Let’s lay foundation. There is a tremendous difference between those who acquire their PhD in market place and those who earn their PhD in educational system. If you are someone interested in becoming an expert and being rewarded financially for this, you must understand this difference once and for all!

How do you get a PhD in educational setting? Well, that should seem fairly obvious. You go to university. You attend classes. You pass each class. You graduate to next year. You apply for graduate work. You attend more classes. You pass each class. You graduate with a Master’s degree. You apply for a PhD program. And cycle continues until you get your PhD.

Consider this process for a minute, and let me use a very personal example. My wife is an occupational therapist trained in Scotland. Today, and living in Canada (which is same for most of world), if Fiona were to apply to same occupational therapy program that only required three years of post secondary school when Fiona graduated, this is scenario: she would have to get her undergraduate degree first and then apply for a master’s degree. After completing her graduate degree she could then apply for occupational therapy. After six years of schooling, under today’s guidelines, and after being accepted, she would finally be eligible for three years of training that profession demands.

I hope you see what is happening here. Much more education. Much more money spent. Longer time to get into job market. And still same ‘starting’ salary.

Or another way of saying this. More bureaucracy. More hoops. Delayed dreams. And greater expense for same pay!

Analyze what you were required to know for job you currently hold. Take note of all classes and subject material you had to accumulate. Now calculate a percentage of what you had to know versus what you actually use in your job! My guess you could have easily sliced away 50% if not more.

Realize once and for all that educational system, from its very structure to those who teach its courses, all stems from a job mindset. And, from a business perspective, one of fundamental mistakes inherent in this model is its inefficiency.

Inefficiency! Wasted school years when people could be in market place earlier making money. Let’s consider converse. How do you get a PhD in business world? Let me put it this way…how can anyone get a PhD in business world?

While most people understand benefits of forums from a "gathering information" perspective, many don’t think about hidden benefits of forums. The most common reason for visiting is to ask questions or get advice. That's a good enough reason to go, but there are other - more beneficial - reasons to become a forum frequenter.

Besides providing a wealth of quality information, forums can also be powerful promotional tools. There are three distinct ways forums can benefit you. And all it takes is a few minutes a day to help others in need.

Link Popularity

I think you’re probably familiar with term "link popularity" by now. In case you’re not, it refers to number of incoming links pointing to your site from other sites. Forums can serve as excellent link popularity boosters.

Each time you post a question or response on a forum that’s spidered by engines, you get one extra link back to your site. Every time your signature (along with link in it) appears, it counts as an additional link. Since Google puts a lot of weight on link popularity, posting to forums can give your rankings quite a boost!

ACTION STEP ONE: Create a powerful signature line to use in your forum posts that includes benefits to reader and your URL.

Establishing Yourself as an Expert

In addition to extra help with your site’s search engine rankings, forums also give you an outlet to establish yourself as an expert.