Effectively Created Forum Signatures Can Drive Qualified Traffic to Your Affiliate Offers and Boost Commissions

Forum or message board signatures are often misused or under utilized by affiliate marketers. Most affiliates use forum signatures to post ‘pretty’ animations, a billion links, or useless babble.

Forum signatures are the small areas that appear at the bottom of forum posts. You are free (with restrictions) to include promotions and advertisements to your affiliate offers in your forum signature.

There are many types of forums signatures and almost anything can be included in them. They can include animations, graphics, rich text, or plain text. No matter what you choose to include in your forum signature, there are certain features that all signatures should have.

1. You should include a link to your offer or web site in your forum signature. Also, the anchor text of the link should include your targeted keyword phrase. This will build the quality of back links to your offer or website.
2. Some forums don’t allow hyperlinks in your signature. It is imperative that you include the URL or website address in your forum signature.
3. The benefit of what you’re offering should be clearly stated. You should inform forum participants what problem you are solving or need/ want you’re fulfilling.
4. Next you MUST tell them what you want them to do. A clear ‘call to action’ is critical to the success of your forum marketing efforts.
5. Offering forum users an incentive to take action can increase the effectiveness of your call to action. Discounts, free information, subscriptions, products, and services can be great incentives.

Basic copywriting techniques should be implemented when creating a forum signature. You could be leaving money on the table by overlooking or not fully utilizing your forum signature.