|
Do Microsoft MVP's Get a Free Marketing Boost By Promoting Their Web Sites In Newsgroup Postings?
By D. C. Conlin
People often argue whether Microsoft MVP's and other experts on Microsoft's products should be permitted to freely advertise their own Web sites when posting messages on Usenet. We tested whether or not this "free advertising" is a useful marketing tool. The results may surprise you.
(Thousand Oaks, CA -- Oct. 15, 2004) -- If you've ever spent much time digging through archived newsgroup postings for an elusive answer to a nagging computer problem, you've probably encountered the angry messages decrying the blatant self-promotion of some of the newsgroup brethren who advertise their own Web sites in their signature blocks whenever they post a message in Usenet. One side accuses these experts of abusing the public medium for "free advertising" from the newsgroups which, they argue, shouldn't be permitted. The "accused" experts, often Microsoft MVP's (Most Valued Professional), counterargue that such promotion has a negligible marketing value at best.
So who's right?
The consultants at Q-Built Solutions had a unique opportunity to test the marketing effects of providing a Web site URL in the signature block or link within the message text of more than 750 Usenet postings over a period of a few months. Our conclusion? Any Microsoft MVP or other consulting expert who relies on Usenet postings as the sole marketing tool for his business will starve to death long before realizing any revenues from this "free advertising" effort.
The Test Case Scenario
While our consultants at Q-Built Solutions have been working in the computer and engineering fields for years, our company had never had a "Web presence," even during the heyday of the Dot-Com Era. Looking to expand beyond our nearby communities, we decided that a Web site would be an appropriate tool to reach out to potential customers seeking our services. Of course, the Web site would need a marketing effort so that potential customers could find us. Online search engines would probably not bring enough "interested eyeballs," so we needed some marketing research to determine what other methods might put our new Web site on the map.
The marketing potential that "answers from the database experts" might bring for our company appealed to us, since people needing solutions to database problems were certainly "interested eyeballs" for the services and expertise we give to our current clients. And surely, the Microsoft MVP's and other experts wouldn't put so much effort into answering questions on Usenet for free if there wasn't at least some marketing value for their businesses. We decided that we could measure the effects of this singular type of marketing effort for the following reasons:
1. Our Web site had already been "found" by most of the online search engines, so we had a measurable baseline to compare with both during and after the test, which included the number of daily visitors, the URL's that referred the visitors to our Web site, our search engine rankings for certain key words and phrases, the number of E-mail or phone contacts we had from Web site visitors, et cetera.
2. We had a relatively new Web site, so no other marketing efforts or affiliate links (we had none of either) would interfere with our Web site visit statistics during the marketing test.
3. We certainly have experience in this "answers from the database experts" arena, since our experts had been providing this same service to employees of The Boeing Company for years. While our folks are recognized experts in the corporate environment of one of the top 15 companies (in revenues) from the Forbes' Fortune 500, we aren't known in the public newsgroups, so any marketing advantage (or online search engine "mining" advantage) to having a recognizable name or "MVP" title can be completely ignored for this marketing test. And since The Boeing Company can afford to find and hire the best talent in any field, we are confident that we can "hold our own" and give similar expert answers to the ones given by the Microsoft MVP's and other experts, which would draw a similar audience to our own Web site from the newsgroup audience.
We then decided to use the following test boundaries:
1. To draw appropriate Web site visitor audiences, we provided similar Web site content to the content provided by Microsoft Access MVP's and other Access experts on their Web sites, and in similar categories, but with numerous unique tips and a few technical articles that can't be found elsewhere on the Internet. (Note: We later found a few of our tips that were also on other Microsoft Access Web sites, but we left ours "as is," since our visitors expect to see materials added to our Web site, not removed from it.)
2. Since our expertise is in computers, databases, engineering, flying, and national defense, not in marketing or in Web sites, we imposed a few limits to ensure that we made at least "reasonable" efforts to succeed, but wouldn't go overboard on the amount of time or money invested in this marketing test. We allocated 1,500 man-hours to find a Web host, learn how to create a Web site, create adequate content for the Web site, monitor the statistics for the Web site, provide written answers in the database newsgroups for 60 days (extending up to 90 days if the marketing effort looked promising), and provide follow-up E-mail messages or phone calls, as necessary. This is probably equivalent to six months to two years of effort made by a Microsoft MVP or other expert with an online presence and who posts messages in the newsgroups. (We selected www.1and1.com for our Web host, who provided all of the tools necessary, domain name, and Web space for our Web site at a very reasonable cost. We highly recommend them for any do-it-yourselfer who has the time and doesn't mind reading easy instructions, because it has been a valuable learning experience for us.)
3. Each of the more than 750 newsgroup postings included our Web site URL in the signature block. We posted an average of more than a dozen messages in at least three different newsgroups per day. All of our postings were replies to questions posted in Microsoft's database newsgroups. If the question could be answered with a tip or technical article on our Web site, we also included the link to that Web page within the message text. If the question was totally irrelevant to databases, we redirected the poster of the question to a more appropriate newsgroup, but still answered the question if possible. We answered questions correctly and politely, but didn't "push" our services or Web site by insisting that the readers come to our Web site or E-mail us directly and pay for our services to get the solutions they needed. The Microsoft MVP's and most other experts who post messages on Usenet take this same approach. The philosophy of those posting questions in the newsgroups seems to be, "Why buy the cow when I can get the milk for free?" so pushing our services would more likely push potential clients to other experts who gave correct answers without any strings attached.
4. We selected the months of August, September, and October for our marketing test, since this is after tax season but before the holiday season, when business people have too many other distractions to keep them busy. This period falls into some of the vacation season, but that could be a benefit in some cases, because this available free time allows computer time to check the newsgroups while online. This period is also when we knew we had enough time slots available to fill the full 60 days of effort and still have enough buffer room if we wanted to extend our marketing effort to 90 days, without running into the holiday season.
The Results
The results are truly dismal. After 3/4 of a man-year of effort and more than 750 messages posted in the database newsgroups nearly every day over a period of two months, we earned zero revenues outside of projects we were already working on for current clients. We received no requests for proposals on new projects. We received exactly two E-mail contacts from the Web site from people originating from the newsgroups regarding Microsoft databases: one thanking us and offering information to help us improve our Web site for other visitors, and another one requesting information on how to purchase a software tool from us that our Web site FAQ clearly states that no one will ever build because the return on investment is not enough to warrant development costs (R&D cost: $4.5 million to $10+ million, depending upon which company develops it. Current and future worldwide commercial opportunity: between $5,000 and $15,000. And we're pretty sure that the inquisitor was expecting to purchase the software tool from us for way under $100. Way under.)
All other E-mail contacts from people originating from the newsgroups were requests for free consulting services to fix their dysfunctional Windows operating systems or E-mail problems. We've never offered free consulting services for Windows, E-mail, or any other non-database computer application, nor do we even admit that we provide any expertise for E-mail applications to our paying clients. Some of these requests from the newsgroup audience demanded that we provide free consulting services to them, because:
- "It's the Internet. It should be free." (Where do we sign up to receive that free service?)
- "I purchased Outlook, and your company ought to provide free tech support for it." (Do we get Microsoft stock options with that?)
- When we're retired some day, his [Australian] tax dollars will be supporting us, so we'll be sorry we didn't fix his Windows operating system when we had the chance. (I have to admit we had a good laugh at this one. The consultants at Q-Built Solutions are all Americans and Social Security will be ancient history in 38 to 45+ years, which is probably after this Australian computer user expects to retire.)
Nonetheless, we were polite to these people, too. Perhaps we should have offered them an annual computer support contract, payable in advance. (Nah. They would have expected us to fix their plumbing problems, too ... in the dead of night ... surrounded by a pack of dingoes ... who don't like Americans, either.)
 Web Site Statistics
While the newsgroup postings with our Web site URL did not produce any revenues or even prospects for future revenues, they gave us additional visibility. They helped increase our average Web site traffic by 26.4 Web page visitors daily over the two month period.
Search Engine Statistics
The search engine rankings improved after the newsgroup postings started, but not significantly, with only two exceptions. For more generic key word phrases, such as "Microsoft Access database recovery" and "Microsoft Access database design," our Web site never showed up in the first 500 rankings on any of the major search engines either during or after the test. We were much luckier with the highly targeted phrases, especially the phrases about database services that no other company offers commercially.
By the time the marketing test ended, a few of the search engines ranked us a little higher for one key word phrase (Yahoo.com moved us up from 15 to 12, Google.com moved us up from 37 to 33, and AskJeeves.com placed us at #8 when we made their list during the first month of the test), and a few ranked us lower for another key word phrase (Google.com moved us down from 131 to 158). A few search engines removed our Web site URL completely from the list of hundreds of URL's for one key word phrase. We don't know why.
One notable improvement was a ranking of 51 out of 118 entries for a key word phrase for AllTheWeb.com at the beginning of the test, which became a ranking of #1 by the time the marketing test ended. Even though the majority of people are more likely to use the Google search engine for their Internet searches, far more visitors are brought to our Web site from the AllTheWeb.com search engine than from Google.com for this key word phrase, so we have a potentially valuable consolation prize and are very happy with AllTheWeb.com's ranking.
Another substantial change was the improved ranking of 9 from the earlier 16 that Yahoo.com had given us for the same key word phrase that Google.com had moved us down to 158 by the end of the test.
Weekly Contacts Statistics
The number of weekly contacts from Web site visitors actually decreased during the marketing test period. Web site visitors brought to us via the search engines who contacted us always requested information on the database services we advertise that we offer. There were fewer contacts, but this audience did not change. These were the "interested eyeballs" we were seeking.
With only one exception (the visitor who offered information to help our other Web site visitors), all other visitors who contacted us either requested services and products that we don't offer to our clients (and obviously don't advertise on our Web site), or demanded that we give them free computer consulting services we don't even offer to our paying clients. This audience came from our "free advertising" efforts in the newsgroups.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is: let the hardworking Microsoft MVP's and other experts advertise their Web sites in their Usenet messages and thank them profusely for their extensive, unpaid, voluntary efforts. There may be less effective methods available for marketing their consultancies online, but we would never recommend those methods, either.
To those who may argue that our market test did not last long enough to produce even negligible revenues from the marketing efforts, we invite those folks to spend even more time and effort than we have, and we wish them luck.
You can read about your favorite expert contributors.
Copyright © 2004 - 2006 Q-Built Solutions. All rights reserved.
 Top
|
