Build traffic with Usenet advertising

If you know how to use Usenet or other similar message forums, you might want to use your skills to build the traffic to your site. There are however some things you should take into consideration before you start sending messages about your newly created site. This page and the tips on it are mainly directed to those who want to perform some Usenet advertising, but most of the things discussed can be easily applied to other online discussion forums as well.

Before we continue, I must warn you that from now on I assume that you have a basic knowledge about how the Usenet and its newsgroups work. If you don't, you might encounter some odd words or have trouble understanding some of the information on this page. I've attempted to include links into different resources that explain some common Usenet concepts in more detail, but if you're completely new to Usenet I suggest that you visit the site linked above before you read this article. That being said, let's continue..

Usually the Usenet is seen as a some kind of a extremist anti-commercial place that has no value at all to those who are trying to build the traffic to their sites. There is a grain of truth in that view, but it is not the entire truth, far from it. Instead, usually the people who frequent Usenet forums will tolerate those who announce their personal site about their hobby, provided that it is relevant to the topic of the newsgroup.

On the other hand, if you post an advertisement about the latest MLM or affiliate program, in most newsgroups it means that you're begging to be crucified on the spot. The reaction to announcing commercial sites lies somewhere between these two. If you do it right, there's a good chance that it will provide the site with a nice amount of traffic for a while, but if you mess things up, your reputation can get badly hurt.

Why do I talk about "announcing" sites instead of Usenet advertising? It's because that is just what you should do, announce your site on the Usenet. Trying to use the Usenet newsgroups as an advertising tool and posting messages about your site every week will very quickly make you a lot of enemies. Take my word on this one and just send one message to each newsgroup, OK? If you want continued exposure to your site at Usenet, read my article about Usenet signatures and use them.

Newsgroup advertising - starting the game

The first thing you must do is to find newsgroups that are about the same topic as your site. All good programs that allow you to access the Usenet also offer the possibility to search for different newsgroups by using keywords. Make a note of the newsgroups that seem to closely match the topic of your site. You'll probably be tempted to include some less relevant groups as well, but don't. Although just about everybody watches TV, including the people at the history newsgroup, that does not make it OK to post an announcement about your online TV store there.

You now have a list of on-topic newsgroups ready. Depending on your site and on how thoroughly you searched, it might be very short, really long or somewhere between those two. If you feel that your list is too short, you might want to consider spending a few more moments searching. On the other hand, if your list is about the length of an 18-member family's grocery list, you will probably need to drop out some of the groups before you start posting. My personal opinion is that anything over five is way too much and risky. I believe that around three is usually the number you should shoot for. If there are more than five newsgroups in your list, it would be a good idea to reduce that number to five or less. But which groups you should toss away and which groups should you keep on your list?

The first criteria is of course relevance. If there are any newsgroups where your site doesn't fit in perfectly left on your list, exclude them. This should remove a few groups, but if it isn't enough, drop out some of the low-traffic groups. It is impossible to tell exactly just how much readers a newsgroup has, but you can make an educated guess by looking at the number of messages written there each day. If there are a lot of messages posted to the group, it is very likely that there are also plenty of people who read them. Drop out the groups that get a minimal amount of posts (one in a week or less) and check your list again. If it still seems to include too many newsgroups, sort them in the order of traffic they receive and take out the ones with least traffic until you're satisfied with the result.

So, after dropping some groups or perhaps adding them, you have a list in front of you that you feel isn't too long or too short. You have successfully selected the newsgroups that look promising and you can now move forward to the next step..

Preparing your advertisement and posting it

Now its time to move in and examine closer the groups you have selected. Before actually posting anything, it is wise to read the group for a while and see how the group reacts when people post announcements similar to the one you're going to make. If everyone who announces a site gets flamed and accused of being a spammer, it might be wise to forget posting to that group or at least plan well how to defend yourself against such accusations. You should also read the group FAQ if one is available and look whether it has any rules about making such announcements.

If the users of the group seem to react favorably to announcements of new sites and the FAQ doesn't say that such postings are forbidden, you can mark that group as "clear to post". After you've evaluated all the groups on your list, it's finally time to start writing your messages. Although aggressive ads and marketing hype have their place, Usenet is not that place. Don't create and send a blatant advertisement unless you want to attract unwanted attention from Usenet veterans. What you want to do is to create an image of someone who is somewhat new to Usenet and who happens to be so excited about his site that he just had to type a brief message about it. You do not want to appear as a professional advertiser or someone who just popped in to promote his site.

Indeed, the right way to advertise at Usenet is not to advertise. Instead, you should ask for feedback about your site. Let's look at an example of such a posting:

That's what I consider to be a good way to announce your site on the Usenet. What you're doing is asking for feedback, but at the same time you are making sure that everyone notices the existence of your site and gets a good idea of what your site is about.

But why ask for feedback? Why not just say "hey, my site is out there, it has great information about topic X/sells product Y for a really great price, come and visit me"?

Yeah, you could do that, but then it would be clear to everyone that the only reason you wrote your message was to get more traffic to your site. If that happens, people are far more likely to react negatively to your posting and it is possible that you'll get some pretty hostile answers to your post. In the worst case scenario some very aggressive person might even complain to your host or ISP about your announcement. This is something you should try to avoid at all cost and by sending a message like the one above instead of a straightforward advertisement, you're less likely to receive negative comments about your post. It is also possible that you will get what you ask for and someone will provide a good suggestion or two that can help you in making your site even better.

If you are going to send your message into several newsgroups, you're going to have to face a difficult question: Are you going to crosspost or not? Normally when you are sending the same message into multiple groups it is considered polite to crosspost it. In this case that might not be such a smart move after all.

If you crosspost, everyone reading the message can see that you've sent your message into several places and they might start to think that your message is an advertisement after all. If you send the message into all of the groups on your list without crossposting it (ie. you multi-post), you have one advantage - people can't see that you have sent the message into other newsgroups, unless they actually read them. Both methods have their ups and downs, but for making announcements such as the one you're going to make, I'd recommend multi-posting.

After you have posted..

The most important thing to do after posting your announcement, advertisement or request for feedback is to stick around and see whether replies are made to your message. Should someone post a reply and give you positive feedback about your site or offer some helpful suggestions, answer to him, thank him for his time and implement the suggestions if you find them to be useful.

If you get accused of spamming the group or receive other negative feedback, don't let yourself be dragged into a flamewar. Instead, reply and politely tell that you thought your posting was OK and on-topic and if it wasn't, you're sorry. Say that you were just too excited about your new site not to post something about it and that you aren't going to post any more messages about your site to the group.

Some of you might wonder why they should be polite if someone insults them. In most situations, I'm for the "an eye for an eye" policy, but you should handle this one differently. If you are able to keep your cool and defend your position without resorting to name-calling, your reputation won't be tarnished. Think about it, would you buy something from a store owner who shouts rude words to another guy in the middle of the street? You wouldn't? Then you probably wouldn't buy anything from a E-merchant that gets involved in flamewars on the Usenet. Don't get angry and don't leave the group if you get attacked- be polite, but make it clear that you weren't doing anything wrong by posting.

If you've made it this far without skipping over some parts, let me congratulate you. You are now ready to build some traffic from the Usenet. Don't let yourself be scared by all of the warnings and instructions included here: I've done it, and it really isn't as hard as it might feel like after reading this article. Good luck with your Usenet advertising and remember, just one message per group!