You can find as many forums as you want that are relevant to your niche. All that's needed now is to find the forums that get the lion's share of the traffic in your niche so you can put your plan into motion. This is a plan you can put into place fairly quickly, no matter what you've been led to believe in the past. It takes time and some patience to extract the most value from forums. When it's your business on the line, you'll have to decide how to proceed.
Since this article is about forum marketing, it is safe to say that this what you want to read about. You do not need to frequent forums that do not like marketing. You'll find lots of forums that don't want any marketing or business related activities in them. But, if the forum owner has ad space, of course they will sell you a spot to earn some cash. Find out which forums are which. But, it won't be hard to find a good one because the net has loads of them.
Make your mark by starting a few thoughtful threads of your own. It may not be very easy for you to start threads at first because it's easy to feel shy in new situations or with new people. Just think of a good topic or something worthwhile to share and make a thread. Don't forget to invite others to join in and offer their own comments to the thread as well.
Make a controversial statement if you're serious about inviting comments. Just be wary of crossing lines or coming across as uninformed and/or judgmental. One thing you don't want to do is start a thread that's off-topic for the forum or something ridiculous.
If you really want to go all out with your networking efforts, then find out who has influence in the forum. Sometimes there is a group of people that could be at the 'top of the heap' on the forum. The membership numbers will also influence this. The longer a forum has been around and the more members it has, the larger the pool her comment is here of influence on that forum is likely to be. This is something that isn't constant throughout forums. Sometimes it's the moderators who have the most influence. The 'leaders' are often the people that other members are always trying to get acknowledgment from. Once you've identified them, it's time to start building relationship with these members. In conclusion, if you have spent time doing online marketing on forums, this is probably old news. You have to know how to operate on forums, following the rules, and conducting yourself in an appropriate manner. The key is to be a contributing community member that offers value everyday.