Forum marketing is one of the best methods for promoting your online business today. No matter what niche you're in, you can do this type of marketing. You'll have a hard time finding a niche without active forums though some will have more than others.
You've probably heard that some Internet marketers skip this method of marketing altogether. The fact remains that Internet marketers can use this to meet many of their goals.
One page you should never go without reading is the TOS (terms of service) page. You'll need to know this information so that your participation can be long and bring you greater profit. The fastest way to get banned from a forum is by violating their terms of service. It's not about whether or not you've read them. They exist and you're responsible for knowing about them. There are generally deep feelings about it on behalf of site owners and moderators. You must comply with the site's TOS if you want to use it for your forum marketing efforts.
Take a quick peek at the signatures if you want to ascertain if marketing is okay. See if the signatures have links. This is the usual practice by forums if they don't mind members placing their business links in their signatures. Once you visit enough forums, you'll be able to tell pretty quickly what the prevailing rules are for members doing marketing in that forum. In addition, you can pretty much tell what you can do by studying the signatures of other members. For instance, you can often see multiple links with graphics, etc. This will let you straight from the source see if marketing is welcomed on a particular forum.
You'll find that some of the people on forums seem to always be starting new threads. Sometimes, excess can be a negative thing when it comes to starting new threads. Don't use all your great thread topic ideas at once. Spread them out over time.
Don't neglect the other threads on the board. Human nature is the rule of the day when it comes to using forums. That being said, you sometimes need to have your own opinion and stand by it too. There are plenty of 'gray' areas to consider when using forum marketing. If you really want to make a positive impression, find different ways to share your knowledge. Anyone familiar with for marketing may have found most of this pretty general information. Really, it's all about knowing the rules, and abiding by them. It really comes down to common sense and experience. Contributions to the community really are what will make you successful on any online form.