Internet marketing forums are a great source of knowledge. There are internet marketing forums for thousands of different niches. People congregate in these forums and talk about anything that has to do with their niche. It is a place to establish relationships with peers.
Each internet marketing forum has its own guidelines. When you first enter a forum and sign up as a member, you need to find out the rules. You usually fill in your profile information and some other data, and maybe post your photo. You also create a signature link, which is the link that is going to be shown under your name every time you make a post. These signature links usually link back to your website or promotion.
Some of the forums will not allow you to show a signature until you have a certain amount of posts. Other rules are, for example, that you cannot contact another member directly or post an offer for a product or service until you have a certain number of posts, or contributions.
People get to ask all kinds of questions at forums, and other members will follow the thread and add comments, suggestions, answers, or whatever they want to contribute. Some threads get multiple replies and last for a long time.
In the internet marketing forums you really get to hear what people are dealing with and the problems and struggles that they are having, as well as their successes and insights. There is also a lot of input from people offering solutions and help. You have newbies, and you have experienced internet marketers, and everybody shares their perspectives.
I specialize in the Internet Marketing information niche, and my favorite is the Warrior Forum.
There are some great internet marketers in this forum, and I have learned a lot from them. I really feel that I find the answers to my questions even while reading other people’s threads. Many times I have found new information that I was not aware of that has helped me a lot. People contribute real gems of knowledge and advice in this forum.
I have also met people who offer very specialized services, that are truly excellent. If you need a certain kind of information, don’t hesitate to ask in the forum. You will invariably be directed to the right source.
I find internet marketing forums very refreshing in that they are one place you are not going to hear the sales pitches that you get bombarded with in emails every day. I really can trust most of what I hear in the forums because people are exposing their views and their knowledge and discussing it. If someone is not correct about something, he will be called on it. So there is like a forum police that won’t let you get away with BS.
Just tonight I started a thread at a forum. Someone had taken one of my articles and posted it on his blog, which is fine. He did leave my name as the author, but he had removed my links and inserted some of his links in the body of my article, which I believe is totally wrong. But I realized that this was an authority blog, and that if I asked him to remove his links he would probably remove my article from his blog. So I thought it was probably better to let it go so that he would keep my article, and that way I get exposure. So I ran it by the forum, and got great feedback. They confirmed my way of thinking, and also offered some other options that I have.
To me internet marketing forums are the best way to meet other people in my niche, as well as the best source of education. I make it a habit to visit the forums at least every other day, and also to contribute and offer content.
The best tip I received in a forum was finding an article marketing directory which is owned by one of the members of the forum. I followed a thread which led me to this person. I contacted him because I read that he was an excellent article marketer. He then told me about his service, which is second to none. I really recommend his site for article marketing: Internet Marketing Forum referral.