Do you receive emails every day with invitations to sign up to free webinars and trainings?
We live in a time of rapidly increasing numbers of virtual trainings in the form of webinars, MOOCs (Massive online courses), distance learning, and more. If you haven't yet participated in any of these, it's quite likely you will soon.

We're going to share some tips on how you can make the most out of forums as a strategy for boosting your web traffic, taking advantage of the content it offers and capturing followers among your audience.

When you participate in a discussion with a group of your potential clients, there might be a strong temptation to forget about your website.

Beware: this isn't about advertising your services left and right or flat out pointing people towards your website during chats or in private Facebook groups. Even though you know you can interact with hundreds of potential clients it's not about your business, it's about them.

Many professionals started to get noticed by participating in online communities and forums. They provided useful content in response to doubts and questions during conversation threads with a viewpoint supporting their position of expertise in the given topic.

The focus is to give off a social and participative vibe, concerned with answering doubts and generating answers for a community. It's tedious work but it helps create a name for yourself. This is a great way to attract attention, drive more traffic to your website, boost followers in social networks and to receive offers to participate in other blogs and digital encounters.

Grabbing attention and resolving doubts is your way of showing value in the content you share, achieving new subscribers for your blog, and making yourself a source of reference.

Guide to benefit from discussion forums

Simple but effective ideas to extract the most from chats in training forums and attract web traffic

1 Don't change the topic in a forum's thread.. You may be tempted to show off your expertise the moment you arrive to a forum where you are an expert in the topic, but please don't do it. Messages that are off topic confuse the participants and it leads them away from the original topic, which is the reason they signed up for the training in the first place.
2 Keep track of the interesting discussions you have. Chats are a reliable source of topics that participants worry about. Take note of the comments and keep them in mind to develop a content strategy in your blog.

3 Participate in the most interesting comments. A "like" is a simple way to boost the diffusion and visibility of good quality messages. If you can add value, leave a comment or an answer that starts a conversation.

4 Guest Blogging. When you find an interesting conversation take note of the person who publishes it, visit their blog, and evaluate whether they are a good candidate to invite to write for your blog as a guest or perhaps you'd be a good guest writer for their blog.

5 Give your opinion. If you are in disagreement with a certain topic, express your point of view, always with respect.

6 Write with clarity. Make sure that your ideas are understood by everyone. Use simple language and avoid jargon and colloquial language that can confuse the readers from other parts of the world. Answers with irony or humour aren't always understood by everyone and can be misconstrued.

7 Contextualise. If you present a question make sure to put it into context. Include enough information for the new reader and make sure it hasn't been asked already.

8 Cite your sources. Remember to reference your sources when mentioning a given idea or doubt that was shared by another person.

9 Don't be a spammer. Make sure to leave your services out of the conversation. Let the participants become interested by reading what you contribute to the platform. Let the participants themselves be the ones who come to you by becoming interested in what you have to say. Don't become the spammer.

10 Spread the event. If the webinar follows through on what it promised, write about it in your own blog and recommend it.

11  Learn. Remember that you are also gaining knowledge from the forum. Continue with an open mind to learn.