# 8 - Using Newsgroups and Mailing Lists to Bring Your Customer to Your Site

Using Newsgroups and Mailing Lists
to Bring Your Customer to Your Site

By Chris Maher

In this article I will be giving you some specific techniques to find your buyer online, make a positive impression on them, and build traffic at your web site using Newsgroups and Mailing lists.

What They Are

Usenet News, also known as Newsgroups, are subject specific discussion groups where messages posted by individuals are propagated around the world on the Internet. Mailing lists are also focused on specific topics, and are also excellent ways to reach very specific groups of people. They differ primarily in the way they are sent out, and how posts are submitted to them.

How You Access Them

All modern Web Browsers have some ability to read newsgroups, and have built in email capability. More full featured software is available, often free for the downloading on the Internet. My favorite email program is called Pegasus, and my newsgroup reader of choice is FreeAgent. Both are freeware. (For a list of great stand alone newsreaders and mail client software, check out Stroud's list at- http://cws.internet.com/. Strouds is one of the best sites on the Internet for reviews and downloads of Internet software for the PC).

Why would you want to participate in a newsgroup or mailing list? People who subscribe to them are a self selected population, with similar interests. If you really know your customer, you should be able to figure out where they would "hang out" online. If you can be perceived as a helpful expert by your potential customers you more are likely to have them come to your site. When they see your work, and can associate a real person with it, you have greatly increased the possibility of an online sale.

What can you expect to find in a newsgroup? Most newsgroups are un-moderated, meaning anyone can post anything. While great for freedom of speech, the "signal to noise" ratio can be poor, with much off topic or inappropriate commercial posting diluting the usefulness of the groups. Highly focused niche groups, or moderated lists, are most likely to be useful places to interact.

Netiquette

When users follow a common set of rules, or Netiquette, the un-moderated system can work quite well. (Check out The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette - by Arlene Rinaldi at http://www.fau.edu/rinaldi/net/dis.html). When people post messages that violate these understood but mostly unwritten rules, the responses are often hostile. Being "flamed" is not helpful to your publicity efforts, so note the following guidelines.

What is an appropriate post? Don't make overt sales pitches. Contribute to the discussions that are already taking place, or start a thread that has useful information that is relevant to the topic of the group. Use your sig file to let everyone know who you are, what you do, and how they can view and buy your work.

In a moderated group or list, it's the list owners job to make sure only appropriate messages get sent on to the lists subscribers.

Signature Files

So, how do you invite people to your site without making an overt pitch? Signature files are really a great marketing tool on the Internet. Whenever you send email, post a reply to a newsgroup, or contribute to a mailing list, your software can automatically append a file to the end of your document, just below your name. A sig file can be six to eight lines of self promotion and still be considered in good taste.

For an example, look at the sig file that I've been using to promote this newsletter and my Guide To Promoting Your Web Site:

=*-*=*-*=*-*=*< http://www.1x.com/advisor >*=*-*=*-*=*-*=
Subscribe to Chris Maher's "Selling Your Art Online"
Tips and Ideas for Successful Online Art Sales
mailto:artsales.online@1x.com
Improve your listings with the top search engines
Check out: The Practical Guide to Promoting Your Web Page
=*-*=*-*=*-*=*< http://www.1x.com/promote >*=*-*=*-*=*-*=

First, note that you alway should include the full URL, starting with the http://, in all your online messages. Many e-mail clients and browsers will create clickable a hot link when they see the full URL, but won't if they just see a partial address. Also, use the designation mailto: before your e-mail address, that also will allow those programs to automatically create a hot link. These simple measures will make it a lot easier for folks to get in touch with you.

Nancy Roebke has written a good article about using Sig files as a networking tool at http://www.point2profits.com/sigs2.html For a look at thousands of sig files collected at one site check out Esther's Signature File Collection. Some of the tag lines had me laughing hysterically. Definitely worth a look.

Another way to provide simple, embedded marketing information is to put your web sites full URL in the ORGANIZATION field of Netscape Navigator in the MAIL and NEWS PREFERENCES of the OPTIONS menu.

Finding the Groups and Lists Where Your Customers Are

Finding the right group to post in is best done using a great site called DejaNews. (http://www.dejanews.com/) Deja News is the largest text database on the Internet, constantly archiving all messages posted on more than 20,000 newsgroups. Just put in key words, and in seconds you can search more than 130 gigabytes of information in over 86 million articles. Any messages that have words or phrases that match your search will pop up. You can do a search on topics, and see which newsgroups discuss your kind of work, or to find which message threads you may be able to share your ideas in.

There are several sources of mailing list information, a good place to start is Liszt's directory of 71,618 mailing lists at http://www.liszt.com/ . You can also check out the Reference.com site at http://www.reference.com/. They have access to both newsgroups and mailing lists from the same search engine. Moderated mailing lists have an advantage over un-moderated newsgroups in that they are free of spam, and usually are followed by people with a real interest in the topics.

Get into the habit of going to DejaNews a few times a week. See if you can find people who are writing about things that to you indicate an interest in the kind of art or craft work that you produce. When you find keywords that bring up interesting messages, save those keywords in a notepad file for future searches.

Remember not to post off topic messages, and to be a source of information that is relevant to the purpose of the list. Your messages should show your expertise in your field, and your sig file will direct people interested in what you do to your site.

This page last updated: 09/02/04

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