Driving Traffic - Forums

In my experience working with people looking to start new sites (whether they are beginners or more experienced) one of the most important aspects is seeing revenue early on.

One of the reasons this method has not been focused on SEO is that it is a long-term strategy that if done properly (not using PBNs etc.) will take 6+ months to start seeing results. Whilst following this method will also help your site attract organic traffic - it is not the main purpose. Organic traffic is a by-product of doing everything else well.

There is no single traffic source that you should use at this stage – it will really depend on your niche and target audience. I’ve seen some niches that work well with Facebook, others that don’t. Some that work well on Twitter, others that don’t etc. The key is to test!

What we are going to be focusing on is answering questions that people are asking about our niche. Simple but effective. I always like to start with forums as there are usually so many out there so it doesn’t matter if you aren’t effective (or even get banned) on some of them.

At this stage, find 10 forums relevant to your niche and register accounts at each. Ideally, you should spend a few minutes on each forum checking if people are asking questions/there are threads about products you have reviewed. Going back to the earlier mattress example this could be:

“I am not sleeping well. Any ideas to help??”
“Just moved house. Looking for a new bed and mattress. Suggestions?”
“What is the best memory foam mattress?”

If it looks like there are relevant threads, register an account. Don’t spend ages on each at this stage. 5 of your forum accounts should also relate to your blog. Don’t use the name of your site as your username, use the name of your “blogger”. Maybe add some numbers in there if necessary. Fill out your profile properly on each forum. The other 5 accounts you setup should be completely random usernames so there’s no way of people knowing you are related to your blog/site.

Most forums have an introduction forum – so go post over there. DO NOT LINK from your first post (or on your first day) as this is likely to get you banned. Once you’ve done all of this, wait!

While you wait, I would recommend starting a Google Sheet/Excel document to track your Q&A. On this you should have a column for:

- Date/Time
- Site name
- Type (e.g. forum)
- Live? (i.e. is the link live?)
- Target page (on your blog)
- Site URL

If you are doing this method properly, you should end up with lots of different sites with varying results. Most will not work at all. You do not have to worry about this. On my friend’s site, he only has 3 answers that have done well and continue to bring in traffic today.

These pages have also naturally begun to pick up organic traffic which only helps earnings. This is why it is important to track using a sheet.

At this stage, you should have 10 different forum accounts, all with a nice complete profile and an introduction post. Each forum will have different rules (if you have time, read them!). Some will let you link in your first post, some won’t let you add a link for 30 days. Some will be easy going on new members, others will be very sceptical and unlikely to let you link at all.

Go back to each forum and start answering questions about your niche. I would recommend replying to 1-3 random threads first (no linking to your site, only authority sites if it’s relevant like Wikipedia). This will mean when a moderator looks at your account, they don’t immediately think you are just spamming your site.

When you do find a thread/post about your niche, test answering in different ways. If answering as your blogger:

- Long responses with a link within the post.
- Short responses with a link to your relevant blog post as further reading. E.g. “Great question. Hard to answer this on a forum so I put together a blog post for you here…”
- Answers where you disagree with the original question. E.g. “no you don’t need to spend $1000 on a mattress, here are some you can buy for less than $200”
- Answers where you agree with the question and post a link to your best post. E.g. “Choosing a good mattress is really important, I get much more sleep since choosing mine. I personally have a [brand name here] but have written about some other options here: [your link]

When answering as your blogger, keep it casual but act like an expert in your niche/topic and refer back to personal experience.

If answering with the anonymous accounts you setup use answers like:

- I was looking for [niche name] recently. I bought a [product name] thanks to a recommendation from [your blog post about this]
- Great question. I did a lot of research on this. Here are some useful posts I found [link to your site and an authority site like Wikipedia/news sites]
- I’ve done a lot of research on this. Here’s what I found: [copy part of your article] and then link to your article at the end
- Start a new thread entirely and say you are researching a product and what do people think of [your buying guide]

Within your first week of doing this, you should have 10 forum accounts with 3-5 posts on each. You can do more if you like (especially replying to your threads). Now just wait and update your tracker sheet to see which links are still live (expect some to be removed). After your first week of posting you should have made at least 1 sale with Amazon.