Dear Wobbleme,
The Cyberworld is like a jungle - a huge one. There are rules, but one
doesn't see them in first sight. In order for one animal to find its
troop or herd, it must make unique and loud noises, that would catch
the other's attention. Like in the jungle, it is not erally easy with
billions of web pages, IRC channels and newsgroups, all shouting
together.
The implies, that you have to work hard and continuousely, you have to
know how to target your specific audience (and not waste your
resources) and you have to do this in several layers or fronts.
First of all, I must say, as a fellow IRC chatter, that it is very
wise of you *not* to spam other channels:
- It creates antagonism against you
- The best channels are those with lots of people/chats, right? But in
those, your message is pushed upwards and dissapears quicker than you
can say "flood".
What you should do in IRC is to talk with the administrators or
moderators of the channels you're interested in, and ask their
permission, to announce the new list - promising you won't play dirty.
This creates trust, they might remember you if they can help, and of
course, things are completely different when they are done with
consent. For one thing, you won't be banned.
Spreading the word should be done also through every single person you
know. Each and everyone of them should be an advertiser for you,
especially those who share the same interests: computer freaks, phone
phreaks, hackers, etc. Your emails should always refer (in signatuer)
to the channel; your phone-buddies should know about the new channel;
people you knew through chats should know. All of them should be made
aware how important it is to you that the word spreads. If you have
the time, read "Let Your Fingers Do the Talking"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0935047298/ltc-political), a
book about conducting "word of mouse" advertising.
Furthermore, you should remember that the cyberworld does not rely on
chat alone. If you don't have a web-site for the channel, with # and
the "rules", which also explains to IRC illiterate how to register,
etc. - make one today. As you probably know, many sites such as
www.geocities.com offer free web hosting in return for ad revenue.
Your site should be loaded with good META Tags that will attract the
expected audience (find tutorials here -
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Data_Formats/Markup_Languages/HTML/Tutorials/Meta_Tags/?tc=1
).
The site should be submitted to every possible search engine (see
www.selfpromotion.com/ ). This is important, because, as mentioned
before, the IRC is very limited in it's long-time preservation of your
promotional campaign. On the web, a person who became interested in
the issue in a month from now, would know about your channel by
searching.
your site should not only be submitted to web engines, but also to
dirctory, such as DEMOZ.org . There are plenty of possible categories
on which you can appear:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Hacking/Phreaking/?tc=1/
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Hacking/
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Linux/?tc=1/
Another resource in which your announcement would be found long time
after you left it, is of course the Usenet newsgroups. Advertise your
new channel on lists such as:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.phreaking
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.hacking
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=comp.os.linux
groups and many others.
An example of how to do it, can be seen here -
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=34EF44DB.7886%40flash.net&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3D%2522new%2Birc%2Bchannel%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26selm%3D34EF44DB.7886%2540flash.net%26rnum%3D1
The press is another resource to advertise yourself. Not the
mainstream one, but the alternative (in your particular case). Press
releases (see tutorial here - www.xpresspress.com/PRnotes.html ) is
another way to get noticed. In your case, check these media sources -
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Publications/Magazines_and_E-zines/Magazines/?tc=1
and http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Hacking/Publications/
In order to attract people, especially if you really plan to release
the opening of the channel to the press, you can do something really
grandiouse. For example, you can invite ahead a famous/notorious
hacker to chat with the guests (make sure that in any case there would
be enough people, your friends etc.) - Kevin Mitnick is one example,
but you can also invite someone like Steven Levy, who published a book
called "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0141000511/ltc-political). He
gets to promote his book, you get to promote your channel - everybody
wins.
Promoting a site or a channel is pretty hard work, and continuous too.
If you sto, you are forgotten, like the rabbit in "Alice in
Wonderland" - if you don't run forward, you'll walk backwards. I hope
I helped you finding ways to promote your channel, but please contact
me if you feel you need any clrifications. |
