Forum marketing has more advantages than what you might think it has. Finding out about these benefits will help you to market your business better. You see, unless you've spent a lot of time in forums for business reasons, then it's really easy to overlook some things. It is so out there that it would have been easy to miss.
A 'terms of service' or (TOS) page is the most important page to read before you begin marketing on your forum. Here you'll find how to proceed for longevity and profit. If you manage to violate the terms of service for a forum you run the risk of being banned from that site permanently. Also, forum moderators generally don't care if you've read them or not. If you violate a TOS, then they assume you've read them and violated it anyway. Either way, they feel like it's your responsibility to know the TOS, and it is when you think about it. Anything else they may have in terms of guidelines and policies should be read and followed.
A easy way to determine if marketing is allowed is to look at the signatures. If there are signatures, then look for links in them. If the webmasters allow marketing, then you will see these links. Once you visit enough forums, you'll my link be click able to tell pretty quickly what the prevailing rules are for members doing marketing in that forum. Also, you will know what you can do by studying the signatures of other members on the forum. For example, they might have numerous pictures and loaded with links. This will give you an indication that it's really a marketing friendly forum and you can proceed to join.
When you sign up for a new forum, you will have the freedom to tweak your online presence. You can choose to be anyone you want in terms of personality. But do not get crazy with this because you cannot predict the future. If you tend to be loud, you can stop this and do not do it any longer. You probably will not run across many people like yourself. But the main thing is based upon how others view you. Depending on your niche, you might want to keep a low profile. So think about the big picture when you are building up your profile.
It's very easy to develop an addiction to hanging out in forums. Try to keep your thoughts focused on why you're there. Always remember that your time has value and choose wisely where you spend it. That's what you have to do if you want to make the most of your time.