People are always asking me, "What is the cheapest and easiest way to make sales online?"

They are usually expecting a completely different answer than what I usually give them...Here is a little hint: It isn't the search engines. It isn't using banners It definitely isn't Spamming!

Once you have a good website with high quality content in place, the cheapest and easiest way to get traffic to your site is through networking with other people in your industry.

In the past, doing this meant you had to attend meetings or fly across the country to attend seminars. This was a real pain, especially if you were a little shy and didn't especially like the idea of having to go visit tons of new people (That describes me to a tee).

Now, with the advent of the internet, you can attend dozens of meetings in your industry for FREE. You can participate in these discussions, meet new people, and achieve extra traffic at your website. If you prefer to just learn new things and watch for a while, you can be there completely invisible and not noticed by anyone if you like.

These meetings online are called newsgroups and forums and I am positively shocked at how few budding internet entrepreneurs actually put them to use. I attend a few of them everyday (Look below for my absolute favorites)!

There are two purposes to these boards for me...

#1 - I can learn more about many different subjects. Since I focus on internet marketing and marketing in general, I keep my eyes out for new information in these areas.

#2 - I post answers to people's questions and I actively take part in the conversations. By doing this, I can post my signature file with information about something that is free on my site, such as this newsletter or some other free report.

You cannot post direct ads to these groups, BUT you can use a short signature file about some benefit you offer (Free items work best). Whenever I post to any of these groups I make sure to include information about one of my free reports or information about this free newsletter.

I don't have exact numbers on my visitors from these groups, but I constantly get subscribe requests or forms filled out on my site mentioning that they first heard of my site on one of these groups.

Again, I want to emphasize to you that you CANNOT post an AD to these groups or you will be flamed. You have to get involved in the conversations and let your signature file or Link to your site give a short Free benefit for visiting your site.

There are two versions to these types of online community meetings, website Forums and newsgroups.

FORUMS

A forum is a website where you can go read and post messages to one another. It doesn't require any other software than just your regular web browser.

There are thousands of forums out there...A good place where you can find a listing of all of the available forums is at: http://www.forumone.com

Once you go through there and make a list of forums to visit, find the ones which are most suited to your business. For me, this means I spend time in marketing forums...Below are my favorites which contain a Wealth of Internet Marketing Information:

http://www.paradise-web.com/plus/plus.mirage?who=bizpromo
http://www.bmyers.com/ipub/index.html
http://www.ablake.net/forum/
http://www.gethighforums.com/bin/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro
http://www.free-publicity.com/cgi-bin/talk.cgi
http://www.bizweb2000.com/wwwboard/
http://www.paradise-serve.com/powerforum/pwrforum.exe?who=enlowforum

NEWSGROUPS

Newsgroups are slightly more difficult. You need to use newsgroup reading software to participate in them. There are many varieties of software for this purpose, but my favorite reader is "Free Agent"  which you can find at http://www.forteinc.com for Free.

To find listings of what types of discussions are going on in each of the newsgroups (There are more than 20,000 of them), go to http://www.dejanews.com

At this website, you can search for specific keywords about your industry or business. Then, pick out the newsgroups that are discussing your subjects and use "Free Agent" to subscribe to them.

START TODAY

As I said at the beginning of this article, participating in newsgroups and forums can be one of the easiest ways of networking and getting your business started online. Don't just read this article and put it off to the side. Do something about it TODAY!

1.) Go to the forums I have listed above
2.) Mark them in your "Favorite Places."
3.) Read some of the postings.
4.) Wait a couple of days...visiting the forums everyday and learning.
5.) Start making a couple of posts to the forums when your type
of subject comes up.
6.) Be consistent!

Terry Dean is the webmaster at http://www.bizpromo.com
Visit today for turn-key web site solutions, turn-key products you can sell, and answers to all of your Internet marketing questions.
For "115 Internet marketing tips" please send an email to 115tips@aweber.com