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 | | From: | Chris Gunn | | Subject: | FAQ - Building Newsgroup Lists - | | Date: | Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:29:33 -0600 |
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 | Very few bother to verify a Newsgroup Charter or its description before
adding them to their cross-post list. As a result, it's difficult for
serious business folks to find a newsgroup where they'll have readers for
their advertising. The words "offers" and "announcements" found in the
newsgroup descriptions apply to press release articles for NEW products
and do not imply advertising is okay, particularly daily.
Advertising should NEVER be posted daily.
It clutters things up for everyone.
Every product calls for a different exposure and there is no standard list
of newsgroups for advertising. Keep in mind, most of Usenet is still
hostile towards commercial advertising. Aggravating that just makes it
more difficult for everyone to find buyers. Some suggestions for setting
up your cross-post list for advertising:
1. When you get into your newsgroup reader, bring up a list of all the
newsgroups available on your provider's system. Every system has a
different listing.
If they do not provide a list of newsgroups that includes the
descriptive title (Yes, they all have one but the Windows browsers
will not let you see them), try http://www.bizynet.com/faq-news.htm
and save a copy of the Master Newsgroup Listing. Then the following
paragraphs will do better for you.
2. Do a series of searches for "advert" and select those that fit the
topic area of what you wish to advertise. Scan through the Subject
lines and read some of the messages before you make up your mind.
Don't just go by the messages you see there. Please check the
Charter and FAQ for the newsgroup if you possibly can.
3. Do a similar search on "forsale". That should turn up over 100
newsgroups. Select ONLY those for general advertising. Most of them
are personal classifieds or for a specific area of the World. Skip the
Universities and don't annoy the folks in Australia (au.) if your
product is only available in the United States and vice versa. Same if
your offer is only available in your city.
4. After you post your advertisement, go back daily and check ALL of
those you've chosen for responses. If you don't have time to read
through all of the newsgroups you've chosen, you are advertising on
too many and/or the wrong ones. Just one complaint, depending on its
nature, is sufficient to stop advertising on that newsgroup.
Successful advertising via the newsgroups may not require buying a lot of
postage stamps but it does require many more man hours than direct mailing
lists. It's an interactive media and you have to be there or miss out on
potential connections and sales. Contrary to common practice, your best
connections will come from a series of messages discussing your project
rather than any amount of advertising.
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