Squidoo Tips: Using Forum Promotion To Build Backlinks and Sales

Why Promote On Forums?

• Reach - Forums allow you to reach thousands of people, all interested in your topic.
• Knowledge & Ideas - You can share your knowledge aswell as get ideas for things to add to your lens.
• Promote Multiple Lenses- You can promote multiple lenses within the same category easily.
• Building Backlinks- You can help build backlinks to help your search engine rankings. Before long you can have thousands of links.
• FREE- Forums are a free way to promote your lens and make sales.

What Makes A Good Forum?

• Active Community - You need posts to reply to and people to communicate with, make sure the community is active. That includes active admin/moderator.
• Signatures - You want the site to allow signatures, this is where you are going to put your link after all!
• DoFollow - You want the site to have DoFollow on signatures, otherwise your getting no love from the search engines. If I site does have high traffic and you are willing to make long and thoughtful posts (to attract members to your signature) then NoFollow is fine.
• Found In Google - Make sure the forum is on Google for your keywords.
• Open Permissions & No Spam - It's important you can browse the forum while not logged in (otherwise Google can't crawl your signature) also make sure the forum is spam free!
• PageRank - Least important, higher page ranking will help your lens in Google and also means that Google crawls the forum more often. Always choose the highest PR forum, unless a lower PR one is more active!

Forum Etiquette: Maximising Your Success

How To Use Forum Promotion Properly

• Profile Information - Fill out all your profile information, this includes avatar, bio and linking to your Squidoo lenses where possible (at the very least always in signature).
• General Posting - "I agree, lol" is not a valid post. Keep your posts interesting, funny and avoid using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS (see, its annoying).
• Read The Rules - Of course you don't want to get banned, most forums have the same rules these days, but a quick read of the rules never hurts.
• Avoid Flame Wars - Don't argue with people on forums, no matter who they are, from time to time your going to run into people just looking for a fight. These people are promptly banned, no need to damage your reputation.
• Respect The Admin - Goes without saying, its their forum so respect them and their rules. Also includes moderators and members with high reputation in the forums.
• Lurk The Forum - Don't jump straight into the forum, you may aswell be on a suicide mission. Take time to study the forum, who are the top members? What kind of discussion do they focus on? What are the most popular topics?
• Don't Hijack Threads & Stay On-Topic - I see this everyday (even on SquidU) and it's a one way ticket to losing respect. Don't hijack someone's thread and ask your own questions (unless it continues and adds to the same discussion), start your OWN thread! Also make sure all your posts are related to the original post.
• Be Active- Post regularly, depending on the amount of time you have free. I currently participate in 15 forums. Some I check everyday, some once a week. Make an effort to make a certain number of posts every visit.
• Keep Track - Make sure you check back on all the threads you posted in, in case somebody asks you something. There are email notifications that can do this, depending on the forum. Also make sure to post in recent discussion, if its a week old, leave it.
• Pictures - Don't post pictures in massive resolutions that take ages to load, your safest option whenever you include pictures is to use the link to the image, not the image itself.
  Also label the image appropriately:
  [56k] = Not recommended for dial-up users (big picture)
  [NSFW] = Not Safe For Work, anything people don't want to see at work.

Other Important Tips

• Saying Thank You - Try say thank you were possible, be sure to read the rules on the forum though. Some forums dislike "thanks" posts!
• Early Posting - When you first join, off-topic discussion is a good place to start and eventually start welcoming new members in the introduction section. These are often the two easiest places to post. Helping your post count and backlinks.
• Post Count - Unfortunately post count matters alot on forums, don't speak your mind too much or direct people directly to your lens before 50 posts.
• Post Quality - People are more likely to click your signature if they look up to you or see you know what your talking about, focus on helping others and answering their questions.