Occasionally I have an idea to start a forum on www.dropshiparea, but the website at this moment in time does not get many visitors and from my experience of running forums on other websites I am not sure the community will be a success in a situation like this.

But many websites run forums – they add value to the website plus generate some income to their owner. Yes, it is known that forums are harder to monetize than a website, blog or other types of online property. As a rule, community members visit the forums to talk and share their experience. They are completely blind to all types of ads. But it does not mean one should not try and experiment.

- YPN/ AdSense (both – for content and search). Some webmasters disable search for the unregistered users and prompt new visitors to use AdSense Search if they want to find something on the forum.

Google has a heat map for forum owners to run AdSense on their message boards:

- Sell sticky – posts that are placed in a fixed position on the top of forums

- Sell text links – to find those who will pay for links on your forum – advertise directly, use special services (www.text-link-ads.com and similar) or both

- CPM – use adv networks that pay for banner impressions (ValueClick does not allow to place its adv in the forums as well as in blogs; other top CPM networks – Tribalfusion, Burstmedia, Casale – do not restrict it in their terms of service)

- CPA - cost per action networks (Azoogle, CJ, LinkShare): this kind of adv used to be the most efficient a few years back, but no more. But they are a nice addition to your other types of adv. Also join some in-house programs.

There are more methods to monetize forums. I do not doubt that. Would be thankful if you share them with me and the readers.

Important thing to implement on forums: install a rotating script that will serve different creatives from the pool of ads. I think phpAdsNew is the most popular on the market. It is a free and powerful script available here

Summary: Forums are a good way to make your online business less dependent on the search engine behavior and updates. It is the most valuable thing about forums – they are a never ending source of traffic. In addition to this, you have a nice opportunity to earn extra cash using the above methods. Do not expect much, but a nice addition is guaranteed. Just remember to experiment and use what works.

[tags]affiliate marketing, home based business, work from home, internet, ypn, adsense, google, forums, websites, php, linkshare, azogle, cj, valueclick, tribalfusion, burstmedia, casale, online business, monetize, earn money[/tags]

Offpage optimization has no doubt outranked onpage. Link popularity is the offpage factor #1 when it comes to ranking pages in Google (I think other search engines go the same way with every algorithm update). It makes next to impossible for a webmaster to manipulate search engine rankings. As a result, the search results are more relevant and the Internet users are happier.

Techniques for building links are limited, as well as the number of link types:

• natural links/ link baits (the most desirable ones),
• purchased/ rented links,
• article syndication,
• directory links,
• press releases,
• reciprocal links,
• forum signature links,
• blog comments,
• expired domains,
• and a few more.

Apparently, not all links are equal. It is up to you if you would like to allocate some of your precious time for link hunt/ exchange process or will prefer renting a few authoritative links or will keep yourself from any link trade.

I have selected a few resources (from my point – they are best resources on link popularity available on the Internet). Some ideas and points are likely to be outdated as the Internet scene and search engine algorithms change at a fast pace, but the links are worth checking:

www.jimwestergren.com/link-building-guide

www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/34106.htm

www.stuntdubl.com/2005/02/25/tips-to-valuating-text-links

www.stuntdubl.com/2006/04/05/how-to-write-successful-subject-titles-for-link-requests

www.stuntdubl.com/2005/08/31/link-training

www.stuntdubl.com/2006/05/10/link-test

www.thegooglecache.com/?p=15

www.webmasterworld.com/forum12/2956.htm

www.webmasterworld.com/forum12/2876.htm

www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/leglinkpop.html

www.jimboykin.com/cherry-picking-links-believe-it

www.jimboykin.com/text-around-your-linkskeeping-it-natural-looking

www.jimboykin.com/tips-for-finding-the-best-pages-to-get-links-from

www.jimboykin.com/part-two-tips-for-finding-the-best-pages-to-get-links-from

www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=21788

www.seomoz.org/blofdetail.php?ID=935

www.seomoz.org/articles/advanced-link-building.php

www.seobook.com/archives/001470.shtml

www.linkingmatters.com

www.performancing.com/node/38

www.sitepoint.com/article/delegate-link-development

www.seocompany.ca/derectory/top-web-directories.html

www.text-link-ads.com/link-buying-guide-redirect.php

www.textlinkbrokers.com/wiki/Main_Page

[tags]link popularity, link building, links, seo, optimization, traffic, website promotion, internet, search engine, social bookmark, social bookmarking websites, affiliate marketing, work from home, home based job, affiliate marketing, link trade, text links, link buying, web directory[/tags]

One of the webmaster headaches – where to get traffic for the website. Even if you are doing fine with search engines you would like to steadily increase your traffic. A few extra traffic sources are social networking websites and Alexa Top 100 online giants.

Recently there was a series of discussions on EarnersForum:

Spammin and Jammin on CraigsList
Spammin and Jammin on Digg
Spammin and Jammin on MySpace

When the forum members discuss Digg and CraigsList they agree it should be a good source of traffic, but there is no any example or algorithm how that traffic to get.

I mean it is clear that if your story gets on Digg home page you will get tons of traffic, but the question how to get on that page remains unanswered.

Another discussion ‘I digg you, you digg me’ shows that it is a topic that interests webmasters, but there is no general agreement if Digg.com is a great website or scam. The idea ‘I digg you, you digg me’ was rejected, but the discussion has turned to this – some stories that are placed on Digg home page do not deserve it and Digg site administrators are not objective.

MySpace, website #1 in traffic in the USA, is the most popular topic discussed in that series on EarnersForum. Marketing on MySpace is not much different from e-mail spam – you just send out tons of spam bulletins with the links to your website or to the websites you are affiliated with. Friends are accumulated automatically with some special software. To make the process faster, set up a few accounts. Yes, they can ban you from MySpace, but you should really try hard.

MySpace attracts many webmasters. There are a lot of blog and forum posts. The one that comes to my mind is the recent post on this topic from Todd Malicoat with a few links on MySpace optimization:

• Myspace: Good for more than just hanging out
• Getting to know Myspace
• MySpace gold at MarketingVOX
• Myspace marketing
• My Social Marketing
• Much more on “myspace marketing”

Summary: MySpace, Digg.com, CraigsList look like good sources of traffic at this moment. They are worth your time for experimenting and checking they are working for your niche.
[tags]MySpace, Digg.com, CraigsList, alexa, social bookmark, social bookmarking websites, affiliate marketing, work from home, home based job, affiliate marketing, digitalpoint, earnersforum[/tags]