Usenet and newsgroup advertising

If you are familiar with Usenet or similar message forums, you might want to use it in to announce your site to the public. The first thing you should do is to find a relevant place to post your message. Don't announce your "Hot Dog Lover's Hangout" site in a vegetarian message board. If you manage to find a place where your site seems to be on topic (if it fits like a nail in the head, proceed. If it "has some relevance", forget it), examine the group closer.

Many Usenet newsgroups and other message forums are extremely hostile towards sending promotional messages, so before doing any Usenet advertising you should read the rules or guidelines of the newsgroup if they are available. It's also a good idea to read the group for a while before actually posting - that way you'll get a general idea of what goes and what does not. If people who post similar announcements to the one you're planning to make get angry replies, forget about posting to that group.

Be careful, sending promotional messages to places they don't belong to is a good way of losing your Internet connection. As a rule of thumb, sending "normal" promotional messages is usually tolerated, messages that promote strictly commercial sites are dangerous to post and posting a message that promotes an affiliate program is suicide.

If everything looks good at this point, prepare a simple post. First, say that you've just completed your site and would like to make a one time announcement about it, then describe the content and give the site's address. It might be a good idea to include an apology in the bottom for those who might be offended by your message, and to tell them that you are under the impression that this kind of one-time posting is OK.

In addition to posting that message to the relevant group(s), you'd probably want to announce your site in comp.infosystems.www.announce. It's a newsgroup specially made for announcing new sites.

Remember, NEVER send more than one message per discussion group/forum. Don't send another one no matter what. If people are interested, one message will do. If they are not, additional messages will only get them pissed. Think this method as a way to announce your site has been opened, don't think it as a permanent form of promotion.