Wahm Forum - Your "Work-at-Home Moms" Support Group

wahmannounce · Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:02 pm Message Board Advertising Tips

Christina has written a wonderful article for her new site at HBBW that I thought would be very appropriate for a wahm forum like ours:
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Message board advertising can be a wonderful way to promote your business online. The first benefit is that it's free to do. Most large sites have free message boards (aka: forums) for you to enjoy posting on daily.

There are many ways to promote your business on message boards, and you do not have to just use the 'business opportunity' category to do it. Here are a couple tips below that can help you before you start posting.

Not an "AD" Tip

You don't have to make your message board posts 'look like an ad' you can post about topics, such as your favorite beauty tips, baby tip, pet advice, etc. Sometimes the most viewed posts when posting on a message board are the posts that do not 'look' like ads. So consider writing some interesting posts that you know will interest the board members, add your site address at the bottom of the post, and you will see that post will more than likely get more views than just a regular 'spam' type of ad for your business!

Boring Title Tip

Some people can write some pretty uninteresting titles! Small changes can make a difference from how many people will click on your post. I will show you how with two examples below.

Example One - Your visiting a message board and browsing the shopping area looking at some items for sale. There are two titles for my message board post below, which one would you click on, A or B?

A: "I Just Found The Best New Lip Gloss, You Got To Try It!"

B: "Mary Kay Beauty Products On Sale This Week"

Example Two - You own a children's website and you have many items for sale and your excited to tell people about your site, which ad do you choose to use for your post from the two options below, A or B?

A: "Baby Shower Soon? I have adorable handmade baby blankets for $20!"

B: "Come visit my new children's products website!"

Did you make your choices from the two examples above? Did you choose option A for both questions? I hope so! Because the 'A' titles would catch many more eyes and bring you in more readers than the more boring B option titles. Remember one thing when you are posting on a message board and that is, lot's of other people are posting too! There is tons of repetitive looking ads. Even if your posting an ad about a home business opportunity, experiment with different titles to see what is working best for you.

Posting about items you have for sale on your site? Did you see how I mentioned in the above examples a SPECIFIC item? I did not talk about your entire site. JUST ONE ITEM. I said you 'I found the best lip gloss, and that 'I make handmade baby blankets'. Sometimes focusing on mentioning one specific product you offer is better then focusing on your entire site. Charm your visitors with one item to bring them to your site, if they enjoy your site, believe me, they will check out your other stuff too! I can not stress this enough, give it a try, make your next message board post just ooze with how wonderful one product of yours is, and see for yourself if it works for you! After all, how are we going to know if Mary Kay just has the greatest new lip gloss if you do not tell us!

NO Spamming Tip

Do you have tons of time to waste every day? Not many of us do. So before you start posting on any forum, make sure you are following the rules. Common sense usually will tell you that your not allowed to post a business ad under the 'introduce yourself' category, so don't do it! Most rules will be displayed easily for you to find and read, so please follow them to avoid your ad being deleted, and you from being banned from posting again.

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Article by: Christina Lunceford, work at home mom of three and owner of http://www.homebasedbusinesswoman.com

pemgirl · Fri Sep 22, 2006 11:11 pm

These are great ideas. I know I am guilty of being boring. I would like to come up with something that will spur my creativity!

wahmannounce · Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:04 am

:lol: Cynthia,

You're far from boring. Hee Hee. It's been a pleasure having you a part of our wahm forum here.

You're doing a great job!

pemgirl · Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:08 am

:D
Well, thank you for the encouragement. I love this forum and have learned alot here from all of you.