Building The Relationship

Successfully Using Discussion Boards As A Marketing Tool

Building relationships—often called networking—is a vital foundation for the building of a strong business of any size. Start by building relationships with other like-minded people and those with whom you share interests. The more relationships you build with other people, the longer your lists of people are who may buy from you or join your business venture.

For example, suppose your interests include cooking, swapping recipes, dinner parties, or parties in general (also known as get-togethers of family and friends). Look for sites with discussion boards on such topics and sign up. Then get yourself involved in some of the topics that are on the board by adding to the topic of discussion before ever trying to make a sale or a recruit out of anyone on that particular board.

Let's say the topic at hand is, "how to bake the perfect pie crust." The posts are talking about how to make the perfect pie crust that isn't too dry, too wet, too tough, etc. You have a foolproof way that has worked for you for years and your pies turn out perfectly. Share your tips, secrets, etc., with those in that thread (the topic of pie crusts). Those who read that particular discussion board religiously will try out your tips and secrets (and even your pie crust recipe) and will post back their own results.

When the readers who try your suggestions find that what you have told them is true, they will watch for more of your postings on different areas of cooking to see what other helpful tips, hints, and recipes you have. Once they start to recognize your name and postings, you will then begin building a loyal group of followers who will start asking more about you, such as, "What are your other hobbies and interests?" "What type of activities you are involved in?" etc.

Once this type of relationship begins to build between you and the others whose interest you piqued, you will find that these groups of people will be more open to suggestions about products you may have to sell that fits into their "world." Be sure to abide by all discussion board or chat room rules and guidelines regarding solicitation!

The Rules Of The Board

With all discussion boards, the owners will allow you to set up what is called a signature file. This is a footer for all your posts with your name, a link (or two) to your Websites that are relevant to the topic of the discussion board. However, if the discussion board is a topic on cooking, don't put the links to business opportunities directly into your signature. This could turn off any potential clients that you may have and may violate discussion board rules or etiquette. Instead, consider building a small specialty Website with relevant products that would be of interest to those participating in the discussion board. On that Website, you can include a link to your business opportunity.

Continuing with the example above, let's say you are in an opportunity that sells a variety of products, and you have three items that are food or beverage related.

Build a specialized Website at http://members.freewebs.com (if you can copy and paste, you can build a Website with this service). Explain in short detail about your products and, if at all possible, give the pricing on each of the products on this page, since this is what they will be looking for when they click on the link to your page in your signature. Be sure to include the actual link to the site where your product is sold (preferably to the actual page where they can find that product).

Don't be afraid to join as many of these discussion boards as you feel comfortable with. Not only may you teach the other participants something of value, they may also teach you something of value. Last but not least, you could very well find a life-long client.

The more you feel comfortable with using discussion boards and building relationships through this route, the more you will find the confidence to go on to building relationships via other routes, such as reciprocal linking to other sites using the same means of relationship building with the Website owners, writing articles on specific topics to each Website, etc.

There are many means of relationship building. What I have mentioned, thus far, is a basic simple way to build relationships. Don't forget, however, that you will also need to build a relationship with those whom you sponsor into your affiliate/business opportunity.

I started building relationships three years ago when I signed up for a couple of business opportunities. From the two relationships that I started then, both of my sponsors of these programs taught me about relationship building. One of these relationships, Trey Whitaker, has now become the owner and Webmaster of 123clicks.com. Trey's theory of marketing is to build relationships first, then everything else second. Everything else includes sponsoring others into your business and making retail sales. The rest will come in time.

This still holds true for me after three years. Always be on the lookout for ways to build new relationships and strengthen old ones.