What if a geek friend already did the on-page optimization and now you want to know how you can contribute to the “search engine goodness” of your website? Off-page optimization is the next step. And the results you will have to pine for are one-way backlinks. Why? This is how many of the major search engines such Google, Yahoo! and MSN rank websites. The more backlinks from relevant sites with good page rank, the merrier.

So how exactly do you gather backlinks? It’s not an easy task but it’s definitely less nerve-wracking than HTML if you are not the techie type. Here are some off-page SEO tips:

1. Article Marketing

Quality content has been discovered to be real king. Everyone is hungry for fresh and quality info and providing it will make backlinks go pouring in. It helps a lot to be a keen writer to be successful on this endeavor. Also, practise the proper way of using a resource box. It should only include a website that contains information relevant to the article you submit to article directories.

2. Forum Participation

Look for forums that are relevant to your website’s content and keep on sharing information that will be indispensable for the members of the forums. Your signature or that tag-along message at the last part of each of your posts is what will work for your off-page SEO campaign. Keep it simple and make sure that it conveys something about your website. Learn how to hyperlink to make it easy for the people who want to visit your site.

3. Blogging

Blogs or web logs are now the most popular weapons of SEO experts. Aside from being easy-to-update, they don’t require a too formal tone, which is what many readers are into. Informal dialog which can be accomplished through readers leaving comments and the blog author replying to the comments is what also keeps blogs fresh and search engine friendly. Maintaining a blog that’s again relevant to your website’s content will keep the search engines in touch with your site. Don’t forget to have a link on your main website from your blog.

The secret to be successful in carrying out these off-page SEO methods is to be consistent. Submitting quality articles to websites at least two to three times a week and regularly producing content for your personalized blog is a surefire way to make your website stand out. Forum participation should also be something done more frequently since it will not only help you up your website’s popularity with the search engines but also make you learn new stuff from other forum members’ participation. Also, if you discover that you don’t enjoy these stuff, there’s always a plan B – hire someone to do them for you!

Note: This article may be freely reproduced as long as the AUTHOR’S resource box at the bottom of this article is included and all links must be Active/Linkable with no syntax changes.

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As an online marketer, you face the challenge of building trust and loyalty without the benefit of a physical handshake, a face-to-face meeting, or even a smile. To this end online forums can provide an excellent way to build meaningful relationships with people and attract new customers.

By joining a forum in your area of expertise, you gain access to a community that shares your interests as well as a pool of potential customers. There are countless forums dealing with just about any topic imaginable. The vast majority of forums do not charge you a fee to register or post messages. Many allow you to include with your posts self-promotional “signatures” that you can use to promote your business and link to your website.




A good way to locate a forum relevant to your line of business is to do a keyword search using one of the major search engines. Why a major search engine? A Google search for “website marketing forum,” for example, will not only return dozens of relevant forums on website marketing, but will also give you an indication of how highly they are regarded by the search engine giant, as gauged by how high they rank for that key phrase. Forums that rank higher on the search engine result pages (SERPs) are the ones of which you’ll want to become a member.

Forums allow you to share knowledge and gain reputation as an expert in your field. Offering concrete advices that are immediately useful to other people is an especially effective marketing technique. Once you’ve gained credibility in your field, you will be sought after for your professional expertise without your having to promote yourself.

Participating in forums is also an excellent way to humanize yourself and your business. When people deal with you, they’ll know that they’re dealing with a real person, not a nameless, faceless business entity. By staking your reputation online, you demonstrate that you are willing to accept some degree of accountability for your actions.

If you’re a generally honest and agreeable person in the real life, there is no reason to hide behind a company name when conducting business online. The personal qualities that make you likable in the real world will also make you likable in cyberspace. Indeed, establishing meaningful relationships online is a lot like making friends in the real world. After all, on the other side of the terminal is a real person with real emotions just like you.

Another key to meaningful online relationships is to create an atmosphere of openness and transparency. Although you normally use a nickname to start and respond to posts in public forums, you should use your real name in private correspondences. It is good practice to begin your messages with a salutation, addressing them by their real name whenever possible. A little courtesy can go a long way in building loyalty and trust.

Apart from selling your personal qualities, you must have something of value to offer to people– and at prices that are fair to everyone! On a venue where your personal reputation is not at stake, you can price a widget for any amount you want and hope someone will come along and buy it. When you do business on forums, however, you must be extra value-conscious when pricing your product or service. If you overprice your widget, you risk receiving flames from other members that could harm your reputation. This is why it’s so important to research what other members are charging for a similar widget and to price yours competitively. Often you’ll end up charging lower prices to members of your forum than to other customers with whom you have not developed as close a relationship for the same widget.

Building positive relationships is about making people feel important. Just as you want to feel good for having sold your product or service, people want to feel good for having bought it. This is why it is so important to promptly answer their questions and attend to their concerns. Listen to their inputs and incorporate their ideas into your business practices. This is how you make your customers a part of your team. It’s not a stretch to speak of your customer as a member of your team. When you really think about it, no business can exist without its customers. Teamwork is not limited to interacting with other members of your company. It also takes teamwork to build a constructive, mutually beneficial relationship between you and your customers.

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Most web sites make use of forums to provide the element of response from user to owner and vice versa. These forums take many forms, and include the standard forums, discussion boards, bulletin boards and currently blogs where the visitors to the web site can leave their comments on the site.

Marketing has always revolved around relationships. The basic element of relationship from the aspect of online marketing is to weave an element of trust between the potential purchaser and the vendor or web site owner. Once there is this element of trust, even the tiniest bond that has been sown between the potential buyer and seller, it becomes easier for the potential buyer to take a further step to buy the product. That is why many marketers are establishing forum boards and blogs to interact with clients and to provide support and to answer queries.

These forum boards provide a fertile ground for you to test out forum marketing for your products.




You need to compile a list of the discussion boards and blogs that are related to your product or service line that you are going to market. Then on a daily basis, visit these forums to read their postings. These forums are the best sites where newbies to internet marketing would congregate to seek free resources, or request information or advice from more experienced forumers. When you see a post where you can respond, make a brief informative post, and more importantly make sure you leave a reference to your web site in your signature line. This confers on you two advantages. Firstly, you gain a backlink to your site when you leave your website address in a much visited forum, and secondly, forumers who read your post will tend to visit your web site by following the link in your post.

Some internet marketers channel all their visitors to a squeeze page and not to a sales website directly. This squeeze page is a sign up page where you get the email address of the visitor in return for a free download of a ebook or report or software. By using this squeeze page, you gain targeted leads.

Statistics show a potential buyer would need to be exposed at least 3 to 5 times before he becomes interested to take the next step to purchase anything from you. By getting his email, you can email him on a regular schedule or use an autoresponder to channel your marketing message across.

The most important part of forum marketing is to identify a group of marketing forums and blogs related to your product or services that you are selling, from which you can then launch off. Once you have the list of forums and discussion boards, it becomes a daily affair to spend enough time to visit these forums and to post to them. Beware though, forum reading can be addictive, and you can be spending a whole lot of time on reading and posting to forums. Track your leads, and as you continue to do your forum posting daily, you will see a steady increase in your web site traffic and your sales.

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The reality is, unless your corporate America with a huge advertising budget, the days of staggering increases in traffic are way down the road. Isn’t there something I can be doing while I wait for the search engine traffic to come?

As a matter of fact there is. Yet this particular form of Free website promotion doesn’t make the headlines and requires no software to install, no backdoor tricks into the search engines, and it’s totally free. What is it?



Now, Before I reveal this technique, I want you to promise you won’t go near the delete button and you’ll give me a chance to lay this thing out to you. Promise? O.K. The Technique is “Posting to Forums.” In the first couple days of “Going Live,” you can hope to attract a couple of hundred visitors, at the least. This will be small in comparison to the knowledge you’ll attain, by allowing the members of these forums to critique your site. You’ll then be able to make whatever changes necessary before the search engines crawl your site. Having your site critiqued by experienced marketers, For Free, Well, Let’s just say, “You Can’t Beat The Price.”

If you’ve never visited or posted in a forum. Don’t be intimidated. These are people no different than you and I. Merely a group of like minded individuals seeking to get answers to their questions or providing answers to questions asked. Usually on a specific topic or topics.

Side Note: Before you Post make sure you read the rules for posting. Read some of the posts being made. Stay on Topic, You’ll get the hang of it in no time.

Once you get the hang of it you’ll want to make sure you don’t go announcing your new site to every other forum you come across. This is viewed as Board Spamming and is definitely a No No. There are boards that will accept this sort of post but on a whole you’ll have to remain on topic and wait for the opportunity to legitimately slide your announcement in. Sometimes outright and others in your signature.

Finding forums to fit your needs is easy. Just type “forums” into your favorite search box, you can then refine your search from there. Check to see if the list of sites meets your needs and go from there.

As a newcomer you’ll want to keep your initial posts simple. Remember to mind your manners. Be polite and friendly and always maintain the prescence of the Business Professional that you are. When the time is right, simply ask them to look at your site. You’ll recieve a pretty good cross section of positive and critical comments. Don’t go getting your shorts all in a knot because someone has posted, what appears to you to be, a negative comment. Keep in mind that you’ve enlisted them to critique your site. Be prepared for all the comments. On a whole, the folks in these forums want to help. However, from time to time you may run into those that seem to have nothing good to say about anything or anybody. Take all comments “Buffet Style.” Take what you want and leave the rest.

Initially you may want to go look at one or two other members sites and supply some feedback before asking to have yours looked at. This will give you valuable insight. What you may find wrong with someone elses site, you can apply it to your own and make the necessary changes. When looking for a site to be looked at, look for the post who has little or no responses to it. By responding to their post they’re likely to express their gratitude by visiting your site when you ask in your post. This technique may seem a bit sly but nonetheless effective. Just don’t get in the habit of operating in this manner.

You’ll not get a ton of traffic from forums but you will have engaaged in an effective form of site promotion and all forms of site promotion need to be entered into the mix. As has been said by someone other than myself, “You don’t need to get it right, You just need to get it going.” By applying the above you will have “Indeed Got It Going!”

Forums are a great place to make new friends and interact with those that are trying to accomplish pretty much the same things we are. So keep things rolling right along by “Posting to Forums!”

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