I, myself have spend a lot of time in forums. I love speaking to people with similar interests of my own and I will usually get questions about my own business and sometimes people will sign up or I will get a referral or two for a product or service.

Another thing about Forums is you build relationships with people which mean they can see who they would be working with if they were interested in your Business. You can also find people to form outside groups if the discussion doesn't pertain to the forums interests. I have made a lot of online friends, found jobs and found opportunities all while playing and meeting new people on forums. Forums are good for getting information about a certain question that you may have about an business, idea, product or service. More than likely, someone from that group would be able to assist you and give you the information you need to make an informed decision to purchase that product, service, business or idea. Forums are also great for getting information about Home based business scams. Usually you will meet people who have been scammed by a business you are asking about or they know people who have been scammed by that particular business or work at home job. Tips for using Forums:

1)First, you need to introduce yourself. People like to know who they are speaking to. You don't need to give a lot of detailed information; people just want to know where you are from and what you like to do.

2)Post a picture in your Profile. People like to see who they are speaking to and it makes the conversations seem more real.

3)Do not Spam a forum. Depending on the forum, some will have a special section for advertising or sometimes you have to be more active in order to advertise.

4)Try to keep your opinions low-key and subtle to avoid heated discussions because if you are not careful you could get banned from a forum or the discussions can end up locked or deleted which are usually full of information and resources.

5)Find out who the forum administration and Moderators are in case you are being threatened, spammed or harassed. Not that it happens often but it does happen.

6) Add a Signature file to your Post, usually that option can be found in 'Profile Settings' it will give you the traffic you would like for your website while visiting forums. Make use of it.

So if you haven't done so already I recommend you write down all your interests and then do a Google or Yahoo! Search based on your interests and then look for 'forums' or 'message boards' on your websites of things you like to do.