Stealth Marketing in Usenet news groups

OK, if you are familiar with Usenet, you know that you can't blanket newsgroups with advertisements without getting in a lot of trouble.

• Post thousands of advertisements.
• Put those ads in front of the people most likely to buy.
• Expose your ads to buyers at the exact moment when they are ready to buy.
• Establish a reputation as an expert.
• Stay out of trouble.
• Make friends.

Here is how you do it:

When I first started reading Usenet news, I noticed an extremely helpful man in one of the computer newsgroups. He answered many questions, and about 10% of the time his solution involved a computer item that he just happened to sell. So naturally, he would mention his price on the item and his telephone number.

Three years later, he is still successfully selling products in that newsgroup. But suppose you don't sell computer equipment. Suppose you are a bookkeeper. Find a newsgroup full of bookkeeping questions that you can answer. Answer 10 of those questions each day. Put a link to your webpage in your sig file, so it appears at the bottom of every answer. Make sure your sig is less than 5 lines of fewer than 72 characters, and keep the hype to a minimum. If the answer to the question involves something that you sell, give whatever general advice you can, then tell the original poster that you will be happy to help them (for $) if they email or call you. Remember, keep the hype to a minimum. You are a "trusted friend", not a barracuda. Your goal is to answer 95% of the questions without trying to sell anything, then have the remaining 5% of posters beg you to sell them the solution to their problem.

• It proves that you are a helpful and informed expert on the subject, and hence can be trusted.
• It puts your website in front of the people who are most likely to need your services, at exactly the moment when they most need them.

For maximum profits:

• Read the Usenet information that I listed on my "Marketing on the Internet without Spamming" page.
• Choose a newsgroup where you can accurately answer many questions that are related to your product.
• Read the posts in your target newsgroup(s) for a couple of weeks before you post anything.
• If you find a FAQ for the group, read it. Otherwise, your first post should be "Where is the FAQ for this newsgroup?".
• Read the FAQ before you attempt to answer any questions or sell anything.