Has anybody used advertising via google or yahoo or tucows/cnet etc. What are your views on this, is this a good marketing decision? I read a while back on somebody who used Tucows and wasnt to happy with the sales it generated (if at all).

That was probbaly me. I paid for some search keywords for 2 months on tucows, didnt notice any difference. I know that Steve will probably point out you really need to do it over a year r so to see an effect, but that pumps the cost uip beyond where Im prepared to spend.
I think unless you wanna spend several thousand dollars its not worth web advertising.

http://www.positech.co.uk

I payed Tucows' 1-month featured title in its category and noticed no difference in sales. I've done the same on a few other sites and managed to get a few dozen extra downloads, but again, it didn't cover the cost of such exposure. CNet charges your entire life savings, so I haven't had the luxury of trying it.





[edited by - Yamisoft on August 26, 2002 4:28:24 PM]

I''ve just bought some exposure with Tucows etc. but I''m not betting it will make much difference to online sales. Still unless you do something like this first it''s hard to know if it will make an impact or not I guess.

I write off all the marketing costs against tax anyway in the long run which helps.

Best regards,

Adrian Cummings (Proprietor)
Mutation Software
www.mutationsoftware.com
www.dweebs.info

What were the costs like? I see google''s sponsered advert is over $3000, but they also have a smaller package. What about tucows and cnet?

I''ve used Google''s AdWords before and it worked quite well for our game development services, but I wouldn''t recommend it to increase game downloads. Click costs range from $0.05 and up. Popular game keywords like "puzzle" cost $0.50 and up PER CLICK. Considering how few downloaders actually register a shareware game, AdWords is surely not the way to go.

What really kills my advertising campaigns though is the darn Canadian-US exchange rate, hence my slightly bitter perspective on these "featured" listings.

I think by far the best boost to sales us shareware authors can get is to link to each others sites and forget traditional advertising. I get a lot of hits from other developers sites and my links page gets about 300 hits a month. Of course, thats dependent on only linking to quality sites (those with finished games for sale that arent simple tetris clones).
If you are selling a sharewrae game, and your site doesn''t link to at least 2 other shareware authors, then shame on you!

http://www.positech.co.uk

Hi all,

I run a graphic banner link exchange from our main site at www.mutationsoftware.com (not www.dweebs.info for graphic clutter reasons).

I only keep a top ten going mind of real ''good'' links, but if you guys at Yamisoft and Positech want linking there then I don''t mind that.

Best regards,

Adrian Cummings (Proprietor)
Mutation Software
www.mutationsoftware.com
www.dweebs.info

My personal idea was to build a kinda top sites ranking where the more traffic people bring me, the more exposure they get around the site.
I have kinda started on that idea but haven''t had many takers (although at the moment I''ve only got a Tetris/Columns spin off for sale heh!
Maybe just having a permanent links page may be better.

Anyway the page is up at this page if you wanna check it out.

Philip Lutas
Optical Realities

quote: Original post by Nicolas Bischoff
Has anybody used advertising via google or yahoo or tucows/cnet etc. What are your views on this, is this a good marketing decision? I read a while back on somebody who used Tucows and wasnt to happy with the sales it generated (if at all).

Y''all might think i''m crazy, but a friend of mine in Sacramento did things a little different last summer. Instead of advertising online or anything like that, he spent a little cash and had a 6ft standup of his mascot holding up a sign of his url printed up. He went from roughly 150 - 300 unique visits per day to 3,000 - 5,000 unique visits per day. Then he got mentioned in a couple newspapers here in town, that drove up traffic even more.

Now i''ll admit that he wasnt pushing a game (it was an online bookstore), but the idea is still the same. Thinking locally before you go global.

One last example. About 4 years ago i knew a guy in a band that was trying to get some publicity. We went around to a number of homeless people and stated that we would give them $10 cash and $20 in McDonalds gift certificates (he worked there part time) if they would hold up a sign that said "Saving money for the new Schultz album, please help!" then it had the bands website address listed on the bottom. Got mentioned in a couple papers and on the radio, tons of traffic. Sure, a couple of the homeless guys took the upfront stuff we gave (gave them $10 worth of the gift certificates up front, then the rest after they had been there a few hours), but most of them stayed.