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Where and how to advertise your kickstarter?

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Evil ColSanders
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It took over a half a year for my artist to finish all the artwork for my game and now I'm ready to put that kickstarter up. I figure if I advertise now, I could have the KS running sometime in March.

The problem is, I have no idea where and how to advertise. Make 10 copies and send them to board game youtubers was an idea. I feel I'll need to throw money at them for a paid sponsorship with a time-released upload. Advertising on BGG? I don't know how far that'll get me with all the adblocking. I tried it a few years ago with my other game. Never got a hit. Someone suggested in the backlogs, to do instagram and twitter. I don't use those at all, but if you can show me it works for indie people, I may force myself to use those near-useless, superficial apps.

I know advertising beforehand is the key to success, so I don't want my game I've worked on for 2 years, go down the toilet.

funamite
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I'm tryng instagram myself.

I'm tryng instagram myself. Currently I'm just following relevant people and hoping they'll follow back. I have 140 followers right now after a few days. Bad thing about instagram is you can't insert links with your posts, only in your profile, so you'll have to say "Visit the link in my profile".

ElKobold
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Is there a BGG page for your

Is there a BGG page for your game?

The Professor
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Some ideas...

As ElKobold asked...do you have a BGG page?

I would offer the following:

- Do you have a Twitter account?
- Do you have a FaceBook page?
- Are you active on BGG (as there's nothing worse than the dreaded banner "New User" under your name)?

As to advertising, yes, it may cost you a few bucks to get the game into the hands of some legitimate reviewers, but by no means, get sucked into the con artistry that is social media advertising. You are the very best advocate for your game...but it will take time and energy.

As to the game...

- How many times has it been play-tested? If so, how many times?
- Has it been blind-playtested? If so, how many times?
- Do you have a readily available copy (.pdf) of the rules for download?
- Have the rules been edited well?

I wish you much success and definitely turn to those interested individuals here to assist, where possible as there are a few who are willing to guide you in your endeavor.

Cheers,
Joe

questccg
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Don't "go-it alone"...

Nowadays with Kickstarter, there are more and more people to whom you can "shop" your game to. What do I mean? Well instead of owning 100% of nothing, you can partner with people and make deals with some of the newer Publishers that have (or had) sold games in your genre.

It helps for a game to have a "fan-base"... How do you get one? With the right Publisher, they can market your game to people who like your genre of game... Especially if they have produced a 4X and you say a "Deck-Builder" but both with a Sci-Fi/Space theme...

I know of other people who are new to the Publishing business - but they too look for games that they might be able to market to their backers. Sometimes they want to produce their own games, but other times they might be willing to make a good deal and partner with a designer.

Best thing to do is SEARCH past Kickstarters and see what names pop-up several times. Aside from Mantic who have been producing all kinds of KS for miniatures, there are a few companies like Minion Games, Tasty Minstrel Games, that all operate in the KS domain. There are others like Jason Glover from Grey Gnome Games ... who kinda trolls TGC and looks for gems to publish.

But instead of trying to create your own community... Plug-in to an existing one interested by your type of game!

That's my advice... don't go it alone. Unless you are willing to start very small (max 200 backers) and escalate with time with more game titles. This is possible if you also want to become a Publisher (over time).

Personally I'd rather focus on design and thinking up new concepts that work with my game... And have somebody handle the dealings with Manufacturers, support the Q&A with Backers, get better deals as they produce more games, build a better community, etc.

I have no problem with my Publisher making good on my game. I want them to succeed - because it means that my odds of success are better.

Cheers and good luck with your game.

funamite
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Good advice Quest, but what

Good advice Quest, but what would a new publisher have to offer a kickstartered publisher in order to tap into their fanbase?

questccg
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Some more thoughts...

funamite wrote:
Good advice Quest, but what would a new publisher have to offer a kickstartered publisher in order to tap into their fanbase?

Hmmm... Are you saying "what would a new 'designer' have to offer..."?

Well maybe your game fits into what they are trying to offer as a Publisher. You know some Publishers stick to one kind of theme/genre and look to offer more game titles in that them/genre.

If you do a quick look at BGG you'll find that there are over 16,000+ Publishers... And you ask yourself: "How can that be?" Odds are most are vanity Publishers. We've been discussing this - because it is an important topic. If people say the "Board Game Industry" is small - I'm not so sure with THAT MANY Publishers... With 85,000+ games in the BGG database, that would mean an average of 5 game per Publisher.

So my guess many are Vanity Publishers with at most one (1) or two (2) games.

Like I said SMALLER Publisher are looking for more FINISHED products. Sure they'll make changes to refine the game to look different and in many cases more professional - maybe even closer to their "brand"... Like I know Jason Glover from Grey Gnome Games is particular about the SIZE and FORMAT of his boxes. So nowadays even if you INVEST in artwork, it's probably not a loss... Because some of the smaller Publishers are looking for a more final product. Heck maybe even a more known Publisher might pick it up - because they too like the way the product looks!

The thing is a Publisher wants to PUBLISH more games. If they need to design every game they publish - it's going to be a harder road than choosing "gems" they find and refine them to perfection... Even with a routine of one (1) KS yearly - because it takes about that much time for a KS from beginning to end... That means one (1) game a year. Ten (10) years, ten (10) games ... or less with more SUCCESSFUL BRANDS.

That's another question: "Can your game become a popular BRAND?" Obviously this implies designing for expandability... Can your game go beyond 1 or 2 expansions??? Is your product geared for becoming a brand?

So what new 'designers' have to offer - depends on who LIKES your game. As @Jay says: "Even a positive review from Zee Garcia" doesn't mean your game will SELL.

Note: Not all designers aspire to become Publishers.

Evil ColSanders
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Tough call

Quest: I wouldn't mind if I had someone with publishing skills pick me up, but the problem is finding some, shopping it, waiting to get back to you, negotiate, agree to something that (of course) doesn't favor you in the least, or start again with the search. Kickstarting it yourself has the benefit of just getting it out there, but you're also doing all the heavy lifting of marketing and logistics. I honestly wouldn't mind only 200 backers if it meant it gets backed and played. I'd honestly love to shop my extra games at conventions and FLGS.

Professor: As of now, I just have a facebook page for the game. I don't have a BGG page for it because I had no box art for it up until just 3 days ago. (Those 3 days were spent fixing the image content myself). I wasn't going to put up a page of vaporware with no images nor a page with the placeholder images I was using. It's been play-tested and blind about 50 times +/-. No rule online, and it's edited well. I may as well upload it here just to have someone look at it again.

ElKobold
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You should really start with

You should really start with a BGG page. Then post the rules for download. Then send some prototypes for review.

This will probably take you at least a couple of months.

Oh, and visit conventions if you can.

questccg
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I know finding the right Publisher is HARD.

Evil ColSanders wrote:
...Kickstarting it yourself has the benefit of just getting it out there, but you're also doing all the heavy lifting of marketing and logistics. I honestly wouldn't mind only 200 backers if it meant it gets backed and played. I'd honestly love to shop my extra games at conventions and FLGS.

The problem with "just getting it out there" can set you up for failure... If it's your first KS, the numbers aren't in your favor. If you can be happy with only 200 backers (and be successful - pay for making the game), well then you get a base of backers. If they LIKE the game, you might have a chance at selling them another game.

Then maybe you can get to 500 backers. It's a slow and steady progression, if you want to go it alone. If you do some KS research you'll see this kind of progression... Next a third game might get you 1,000+ backers if you've managed to keep everyone interested along the way.

These are more optimistic figures, could be 200, 500, 800... etc.

A while back there was another designer - who got a bad Video Review from Toucan Play This Game. We told him to wait a few months and get other reviews... He couldn't wait - he went ahead a KS-ed his game... And it did not succeed. He got only 80 backers.

So you don't want to go down "THAT road". You'd best be prepared, maybe have someone you can partner with and then you both succeed given the time and effort.

Last note: designing your game can take months and even years. Why do you assume the process for finding a Publisher takes less time?

And BTW "Tradewars - Homeworld" was shopped to several Publishers and one even took an entire YEAR before they said "No". So I've been trying to find a Publisher for more than a year (almost 2 years!). I shopped it to less known and more known Publishers... Sometimes I wouldn't even get a response after an initial e-mail reply.

I know it's not easy. But I didn't give up, I kept trying and now have found a wonderful Publisher that matches my game and they are good people (open to discuss changes, willing to refine the game, willing to refine the graphic design, invest in more artwork, etc.)

For heaven's sake I even tried a Publisher in Montreal. They never responded to my second/third e-mail to know what was happening - would they be interested in my game. So you go through a lot of rejection, and what you can hope for is a QUICK "response" (No or Yes). If it's Yes, well then you can start the process of figuring out what both parties want out of the deal...

But don't be discouraged. Think of each submission like a "mini KS": you prepare sample graphics, your pitch, your hook, and maybe some things that make your game different from other in your specific genre.

Evil ColSanders
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questccg wrote: The problem

questccg wrote:

The problem with "just getting it out there" can set you up for failure... If it's your first KS, the numbers aren't in your favor. If you can be happy with only 200 backers (and be successful - pay for making the game), well then you get a base of backers. If they LIKE the game, you might have a chance at selling them another game.

But don't be discouraged. Think of each submission like a "mini KS": you prepare sample graphics, your pitch, your hook, and maybe some things that make your game different from other in your specific genre.

This is actually my 2nd kickstarter. I cancelled my other just due to the shear lack of interest. This is where I learned it's 80% advertising, 20% luck. If people don't know you have a product, people will never buy it. If got all the graphics I intend to use, my pitch and all that. I'm putting so much effort. I only hope I can put just as much of my own funds as I do effort w/o going broke.

ElKobold wrote:
You should really start with a BGG page. Then post the rules for download. Then send some prototypes for review.

This will probably take you at least a couple of months.

Oh, and visit conventions if you can.

Aside from the expensive prospect of sending out prototypes, I'm already way ahead of you. I don't mean this rudely: I needed advertising for kickstarter, not the fundamentals of starting out. As I mentioned in the OP, I figure I will have to send copies for paid sponsorship of my game which would be released on youtube near the start of the kickstarter. As I also said before, I didn't have finished art until 4 days ago. I sent in a registration last night.

questccg
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SHOP around

Evil ColSanders wrote:
This is actually my 2nd kickstarter. I cancelled my other just due to the shear lack of interest. This is where I learned it's 80% advertising, 20% luck.

Yeah but having an EXISTING community of gamers interested in your genre of game... means you improve your odds of success, don't you agree?

What I'm saying is maybe instead of running into a KS, you should take the time to put together a better sell sheet, pitch and hook and try to get out there and SHOP your game around. All you need to do is work on a PDF (your sell sheet), have some graphics in it... to show off your product. And then focus on the pitch and hook.

And just pick a few Publishers "out-there": http://www.jamesmathe.com/courting-a-game-publisher-dos-and-donts/

Go to just before the comments section and you will see 52 publishers. Pick a few, tailor you introductory e-mail, send the sell sheet... And see if anyone is interested.

If NOBODY replies, then you've got a serious issue with your game.

Note: BTW if it's the sample with the Knight Girl (with the shield), I still think your layout is not good enough... That illustration should be bigger... But that's my feeling. To me it seems like the illustration is secondary, and if it is well you might as well remove it if it's not being featured properly on the card.

I hope you do have some kind of success... I hope people succeed in life not fail. So best of luck(?) to you...

Update: We may have setbacks here and there... but in the end I sincerely hope we do attain some level of success!

funamite
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When are you launching your

When are you launching your Kickstarter? I'm launching next week and trying a couple of marketing services. If you can wait, I'll tell you about my experience with them

Evil ColSanders
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Definitely, des. I would like

Definitely, des. I would like to hear how it goes with you.

questccg wrote:
Yeah but having an EXISTING community of gamers interested in your genre of game... means you improve your odds of success, don't you agree?

True. But the lack interest was due to no one knowing about the game. I'm also worried if it's shopped off, the theme changes, mechanics change, art changes, name changes. Is it still your boat even if all the pieces have been replaced with the same parts? Did I achieve success? If my goal is to publish my game, yes. I didn't do it myself or on my terms though, and for that, I'm unhappy. I would be akin to having someone ghost write a book and then saying YOU wrote it. Sorry, I get off topic.

Yes, I understand that if I get a big label, I have the pedigree of the label and their immediate fanbase to push my product to almost-guaranteed success.

questccg wrote:
What I'm saying is maybe instead of running into a KS, you should take the time to put together a better sell sheet, pitch and hook and try to get out there and SHOP your game around. All you need to do is work on a PDF (your sell sheet), have some graphics in it... to show off your product. And then focus on the pitch and hook.

And just pick a few Publishers "out-there": http://www.jamesmathe.com/courting-a-game-publisher-dos-and-donts/

Go to just before the comments section and you will see 52 publishers. Pick a few, tailor you introductory e-mail, send the sell sheet... And see if anyone is interested.

If NOBODY replies, then you've got a serious issue with your game.

Or it's a poor pitch and/or sell sheet. I'll probably make a sell sheet and have it set aside if I go the publisher route. The only ones I could see who would be interested with the criteria they have (from the linked list) are Z-man and TMG. I'm wondering, are you advising to shop to a publisher rather than self-publish?

questccg wrote:
Note: BTW if it's the sample with the Knight Girl (with the shield), I still think your layout is not good enough... That illustration should be bigger... But that's my feeling. To me it seems like the illustration is secondary, and if it is well you might as well remove it if it's not being featured properly on the card.

I hope you do have some kind of success... I hope people succeed in life not fail. So best of luck(?) to you...

Update: We may have setbacks here and there... but in the end I sincerely hope we do attain some level of success!

My initial feeling on that was. "Layout not good enough? pic secondary so just remove it?" *push PC off desk and flip desk* "Time to just give up or spend another 2 years developing something that will just get changed" Felt like I just gave my all at lunch rush and the boss comes up and says I'm cutting your hours since you aren't working hard enough.

The illustration IS second. I don't know WHAT game has images is a primary focus which doesn't serve as just eye candy. Dixit and Mysterium are a few but have no text. This game is very text heavy. It was the BIGGEST gripe playtesters had. The heaviness was removed by adding the icons and numbers which caused the illustration to get pushed over. If I "just remove the images all together" you may as well slap any stupid theme on it or just remove the theme all together and have an abstract game. You helped on creating what this card currently is, and I thank you for that. The only option to make the image bigger would be to place the icons under the image. It looks grotesque but makes the image bigger. I don't know if that is a fair trade-off to what it is now. But NOW you have it implanted in me that is is not good enough, so now I'm going to spend the next week making new mock-ups and asking everyone "which is better" rather than making the new cards with the new format.

Yeah. I hope we all achieve some success. I'm tired of spinning my wheels and getting nowhere.

ElKobold
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Evil ColSanders wrote:Aside

Evil ColSanders wrote:

Aside from the expensive prospect of sending out prototypes, I'm already way ahead of you. I don't mean this rudely: I needed advertising for kickstarter, not the fundamentals of starting out.

Well, if your game is not on BGG, it basically does not exist.

Evil ColSanders wrote:

As I mentioned in the OP, I figure I will have to send copies for paid sponsorship of my game which would be released on youtube near the start of the kickstarter. As I also said before, I didn't have finished art until 4 days ago. I sent in a registration last night.

Not all reviewers are paid. However, most reviewers will take 2-3 months to make a video since they are likely to have a queue hence was the advise to think about it beforehand.

From my experience, there's no magic bullet for marketing.

We did a combination of paid adds on bgg/kicktraq etc, review videos, posting on the related forums, and going to Essen to demo the game.

Still, for us it seemed that the most efficient marketing tool was the Kickstarter itself. So having a proper campaign page is paramount.

I've seen some other campaigns do their pre-launch marketing well. It usually involved having an extremely good quality presentation video and artwork which they posted basically everywhere.

While facebook page itself and facebook adds are rather pointless, there are facebook boardgaming groups with large following where you can post about your upcoming game.

However, unless you have a really good quality art and video it is unlikely to be efficient.

larienna
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I have the opposite question

I have the opposite question which is:

I have websites and I would like to put Kickstarter board game advertisement on my web sites. Is there a service system like Google AdSense that I could subscribe to. Do I need a certain minimum of visits per day to be worthy of showing ads.

It's very hard to search on the net, because I always stumble on how to advertise your own product rather than how to advertise the products of others.

Same thing for google apps, I want to advertise apps on one of my web site, AdSense does not seems to advertise apps, so I am wondering how it could be done.

If I could centralise everything into 1 system like AdSense that would be much easier to handle.

BenMora
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Evil ColSanders

Evil ColSanders wrote:
Advertising on BGG? I don't know how far that'll get me with all the adblocking. I tried it a few years ago with my other game. Never got a hit.

What do you mean you never got a hit? As in, you didn't even get a single click on your ads? I find that impossible to believe being that you have to buy a minimum of 500000 impressions last I checked. Is that what you mean?

questccg
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But will it SELL?!

Evil ColSanders wrote:
...I'm also worried if it's shopped off, the theme changes, mechanics change, art changes, name changes. Is it still your boat even if all the pieces have been replaced with the same parts? Did I achieve success? If my goal is to publish my game, yes. I didn't do it myself or on my terms though, and for that, I'm unhappy. I would be akin to having someone ghost write a book and then saying YOU wrote it. Sorry, I get off topic.

See my point of view is: "I don't care what they change." It's not that I don't really "care"... It's more that I am flexible for things to be different. We've redone the Score Pad, the Box Cover, the Logo, the Card Template... All these changes make the game appear different than the original game. And I'm OKAY with that.

My goal is to SELL. Whatever the Publisher feels we need to re-work, I'm down for that. If it makes the game look more professional, so be it!

And it's not like I don't have a say in it. We exchange ideas, samples, and proofs and take our time in refining the parts to the game. How much is different? Well pretty much ALL "the cards" are different. And it's a card game (not the artwork - just layouts and templates).

The goal also is to distinguish it from "The Game Crafter" (TGC) version.

We also changed the game's box format from 1 Player Game Sets to a 4 Player BIG BOX Game Set (which could ultimately have over 500+ cards).

That change also helped us modify the game's roles. How many? Five (5) out of Ten (10) roles... so HALF the original game's roles are now different. Again changes that we noticed that sticked out. And with the 4 Player BIG BOX Game Set, it has allowed us to add Four (4) Factions and have asymmetric skills unique to each Faction...

So yeah, we've been changing A LOT. But at the same time the game has the same artwork/illustrations, the "core" game is pretty much identical, and all the rest of the aesthetics are different.

Am I SAD my game has changed? NO. It's a BETTER game with BETTER presentation (eye-candy). The game replayability went from 3 Playthrus to over 75 Playthrus. What does this mean? It means that the original 1 Player Box Set, if you played the three (3) scenarios, that was pretty much all the game had to offer. With this new 4 Player BIG BOX Game Set, with the scenarios, several expansions, we are aiming to offer over 75+ times you would need to play the game to experience all the nuances!

You have to accept that a Publisher will CHANGE some things. And hopefully you are included in the process...

I know it's your baby... But in my opinion, I want my baby to grow and if that means making changes to make it more marketable or more attractive a purchase... I'm all for it!

Perhaps my way of thinking is different than yours...

larienna
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When I was programming with

When I was programming with allegro, the forum I used had a banner ad system for their users which was free. Users added their banner to the system and put the code on their web sites so that they would advertise other people's game while the others advertise their own games.

It would be cool to have such system here on bgdf or board gamegeek.

questccg
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Just post a KS thread in the publishing forum

larienna wrote:
...It would be cool to have such system here on bgdf...

I think the world has enough "banners" we don't need more to annoy us on BGDF... Wonder why people PAY BGG to disable banners? If they have that how effective do you really think BGG banners are?? And do you think they really care???

If you support their annual Pledge Drive, for $15 USD you get a supported badge and this year... over 900+ GeekGold. That's insane.

With $15 USD and all that extra, I bet you MANY people will be disabling the ads they show in their banners.

And NO we are NOT going to chastise REGULARS from posting a preview or marketing their future Kickstarter... We only dislike it when people come to this site TO ONLY do that!

So IF there is a KS preview - post it in the Publishing forum! We'll all take a look at let the designer know how we feel...

Evil ColSanders
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BenMora wrote:Evil ColSanders

BenMora wrote:
Evil ColSanders wrote:
Advertising on BGG? I don't know how far that'll get me with all the adblocking. I tried it a few years ago with my other game. Never got a hit.

What do you mean you never got a hit? As in, you didn't even get a single click on your ads? I find that impossible to believe being that you have to buy a minimum of 500000 impressions last I checked. Is that what you mean?

I was able to get $200 worth of impressions. I believe that's 20000 Nothing came of it. I don't think the extra $300 would have done a damn thing.

questccg
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KIG had a 5% for 5,000 Gamers/Backers

Evil ColSanders wrote:
I was able to get $200 worth of impressions. I believe that's 20000 Nothing came of it. I don't think the extra $300 would have done a damn thing.

That's because it's a lousy marketing tool. On BGG I don't mind the banners (most of the time). Sometimes I click on a "banner" to see what the game is all about (if it's a KS).

Here was a GREAT "service" (which is no longer available). Minion Games (aka Jame Mathe) had a service for KS called "KIG" (Kickin It Games). For 5% of the KS campaign after KS fees, he would communicate with 5,000 Gamers/Backers on your behalf.

NOW THAT WAS A WORTHWHILE SERVICE!!! 5,000 Gamers/Backers who BUY and ENJOY playing Board Games, think that would not be AMAZING?!?!

But I spoke to James and he said they no longer offer the service. His reasons were that it's becoming harder to SELL games on Kickstarter. Said nowadays it takes "Guerrilla Marketing" to get "your" (A Publisher) games sold on KS.

It's really UNFORTUNATE... Because I would be willing to give 10% for 5,000 Gamers/Backers from previous successful Kickstarters!!!

Anyways please comment if you agree this was/could have been a good option!

larienna
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Quote:I think the world has

Quote:
I think the world has enough "banners" we don't need more to annoy us on BGDF

I don't say they have to be displayed on BGDF. I said they have to be displayed on website of users that use the service.

So far, I placed an AdSense banner on my board game design web site. I get around 4$ per year in revenue. I tried to adding the same banner on other of my websites to see if it changes something.

Quote:
That's because it's a lousy marketing tool. On BGG I don't mind the banners (most of the time). Sometimes I click on a "banner" to see what the game is all about (if it's a KS).

Now the problem with adsense is that it's not always about games, while I would like to only have ads about Board games, video games, role playing games, etc (except gambling). That is what I call positive ads, like on BGG, if I see an add for a board game, it does not matter to me as I go there to get information about board games. If somebody paid or not for it does not change the results.

I don't have a super popular web site, so solution a could be to sell my add space for really cheap like 5$ or 10$ per year. But then I have to handle money, contracts and other boring stuff.

Or I could use a community ad system where people place ads strictly about games. Place the banners on my website and incite other to do the same. It follows the idea that I promote your stuff, and you promote my stuff.

Now I might not get any revenue on short term, but once I got a game to get published (I intend to make video board game apps) I might generate a few additional sales and the ads will be displayed on a much larger audiance than my own web sites. Since it would be free, I could also promote my free Print and Play games. I rather want people to know more about my games than getting a few additional dollars.

I made a bit of research and there seems on source forge to be many different open source banner management system to handle that. Maybe this summer, if people are interested, I could take a look to install it on my server. I would like to have a system that could require at most to approve submitted ads just to make sure I don't end up with gambling or pron.

Anybody interested in the idea?

funamite
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Might be hard to convince

Might be hard to convince people to put banner ads to push other games when they're trying to sell theirs. It might work though since most games don't do well and die a quick death, and having a network of websites can help them reach more people than their own websites can.

This is one of those things where we can only tell you we're interested once we see it working for others. That's for me at least.

How did it go with that website for games. Did a lot of people participate? Were those free or paid games?

larienna
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It does not have to be only

It does not have to be only game sites, but it could be sites about games. If somebody have a blog or podcast, he can put the banner ad to promote other people's game while promoting his blog on other people's web sites.

Quote:
How did it go with that website for games. Did a lot of people participate? Were those free or paid games?

Not sure exactly what you are referring to. I have a group of websites related some how to games that can all be found here:

http://lariennalibrary.com/

But that is not something new, it has been there for a long time.

funamite
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I meant the advertising

I meant the advertising system they had in the allegro forum

larienna
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I think there were few

I think there were few commercial project with allegro, possibly because it was not a library designed for commercial development. You probably could do it, but there was better stuff out there.

To give you an idea, here was the top 25 projects on the depot:

https://www.allegro.cc/depot/index/pop

Strangely, my Sound Wave Generator is in the list, but not my Wizardry Legacy.

So most projects seemed to have been free projects. As for the quantity of different ads, I don't recall how many there was, if it was even possible to know. You never got the same ad for sure, but they eventually came back.

Still, consider the amount of people who program video games in allegro to be much more limited than the number of people who design or talks about board games. Which could be extended to table top role playing games, as mechanics are similar to board games, board games as apps, since there are still board games, and turn based strategy video games, which plays similarly to board games.

I imagine there could be a way to make various ad groups for more specific targeting (all apps together, all kickstarter together, all blogs together, etc ). It depends on the software I use, not sure yet how it works.

It could have some long term potential. I am sure people would like to advertise their stuff by adding banners. But now it depends if there are enough people with web sites that are willing to place those banner.

KeeperoftheGate
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Advert blog

It's such an important topic.
Rather than rehash it all here, forgive me for just directing you to my Kickstarter Advice Column (KSAC) in-depth blog post about my experiences with it and my suggestions.

I hope it helps.

If you have any questions on the content, I can answer them in the comments there or here.

http://www.gatekeepergaming.com/article-17-advertising-tips-stats/

John Wrot!

funamite
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Thanks for the link

Thanks for the link Keeper.

Evil ColSanders, I tried BackerClub and it's sister site BackerX for marketing. BackerClub has thousands of superbackers as members and you promise them an incentive like discounts, etc. Since my product is already pretty cheap, I offered a prototype card and the response was poor. No one from BackerClub backed yet. They promise to give you your money back if you don't reach the amount you paid for advertising. We'll see how that plays out.

BackerX is about generating a number of backers on the first day and to do that, you choose the number of rewards you want people to back and then pay for 80% of the reward, and the backers pay the rest. It's like guaranteed backers for your advertising money. I only got about 9 backers or so. So I asked for a refund of the rest and it was granted.

Both sites seem to work if your project is interesting to their members and they promise to give you your money back if it doesn't work out. Got refund from BackerX. Let's see if BackerClub offers a refund if not enough of their members pledge.

I Will Never Gr...
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Facebook Ads CAN work well ..

ElKobold wrote:

While facebook page itself and facebook adds are rather pointless, there are facebook boardgaming groups with large following where you can post about your upcoming game.

However, unless you have a really good quality art and video it is unlikely to be efficient.

Facebook Ads can be incredibly effective if done right. The big trouble is most people don't have the analytics in place to track how their ads are actually performing (click-thru rates vs conversion rates, etc) and most people don't target their ads very well. It's tough, but it can under the right circumstances work.

This guy spent $5000 for his first 3 days of his campaign on advertising and as he states it was largely on Facebook advertising: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gonab/tao-long

Dracula's Feast also spent between $2-3000 on advertising with a large portion of it going to Facebook ads.

Mind you, in the case of Tao Long it's a very attractive looking game with a good, low price point.

It also helps that both of these guys had previously successful and well managed Kickstarters, so it's definitely not something that is recommended to go big on for first timers.

questccg
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Worthless piece of ...

I Will Never Grow Up Gaming wrote:
Facebook Ads can be incredibly effective if done right...

Says the man who is getting paid by Zuckerberg! LOL

I've looked into Facebook ... and there is NO WAY that it can be "incredibly effective". I'm not a PRO at FB ... but I have tried to USE it. And what I have learned BY DESIGN is ... FB WORKS BACKWARDS!

And BTW my COUSIN WORKS FOR FACEBOOK (As an Account Manager).

The idea is basic: build a community around your game.

So this means getting a bunch of people to LIKE your game and become FRIENDs of your game also.

WRONG!!!

Facebook does NOT want you contacting or soliciting people YOU DON'T KNOW. I know I've TRIED it... The effectiveness of the website for TRYING to amass a group of people is EXTREMELY UN-USER FRIENDLY!!! It's a rotten interface: You got to contact each person that gave you a LIKE and TRY to friend them. If you contact like 20 people, you will be prompted: "Only connect with people YOU KNOW!"

This does ZERO for building a community.

Then you have to go through a HUGE LIST that can take WEEKS to contact like 200 people. Imagine if you had 1,000 people ... it could take like 3+ months just to make them friends... Add to this FB ANNOYING WARNING and ultimately BLOCK you from trying to make strangers friends.

Facebook WANTS to work BACKWARDS: Tell your FRIENDS to LIKE your game.

Maybe if I had 1,000 of friends I could do that. But I don't. I want to build a community AROUND THE GAME.

Targeting ADS on FB is crap too. All you get is LIKES... people who maybe read your posts. I've got 250+ LIKES and about 80 FRIENDS (That my community so far) and all you will ever get is LIKES.

No conversion from a LIKE to a BUY. How do I know this? Because I have TRIED it already last December 2015 to June 2016 (about 6 months of "community building"). I spent good money TRYING to build a community. Still when it came time to support me in my TGC Crowd Sale - nobody bought the game (From FB).

I even had people message me on FB telling me they will buy the game; and then when the time came, nobody showed up... It's like telling everyone you are going to have a party and then nobody shows up... total, utter shame.

Mostly your ADs are targeting the people you ALREADY have as FRIENDS! I've tried to connect with "Friends of Friends" which is about 65,000 people and seeing IF I could convince them to buy my product.

Only some more LIKES. I know LIKES drive the show. But they aren't enough. You MUST convert LIKES to FRIENDS if you want to have a community. Otherwise the LIKE remain strangers you cannot contact directly.

Plus IF nobody LIKES your posting, it won't get very far either.

So what FB wants you to do is BOOST your posts... What this does is effectively communicate with YOUR FRIENDS! But again you want to GROW your friends... And that's the problem, because FB works the other way around!!!

FB is ALL WRONG!!!

FB wants you to PAY MONEY to reach YOUR Friends... Total, absolute WAIST of good, hard earned money. If FB wanted to improve, it should TARGET ALL your Friends whenever you post something to them. Then it might be acceptable to TRY and target "Friends of Friends" to add more people to your list of Friends.

But like I say, the WAY FB does it... it's a struggle and very HARD way of doing so. However I'm no Social Media Guru. I've just TRIED with what FB had to offer and my conclusion is that it's pure garbage. Implemented backwards.

EVEN WORST: Product Pages can't have FRIENDS. So you need to LINK back to your Designer FB page and hope people make the LINK between YOU and YOUR GAME! More garbage implementation.

I doubt FB will change it: it's FREE money to them. If you want to have a post seen by your OWN FRIENDS, you need to pay money to do so. If they are already Friends - why the F- do I want to spend money trying to get them more involved if they aren't converting?!

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