For every niche, there are a wide range of discussion forums online discussing it. If these forums also manage to garner a fair share of traffic, it's a simple matter to capitalize on that traffic in a really big way. The truth is that most people imagine this process taking much longer than it needs to. Alas, you will have to put more than a little time and effort into it if you really want it to pay off for you. It's up to you what the best choice might be.
It is assumed that you want to learn about forum marketing. Don't gravitate towards forums that don't want you to market products. There are plenty of forums that do not approve of marketing of any type. Of course if the owner sells ad space, then he or she will be happy to take your money. Find out which forums are which. But, it won't be hard to find a good one because the net has loads of them.
Your first step in forum marketing involves building relationships with the members of the forum. Some marketers prefer to think of this as building a network. In this instance, it's wiser to focus on building relationships; not networks. Let them get to know you; they'll prefer doing business with someone they feel they have a relationship with. Plan all your actions according to this. If you're serious about building forum relationships you'll want to keep familiarity in mind. You have to have a visible and regular presence on the forums in order to develop relationships.
Any time you join a forum, you have control over your own persona or how people view you. You can create the type of personality that you choose for others to experience. But do this with caution because you never know what will happen. If you tend to be loud, you can stop this and do not do it any longer. A lot of people just are not as aggressive. But everything hinges on how well others see you. Depending on your niche, you may not browse around this web-site want people to know how you really are. So think about the big picture when you are building up your profile.
So, understand that social marketing and forum marketing are somewhat alike. Most people can tell that forum marketing is so close to social marketing. They are very closely connected to relationship marketing, which is resource why you should learn as much as you can about it.