Networking for Gold Online
By Terry Dean
People are always asking me, "What is the
cheapest and easiest way to make sales online?"
They are usually expecting a completely different answer
than what I usually give them...Here is a little hint: It
isn't the search engines. It isn't using banners It
definitely isn't Spamming!
Once you have a good website with high quality content in
place, the cheapest and easiest way to get traffic to
your site is through networking with other people in your
industry.
In the past, doing this meant you had to attend meetings
or fly across the country to attend seminars. This was a
real pain, especially if you were a little shy and didn't
especially like the idea of having to go visit tons of
new people (That describes me to a tee).
Now, with the advent of the internet, you can attend
dozens of meetings in your industry for FREE. You can
participate in these discussions, meet new people, and
achieve extra traffic at your website. If you prefer to
just learn new things and watch for a while, you can be
there completely invisible and not noticed by anyone if
you like.
These meetings online are called newsgroups and forums
and I am positively shocked at how few budding internet
entrepreneurs actually put them to use. I attend a few of
them everday (Look below for my absolute favorites)!
There are two purposes to these boards for me...
#1 - I can learn more about many different subjects.
Since I focus on internet marketing and marketing in
general, I keep my eyes out for new information in these
areas.
#2 - I post answers to people's questions and I actively
take part in the conversations. By doing this, I can post
my signature file with information about something that
is free on my site, such as this newsletter or some other
free report.
You cannot post direct ads to these groups, BUT you can
use a short signature file about some benefit you offer
(Free items work best). Whenever I post to any of these
groups I make sure to include information about one of my
free reports or information about this free newsletter.
I don't have exact numbers on my visitors from these
groups, but I constantly get subscribe requests or forms
filled out on my site mentioning that they first heard of
my site on one of these groups.
Again, I want to emphasize to you that you CANNOT post an
AD to these groups or you will be flamed. You have to get
involved in the conversations and let your signature file
or Link to your site give a short Free benefit for
visiting your site.
There are two versions to these types of online community
meetings, website Forums and newsgroups.
FORUMS
A forum is a website where you can go read and post
messages to one another. It doesn't require any other
software than just your regular web browser.
There are thousands of forums out there...A good place
where you can find a listing of all of the available
forums is at: http://www.forumone.com
Once you go through there and make a list of forums to
visit, find the ones which are most suited to your
business. For me, this means I spend time in marketing
forums...Below are my favorites which contain a Wealth of
Internet Marketing Information:
http://www.paradise-web.com/plus/plus.mirage?who=bizpromo
http://www.bmyers.com/ipub/index.html
http://www.ablake.net/forum/
http://www.gethighforums.com/bin/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro
http://www.free-publicity.com/cgi-bin/talk.cgi
http://www.bizweb2000.com/wwwboard/
http://www.paradise-serve.com/powerforum/pwrforum.exe?who=enlowforum
NEWSGROUPS
Newsgroups are slightly more difficult. You need to use
newsgroup reading software to particpate in them. There
are many varities of software for this purpose, but my
favorite reader is "Free Agent" which you
can find at http://www.forteinc.com for Free.
To find listings of what types of discussions are going
on in each of the newsgroups (There are more than 20,000
of them), go to http://www.dejanews.com
At this website, you can search for specific keywords
about your industry or business. Then, pick out the
newsgroups that are discussing your subjects and use
"Free Agent" to subscribe to them.
START TODAY
As I said at the beginning of this article, participating
in newsgroups and forums can be one of the easiest ways
of networking and getting your business started online.
Don't just read this article and put it off to the side.
Do something about it TODAY!
1.) Go to the forums I have listed above
2.) Mark them in your "Favorite Places."
3.) Read some of the postings.
4.) Wait a couple of days...visiting the forums everyday
and learning.
5.) Start making a couple of posts to the forums when
your type
of subject comes up.
6.) Be consistent!
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