You should always have a business plan for everything that is done and this applies to forum marketing also. You can reach many of your goals, but you need to know what they are and what forums can give you. Marketers who succeed do so because they do business in this fashion. First, they learn a lot about the various marketing techniques. Then they try to figure how they can benefit from this knowledge.
Your first step is to establish a positive reputation for yourself in the forum and as an expert in your niche. That's the only way to place yourself in a position for prime results. But you can't really get noticed as an authority without first being seen. But you're not interested in having your entire day spent on forums. After all, there are other things you need to do to market your business too.
You can annoy other forum members by making tons of posts in a short time, like in a few hours or so. Take a little time to see what time of day sees the greatest amount of traffic and limit your posting to those times. You can make half a dozen or so thoughtful posts answering questions or contributing something valuable.
A easy way to determine if marketing is allowed is to look at the signatures. See if the signatures have links. This is the usual practice by forums if they don't mind members placing their business links in their signatures. When you start to frequent plenty of forums, you will be able to determine what the members can do in terms of marketing. Also, you can determine what can be done just by looking at the other signatures. For instance, you might be able to get in a few pictures and plenty of links. This will give you an indication that it's really a marketing friendly forum and you can proceed to join.
Some people in forums start threads all the time. Not all forum members appreciate that. But, if you have a lot of good topics for threads, then that's great but just spread them out.
Don't forget to make posts and comment on other threads too. Remember that forums are filled with real people and human nature often rules. Even in this type of situation, you can't always follow along with others just because it's expected of you. Gray areas abound with forum marketing. If it's at all possible you want to find as browse around this web-site many unique ways to share your knowledge with other forum members.
The sense of community forums provide can be addictive. Just remember why you're there. Don't lose sight of the value your time has and where it would be wisest to invest it. That's what you have to do if you want to make the most of your time.