>> Forums and Internet Marketing:
Forums are internet advertising specialties that can be easily used for online marketing purposes. As an internet marketing venue, forums are a combination link and content venue whch can support articles posted in sections. Articles are usually called "threads". Depending on the forum, discussions can take place through the posting of these threads. They can serve many purposes and contribute to internet marketing articles which are very popular in the engines and can then can be used to market your programs online.
Search Engines can take notice of forums, especially those which are active and contain relevant content. Individual articles can do well in page ranking depending on relevant key words and content. Also, the collection of articles and threads can themselves help your overall rating in thePR (Page Relevancy) in the Engines. A PR value of 4 or better is considered valuable.
While posting an article and link to a board can be useful, the greatest impact comes when DAISYCHAINING the forum url you posted at to your website. As the SE bots visit the forum, they will record your link. They will then send a Bot to your website. When it encounters the forum link on your site, it makes a positive note for the two websites. Reciprocal linking is weighted in the PR factoring.
Once you join any forum, post a thread and include your links. Ensure you post under the appropriate or relevant Area or Catagory on the forum. Many forums allow you to add links in your custom Signature so that is often a good place for them. Then put the forum thread link on your own blogs, pages and etc to link back to the forum you are posting to. This creates a daisychain loop.
While you can post affiliate websites and other pages you have no control over on forums, the impact will be much less for those pages than on the ones you are able to reciprocate with.
In practical terms: the higher your PR rating, the more valuable your internet real estate. Posting reciprocal links can help in your overall SE rankings as well. The impact may not be as great as what occurs when you surf, use your Rank Enhancer and post daily to the boards, however it does contribute to your long term goals of reaching good Engine position and then maintaining that position.
Forums are permission based venues. You must join a forum to post to one. You must opt-in, agree to receive email from the board Admin and abide by all rules of the board. Some forums are open to the public, while others are by invitation only - similar to many blogs where you must be invited to be a contributing writer in order to post articles and links.
Below are forums by invitation only for Xtream Global or Xtream Building Blocks members:
