Marketing and Promoting Your Freelance Services Using Forum Marketing Techniques

As a freelancer, you are probably always looking for ways to find more clients and to tout your services to the general public. Luckily, there are quite a few ways to go about marketing your business these days. One such way is to use forum marketing techniques to promote yourself as an expert in your field. There are a few distinct ways in which freelancers can market their services through techniques of this type.

DON'T SPAM

I run a Graphic Design Forum and it gets a lot of spam. For this very reason, I am writing this article about marketing your business on forums. I am hoping that some people will read this article and realize the error in their ways. (I can hope, can't I?) First of all, what is forum spam? This is when someone goes into a forum and just recklessly posts ads or a message that is evidently only posted to add a link. Even posting just one ad is spam unless you have permission from the admin or moderator. On most forums this activity will not only get you banned, but you will also anger all of the users. As you can see, spamming forums shouldn't be a part of your business marketing strategy. Instead of spamming forums, I suggest that you use the following tactics to promote your freelance business through forums.

Find Popular Forums to Join

In order to have the biggest bang for your time, you should join the more popular forums in your market. I suggest doing a Google search for forums in your niche market by doing a search for your niche +forum. Take a look at the forum and see if it is regularly posted to. If the forum gets at least 25-50+ posts per day and has at least a few thousand members, then this is a forum that you will want to join. If the forum doesn't accept urls in the signature or profile, then it probably isn't the right forum for self promotion.

Post a Cheerful Introduction Message

Almost every forum has an Introduction section. This is where you are going to want to introduce yourself to the online community. Since each forum has different rules and policies, you should read other user's introductions to see what is acceptable. You can even refer to rules that might be posted. If you see that other users are posting urls, then you can passively mention your business within the introduction, otherwise avoid mention of specific business details. However, it is usually okay to post a url in your signature. In the Introduction, you will want to sound excited about joining the community. The last thing that you want to do is sound as if you are just there to get free attention for your freelance business.

Dress Up Your Forum Profile

Think of your forum profile page as "˜real' web pages that might get spidered by search engines or viewed by other forum users. Fill out all of the relevant information on your profile to show that you are an avid member. Add keyword relevant content on your profile page without being 'spammy' about it. This will help with internal searches and possibly also with Google and other search engines. Of course, make sure to add your URL to your personal forum profile.

Use a Memorable Avatar

You may not realize it, but by passing on uploading your picture, you are also passing on an opportunity to get people's attention turned towards you. A great way to get pictures to click on your profile is by using a funny or extremely interesting picture as your avatar. You are trying to get people talking about you and your avatar so take this seriously. Find or create an avatar that matches your personality and one that is either very humorous, super weird, or just really cool. Also, people are very visual and they are much more likely to remember you if you have a picture to remember you by. Also, it is well known that spammers almost never take the time to upload an avatar to their account.

Provide Helpful Advice

Forums are the main place in which individuals go to gain information from others knowledgeable in the area being discussed. By providing helpful advice to those who view the forum, you are catering to their needs which creates a favorable impression of you. People will also take notice if you are knowledgeable about things that they are bad at. Don't be surprised if you get a lot of questions that eventually turn into contract work for you.

Don't Sell Your Business - Sell Yourself

One thing to keep in mind is that selling your business on forums will just put you in a bad light. People will strongly dislike you if they know that these are your intentions. Instead, sell yourself by consistently showing others that you are knowledgeable, considerate, and good at what you do.

Answer Introduction Messages

Most users take the time to write an introduction message. Be one of the first people to welcome these new users to the community and they will remember you.

Express Knowledgeable Statements

Not only should your statements be helpful but they should be knowledgeable as well. Formatting your comments correctly and with much thought will help to get your point across and show readers just how knowledgeable you truly are on the subject.

Be Sure to Produce Backlinks

After you have become a respected member of the community, it should be okay to every once in a while link to an article or resource on your site. If you aren't sure if this is allowed then you should ask the moderator, but as long as you are a useful member of a community, it probably will be appreciated. After you have expressed your point of view on the subject at hand, make sure to include a link to your website or blog where potential customers can contact you. This is an excellent way to generate new business as individuals viewing your forum post will want to learn more about you and perhaps contact you for freelance work.

Write a Useful Guide

A great way to gain the respect of all of the forum users is by writing a helpful guide in your niche. Hopefully you will be able to link to this guide from all over the forum. How do you do that? You can refer to specific pages in your guide when answering related questions. You should ask the moderator or admin first, but it should be fine as long as you already established yourself as a respected user. You will find that this will start a viral effect and your site's clickthroughs will skyrocket by direct forum traffic and by forum members posting your link to other forums and sites that they frequent.

Produce a Lot of Forum Posts

The more forum posts you produce the more likely you will be to expand your customer base. By getting your name out there as much as possible and advertising your freelance work, you are expanding your chances of experiencing a growing client base. You can try to post topics that have a lot of controversy or discussion potential to get noticed, as long as you aren't being obnoxious or rude.

Utilize the Private Message

Reaching out and talking to people personally is a great way to become closer to people in the community. Don't pm people about your business, but rather offer personalized advice if you see that someone is struggling or in need of a little extra motivation or help. You will find that this will pay off and you should have a huge network of friends in no time.

Utilize the Points System

If the forum that you are using utilizes a points or karma type system, then you should add points to members posts and profiles so that they might do the same for you. This also is a good way to get noticed and increase your chance of making new friendships.

Visit Different Forums to Capture a Larger Audience

It is not only vital to visit one specific forum many times and post there frequently but you should also visit multiple sites as well. Since not everyone visits one specific forum on a particular subject matter, getting your name and link out there on various forums will again increase your chances of gaining more business.

State Your Experience with the Subject

It is not simply enough to make statements concerning the subject matter but you should also be sure to state how you know about a certain subject. Doing so will help to improve your credibility and make others more willing to contact you in the future for freelancing positions.

Don't be Rude or Crass

Be professional and courteous. This means not cursing or debasing people by religion, culture, or their beliefs. This doesn't mean that you can't be funny, in fact you should try to be funny to get people to like you.

Don't Say Nasty Things About Other Businesses

Although it might be tempting to write nasty things about your competitors, refrain from this immaturity. This isn't a fair business practice and you wouldn't want another business owner doing this to you. It is also not a good practice to complain about businesses that don't use good business practices because then you will give them the coverage that they crave.

Create Cool Effects in Your Forum Posts

A neat way of getting noticed is to format your forum posts a little different. People will stop and wonder how you did it, and this gives you a higher chance of clicks on your signature or on to your profile. This program called PawSoft Fass is freeware that allows you to change the color of forum post text color, fonts, etc.

Add Popular Members to Your Buddy List

If the forum that you are using includes a buddy list system, then you should find the users with the highest post counts and add them as your buddy. Now you can track these users and post comments to their threads and private message them with questions or advice. This goes a long way to build trusting friendships and business relationships.

More Articles Online That Might Be Helpful to You

How to Market Through Forums - Forum marketing can be one of the most powerful ways of branding yourself. Here you will capture the best prospects to secure a pro-active downline. Be sure you do this right!

The Best Way to Market Yourself Through Forums - Some of you might be familiar with forum marketing, but most don't really see the power of this method. I will try to draw you a picture of all the positive effects forum marketing can have on your internet business. I will also show you what most people do wrong and how you can get the most out of it.

Self Promotion Tips : Online Forums - Have you ever noticed the same individuals appear over and over in forums dispensing advice. It's a marketing tactic that has been used for years and it works. Mike Merz discusses the tactic in this article and also provides a great list of forums to post to.

Promoting Your Online Home Business : Using Forums To Build Your Internet Home Business - Having just spent time in my favorite forum catching up on today`s posts it occurred to me that forums are not just great places to pick up Internet business ideas and meet new net entrepreneurs, but how essential they are to help build an Internet home business.

The Ins and Outs of Forum Marketing - I'm going to outline a few of the benefits of participating in forums as well as give you some basic tips for building a strong profile and using them to help your business.

Using Forum And Blogs To Generate Tons Of Laser Targeted Free Traffic - For every subject that you can possibly imagine and probably a few that you would most likely never want to imagine, there are people gathered on the Internet on blog and forum sites who are discussing it"¦ at great length.

Viral Marketing Using Forums - There are different types of forums, beyond the obvious topical types, of "marketing" or "special interest", etc. "Marketing" and "special interest" are two types of what are commonly referred to as "open forums".

Explode Your Viral Marketing Efforts Using Forums! - Viral Selling sounds like something bad but it is actually something very good. It is, also, a powerful manner to bring forth traffic to your website.

Do you want to promote your website? - Leveraging forums to promote your products, services, or website is a good idea if you've got time on your hands, but no money to advertise.

Using Forums as a Key Marketing Component - There has recently been debate over the role of forums in the now social network driven Internet. With newer web 2.0 social sites such as Facebook, Digg, and StumbleUpon gaining popularity, many think forums will be pushed out and are in danger of extinction.

Technorati Tags: freelance marketing, freelance promotion, self promotion, freelance, freelancing, freelancers, finding clients, finding customers, freelance customers, forum marketing, message board marketing, promotion on forums, online self promotion, forums, message boards, discussions