Top 3 Internet Marketing Forums
The Internet marketing world is far larger than PPC or SEO. There are two type of Internet marketing resources. One that follows Internet marketing trends such as Search Engine Watch or Clickz.com and there are those that create them like the ones that will be mentioned in this article. Both have great value. It’s important to keep abreast of existing trends and techniques. However as a savvy Internet marketer you also know it is just as important to know what’s coming in the horizon. The old adage "The early bird gets the worm" isn’t just a great saying but it should be the way you approach your business online.
That’s why you need to hang out where online marketing mavericks congregate. Internet marketers have always been early adopters. Ever heard of Google or Search Engine Optimization? Well, guess what? Internet Marketers were all over that like flies on hot turds way before everyone else. Not a great visual, I know. But you get the picture. Because they were able to get in before any of the major players you hear of today, they made a boat load of money. Now, don’t get me wrong, obviously you can still make money following trends after the fact. But I like being on both sides of the fences to give me a distinct advantage over my lazy competition.
So enough babbling, let’s get into my top list of my favorite Internet Marketing Forums.
1. WarriorForum.com
This forum is the big poppa of them all. They really cover all the latest Internet marketing techniques. And I do mean the latest! You’ll read things here that are light years ahead of what the mainstream is covering. Folks on Warrior are always on the cusp of some new technologies and methods. But more importantly is that they are usually willing to give up this information for free or at dirt cheap prices. Either way you end up not really have much to lose. Often times Internet marketers will test out the waters here before releasing things to the masses where the prices will jump up significantly. So having a membership at the warriors forum will save you money on your marketing education. Now as much as I love this place, I’ll be the first to admit that many of the techniques that are discussed are geared towards making a quick buck and not necessarily building a long term business. But I have found that you can use some of the things you learn here to build a long term business strategy.
One of the problems of being in the Internet marketing world is that there are always new products coming out and you can easily become overwhelmed. In my early days I would buy them all. But now I’ll go to warrior forum’s product review area to get the real deal. I’ve saved thousands dollars each year because of this. Forum participants are usually willing to volunteer an unbiased breakdown of a given product, service or ebook when they first come out. With this type of information, you can make an educated decision about a potential purchase. This way you’re not lured into the next hot thing because everyone is promoting it, there is some made up sense of urgency or a worthless bonus is being dangled in your face. When in doubt I head to the Warriors Forum first. So this is a great place to learn, network and get unbiased Internet marketing product reviews.
2. WealthyAffiliate.com
Most of you already know about pay per click advertising (PPC) and probably have ventured into using Google Adwords or wanted to. I was one of those idiots that jumped into into it blindly and was quickly taken to school at a very high tuition rate! Needless to say I did a Kanye West and was a PPC dropout! I really just thought it was just as simple as picking the words I want my ad to appear for and paying the minimum or maximum bid. Boy, was that far from the truth! PPC is a whole other science which I failed to grasp until joining the Wealthy Affiliate forum . Prior to joining, I read books such as Perry Marshall’s The Definitive Guide To Adwords or Google Cash. Those books gave me some pieces of the puzzle but Wealthy Affiliate pulled it all together in an easy format within their tutorials and videos. Furthermore as a member you were able to actually email the owners directly who provided real and personalized answers. I wasn’t sent to some help desk like with some of the other PPC products I purchased. Trust me folks, that’s valuable when you have a quick question that wasn’t addressed in the material you just paid for!
Aside from access to the actual owners who are willing to hold your hand and look at your PPC campaigns, you get access to a great & friendly forum where everyone is there to help you. Some of the other Internet marketing forums are ruthless and will make you feel like crap for asking a question that they deem is stupid or already addressed. But you get none of that on WealthyAffiliate.com! The members give some really solid feedback about anything and not only PPC. Like WarriorsForum.com, I come to WA to get unbiased views about Internet marketing products or services before I purchase them. Wealthy Affiliates does cover various Internet Marketing topics, but for me I think it’s primary benefit is for those who want to learn about PPC in respects to Google. One thing I should note about WealthyAffiliate.com is that you need to pay a small monthly fee to get access to their forum and constantly updated information. With what I learn and have continued to learn, it was definitely worth the money. Furthermore when you consider how much money you can flush down the toilet with PPC advertising realitively easy, WealthyAffiliate.com can end up saving you thousands of dollars per month and making you more!
3. Digital Point Forum
I really love this forum, there is a lot of great content on various search engines such as Yahoo, Google, MSN. So if you’re struggling with search engine optimization for any of these search engines you can visit the Digital Point Forum and usually find an answer after some digging or posting. They also cover link development, affiliate programs, development and other subjects. But I think most people know DP because of their market place area, where you can sell or buy Internet marketing products & services cheaply. This can range from link building, search engine optimization, web design, web development, etc. Whatever you need, they probably have or will create if you ask for it. For someone looking to offer a service or a product, It’s a great way to test out the concepts you may have without spending thousands of dollars on PPC or SEO. If you’re on the other end and need to get work done for your website at a really cheap price then DP is for you as well. But buyer beware. I was badly burned by some douche bag for a word press template but in the same instance I used a guy there for some social bookmarking link building that worked perfectly. So it could go either way. At one time, it was definitely one of my favorite places to buy services for my website before finding Scriptlance.com. Nonetheless, it’s still a great resource for Internet marketers education but more so for your service needs.
So that’s my top 3 Internet marketing forums. There are few others that I do use that I’ll dedicate a whole post to at a later date.
The Ugly…
So with some of these forums in particular the WarriorsForum.com, I’ll be the first to say that a few of the techniques that are discussed border being black hat methods that can get you in trouble. But at the same token, I have found many that can be used for good by the right people. So you have to take and apply what you read in these forums with a grain of salt. Another issue I have found , especially when it comes to the SEO is that they often contradict themselves. This can drive you crazy for hours because you don’t know who to believe. Tying into this is Information overload which is yet another common problem. You go into these forums looking for information about one topic then you come out 5 hours later with a whole bag of tricks you want to try and several ebooks you didn’t intend on purchasing.
My Advice
Stay focused! Ignore internet marketing noise. The job of internet marketers is to get you to take action. So you have to keep that in mind when you become inundated with promotional emails or when reading posts. You have to ask yourself, will this add to my bottom line right now? Is this within the scope of the things I can afford to do at this point? And you have to be honest with yourself when asking these questions. My biggest concern was that I was going to miss the next big thing if I didn’t buy and read everything right away. Time has taught me that this is an unreasonable fear. What I do now is to occasionally check in on the various forums to see what are the hot topics and then I cross reference them with other forums to verify if it’s worth pursuing. Cream rises to the top when you do this. I would encourage you to explore my top 3 recommendations. But be warned, it’s very addicting. You can end up losing sleep reading all the information that is available. And remember, don’t believe everything you read!
So what are you thoughts? What would be your top 3 list? Which sites did I miss?
