10 Tips for Attracting Visitors to Your Website Through the Forums on Other Sites

Last week we talked about 5 things all successful forums have.  The fact is that the vast majority of websites, especially those operated by a single individual, simply cannot achieve all 5 things necessary to make their forums successful.  Most web administrators either lack the time to moderate forums several times a day, lack the technical ability to keep forums secure, or (most commonly) just don’t have enough regular visitors to their website to get that critical mass for good conversation.

That’s OK.  You can gain many of the benefits of forums through other sites’ forums.  Here are 10 tips for attracting visitors to your website through other sites’ forums.

1) Participate with an attitude of service.  Have you ever had someone befriend you only to find out later their whole reason for doing so was because they wanted to get you to their next Amway meeting or Pampered Chef party?  Have any acquaintances who only call or email you when they want something from you?  Then you know how it feels to be treated like a means to someone’s self-interested end.

Forums exist for the purpose of community and mutual support.  Don’t attempt to exploit forums for the sole purpose of promoting your website.  If you operate a ministry website, remember the mission of your ministry.  It undoubtedly has something to do with serving others.  So, approach your involvement in any forums with an attitude of service rather than self-promotion.  It’s not always easy.  I have to admit that I have on occasion got caught up in marketing and convinced myself I was posting something for the good of others when in reality I was more motivated by promoting my own agenda.

2) Select forums strategically.  The goal is to connect with as many people as possible who are interested in the same topics as you.  That means the more relevant and the more popular the forums the better.  Search for relevant forums in the search engines.  Often times large forums will have a sub-section or sub-forum on the specific topic you’re looking for.  For example, if you write Christian poetry you can find entire sites dedicated to Christian poetry that have forums, and you can also find Christian forum sites that have a Christian poetry section, like OurChurch.Com has in its forums.

3) Cite your original content.  When you write a blog or publish other original writing on your website, go to forums relevant to that topic and mention the article.  You might even quote an excerpt from it to spark people’s interest.  For example, when we started this blog series on forums, I posted a message about it in the Christian-web-masters.com forums.   I thought this series would be helpful to the Christian webmasters that frequent that forum.  The conversation that’s resulted has been interesting.

4) Include a link in your signature.  Most forums allow you to include a link to your site in your signature.  This enables people to click through to your site any time they read a message you’ve posted and have an interest in your site or ministry.

5) Update your profile.  Most forums allow you include information about yourself in a profile.  Information generally includes your name, location, email address, a photo or avatar, a link to your website, and a little bit about yourself.  You should give careful thought to what information about yourself you want to make public, but updating your profile can serve two important purposes.  First, it can help people get in touch with you.  Second, it will help you connect with others when they know a little bit about you.

6) Subscribe to topics.  Most forums have a feature that allows you to subscribe to or “watch” topics.  Once you subscribe, the forum software will automatically email you when someone has posted a new reply to that topic.  This way if you start a topic, you know right away when someone has replied without having to go back repeatedly and look, and you can reply back right away if you like.

7) Build relationships.  Genuinely try to get to know and understand the other people who frequent the same forums you do.  Find out why they visit the forums, what they’re looking for, what topics interest them, and where they could use some insight.  Helping people is what it’s all about.  Plus your interactions with other people may give you ideas for things to write about and discuss.

8) Be a regular.  This goes hand in hand with building relationships, but if you want to maximize your impact you have on forums you have to drop by and post on a regular basis.  It’s better to be a regular and build a good reputation on fewer forums than to spread yourself thin and post once a month on 50 different forums.

9) Become a moderator.  Some forums are staffed by volunteer moderators who help to keep the forums free of spam, foul language, and off-topic posts.  If you visit a forum regularly you might ask the administrator if you can help out as a moderator.  Even if a forum doesn’t have volunteer moderators, you can serve as sort of an unofficial moderator, welcoming new people to the forum, making others aware of rules they may have inadvertently violated, or notifying the administrator if there is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

10) Link to the forums you frequent.  If the people who frequent a forum put a link to it on their site, that will drive more traffic to the forum which will in turn bring more visitors to their websites.  It becomes an upward spiral.  Plus the more relevant links the forum gets, higher it will rank in search engines which will bring additional visitors to the forum and your website.

Got any other tips you’d like to share?  Got a story you’d like to share about how you helped others and built community in forums and you ended up with increased traffic to your website?  Post a comment.  We’d love to hear them.

And of course, if you’re motivated to help others and build community we’d love to see you become a regular on OurChurch.Com’s Christian forums among others.