typical 'closed' question which only requires a 'yes' or 'no' answer.

Here's an example of a closed ended forum post...

"Has anyone else tried this sanction for classes that just won't settle down to work? I read somewhere in an eBook
that if you put a mark on the board for every minute that they keep talking, and then keep them in at break for that amount of minutes, it stops it straight away."

This kind of post will usually generate very lame responses and wil soon drift to the bottom of the threads.

Here's an example of an open ended question...

"Why do you like teaching Juniors as opposed to seniors - isn't the behavior worse?"

Do you see how just adding the word 'why' gives more room to give a personal, creative answer?

Here's how this looks in a post...

"I've been reading all about sanctions this past week, and I was just wondering if you folks could share your favorite strategies and ideas for sanctioning persistent truants. I've heard that some teachers just let senior staff deal with the problem, yet I think the teacher should deal with the problem themselves. How can anyone just pass the buck like that?"

What are your thoughts?

Rob Johnson

PS

If you are always fumbling for effective sanctions, I've put some ideas on my free tips page at www.classroom-management.org/free.html

See how that can start a debate and get people adding their views?

(Obviously you would enter your affiliate ID within that link so that you get credited with the sale - if you need help with that email me on rob@classroom-management.org)

Technique 5: Use forums to really drive traffic to your website...

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In this part of the Forum Marketing tips you'll learn one of the most powerful (and carefully hidden) secrets of using
forums to generate a flood of hungry prospects to your website or affiliate links.

I guarantee that 5 minutes from now, you'll be armed with a piece of knowledge that will put you WAY ahead of your competitors.

Everyone knows that search engines find websites based on the keywords that are contained on their site, and particularly their title and headline.

Well guess what, if you deliberately use search engine keywords in the SUBJECT line of your forum post, that post will get picked up by the search engines.

Forum posts actually get indexed, and are available for reference anytime thereafter. This is GREAT news for you, because you can easily use this to your advantage.

First, you have to know what your most frequently searched keywords ARE and then, just use them in your subject line.

Simple.

Here's a few examples:

KEYWORD: Classroom Management 
SUBJECT: Classroom management question - do you use this technique with kids who swear?

KEYWORD: Classroom management tips 
SUBJECT: A cool classroom management tip I just received...

KEYWORD: Noisy pupils 
SUBJECT: How I settle noisy pupils every day...

There you have it. Head on over to your favorite discussion forum, and be sure to use powerful keywords in your subject line. Again,
this (like the other techniques) is a maximization strategy.

You're ALREADY posting to the forums, so let's do it smarter, and make more money.

All the best,

Rob Plevin

www.classroom-management.org

If you want to know the best forums to post in click here