I will share three common mistakes that I have seen in the forums that people have made resulting in no conversion or simply no views. I hope that the following tips will help you to improve the title in your next listing.

Avoid writing in all CAPS

Titles such as GREAT SAVINGS - MUST SEE project an immature mentality. I would advise you not to use caps for all the words and this seems like begging people to come and buy your product / service.

The bad about informational title

Consider this title if you are putting up a site for sale, KCHut.com - A blog about forum marketing. This is another mistake that many people make while creating titles. The reason is that titles are not the place for elaborated explanations about the site.

If you are selling a site, focus on one strong selling point and highlight it in the title. For example, if the site generates you $2,000 last month, put up the title as Popular marketing blog for auction, monthly revenue up to $2,000. You do not need to put your domain name in your title unless it is remarkable.

Generalizing your offer

This is another very common mistake seen in the forums nowadays. You will be able to see threads like Earn $100 in 2 days!. I have to admit that these types of listing will attract tons if views but simply not targeted. You might be surprised that a lot of people viewing such threads do not have the intention to buy anything!

For your information, serious buyers do not view such threads. They are focused and only compare threads that are related to what they are looking for. Hence, in a long run, you will be better off creating a more targeted title for your market in mind.

The following are some excellent titles (well-targeted) for your reference:

1. Manual Submission to SEO friendly directories - starting $3.50
2. Gain 100,000 Backlinks Or More | Massive Link Building (FREE OPTION)
3. Recipe Site / 40,000+ Recipes /Amazing Potential. Low BIN for fast sale

All the best in your forum listing

Seeing this trend, I have setup a company, WebNichz, with one of my business partners to help aspiring Internet Entrepreneurs to head start their venture so that they do not need to worry about the technical aspect. Allow me to elaborate on our services.

From planning to implementation
Once we receive orders from you, we start off by conducting keyword research and determine the most profitable keywords and integrate relating articles into the new site. All we need from you is just the niche that you are targeting. We also have a arsenal of templates for you to choose.

We optimize the website’s potential
We not only create content for your new site but also take into consideration of how can you generate more income from your site. We do this by optimizing the Google Adsense and Amazon advertisement placement based on our years of experience.

You will receive more than a website
By the end of 14 days, in addition to your new website, you will also have a lifetime access to our customers zone. This privileged area contains many useful reference materials (marketing, Search Engine Optimization etc) and resources that will help you in doing the right things for your business.

I would not want to fill this post with all the sales pitch but I would like to highlight that it is difficult to start from zero especially if you are very new to Internet Marketing. Getting a site up as fast as possible and gaining some experience by running it is the best way you can learn in this highly profitable area.

You can visit WebNichz for more information (website showcase, demo site, full feature list etc) or drop me an email

Stop searching. You are the one that will make it happen!

I am glad to announce that after my research and findings over the years, there is no such software or auto bots that works by auto posting in forums without sabotaging your own reputation. I just can’t imagine having a forum with all the bots posting around answering their own questions and talking to themselves.

If you are using an automated forum posting software currently, I would like to ask you to think again on your objective or purpose for doing this, maybe my following advice will help you.

You do not have to post in all the forums
I have mentioned in some of my earlier posts that you should concentrate on the top few forums in your niche. There is no need to get actively involved in all the forums in your niche unless you are a paid moderator.. In my experience, most people can do a pretty good job by taking part in three forums alternating each a each day. Practice the Pareto Principle - 80/20 rule.

I do not have the time!
Some people will say that they do not have the time to post in the forums so they rather use some bots and start posting and advertising their products in the forums. Based on my experience, majority of the forum members will categorize any new members’ advertising as spamming. Hence, I see very little value for anyone to do so.

Allow me to say this, if you do not have time to create quality post that can build a lasting relationships with the forum members, why do you bother to spend money and time looking for something that will sabotage your online reputation?

Are you after forum backlinks?
This is another common objective for people to use auto forum bots. The truth is that the search engine does not really care about how many links you have from a domain to your site. If you have been getting your hands dirty with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it is not the number of backlinks that matters, it is the quality of backlink that counts.

I have more than 4,000 backlinks from DigitalPoint to my blog but does it mean that I rank highly for my keyword without any other optimization techniques? Of course not. There is only one benefit we can get from a forum backlink - quick indexing of a site. And this works well with one backlink (I use the latest blog entry link), you do not need hundreds of them..

You only need one quality post a day!
What do I mean by quality post? It is something that will help a member to solve a problem or highlight some useful information based on your knowledge. It can also be some advices to help the new members to familiarize with the forums. It is these quality posts that will attract members to view your profile and eventually become your customers or business partners.

Allow me to give you one example, I posted a Google FAQ in DigitalPoint sometime ago and it attracted more than 200 replies with a total of 22,000+ views on the thread. I can say that I have managed to generate some sales off the signatures at that point of time. The thread is eventually locked as many people start to use it (by posting good tips etc..) to boost up their post counts..

You are the only one that can make forum marketing works for you. There is simply no other tools that can replace you in this task.

No free lunch - Investment Scam
If you have been conducting businesses in the forums for at least a few months, you will have realized that there are offers helping people to double their money from time to time. What the member will do is that he/she is able to make a profit through investment and you can send over a few hundred bucks expecting returns up to 100% in next month.

You will be surprised at how many people will fall into these traps over and over again. In my opinion, the risk involved is very high as you are trusting some stranger to double your investment. You will be better off investing that amount of money into educating yourself like buying books or purchasing materials from other reputable Internet Marketers.

High Reputation and iTrader does not always correspond to high reliability

Allow me to explain the reputation and iTrader system in case you are not unsure of what it is. In most forums, there is this reputation system that allows you to leave good ratings to other forum members to encourage good posting in the forums. As for business transactions, we use iTrader system. So high reputation will mean that you have been helping and providing valuable content in the forum and high iTrader will mean that you have been dong lots of reliable trades.

Just like all things in life, reputation and iTrader can be deceiving. A lot of scammers actually build up an above average profile before triggering their real operation in the forums. You should be careful with members that bears a high positive feedback within a very short period of time after they joined the forums. One way to identify this is to check out their forum join date.

Go for product or service reviews

Perhaps the most effective way to identify a scam offer is to see the product / service reviews by senior forum members or the forum moderators. This is possible for most products and services and is highly recommended because of its unbiased nature. This may be difficult for other types of services. For me, I sometimes go for monthly payment and monitor the service progress at the same time.  If you still feel insecure about a trade, leave it.

Have you been scammed before? You can share your experience in the comment area for us to learn as well

When I first visited Eric’s blog, I thought that this is going to be another teaching people how to make money online blog with several posts here and there embedded with affiliate links. I am totally wrong! You can easily see that Eric has put in a lot of effort compiling the video lessons teaching people how to exactly prepare themselves for their online business.

Well organized video lessons
Eric’s objective is to guide the readers through stages from planning to implementation of several of the business models (watch the videos to find out what model will he be teaching). At the time of writing, he has finished posting Lesson 8, which talks about what are the things needed for an online business.

If you are new to Internet Marketing, I would recommend following every of his videos to get a quick understanding of the process flow. If you have been in this field for at least a year, you can simply skip through some of the videos and watch those that you are interested. I have personally watched most of his videos and find that they are pretty high standard and carefully put together by Eric.

Check out Eric’s blog here

Do you have any other useful online resources to recommend for creating online business?

I would like to introduce this particular company that specialize in gaining organic backlinks for you. Submit2Please offers Article Submission, Directory Submission, Social Bookmarking, Press Release Distribution and Pay Per Link services to help you increase your Search Engine Rankings eventually with the generation of organic backlinks.

Article Submission

If you have read some of my books on Forum Entrepreneurship, you will know that articles can generate quite a number of organic links if done properly. Submit2Please understands this concept and aims to deliver excellent quality to the customers. You can place an order that submit your article to 100 PR4 and above directories for under $50. In case you find 100 directories not enough for you, they also offer submission up to 400 directories. Check out their attractive packages here.

Directory Submission

Many Internet Marketers are saying that directory submission is dying.. this is true if they do not do it correctly. There are hundreds of thousands of directories on the Net but we have to know which are the ones to submit to for our sites.

Submit2Please has once again amazed their customers by delivering top notch quality. You can place an order with them to submit your site to 150 PR4 and above directories under $50 Of course, they also offer submission up to 700 directories. If you are going to order directory submission, I would suggest to try out their monthly submission package so as to constantly receive backlinks in a monthly basis. Refer to the extensive price package list here.

What other people say about Submit2Please
Now, see what other people have mentioned about this Submit2Please.

I launched my Web Directory Listsinfo.com in May and was interested in some quality back links to obtain a good Google Page rank. I used Submit2please Directory submission service, and was happy to see I got a nice PR 4! Not a bad start for a brand new directory! - Brian Petersen

Submit2Please has been a pleasure to work with over the past few weeks. The submission did take some time but they are very professional in terms of response time as well as the final Report sent to me. We see nice improvements as being listed in various directories. Glad we found these guys - John Xie, Cirtex Corp

Is it really useful or can I do it myself?

I believe this is the question that you want to ask now. I will say that the effect of article and directories submission alone has gained me pretty much exposure and conversion for my sites. In addition, you should also consider social bookmarking as this is one area that many websites owners have overlooked but is working well for me.

You can also choose to do all this (submitting your site or articles to top directories) yourself. However, it would take you hundreds of hours sitting in front of your computer doing submission.. I find that it is more productive and efficient if we can focus on other core activities like refining your products, interacting with other business owners and contacting your previous customers. With over 40,000+ backlinks pointing to Submit2Please homepage, you can be assured that they know their stuff

Directories

PR4 Directory, Uncem Directory, accepting links for free, no reciprocal needed - shared by ecommerce_guru from DigitalPoint.

PR6 Directory, Lola Directory, accepting links submission for free, no reciprocal needed - shared by formula from DigitalPoint.

Themes and Templates

Free premium magazine wordpress theme made possible by jinsona from DigitalPoint. You can see the posting and demo link here.

Lorelei from DigitalPoint is giving away yet another stunning wordpress theme. You can see the beautiful theme in this listing.

Free Web Design Services

dubs89 from DigitalPoint is offering free website design services. You can see the forum listing here.

I would like to share three books that have created an impact on me out of the 100 over books that I have read for the last two years. Trust me, you really have to read the following books at least once.. this lifetime.

Happy For No Reason - Marci Shimoff

The top in my list is Happy For No Reason written by Marci Shimoff. You can read my detailed review on this book here.

This book is filled with touching stories that relates very well with the happiness principals taught by Marci. If you only have time for one book for the rest of your life, read this. For me, one important takeaway from this book is:

Success does not brings happiness, it is happiness that brings success.

25 Ways to Win With People - John C Maxwell

Another book that I would like to recommend is the 25 Ways to Win With People, by John C Maxwell and Les Parrott. You may ask why I am not recommending the classic written by Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People?

The reason is because I find that John’s book is more practical and is easy to absorb and reference to.
John and Les created this book carefully illustrating every method with clear examples and stories. You may have already know some of the popular methods like the ‘30-second rule’ and ‘Say the right words at the right time’ but you will be able to bring this to practice more naturally after reading the book.

Just to share one important concept from the book. In order to create a strong bond with a person, be a dream booster. Encourage people’s hopes or dreams and volunteer to help them out if it is within your capabilities. Never put down anyone’s hope. The following is a very meaningful quote:

An average person can live no more than 40 days without food,
4 days without water,
4 minutes without air,
but only 4 seconds without hope.

Secrets of The Millionaire Mind - T. Harv Eker

90% of the how-to millionaire books are targeted at mindset. If this is the case, why not just read a book that consists all these principles? Secrets of Millionaire Mind is the only book that I have read that summarizes pretty well on the fundamentals to become rich. T. Harv has made a comparison between the rich and the poor and presented them as wealth files in this magnificent book.

For your information, T. Harv is coming to Singapore in November 2008 for his popular event, The Millionaire Mind Intensive. You can read how I find this event after attending it last year in my blog as well

Start reading!

No better time to know the owner

When a forum is newly formed, the owner of the forum highly appreciates the first few members to the forum and hence, will listen and try to create a strong bonding with these members. This is the time for you to strike a lasting impression with the owner.

Upon joining up a new forum, try to navigate around and note down what you like and what you think can be further improved to increase the interactivity in the forum. Send an email thanking the owner for creating such a good platform to facilitate discussion and tag along the suggestions you have in mind and tell the forum owner how can he / she benefits from these improvements. This relationship is important especially if you are a service provider or sells a product that relates to the forum niche. You will be surprised that the forum owner will still remember you even after a few months of your inactivity

Gaining links from forum

If you have been reading my blog and getting involved in Internet Marketing, you would have knew the importance of backlinks. Most newly start-up forums are pretty flexible in the beginning that allows you to include a plug to your site using forum signatures. The more you post in the forums, the more people will take note of you and click on your link.

I would also like to mention that most forum owners enable the indexing of forum signatures. This mean that search engines will be able to index the links and take into account to increase your search engine rankings.

Network with the other new members

Perhaps you think that it is not important to spend time networking with other members in a forum but give it a second thought. Most people who join a new forum have hidden agenda, like what I have mentioned above for example. These are the people that you need to know them and know what they are doing. The reason is simple, the next time you create a community, invite them over

Building a strong community from scratch is not easy and many forum owners have been spending huge funds just to get people to post in their forums. Hence, if you plan to create a community in future, you should start to network now.

When is the last time you joined a new forum?

I would like to bring up a useful site that manages to capture most methods of how people earn money online with step-by-step illustration of the process. Internet Business Model Online shows up to 8 ways to earn money online ranging from promoting affiliate products to participating in forums

What I like about this site is that Patrick, the founder of the Internet Business Model Online, categories every method into respective difficulty level. This will give new Internet Entrepreneurs an idea of easy it is to start off. For example, getting some freelance jobs online is pretty easy especially if you have the desired skill set. Selling physical products online is pretty challenging as you not only have to take care of the products, you have to make sure your marketing and shipment miscellaneous are done proper.

As Patrick focuses on value, I believe anyone will be able to benefit from Internet Business Model Online easily. The following is a video created from the site, enjoy: