Finding Forums That Cover Your Niche

• Networking with people who share your interests

• Get content ideas by following which conversations attract the most interest

• Drive people directly to your website by putting links in your posts and signature

• Getting questions answered

• Finding potential content contributors

• Finding partners who can help you commercialise your website e.g. by jointly writing books, creating courses, etc.

• Getting valuable back links to your website from links in your posts

• Find people who can help you with your business e.g. web designers, marketers, etc.

Forum Etiquette

• Before participating in a forum spend time following some threads to get a feel for how it works

• Try to make thoughtful and valuable comments

• Avoid pointless and meaningless comments like ‘good post’, ‘I agree’, ‘lol’, etc

• Avoid blatantly promoting yourself, your website or your products

• Choose the best forums and participate regularly

How Can You Find Relevant Forums

When I'm looking for a forum about a specific subject my first port of call is Big-Boards (www.big-boards.com). This wonderful site lists hundreds of forums covering every conceivable topic.





If this doesn't provide a good enough list, I do to Google and Yahoo and do several searches:

• subject keyword + forum
• subject keyword + discussion forum
• subject keyword + bulletin board
• subject keyword + vbulletin
• subject keyword + phpbb