I am sure that all of us, at one point or another have heard

about Social Networking, but perhaps you just are not 100%

positive of what it means or how to use it to your advantage.

In the context of promoting your affiliate program, social

networking is the grouping of like minded individuals who share

and discuss a common subject. The internet is filled with,

literally, millions of people who are interested in meeting

others who share this common interest in order to build

friendships and social or business relationships.

The best place to do this online is at Social Networking

websites which for the most part use article postings and forum

discussions. A key point to remember here is that there are

very strict rules of etiquette and you can be banned from the

website for violating them. In order to avoid violating these

rules you should keep your social networking limited to article

posting and if you decide to get involved in a forum never ever

market anything; just merely post a link back to your blog

underneath your signature in the forum.

So let us take a moment to look at article postings first and

then forum posting and how we use your blog to your advantage.

Article positing is just what it says. It is the process where

by you find relevant websites where you can post your articles

about how to invest in real estate. When you post your articles

you want to make sure that the information you provide is good

and viable information; not sales copy! Posting sales copy

will get you banned and this is not a good thing.

One of the best websites where you can start posting articles

is www.ehow.com. This website is free and has great traffic and

more importantly ranks highly with search engine spiders. This

is important to you because having websites with high rankings

linking back to your blog provides you with high rankings by

the same search engine. This works to your advantage by

increasing your ranking on the search engine results page. The

higher the ranking the more traffic you are likely to get. The

more traffic you get the more programs you can sell. It is a

simple matter of the law of averages.

At the time of the writing of this newsletter there were only

63 articles, on EHOW, on how to find real estate investors. So

first things first; you are going to want to create an account

and make sure you create a great profile about yourself. You

should include a picture and as much detail as you can. The one

key factor here is to make sure that you include the fact that

you have a Blog and you invite people to visit your blog and

include the hyperlink in your text!

Next, write an article. Use the information in the e-book to

give you some ideas. Make sure to visit EHOW first and read

some of the articles already posted to get an idea of how and

what you should write. Once you have written your article EHOW

provides you an opportunity to list the resources that you used

to create the article. In this section you will list your

affiliate link, a link to the free e-book and of course the

link back to your blog! Simple and easy and fun! By the way,

did I happen to mention that you can actually get paid by EHOW

for some of the articles that you write? So posting articles

will not only help you promote your affiliate program, it will

also help you earn a little money on the side. My

recommendation is that you post as many articles as you can!

Always making sure that you complete the resource section

accordingly!

There are countless websites like EHOW where you can post your

articles. Also, you don't have to keep writing new articles.

You can actually just post the same article you just wrote in

different websites. If you really want to get creative and have

the funds to invest, you can use article submission robots to

submit articles for you. Again, the decision is totally up to

you.

Next, we will talk about forum posts.

Out on the internet there are literally thousands of forums

where people gather to discuss what ever is on their minds at

the time. What we want to focus on are those forums where

people gather to discuss real estate and real estate

investing. At the time of this newsletter there were over one

million of these forums on real estate investing.

Take the time to do a little research and find those forums

that have good traffic and a high number of people posting on

the forums. A high number of people posting means you have a

high number of people actually reading the posts.

Next, once you find a forum that meets the above criteria you

want to drill down on the forums until you find a subject

matter that you would like to comment on based on the

information you learned in the e-book. For example, on one of

the forum sites there is an entire section dedicated to the

"art of real estate deal making." Underneath that is the forum

post "Seeking Financing, Money, or Loans." Sounds like the

perfect place to make some commentary based on information

found in the e-book.

Now when you are making a forum post you want to make sure you

follow all the etiquette rules. Don't get banned for making a

simple mistake. The key here is to post relevant and viable

information. Make it so that people want to read it. Another

good point is to be controversial so that people will start

getting involved with your post and talking about it. For

example, you might want to say something like the following;

I would have to disagree. I think it is a terrible idea to go

to a bank for the money you need to fund a real estate deal.

They take to long and if you are an investor they rarely, if

ever, give you the total amount of money you need.

Furthermore, if you have more than 4 properties being reported

on your credit report they probably won't want to lend you

money at all.

I would have to say that by and large hard money lenders are

even worse. They charge an arm and a leg and are just waiting

for you to miss a payment so that they can take the juicy real

estate deal away from you to keep the profits for themselves.

The key here is to get people to get emotionally involved and

stir them up so that you can get them talking on your post.

The key point here is to keep with in the boundaries of proper

forum etiquette and to make sure that all of your posts have

your signature and underneath your signature your link back to

your blog!

By having the link back to your blog you can then enter the

discussion at a later time by saying something to the effect

of,

Look, I am sorry that I made some of you upset but I have a

blog where I go into detail on why I think that banks and hard

money lenders are the wrong choice. I explain my position and I

even take the time to point out what I feel is the better

option for securing the monies I need to make my real estate

deals happen.

Feel free to visit my blog, or if you prefer I would be happy

to cut and paste my argument to this forum.

Notice that you are again leveraging information to your

benefit. Now you are giving them a choice, generating traffic,

and stimulating a conversation. Of course the key here being

that you have taken the time to actually create a blog post

containing the information you discuss; again this goes back

to the salient point that you have to have a great Blog!

Lastly, at some point during the forum discussion or perhaps

even in your blog post that you created you mention the fact

that you learned all this from me! You now leverage me as the

expert and mention the fact that you have a free e-book that

discusses in detail your argument and that they should visit

you blog to download. Hopefully this will generate traffic and

the more animate of the bunch will probably even take the time

to make some entries on your blog.

A key point to remember is that you never "market" or try to

"sell" anything on a forum or in an article posting. Your Blog

should do that along with your email distribution list.

Remember, the objective is to leverage information to get

people to visit your blog, read your emails, and download your

e-book. The selling and your success will take care of itself.

Best wishes for your success

E. Alan Cowgill

PS. Take the time to visit and read some forums you are

interested in before you start posting. This will allow you

the opportunity to get to know the group and their particular

likes and dislikes so that you don't make a mistake and

alienate the group you are trying to market to.

For a free CD go to www.PrivateLendingMadeEasy.com