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Posts Tagged ‘Signatures’

If you frequent forums regularly as a lurker and you have never signed up—or if you are a member at forums and you have never filled out your signature—you are bypassing the opportunity to advertise yourself and your business free of charge. Any opportunity you have to promote yourself online should be used effectively. Forum signatures are a great way to advertise yourself and generate more traffic to your sites.

When you post on the forum your signature will appear at the bottom of your posts. The more often you post and join in on conversations, the more likely the chances are that someone reading your posts will click the link(s) you provide in your signature. Having these links to your websites can also help you get your sites on the front pages of search engines.

When you join forums the first thing you should do is locate the area where you can fill out your signature. This area is usually found in the ‘my settings’ area or the ‘my account’ area of the site after you have logged in.

Use the signature area to your advantage, yet make certain that you are following the rules of the site. Some forums have rules in regards to how you can lay out your signatures, what you can put in them and how long they can be. Others do not. You should know that some forums may not allow the placement of links in signatures until members have contributed X amount of posts to the message boards. Always comply with the rules of the sites or you could be banned from them.

Generally speaking, forum signatures can contain text, animation and/or graphics. To truly maximize your forum signatures you should be creative. If not, your signature may be glanced over. If the forum allows you to use various colors in your signature, do so. If you have multiple products or sites you are advertising, use a different color for each. You should also know that most people are attracted to movement. If you have the option to upload smilies to your signature, use them. These grab the attention of forum readers and increase the chances that they’ll read your signature.

You should know that the more you contribute useful information and engage other members in conversations, the more likely your signature will be read. If you just post short snippets on message boards just to get your signature seen, people will figure out fairly quick that you are just there to advertise. So, make sure your contributions to the forums you join are genuine.

You should update your forum signatures regularly. Most people have a tendency to overlook things they see on a day-to-day basis. By rearranging your information and/or adding new information to your signature regularly you are sure to get your signature noticed.