It's almost impossible to find a niche that doesn't have some relevant forum dedicated to it. Then, if they have good traffic and allow it, you can implement a universal forum marketing strategy that can transform your business within a year. That may sound like a very long time, and if so then maybe you believe all the sales letters. But if you want to get maximum value from your efforts, it will require some time and patience on your part. But that's your mindset and you have to decide what's best for you.
Most people, maybe everyone, behave in forums according to their general personality. Most people are going to be either aggressive or shy. So, unless you are very good at turning people off with your personality, then act the way that you always do. If you are the shy type, you don't have to start contributing right away. This is a common activity called lurking. It might seem too frightening to make your first post. Just begin by answer other threads and being helpful.
Your first step in forum marketing involves building relationships with the members of the forum. You can also view this as networking and that would be correct, too. For the most part, however, building relationships works better than building networks. Right or wrong, people like doing business with people they like even if they don't really know them. Everything you do in the forums needs to be done with this in mind. If you're serious about building forum relationships you'll want to keep familiarity in mind. You can't build important relationships on a forum if you're never there.
It is very much worth the time it find out here now takes to sit back and figure out who's who on the forum before you start to network on a particular forum. Most of the time there are a few people who could easily claim this role. Of course, the size of the forum, and its membership, will have some impact on that. The longer the forums have been around and more members it has, the greater the number of people who influence the forums will be. The influencing figures are different on different forums. It's usually easy to recognize the people who are 'leaders' on the forum as they are the ones others are trying to get the attention of. Once you know who these people are, then you can work to build a rapport with them. Although forum marketing will work eventually, do not expect it to happen overnight. However, you could score a few quick sales if you find the right forum and product. Some forums allow you to advertise your products or services, and when done right that can bring a fast cash windfall.