Forum Link Building made easy

It only takes a few moments to fill out the registration on a forum, and only a moment longer then it would take to fill out a directory.

A directory in many cases is a one shot deal and can often cost money on a monthly basis. Money I currently don’t have. It’s wonderful to get a linkback from directories, so it’s certainly worth it to be a part of as many as possible, but that often includes only the free ones. A directory can also offer some valuable Page Rank, rank that’s often worth paying for (but again, I have no cash).

Forum links on the other hand are free, well, in most cases. Deep linking is also an option, as well as multiple links! Though, rather then money, forums need a certain amount of time invested.

Here is my schedule for time…

• First, you’ll need a valid email address. I personally use a junk one from Yahoo…I hate it when a forum sells my email, and many it seems do.

• Secondly, you need to find forums in your niche. You can do this one of several ways, I generally search for “my niche” + “vbulletin” or “phpbb” or even “forum” this should pull up at least a handful of forums within your specialty that you can join.

• Third of course would be to join the forums. Immediately after joining the forums fill in your profile, even include a nice avatar (not one with an ad). You can even put in your yahoo IM info (like anyone cares, and it won’t matter if you are using the one from your junk email). This shows you are a real person and people will take you more seriously. Don’t forget to fill in your webpage and your signature!

You can stop here if you wish, our home page link and signitures MAY be counted as a linkbacks. More power to you if that is the case, though in most cases now-a-days admin are cleaning house every few months to clean out the spammers. If you think this may be the case, move on…

• Find the forum for introductions, and introduce yourself…again, this proves you are a caring human interested in the community. Your thread will get bumped a few times as people say hello, with luck it’ll be on the main index when Google crawls by…

• Click the MEMBERS link and find a post whore (people like them it seems, they generally have lots of rep. Also, most post whores are admin or mods…and it’s always nice to befriend them.). Once a post whore is found that you like the name of, click into their profile, then click on either their posts or the threads they’ve started . This will give a list of generally current topics, which can be easier then scrolling forum by forum.

• Find a topic that interests you, post something RELEVANT in it.
  

• Repeat the last two steps once a month. This will give you a new relevant link back monthly, as well as the one in your profile. It’ll also keep your account active in the eyes of admin. And the time it takes is often less then the price of many directories.

Additional Options:

• After a few months, find sticky threads that list “useful resources” and post a link to yours.
• Actually become active on the forum for a few weeks/months…this will certainly bring more attention to your signature and/or any relevant links you can get out.
• If you are recruiting for a forum yourself, then gain a few friends, pull them in…many forums offer ‘gold accounts’ and if you can grab a few of those, many will pay for each forum they are a member of.
• “Sitcky threads” will gain in PR faster then others. If you can, try to sneak a link in (even if it’s your sig) on page one for the best effect, failing that, look for the default post cut off and try to land your post on the top of a new page.

Find more forums, and then repeat the entire process. Once you’ve registered and the time it takes to get that out of the way, finding a new thread to post in will only take 5 or 6 minutes. An hour a month will result in 10 link backs…you can likely speed the process along if you just post worthless drivel like “good post!” or “well said”

Regardless though, BE HUMAN and I can not stress that enough, and don’t SPAM. In many cases I search for new user’s names on my forum. If I see nothing but spam from them I’ll ban them before they can bother editing their profile.

Have fun on the forums!
Q