Signature advertising in the Usenet
Although the same basic principles apply, signature advertising in the Usenet
differs somewhat from the use of signatures in E-mails. The atmosphere of
the Usenet reminds that of a big party where everybody talks with everybody.
It can get quite noisy and confusing from time to time, but at the same time
it is a great opportunity to exchange information and meet new people. E-mailing
on the other hand involves just two persons, so it is more "up close and
personal". Discussion forums also often have a specific topic and nearly
every post has something to do with it. In E-mails, it is possible and even
common to talk about everything from the current political situation to the
latest CD you just bought.
If you use the Usenet or various discussion forums only occasionally, it
is probably not a good idea to worry too much about these differences - just
use your E-mail signature at the end of your posts. But if you send a lot
of messages to those places, it might be worth it to read this article and
fine-tune your signature advertising strategy accordingly.
Words of warning
The first thing you should do is to verify whether the forum you are posting
to allows the use of signatures or not. If you are posting to the Usenet,
it is safe to assume that using a signature of four lines or less is OK.
On the other hand, some WWW-based discussion forums completely forbid the
use of signatures. Before posting, try to locate the forum FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) and check the rules involved with the use of signatures.
If you cannot find the answer and can't guess the policy by looking at what
others are doing, post and ask what the rules are.
Even if the forum allows the use of signatures, it does not mean that you
should start posting complete rubbish just to get your signature displayed.
I've seen people do this thousands of times, and it has always lead to other
posters turning against this person. Don't do it, it is not worth the bad
reputation you will get from it.
Some signature advertising strategies
Even while the Usenet is divided into different newsgroups by topic, it of
course doesn't mean that your signature must be on-topic or related to the
discussion in any way. It is acceptable to mention your site that sells used
books in your signature even if the newsgroup is about dogs, just as long
the message itself is on-topic. However, it is very likely that a signature
that has something to do with the discussion gets more attention than a
completely irrelevant one. For example, the people at a movie newsgroup will
be tempted to check out your online DVD and VHS movie shop, while there will
be much less interest for it at the gardening newsgroup.
Nevertheless, most of us have also other hobbies and areas of interest in
addition to the one our site covers. We post to many newsgroups that have
nothing to do with our sites just because we enjoy talking about the topic
that particular newsgroup covers. Still, at the same time it would be great
to get as many visitors as possible from these groups. How to accomplish
that?
The answer is to adapt your signature to match the topic of the newsgroup.
As I said above, signatures that are relevant to the discussion usually get
more clicks. Let's take the online video store in the previous example. In
the movie newsgroup, it was on-topic and generated a good response. But if
you also happen to post to a newsgroup about ice hockey, it becomes off-topic
and probably wouldn't generate as many visitors.
To solve this problem, you'll
need to think if your site offers something that a hockey fan could be interested
in. Perhaps you sell videos about famous, classic hockey matches? Documentaries
about legendary players? Movies about hockey players or teams? Instead of
advertising the entire video store in your signature like you did in the
movie newsgroup, advertise these specific products and put in an address
that directs anyone who clicks straight to these videos instead of the front
page of your site. It is certain that you will get more visits and more
importantly, more sales if you do this instead of just advertising your "online
video store".
Of course, there are some cases where it is impossible to make your signature
relevant to the newsgroup topic. Some sites, such as the online video store
in our example, are like chameleons. Whatever the topic is, you can find
something from the site that fits it perfectly. With other sites it doesn't
work as well. If you feel that you cannot create a signature that matches
the topic, just use the signature you normally use and don't worry about
it. Yes, you will get a somewhat lower response rate, but if there just isn't
anything on your site that corresponds with the topic, there's very little
you can or should do about it.
We've examined the properties of a good signature in the E-mail signatures
article, so I won't duplicate that content in here. However, there might
be a reason to use a more casual signature in the Usenet than the formal
one recommended for E-mails. When you E-mail someone, you have the full attention
of the person who receives your message, so it is not very necessary to make
your signature stand out - it will be read anyhow. In the Usenet, your message
is just one among many others and there is a risk that the readers will just
jump to the next message without reading your signature. Thus, you might
want to consider capitalizing some words or using words that are known to
draw attention. If you do this, do it in good taste and don't overuse it.
Keep it fresh and interesting
If you regularly visit the same newsgroups, you will notice that after a
while, you'll start receiving less hits from your signature. There is a simple
reason for it: When you've written enough messages to the same place, many
of the people who follow the newsgroup have seen your signature and either
visited your site or decided that your site does not seem like something
they would be interested in. Short of leaving the forum and finding a new
one, it is not possible to completely solve this problem. But that does not
mean that there isn't anything you could do.
If you have the energy to do it, it is a good idea to change your signature
every now and then. When you do so, don't just change a few words. Instead,
promote a completely different part of your site for a while and then switch
again. For example, I could use the following signatures:
---
Learn to promote your site:
http://www.apromotionguide.com/
Free articles and tips about different aspects of website promotion, including
plenty of information about search engines.
---
---
Generate free META tags for your site with this easy-to-use tool:
http://www.apromotionguide.com/metagene.html
---
---
http://www.apromotionguide.com/
Daily news about search engines and website promotion. Stay up-to-date, don't
get left behind!
---
By changing between these signatures every now and then it would be possible
for me to appeal to slightly different people and continue to receive a decent
amount of traffic from my signature. If I just used the first signature all
the time, the persons who aren't willing to spend a great deal of time by
reading these articles but would like to place META tags on their pages if
they could do it fast and easily wouldn't come. I would also miss out on those who
are interested in search engine news, but who don't care about META tags or the articles.
When I keep changing the signature and advertise
different aspects of the site in it, these people will visit my site as well.
Since there is always some movement in a newsgroup as some stop reading it
and others join in, after I've used the two last signatures for a while I
can safely return to the first one and start the circle from the beginning.
This method also works very well if you run several sites and can't fit all
of them into one signature.
Final words and thoughts
Signatures can work very well and produce a nice deal of traffic if you are
able to use them correctly. I hope that the tips in this article have helped
you to develop a successful signature advertising strategy for Usenet and
other message forums.
At the same time, I'd like to warn you against focusing
too much on signatures. If you're going to post to message boards anyhow,
signatures are a great way to drive traffic to your site without having to
do much additional work. But as I said in the beginning, if you start thinking
that the primary function of posting messages is to get your signature out
there, you're doing something wrong.
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