International SEO
How an industrial directory is setting themselves apart – ThomasNet Forums
Recently, ThomasNet announced that they are providing a forum for the industrial marketplace to discuss latest trends, ask questions, and even have a place for marketers to post topics and answer questions.
Why is this relevant? It’s relevant for many reasons.
1. They’re the first be aggressive with this! Not the first website to have a board, of course. But the first Industrial Directory to actively market this. Usually the first to market, keeps the lion’s share of the market. Unless you’re Google, and they’re positioned to take over the planet. GlobalSpec has a forum – that no one knows about – so ThomasNet can be the Google of the Industrial Directories.
2. FREE TRAFFIC. People should be FLOCKING to the boards. This is a great way to generate FREE traffic to your site. You don’t even have to be an advertiser to use this board. If nothing else, post an answer or ask a question ONCE a week, and I can pretty much guarantee you that you will get traffic.
3. One more step towards 2.0ness. What is 2.0ness? A made up phrase. BUT, read my post about becoming 2.0 friendly and this will make sense to you. Consider it an easy way to start building your internet Karma.
4. The ThomasNet Forum will be a really great way to increase your procrastination time at work. Seriously. As you start posting and become a regular, you will actually enjoy posting and interacting with other regulars. And in the end the Free Traffic and building your online reputation will come back and you’ll see a boost in business.
Unless you post all day, in which case your business won’t boost. So keep your internet time in check!
Personally, my team will be answering questions in the Marketer’s Lounge, so you if have a question relating to industrial search engine marketing… just email us here or post on the ThomasNet forums.
Happy Posting!
January 31st, 2007 at 8:23 am
Your comment about GlobalSpec’s forum is surprising. I’ve been using it for a while and it received quite a bit of press initially. I’m guessing you just missed it. It’s very useful and functional for my clients and thier engineers.
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=18901
http://investors.com/breakingnews.asp?journalid=45473596
http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=18638
http://www.knowledgespeak.com/newsArchieveviewdtl.asp?pickUpID=3074&pickUpBatch=504
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061108/20061108005059.html?.v=1
JL
February 1st, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Well, I went to the Thomas Forum to see what’s going on, and the activity was pretty sparse. Like five posts today. If that’s what the site is like a week after its big splash announcement, I don’t think it’ll catch on. I also couldn’t find any of your posts there.
Myself, I do use CR4 (http://www.cr4.globalspec.com) – GlobalSpec’s forum, a lot. I’ve been a member since Dec 2005. It is a very busy site. It gets hundreds of posts every day. I’m surprised you guys don’t know about it. Maybe their marketing hasn’t been good, or maybe you guys don’t stay on top of the market as well as you think you do.
I also check into Eng-Tips (http://www.eng-tips.com) once in a while but it’s not what it once was.
February 1st, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Well, I must say that I haven’t been exposed to GlobalSpec’s forums… Many of my clients in the industrial realm put most of their directory funds towards Thomas, only a handful put any funds into GlobalSpec, so I hear the news about Thomas much more frequently.
I did check out the GlobalSpec forums, and I think it might take a little getting used to, but looks like it’s been established for awhile.
Thanks for your feedback!
February 16th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Your wrong on several accounts. First Thomasnet was not the first industrial directory to actively promote a forum. Why make such a comment when there is no way to know if it’s true. Second, the Thomasnet forum is poorly moderated and has too much spam. You really need a better list of industrial directories on your site. Sites that you list such as http://www.searchmanufacturing.com/ are a joke.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
I agree with Jim. Thomasnet has potential to be a good industrial forum, but it currently gets a lot of spam. One of the first industrial-focused forums I know of was ForeignTRADEX at http://www.ForeignTradeExchange.com/forum and another is Industrial Classifieds at http://www.IndustrialSaver.com/classifieds/ Both sites allow industrial suppliers and buyers to post and explore all kinds of offers to buy/sell industrial supplies, equipment and machinery. No, I’m not affiliated with the sites. I just like their clean design and targeted focus toward engineers and manufacturing professionals.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:38 am
Thank you Jim and Robbie for leaving your comments. Jim, I apologize for not getting a response to you. Thank you both for your opinions. I realize our Industrial Directory page needs to be updated. I will have to look into the links you mentioned. If you guys have any other sites that you know off hand, feel free to let us know. It seems like Blogs are the latest fad right now. I do know that in some of the international markets, forums are still #1.
Thanks for sharing!
September 21st, 2008 at 11:25 am
Using forums like Thomas are critical for the third point you made which is Web2.0. Yes it is made up but it also represents the point in time that the Internet changed from being a Marketing tool to becoming a Sales tool. Most clients i speak with are intially concerned with traffic to their site and getting better indexed results on Google. My biggest concern for them is a much bigger issue and that is measuring conversion and increase in sales from the Internet. It involves tracking the analytics and other components of their website in a way that most have never thought possible. I’m not saying it’s simple but it is increasingly going to be more and more important for Industrial companies to view their website as a sales channel. Check out http://www.industrialwebpros.com in the next few weeks as we will be launching a forum dedicated to helping Industrial companies move into Web2.0
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March 29th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
This is a great concept!