6 Different Ways To Use The Same Articles

Would any of our articles make a useful contribution to discussion groups on our topic?

We've spent the last 5 pages of this 8 page article discussing different ways to get the maximum use out of the articles we write.

Internet discussion groups, or forums, offer us another opportunity to find new readers and establish our reputation as informed helpful authorities in our niche.

Finding Forums

Finding forums on our topic can be as easy as going to Google and typing in keywords relevant to your subject, plus the word forum.

Like this, "rose gardening forum".

If that doesn't work, we can make use of forum directories that list many different discussion groups.

http://www.forumzilla.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/
http://forumfind.com/
http://www.voy.com/
http://www.delphiforums.com/
http://groups.msn.com/
http://forums.cnet.com/
http://directory.big-boards.com/
http://www.worldforumdirectory.com/
http://www.perfectforumdirectory.com/
http://www.forumvirus.com/
http://board123.com
http://www.forumsearch.net/

Finding Our Place In A Forum

We've done our research using the links above, and have found a handful of popular discussion groups on our subject. Now what?

We want to impress readers, not annoy them, and forum diplomacy can be tricky sometimes. So let's enter the conversation already underway with care.

First, let's just read the forum for awhile, and refrain from posting. Or, as they say in forum land, let's lurk.

Every community has it's own personality, customs, expectations and rules. Let's spend some time exploring the forum before speaking, so we don't unintentionally put our foot in our mouth right from the start.

What subjects are being discussed? What kinds of questions are people asking?

Are the conversations mostly short quips back and forth, or does the discussion include longer more thoughtful posts?

Have official rules of the forum been posted by the moderators? Let's find the rules, and read them.

Are other posters using signature lines at the bottom of their posts which advertise their websites? If yes, what is the format of these posts? What seems to be the acceptable style of the signatures in this forum?

If nobody is using signatures at the bottom of their posts, signatures may not be allowed. This could be a problem if our goal is to introduce readers to our website(s). Let's write the moderator and find out for sure what the policy is.

Posting In The Forum

Now that we've done our homework, and have a pretty good idea of what is appropriate in this forum, let's begin joining the conversation.

It's not very polite to jump in to a conversation and immediately begin talking about oneself, so our first posts should contain no mention of our business or our websites.

In fact, these subjects should rarely appear in our posts at any time. Our signature is the appropriate place to include our URL, so readers can learn about our sites, if they wish to.

Our job is to inspire readers to have that wish to visit our sites by being a helpful friendly member of the group who contributes useful information to the conversation.

And that's where our articles might come in handy.

Should We Post Our Articles In The Forum?

First, let's keep in mind a forum is not an article directory, but a conversation.

So we're definitely not going to start posting all our articles, one after another, as fast as we can. This would be not unlike walking in to a room full of people, jumping up on a chair, and reading from a prepared text. People will look at us funny, or maybe throw fruit, so that it's us that winds up looking funny.

We could perhaps offer one of our articles as a conversation starter. This could be appropriate in some forums.

Let's be sure to include some personal comments to explain why we're posting the article, and ask for feedback.

A more effective technique might be to wait until someone asks a question that our article can answer. And then, instead of posting the entire article, we'll post just the part of the article that most directly answers the question being asked.

Is no one asking questions that our articles can answer?

Hmm, we could be in the wrong forum. Or this could be a helpful, if painful, signal that our articles need a second look, more research, and a rewrite.

The bottom line point to everything above is that we've already written a number of articles on our topic, and a relevant forum is one more place to share them.

The key is to understand that each discussion group has it's own personality, and we need to share our articles in a manner that is appropriate for each setting. We want to fit it, and earn respect, not stand out as an unwelcome outsider.

Are Forums Worth It?

Re-publishing some of our articles in a forum is probably worth it if we're going to the forum regularly anyway to make friends and learn more about our field.

We've hopefully put more thought and care in to our articles than is usually invested in a typical forum post, so if we proceed with care, we may earn respect and new readers.

Forums can be a big time waster too, and a great way to convince ourselves we're working, when really we're just goofing around. The author of this article should probably tape that sentence to his monitor. :-)

By the way, let's not forget, forums can be a great place to discover new ideas. If posting our articles just isn't working out, we can still use the forum as the inspirational spark for our next article.

Conclusion

This concludes this six page article.

We've seen that there are a variety of ways we can multiply the impact of our content, by repackaging it for different purposes.

We surely haven't covered every possibility here, and your own creativity can add new techniques.

Why not take that article you wrote called "Top Ten Tips For Growing Roses" and expand it in to an ebook? Or take an ebook you've written and pull a number of short articles out of it?

Have you considered setting aside some of your special content and using it as bait to reward your readers for joining your mailing list?

As you can see, once you've produced quality content that represents you well, the opportunities for creativity aren't over, but are just beginning.

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