Sample Online Forum Guidelines and Rules

By Lance Winslow

Setting up a Blog is not easy and allowing others to post on a Blog or Forum can be problematic, therefore I recommend at least some rules to help you in the process. I had set up a simple set of rules for our online forum think tank and thus I thought I might share them with you.

The fewer the rules the better and simplicity is key. The more rules and the more you stifle the use of your forum or participation on your Blog. Below are the set of rules we came up with;

The simplistic rule of thumb here is use “Common Sense.”

“This is an Online Forum” and we would expect you follow Common Sense and Standard Online Forum and Blog Etiquette with regards to your fellow participant.

In case you do not understand, here it is in black and white:

1.) Be Nice, ie “golden rule” and no swear words that are over the top.

2.) Work hard to stay on topic without self-promoting.

3.) Only original comments here, do not post private emails, other people’s work.

4.) No Foreign Military Spies allowed in Military Section, will report to DOD, CIA. We are watching you, so do not screw around, trust us on that. You would not be the first.

5.) Sploggers maybe turned into authorities as spies, good luck if that happens to you. We cannot take the risk, you understand.

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I certainly hope this is of value to you or it might help you come up with a cool set of guidelines or rules for your website, whether you run a Blog or an Internet Forum. My goal is merely to help you in your quest to be the best in 2007.

"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/

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Attract Business Using Business to Business Forums

By Jigna Dattani

Are you a small business struggling to find work? You have emailed and posted loads of marketing materials, gone to many exhibitions and networking events, and cold called many companies, it was all very expensive but the work is still not flowing in. What more could be done.

Why not try and use Internet Business to Business forums to capture work. The forum lets two or more business entities communicate with each other who other wise may never have found out about each others existence. The communication could take many forms like, exchanging views on best practice, or simply one party looking for another party do some work.

There is a certain method to make the use of business to business forums effective. Your aim is not simply to go on to the forums and say you are said business and does anyone have any work for you. This approach may not be very effective.

You have to try to build up your brand and reputation on the forums. How do you do this? Well there are many ways but here a few pointers.

One way to do this is by responding to other people in the same industry as yourself, who are seeking your advice. If you can provide free help which the other person finds useful, it gets the dialogue going, builds trust and eventually the free help may result in paid work.

Another way to show you know stuff is by placing knowledge based articles on forums related to your industry. These articles can cover areas that you yourself have found tricky and you know that other people in a similar boat would very much appreciate the guidance you provide in the article. Or the articles can be best practice articles that people who have less industry experience than you, could use to improve the way they work. Again, it’s all about getting other people to trust and have confidence in your abilities, up and above your competitors.

Off course you also respond to individuals who are specifically requesting for a service provider. But try to market your self as much as possible in your response, list your experience, list some of your customers, and list your articles.

Finally to summarise, it’s all about getting your name out there in a more confidence building manner than just an advert. There are many people advertising, but how does the customer know you are better than your competitor? And how do they know you can do the job well? Using forums is a way of providing a free taster of your abilities. Think of using the forum as going to an exhibition, your articles are an example of you exhibiting at a stand, and your communication is similar to people visiting your stand or you visiting other peoples stand. The better your stand and pitch, the more people visiting your stand and finding it useful, and the more stands you visit to network will certainly improve your prospects of gaining work.

CardsMadeEasy, The Business Cards Company Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jigna_Dattani

Making Money Online - Top 2 Benefits of Forums

By Eric Gabriel Walker

Forums play a critical part on the internet learning curve. You can Learn a lot about everything in online forums. They are there to help everyone out, some forums you have to pay for, but those are few and far between. The top 2 benefits of online forums are:

If you are ever struggling online. There is just something you cannot figure out, chances are there is someone somewhere that has asked a very similar question, if not the same exact question. The easiest way to find information from a forum is to either go to a forum and type a question in the "search" portion, Or you can go to a major search engine and type "forum" before your question. For Example: "forum how to cloak your links" Usually when you do this the first few search terms will have a very similar question that has been asked.

Another great benefit about forums, is a "signature form" you can usually modify this in your profile. The best part about this is you can add a link back to your website from each forum you post on. Now don't get me wrong don't just go spamming different forums, asking meaningless questions. Surely this will result in banning from the forums. This will result in quality backlinks to your website.

As you can see posting in forums has many benefits, everything from getting a difficult question answered to creating backlinks, and possible traffic to your website. A few forums to keep in mind are warrior forum, and webmaster forum. I found the people who joined these seem to be the most qualified to answer any questions you may have.

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Forums - Are They An Effective Way Of Advertising?

By Christopher Raine

So what are Forums, well in the broadest sense they are sites where groups of like minded people visit to discuss points of interest or to find out information and learn about a subject that they are interested in.

For the purpose of this article we are looking at what part Forums have to play in the Internet Marketing community.

So why would anyone visit a Forum in this arena and what could they possibly gain?

There are likely to be four main reasons for visiting a forum site.

Firstly, someone may visit because they are seeking advice or guidance over a product they are considering purchasing, or they could be looking at an affiliate product to promote and see if others have had experience at marketing this, and so on.

Secondly, from a marketers point of view this can be a breeding ground for new product ideas. A forum can be full of people who are experiencing difficulties and are crying out for product solutions.

Thirdly, dependant on where you are with your on-line business and experience, you may find yourself isolated. The forum allows you to make contact with other individuals and possibly develop working relationships which lead to the potential for JV (Joint Ventures) partners.

Fourthly, and the purpose of this particular article is the use of Forums in marketing your site.

So what do you need to do, you need to determine what sort of problems are forum visitors encountering, can we find a common theme. If so, can you come up with the solutions to these problems.

It is possible that you may have a product solution readily available, in which case you can provide links to visit your site. Remember you are not only promoting your own site, but also yourself, you want to be seen as the figure of authority in their area of concern.

The response you provide in the Forum needs to be compelling and provide evidence that clicking on your link will take them to the next step in finding the solution to the problem that they are experiencing.

In the absence of having a ready made solution, is there any constant or general themes to be found in the Forum postings. This could lead to one of two things, either you have found a niche to fulfil with a new product potentially, or have you found a subject which is quite general but linked in such away that a resource site may be useful.

Building a resource site which could be one or two pages to many may provide the visitor with a valuable and useful resource and yourself with the ability to market Affiliate products relevant to that subject.

The obvious thing here with all things on-line is ensuring that the relevancy of Affiliate products is consistent with the content of the pages.

I hope that this provides an insight into the potential for using Forums for your marketing efforts.

Chris Raine is the owner of Internet-marketing-4u.com it provides you with a Free education on how to make money online, including how to Market Online, including the use of Forums, and all others aspects of building an online business. If you want to know more you can get free access to the resources at: http://www.internet-marketing-4u.com

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Forum Marketing - Use Forums to Drive Traffic to Your Web Site

By Sean Ray

Internet forums are a modern version of the old online list servers or “bulletin boards” of the past. They draw participants from every part of the globe to join into topic-focused discussions covering every possible subject. Most forums are specialized – that is, they focus on particular topics or subjects ranging from fan clubs, sports themes, auto clubs, health discussions, and support groups. To give you some idea of how specialized these groups can be, one forum directory lists 16 different forums focused entirely on Honda vehicles with separate forums for different models and different vehicles ages. It’s exactly this specialization that has spawned the interest of niche marketers and created “forum marketing.”

Most forums have rules that have created to ensure that interaction on the forums is positive and constructive. Depending on the forum, these rules cover a wide variety of topics from use of profanity, “yelling”, pornography, name-calling, posting attachments, etc. Almost all forums have rules against overt use of SPAM. It is important to understand, and to never minimize, how seriously the forum participants follow the rules. Failure to adhere to the rules may not only get you booted out of the forum, but may result in the entire forum taking a negative and hostile view of any products or services you’ve discussed. Negative word of mouth advertising travels much faster than positive word of mouth advertising.

So how, you ask, can forum marketing be useful to me? In spite of the rules, many forums (not all) do allow you to post links and many also allow a signature line to include links. Many forums are interested in user experience with products and services. You may want to provide, or have a customer provide, some direct contribution to a forum that speaks objectively about your product or service. Just remember, don’t go overboard on the hyperbole. Also, simply participating in many forums and including your website link in your signature, not only exposes your web site, but also creates more link-in’s to your site (which impacts your Search Engine rankings!)

If you have a specialized product or service, it may well be worthwhile looking into, and participating, in forum marketing. Good places to start include forum directories like www.big-boards.com, www.smallbusinessforums.org, and www.activeboard.com/directory.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Ray