Forum/Newsgroup/Blog are places that
people share opinion on a specific topic. People will gather there if
they find interest on the topic, they can participate in the discussion
and share their opinion. The topic are in great variety, like politics,
social issues, entertainment, leisure life, jobs, and many others.
In other words, Forum/Newsgroup/Blog brings people with
similiar interest together. If you find a Forum/Newsgroup/Blog that
related to your products/services, you are close to your targeted
customers. So how you can promote your product in Forum/Newsgroup/Blog?
#1 Make an Ad
This is the most direct way to attract your targeted customers. You can
talk with the webmaster about the rate on posting a ad on their site.
The rate is depends on the size and position of your ad. One thing
you should notice that surfer are become “banner-blind”, they are
“trained” to skip those banner ad automatically. The banner ad are now
become less attractive than before. You can look for different layout of
the ad, like text link or tower-style ad.
#2 Raise a post to promote your product
In the discussion forum, you can share your opinion. So, you can just
make an post and talk your products. But, it depends on the rule and the
culture of the forum. If it is not allowed to do so, you should not take
the risk. It is because webmaster always skimmed throught the post to
see if any regulation is broken. Moreover, this may break the culture
and bring a bad image to your targeted audience. Before doing that,
you’d better check with the regulation of the forum.
#3 Post promotional offer
A better way is to post some promotional offer on the forum, like
discount coupon. People will treat this as a sharing rather than a hard
sell advertisement. This is a more acceptable way.
#4 Share your opinion
A better way to make a promotion is to share your opinion. In every
post you made, remeber to leave a simple statement about yourself, your
company or product and you can leave your web site also. This can raise
other people’s interest and will get into your website. In simple words, participate in the discussion.
Below are two famous discussion forum in Hong Kong:
http://www.discuss.com.hk
http://forum.uwants.com/
