Forum marketing has more benefits than what you might see on the surface. Learning more about these benefits will grow your business even more. If you have overlooked forums as a way to market your business, then you might have missed out on a golden opportunity. They are so blatantly clear that anyone could have missed them.
Remember with forum marketing you want to be considered an expert in your niche and enjoy good forum reputation. A failure in either task will net results that are not at all optimal. You must first, of course, be seen. What you want to avoid is spending a lot of time in any forum. This is only a small part of your overall marketing strategy.
But coming in and taking over with a large number of posts in a short amount of time will be counter-productive. Create posts at times when the maximum amount of traffic is likely to hear what you have to say. You can make half a dozen or so thoughtful posts answering questions or contributing something valuable.
Remember that it's always wise to contribute by starting your own threads and conversations. It's quite common to feel a little bit shy about going out there and starting threads of your own. Think of something worthwhile you have to share and turn it into a thread. Invite others to contribute and/or ask questions.
There are many ways to get people to comment, and one way is to say or imply something controversial. Of course this method carries some risk. You don't want to browse around here come across as someone who is either reckless here or judgmental. One thing you don't want to do is start a thread that's off-topic for the forum or something ridiculous.
Figure out who has a lot of influence on the forums before you really dig into your own networking efforts. There may be a few contenders for top spot. There is some influence to this based on the sheer number of forum members too. Forums that have a lot of members and a long history will have more people with influence. It isn't always easy to guess, this link from the outside, who will have the most influence. Usually a senior moderator who's been there forever and many people basically try to win favor and acceptance. These are the people you want to get to know as quickly as possible on the forum. Even though forum marketing can be productive and fruitful, it's not anything that will bring you overnight success. However, you could score a few quick sales if you find the right forum and product. Some forums think that it is okay to advertise with them, which will make things look very profitable for you in the long run.