Blogging Tips

Do you find it very difficult to engage in conversation with forum members and build trust? Are you facing the same problem that almost everyone faces with effective participation in forums?

Forums are a great way to gain trust, build readership to your blog and do almost anything to improve your business. You can read how forums help you become a better blogger. I have always said that forums are one the underrated ways to become better in blogging or business.

You can now easily become friends with almost every forum member if you follow the 5 ways that are listed below.

1. Answer Questions

The best way you can build a relationship with forum members is by answering questions. Everyone likes to receive help. Check out the top forums. They have many questions that need answers. People are waiting to get help from someone. Why can’t it be you? Read the questions that are asked and answer them clearly. Don’t make it like a tweet with 140 characters. Please elaborate your answer. Make sure you are clear enough for the person to understand.

Image Source: Questioned Proposal by Eleaf

2. Ask Questions

While answering questions help you in building relationship with forum members, asking question will improve your connections even better. How many times have you seen people ask questions in twitter? They ask questions to get it answered and also to engage in a conversation. Sometimes you feel like you are not expert when you ask questions. But forget about that and start asking questions. No one knows everything about any topic.

3. Offer Freebies

Who doesn’t like freebies? Everyone likes to receive freebies. If you provide great value in the freebie you are offering, trust me you will have an immeasurable relationship with the forum members. Go to the top forums in your niche. Read the rules of the forum before you create a thread offering your freebie. You can share whatever you have. It can be a free ebook or review of blogs in your blog or even a webinar with a group of people. As long as it is free, you will be improving your connection with the forum members.

4. Tweet

Twitter helps you in everything. It has become a part of life for many people. Why not use it to your advantage? You know how to write compelling blog posts using twitter every time you need. Now you can create trust in twitter. Add the forum members in twitter. Place your twitter link in the signature. This will give more visibility to your twitter profile. Tweet with them and strengthen the bond between you and the forum members. Reply to their tweets. Retweet their interesting tweets. Help them by answering their questions in twitter. You can find me on twitter here.

5. Promote People

I like it when a person promotes someone. This is a great way to build relationship. Select some of the regular forum posters and promote them. How do you promote people? Send a shout out in twitter on how good your new friend is. Link to the good blog posts written by the forum members on their blogs. Even small things matter. There is something called #FridayFollow (how it originated) that happens on all Fridays in twitter. Even a recommendation of your new friend in #FollowFriday will help you increase friendship with members.

To improve relationship and maintain it, you have to do anyone or all of the above regularly. Don’t do it for two days and stop.

Do you visit forums regularly? What do you do to create trust in you? How do you build relationship? Please share your views in the comments. Don’t forget to check out Blogging Tips forum.