TIPS and TRICKS
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/
Helpful tools for webmasters and advice on website promotion. Improve your site
and increase your traffic!
---
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.
