You probably know people who market to your same audience, but who aren’t competitors of yours. They have what would be called an industry-related, non-competing site. As you build your business you’ll want to keep track of websites such as these. You can use a spreadsheet to do this. There are many ways to take advantage of being involved and keeping aware of non-competing sites.

1. Stay Up-to-Date on Industry News – Any industry-related websites are great for getting news about the industry you’re involved in. Non-competing sites are full of opportunities since there is no worry about them taking your audience or vice versa. You can freely curate the information they share and share it with your audience, too.

2. Place Banner Ads to Run on the Site – Any non-competing site that allows ads that market to your audience is a good choice for placing any type of ad, including banner ads. Even if they do not have a link to place an advertisement, you can approach the site owner about putting a paid advertisement up. If you have an affiliate program, send them a free sample of your product and offer them a special affiliate deal.

3. Volunteer to Contribute Guest Blog Posts – Most website owners struggle to fill their online real estate with plenty of original, well written, engaging content. Give them an offer they cannot refuse by offering to send free original content in exchange for a bio with a link to your products and services.

4. Contribute to the Community Message Board – If the website has a message board, you should join it and becomWrite a White paper and Send It to the Site Ownere a regular contributor there. Ask and answer questions; share your expertise freely so that you can become part of that community.

5. Join Group Chats – Some websites will offer group chats, teleseminars, webinars, and so forth. If you can justify the time and expense, not only should you join but you should also put yourself forward as an expert speaker or panelist.

6. Monitor Their Use of Keywords – When a website markets to your audience, it is likely they are using keywords that will work for you too. Don’t mislead your audience if you don’t offer certain solutions, but check out the keywords so that you can evaluate whether or not they’ll work for you too.

7. Write a White paper and Send It to the Site Owner – A great way to introduce yourself to the site owner is to write and send them a white paper that explains a problem and solution that you solve and introduces them to your products and services.

8. Get to Know the Site Owner – If the website is especially well put together and the products and services offered are top-notch, find a way to get to know the site owner. Follow them on social media, join groups they’re part of and get to know them. Networking with people that you want to work with someday is a great strategy to grow your expertise.

9. Interview the Site Owner – Audio and video are excellent forms of content for your blog. Ask the site owner to allow you to interview them for your blog. You can do it with audio or video via Skype or Google Hangout. If they are uncomfortable with that, you can use just voice. You can even write the interview.

10. Create and Propose a Joint Venture Project – When you are known to the other individual and you’ve sufficiently shown them your work, and you’ve seen theirs, try to brainstorm a joint venture project you can work on then send them the proposal.

If you think of industry-related non-competing sites as complementary sites, it’ll be easier to understand what you’re looking for. You want to find business owners who market to the same audience as you do, but who do not directly compete with you because their product doesn’t replace yours.

Finding ways to take advantage of industry-specific forums is important if you want to build your business to the next level. Forums offer the ability to communicate with one or more people at the same time. What’s more, with an industry-specific forum you’ll be able to communicate with people who are involved in your industry.

Some may be competitors but some may actually be people who, while they market to your audience, instead sell complementary products and services to yours and not the same type of solution as you do. Here are ten ways you can take advantage of industry-specific forums that will explode your business.

1. Meet Like-Minded People – When you join a forum (which is a message board) in an industry-specific community, you will meet people who understand your language. They know the jargon and understand what you do. This is a special thing, especially if you happen to work for yourself. It’s a new type of “water-cooler” experience.

2. Meet Potential Joint Venture Partners – Watch the forum for the most active and successful members to show themselves to you. These are the people you want to cultivate a relationship with in order to build potential partnerships. JV partnerships are excellent ways to boost your business and expand your following.

3. Learn New Things about Your Industry – The people who are involved with the message board, and who post on it, will likely share information about the industry with the entire forum. Because there is so much information out there, this is a good way to get information because you are just one person and cannot find everything. But, do check the facts before sharing it with your followers.

4. Find Industry Events to Attend – When an event is happening in your industry, an industry-specific forum will buzz with the information about the events from the past and the future. This is a good way to find out the best events for you to attend. Even if you cannot attend personally, you might be able to sponsor someone else to attend on your behalf.

5. Find Industry Events that Need Presenters – During the buzz of events on the forum, people who are planning events in that industry may post requests for proposals for presenters. If any of the requests match your expertise, you can submit your presentations for consideration.

6. Share Your Expertise – When another forum member asks a question, you can demonstrate your expertise by freely answering the question in a professional manner without trying to sell them anything.

7. Get Fast Answers from Other Experts – You can Google all day long, but sometimes you really want to hear directly from someone (or many) with a human answer. Asking questions on a message board will garner many opinions and replies and start discussions that can lead to new and valuable relationships.

8. Get a Link Back to Your Website – Most forums allow for some minor promotions within the signature line or within a bio area. It’s a good idea to make each signature for every forum you’re active in a special landing page just for those members.

9. Find Inspiration for Content – When you are trying to develop content for your blogs, websites, eBooks, reports, white papers and so forth, an active industry forum is a great place to find inspiration.

10. Identify People to Interview – On any forum, some people will stand out as excellent and at the top of their niche. Once people get to know you there, you can simply post a request for interview subjects and get responses. You can also contact specific people directly usually via a private messaging system.

Participating in industry-specific forums is not just informational and lucrative financially; it can also be a lot of fun. Meeting people who care about the same things that you do can open up a whole new world.