Forum posting is the best method

**silveraden** · 07-11-2008, 03:31 PM

Just look at the picture and see how forum posting give life to my site... Forum posting is still the best method of advertising for me and the more you active in forums, the more knowledge will be added into your marketing arsenal.. so don't waste your time in useless viral marketing, traffic autoexchanges, safelists, and other dirty tricks..

The data shows top referrers for the last 48 hours..

**SellMyDigs.com** · 07-11-2008, 05:24 PM

Which keywords are your sites optimized for?

**Phuket Real Estate** · 07-11-2008, 07:59 PM

I find getting all those visitor pretty amazing. Are any of these leads quality leads or are they just tire kickers ? I've tried posts before for my Phuket real estate business and I did receive quality leads.

**silveraden** · 07-12-2008, 02:30 AM

Originally Posted by SellMyDigs.com

Which keywords are your sites optimized for?

My blog is about SEO and moneymaking online so I used related keywords...

I find getting all those visitor pretty amazing. Are any of these leads quality leads or are they just tire kickers ? I've tried posts before for my Phuket real estate business and I did receive quality leads.

I am not selling anything so I don't know about the sales... but I am having a high CTR in adsense (an average of 5% which is very good)

**Reg Esteban** · 07-12-2008, 09:41 AM

Yep, for page rank, the Google algorithm also takes into consideration the quality of the back links to your site. It helps if the sites you post on are associated with the site your are trying to promote (e.g. real estate to real estate).

Another way is to write articles if you are a subject matter expert, and put your links in it. Google can find those, too. You can submit those to sites. The algorithm loves fresh content.

Lots of ways to promote...

**JustinBartlett** · 07-12-2008, 02:43 PM

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I don't believe that any lead generation source will ever compare with repeat referral streams. This might also be because I am in Commercial Finance, and, having tried leads on two occasions, they were mostly junk. Nonetheless, if you write 20 posts in a forum for each closed deal, or get 20 inbound calls, or whatever your method of leads are, sure that might be a good return, however, 1 yr from now, 5 yrs from now, 10 years from now, you're still going to need to post 20 times, make 20 calls, et. al., to close a deal. By fostering relationships, a referral stream that generates 10 deals a yr will still generate 10 deals 5 yrs from now, 10 yrs from now, and the price of that is the occasional lunch and possibly a kickback. In the DC area I haven't marketed for two years, my assistant maintains my book of business, and the deals still come in. Foster relationships. Relationships with not just your client base, but your appraisers, your brokers, your title co.'s; Just as my Top Commercial Realtor is sending me deals, I send him buyers as they contact me. Get the people you work with you work for you! Sales is sales,
don't work harder work smarter....

~Justin~

**silveraden** · 07-12-2008, 04:56 PM

You have a point justine but I am not saying I need to post 20 messages daily here just to maintain the traffic for the nest couple of years... What I am saying is, this will help your site more visible to search engines... Take a look at the picture, google is still number 1 referral and the reason why it's number one is because of the backlinks from forums and people favorited the site in many ways and/or linkbacked to my site after finding it in forums...

**jamesww** · 07-12-2008, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by JustinBartlett

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I don't believe that any lead generation source will ever compare with repeat referral streams. This might also be because I am in Commercial Finance, and, having tried leads on two occasions, they were mostly junk. Nonetheless, if you write 20 posts in a forum for each closed deal, or get 20 inbound calls, or whatever your method of leads are, sure that might be a good return, however, 1 yr from now, 5 yrs from now, 10 years from now, you're still going to need to post 20 times, make 20 calls, et. al., to close a deal. By fostering relationships, a referral stream that generates 10 deals a yr will still generate 10 deals 5 yrs from now, 10 yrs from now, and the price of that is the occasional lunch and possibly a kickback. In the DC area I haven't marketed for two years, my assistant maintains my book of business, and the deals still come in. Foster relationships. Relationships with not just your client base, but your appraisers, your brokers, your title co.'s; Just as my Top Commercial Realtor is sending me deals, I send him buyers as they contact me. Get the people you work with you work for you! Sales is sales,
don't work harder work smarter....

~Justin~

Justin,

It appears as though your old fashion business practices are not bringing in enough business or you would not have taken the time to come onto the forum.

I really doubt that silver was saying the only way to create business is by posting online I think she said it is the best way to find new business. Just a thought for you to ponder.

**JustinBartlett** · 07-13-2008, 04:59 PM

Mr. D&D (nice wizard picture, very professional),

I wonder whats funnier,

The idea of a 300+ post forum junkie attempting to slam me through a poor attempt at qualification and quantification of my business based off of me spending time in the forum (this post will make 16).

-or-

A pay toilet in a diarrhea ward.

If your "book of business" plays D&D, or Magic Cards, or is your AOL teen chat contact list, yes, you probably will generate more business online than by speaking to the people you know.

Out of curiosity, how many houses have you sold with your lightning bolts?

Aside from joshing you back, some of us "normal" people experience whats called a quarter life crisis (QLC). Under 30, C-Level exec for a mid-size company, and frustrated; I was told to buy a nice car, I bought an E-430. New. Then I bought an H2. Then I started buying houses. Then I bought a Porsche 911. New. And as work has progressed so has my personal life. Yet still it feels as though something is missing. Getting to my point is easy, if you close your mouth and open your ears. Where I go from here...? Thats why I'm in the forum.

Let me know how the Dragon Slaying is going.

~Justin~

**vbcannon** · 07-13-2008, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by jamesww

Justin,

It appears as though your old fashion business practices are not bringing in enough business or you would not have taken the time to come onto the forum.

I really doubt that silver was saying the only way to create business is by posting online I think she said it is the best way to find new business. Just a thought for you to ponder.

Just to let you know. This post would fly in 2004 but we are in 08. The best way to find new business is certainly not forum posts unless you are selling 99 cent ebooks on how to sell 9,000 homes per year and people believe you. You are in a real estate forum. So for example, I am going to try to find some new business. How are we going to do that when all of us are realtors or Mortgage guys in different states. We could work on referrals...ahh thats it! referrals! so Im in Oxford, Mississippi. Anyone got a client moving to Oxford???? NO?? You Sure?? NO?? hmmmm. This forum post didnt work.

What works in 2008?

A good quality site with good quality content with QUALITY LINKS pointing to your site. Forums will drive direct traffic to your website but not highly targeted traffic. If you get a million people visiting your site and one sale, what good did that do? Wasted a lot of time, thats for sure.

You get leads from good Accessability and Usability on your site. You get leads from High Rankings in the SERP's (Search Engine Results Page) Although I dont agree with you, I don't agree with Silver, and I don't agree with Justin, I would have to say that Justin is more on the money than you guys.

Justin, I understand that referrals bring in good business, but if you are working them correctly 10 a year should turn into 15 which should turn into 20 a year which should go up and up and up if you are farming them correctly.

But how do you get those first sales? What happens if you want more than 10 sales per year? What now? The easiest way to go about doing that is optimizing your website and drawing in internet leads. From my site alone I have captured 108 names and email addresses this year. I send them an automatic email and have closed 8 of them. roughly 6% which is higher than most eleads (.5% to 1%) How do I do it? These leads have already come to MY site, I didnt buy the lead. They came to my site looking for real estate in MY town, and I look more like the expert than anyone else in my field. That is why my conversions are so high. On top of those 8 internet sales, I've had 12 sales from my print ads and 4 from referrals this year. I am 24 years old, #17 in my city of 330 realtors and have been in the business for 1.5 years.

How did I do it? A mix between, internet, repeat biz, and face to face meetings. Forum Posts? Not a real estate agent