Every niche has many forums dedicated to its discussion. The trick is in finding the right forum with the right amount of traffic to suit your Internet marketing needs. The truth is that most people imagine this process taking much longer than it needs to. Of course, if you want to get the greatest amount of benefit from your marketing efforts you will need to dedicate a fair amount of time and attention to this endeavor. But that's your mindset and you have to decide what's best for you.
Most people are going to behave based upon their own personality. There will be many who will be either introverted or extroverted. So, unless you are very good at turning people off with your personality, then act the way that you always do. If you are shy, it is okay to just watch things before you start contributing. This is something called lurking that most forum members do at the very beginning. It can feel a little daunting to make your first post, and it's a lot like being in a new city or town and going to a new school. Just respond to the other threads that people have created.
What you need to do in any forum is mix things up which means a combination of posts and threads you start yourself. It's quite common to feel a little bit shy about going out there and starting threads of your own. Consider how great it is to share helpful information. Consider the information you have that could benefit the forum. Share. It's that simple. Invite others to contribute and/or ask questions.
If you really want to invite commentary, try saying something that's a little controversial. You may have to walk a fine line when it comes to controversy and it can be a judgment call. One click for more thing you don't want to do is start a thread that's off-topic for the forum or something ridiculous.
When you get on with a particular forum, you have the final say as to how people see you. You can develop the character that you want to portray. But do not get crazy with this because you cannot predict the future. If you tend to be Home Page loud, you can stop this and do not do it any longer. Many people are not the aggressive types or the Type A or alpha male business killers you are. But the main thing is based upon how others view you. According to your subject matter, you may want to remain in the background only. So consider your goals and how this all comes into play.
It's really easy to make this work without spending much more than five hours a week for all your forum marketing efforts regardless of how many forums you're working with. That's nothing when you're talking about high-value marketing activity. But just be sure you diversify your marketing so anonymous you get all you can from it and help insulate your business from business and web turbulence.