The only way to make money from forums

publication date: Mar 5, 2008
Download Print
Previous | Next
 
Hello

I love forums . . .

You know, I can't think of a better way of
spending my time.

I mean, I love a good moan like the next person
and with forums I have free reign to vent my pent-
up anger at the world.

Under various guises I take pot shots at my
competitors, undermine their products and
generally misbehave.

I love to spread misinformation, put down other
posts and cause mayhem.

Hold on! Before I go any further, a confession . . .

I'M LYING - I HATE FORUMS!

As you have probably guessed, I am not a fan of
forums. They are one of the biggest blights of the
Internet - they spread half-truths, offer a platform,
for personal vendettas and worse, can be hijacked
by unscrupulous people to push their own products
without making a full declaration.

In theory forums make a lot of sense. I mean,
surely an open and democratic exchange of views
is what the web is all about? It's a chance for
ordinary people can find out the truth about
everything from business opportunities to the
personal lives of their favourite celebrity.

But I'm afraid the truth is they are - in general -a
complete waste of time.

(I know I will get a lot of nasty emails from forum
junkies, but hey, I'm here to stir things up and
hopefully get you thinking in a different way.)

Now before I really stick the boot in, there is one
caveat here - I am talking strictly about business
opportunity review related forums (including
betting, trading and online/offline business
opportunities). I know there are many specialist
forums where people are there to offer high quality
advice on a particular subject - whether it's
computers, gardening, parenting or just about any
other subject you can think of.  In fact these
genuine forums can be a wonderful place for the
information publisher as you can visit and find out
the key questions these niche interest groups want
answered and then design your ebook/DVD set
accordingly.

Jon Street (The Internet Income Detective) alerted
me to a neat little strategy. It goes something like
this:

1. Go to www.groups.Google.com or
www.groups.yahoo.com and use the search facilities
to find forums related to the market you want to
create a product for.

2. Sign up to a few of the forums and make a few
posts. Don't instantly start posting asking for help
with your research you'll be shot down by all the
forum regulars. A good way to avoid being shot
down is be a "marketing ninja". Stay under the
radar and don't give away that you are an Internet
entrepreneur looking for a few ideas. A great way to
do this is make a "newbie" post introducing
yourself.

So for example lets say you wanted to find out what
problems pregnant women want solved. You could
go to groups.Google.com and type in "pregnancy".
Then you could sign up to these free forums and
make a "newbie" post like this one:

"Hi my names Josephine and I'm new to the
group. I'm pretty nervous about the whole
pregnancy thing so thought I'd come here for
support. My husband's great, but he just can't
seem to understand why I'm so worried about every
little thing (like are you allowed to eat mozzarella?
Is it o.k. to use the cream with rose oil in it?).  I
seem to spend my whole time checking what's 'safe'
and what isn't and he thinks that's crazy! Hopefully
some pregnant women here will be a bit more
understanding :c)"

See how you'll be "under the radar" due to that
post? After that make a couple of posts a day for a
week or so. Then you're ready for the research.

3. Make a post asking people what their biggest
problem or question they have in your chosen
niche market is. An example might be this:

"Hi all. I was just wondering what problems
you've encountered with being pregnant that you'd
like to be able to overcome? For me it's back
ache!"

What you'll find is people will start posting like
crazy to what you ask. These online communities
are desperate to help "one of their own", whereas
if you go in their as an entrepreneur they'll be a bit
stand offish. When you do it in this under the
radar way you'll find people will tell you all of
their problems.

4. You leave the forum for a week or so and then
come back. I assure you you'll be stunned at the
results you get. All you need to do is go through
the answers people have given you and identify the
common problems they are having.

Finally you create a product that answers those
questions or solves the problems they have  - easy!

Ok, that's how you can benefit from forums. Now
back to my bug bear . . .

I have no doubt that most posts on biz opp forums
are genuine, but the question is, are they truly
representative?

Have these people actually tried the strategy or
business themselves or are they going on hearsay.
Or are they the kind of people who simply didn't
put the effort required into giving any system a
good go?

Present company excluded, it amazes me just how
many biz opp hopefuls believe that to make a
success in any money making field they don't
actually have to work that hard . . . or follow
instructions . . . or face inevitable teething
problems . . .they are always so quick to denounce
a particular system before they have give it a go.

Worse still, these forum posts tend to generate a
life of their own, so one post can draw in more
negative and ultimately pointless posts and end up
hundreds of entries long.

On one occasion I saw an eBay forum where some
serial posters got very worked up about a particular
eBay related product - in the end they had almost
completely switched from a rational argument into
complete character assassination and borderline
psychotic stalking!

I was glad to see eBay had the sense to close the
post down and give the idiot posters a ticking off.
I don't know of a single successful individual who
regularly posts on forums. They just don't have the
time to waste and realise that the opinions rarely
contain more than a grain of truth.

What I really object to is that people who
genuinely want to get advice are put off by posts
from people who have obviously never actually
tried the business/strategy/product/service for
themselves are simply giving their personal
tuppenceworth.

On a more sinister note, you'll find some people
hijack forums to push their own system under the
guise of being a normal punter.

In fact for certain MLM schemes you'll find fake
forums created that are entirely populated by the
evangelical followers who draw in online visitors
into what seems to be a genuine independent site,
but are very subtly designed to seem like an
objective review service.

So take forums with a pinch of salt. By all means
visit them, but the best way, of course, is to come
to someone (like me) who's sole aim is to put these
various systems and business opps through their
paces and provide an objective assessment of if
they really work.

So feel free to email me with offers you may have
come across and I will add it to my review list and
do my best to give you my professional opinion.

I offer full in-depth analysis of systems in What
Really makes Money and if you are a subscriber
you will already know that I don't mince my words
one way or another.

If you are not a subscriber, check it out here:

http://www.whatreallymakesmoney.com/

If you're thing is betting systems, then check out
Clive Keeling in What Really WINS Money.

http://canonburypublishing.com/site/wrwins.html

And if financial trading is more up your street, then
check out What Really PROFITS

http://whatreallyprofits.com/

Enjoy your weekend

Nick
Search my Site
Who is Nick Laight?