Chapter Three... Posting Messages on Message Boards
In this chapter I'm going to talk about message boards.
Message boards are web sites that allow visitors to post messages to other visitors. They are sort of mini-communities on the internet and you can find them everywhere and on just about any subject imaginable.
Message boards are hotbeds of discussion, sometimes heated, sometimes casual, where you can find a group of people with similar interests.
Apart from being fun places to talk with similarly minded people, message boards can drum up some pretty good traffic for your web site if used correctly.
Head back over to your favorite search engines and search for message boards under whatever subject your web site is about.
Make up a list of as many as possible.
As I said, message boards can bring you decent traffic, but only if you use them correctly.
If you stumble into a message board and post a message like this:
"Hey everyone...come look at my new site about dogs!"
you'll probably get ignored. That's not the way to use message boards. You have to become involved in the discussions of the board. Get into the discussions, make a name for yourself.
Spend a couple weeks just reading other people's posts to get a feel for the board. Each board has its own set of etiquette rules. Learn them.
Many boards don't allow overt advertising. This can even get you banned from some boards.
Most boards, on the other hand, will allow you to post a short signature at the end of each message you post allowing you a short blurb to tell people about your site.
An average signature might be something like this:
Best Wishes,
John Skorczewski
http://www.Market-Tek.com
**Marketing Instruction To Guarantee Your Site's Success**
Now all you have to do is follow along in the conversations, or start your own. As long as you are posting messages that go along with the discussion, everything will be fine.
For example...let's say you see a message from Linda and it says this:
Hi, I'm Linda. I have a 6 month old German Shepherd puppy. Can someone tell me what age I can start feeding him adult dog food?
Thanks,
Linda
You could respond like this:
Hi Linda,
You generally shouldn't start feeding a puppy adult food till he reaches the age of X until then you should feed him puppy food. I recommend X brand of dog food, they really have the best puppy food.
If you have any other questions feel free to email me anytime at myaddress@whatever.com or head over to my web site www.DogOwner.com
Best,
Nancy Weirdname
http://www.DogOwner.com
**Everything you ever wanted to know about Dogs**
See how that works? Now Linda may come to your site, as well as anyone else from the board that happens to read your message. See how you advertised without really advertising?
As long as you give good advice that's related to whatever question the person asked, you will be fine.
This is also a good way to make a name for yourself as someone who knows what they're talking about. Word of mouth from other people at the message board can be very valuable to your web site.
I recommend that you find as many message boards as you can and spend a couple of hours each day surfing them, and posting messages when it's relevant for you to do so. I keep a number of message boards book marked on my web browser and I visit them every day.
Don't over do it. Don't post messages just to post messages. If you don't know what you're talking about, don't post anyway and try to wing it. People will see through you. Only post messages when you genuinely have something useful to add.
And that's really all there is to message boards.
You can find message board CGI scripts for free all over the place on the Internet. That means you can start your own message board on your web site. You might want to think about doing just that!
Once you get a steady following at your message board, you can expect steady traffic to your site as a result for a long time to come.
www.Cgi-resources.com is one site where you can find a message board cgi script. If you don't know much about installing CGI scripts, you may need to find someone to help you install it.
For anyone that knows what they're doing with CGI, a message board script can be installed and up and running in less than a half hour.
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