Why you should participate in forums
The best internet marketing forums
The best of the rest
Moderated discussion lists
If you want to rapidly increase and enhance your online
presence you should become an active member of
forums or discussion boards.
The best of them are great places to spread the gospel, in
a quiet way, about your service or product. They're fantastic
for subtle self promotion; for becoming a recognizable
name in the huge online marketing community.
But above all they're places where we can all share our
knowledge or seek advice. They're places for meaningful
discussion. They're online communities. And the forums
which archive their material are also vast warehouses of
knowledge and wisdom.
WHAT MAKES A FORUM GOOD?
* a sense of community
* meaningful discussions
* high activity
* the quality of the posts
* the lack of ads due to a strong moderator
* their ease of use
* the friendliness of the participants
There are, probably, hundreds of Internet Marketing Forums.
But with many of them you'd be wasting your time - they
just don't have enough traffic to warrant attention. Or, like
many of the newsgroups, they're filled with ads.
In the last couple of weeks I've visited dozens of business
related forums/discussion groups. The busiest and best, by far,
are the ones with meaningful ongoing discussions and a strong
moderator who quickly removes obvious advertising and other
unsuitable postings. Once a forum becomes filled with ads it
ceases to have value as a discussion group. The best forums are
places to learn from each other, not to advertise your product.
To find forums on subjects other than Internet marketing
visit ForumOne, http://www.forumone.com/
which lists
thousands . But here are the best Internet Marketing Forums:
THE BEST INTERNET MARKETING FORUMS
( in alphabetical order - ranked for their high activity, the quality
of the posts, the lack of ads, their ease of use, the friendliness of
the participants)
http://profitalk.com ( you'll learn a lot here )
http://www.ablake.com (very active, good discussions )
http://www.bmyers.com/ipub/index.html)
(Bill Myers, what more can you say? )
http://bizweb2000.com/wwwboard/ ( new, but
good already. )
http://www.free-publicity.com/ ( lots of
informed participants )
http://homebasedbusiness.com/cgibin/index.cgi
(new, but good already)
http://www.virtualpromote.com/ ( great
search engine discussions)
THE BEST OF THE REST
( not in any particular order )
http://www.foodservice.com Customer Service
Viewpoints Forum
http://gmarketing.com/tactics/forum.html
http://www.delphi.com/marketing/ (hard to
navigate)
http://ffguide.com/forums/mlm/
http://businessedge.net/tompeters
(good but slow)
http://www.uni-sol.com/cyberwave/
(wasn't working this week)
http://inside.fastcompany.com/
http://www.inc.com/peertopeer/
http://inside.fastcompany.com/ (success
orientated, lots of business talk)
http://www.edgeonline.com
http://www.ideacafe.com/BB/start/Welcome.html
Discussion board on starting and running your business
http://www.ivillage.com
There are 3 very large message boards at this site for new women
entrepreneurs
http://www.customforum.com/strategies/
(hard to navigate)
http://www.smalloffice.com/bb/boards/Selling_and_Marketing/
(lots of ads)
http://www.hrworld.com
http://www.trainingforum.com
http://www.interwealth.com/bbs/index.sht
http://deadlock.com/bbs/98-01.html
(Good site on search engine
promotion with bulletin board)
http://www.djcenterprises.com/msgbd/msgbd.cgi
(Small business
marketing board)
http://gmarketing.com/tactics/forum.html
(guerrilla marketing board)
http://form.netscape.com/directory/community/html/pc_main.html
( big, but - as with most of the mega sites - hard to navigate )
http://www5.zdnet.com/cc/forums.html
http://www.bizserve.com/discfor.html
http://www.wilsoninet.com/hn/forum/ (
little activity at the moment,
used to be among the best )
http://www.bizoffice.com/wwwboard/index.cgi
(plenty of posts are ads)
http://www.bizproweb.com/pages/forums/index.shtml
http://www.jipes.com/emma/ (a number of
forums,but quiet)
http://www.nettro.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html
The On Line Advertising Forum http://www.olaf.net
http://members.aol.com/aaamarnews/forums.htm
http://www.entrepreneurmag.com/forum.hts
(hard to navigate, disappointing traffic for such a well known site)
http://forums.customforum.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=marketing
To read more on this subject you should read the great primer by
Adam Boettiger at http://www.exposure-usa.com
The Best Moderated discussion lists
__________________________________________
I'd like to thank Claire Belilos and Debbie Cohen for
their help with compiling these lists. Please help repay
them by visiting their sites.
Claire Belilos, President of CHIC Hospitality Consulting Services,
specializing in organizational training and development, with a
Customer Service Forum at http://www.foodservice.com/forums.htm
Articles: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/mi04669e.html
Home page: http://wwork.com/chic_hospitality
mailto:chic@max-net.com
Debbie Cohen, MSW, specializes in individual psychotherapy, eastern philosophy and
meditational techniques. She recently joined SC Financial Services which enables new
entrepreneurs to accept credit cards by a monthly rental without signing a lease. Please
visit: http://www.freeyellow.com/members2/yes2credit/
e-mail address: debrc@ix.netcom.com
phone: 888 243-4560
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THE BEST INTERNET MARKETING FORUMS
