Hi, I apologize if this question has been asked in the past, but the forum search feature seems to be disabled. I'm a game author and have been selling a game online for a little over a year now. I haven't been doing well, however, and the conversion rate is somewhere lower than 1%. On top of that, I'm barely receiving traffic because I haven't been able to put time into promoting and advertising. Recently I discovered a service that allows you to purchase unique targeted visitors in bulk for a reasonable amount. I think it was something like 10,000 unique targeted visitors for $50. This seems like an ideal solution, as even with a conversion rate of 0.1%, you'd hypothetically have 10 purchases. Has anyone had experience with a service like this, or if not, do you think it would be profitable? Thanks for any insight. David

Sorry I cannot answer your question, but if you include an address for your site/game (I don't think GameDev would mind it embedded in your signature) you may get a few hits from these forums.

As you said you have not put much time into advertising, etc... Have you submitted it to sites such as CNET? Also try mentioning it in forums about PC games, or game development. Your numbers should increase.

Best of luck, and hope you and your game do better in the new year.

What I suggest is finding medium sized game sites (not hugely popular websites) and advertising on them.

I do have some experience with pay-per-click programs (which is what this essentially is), though not with the intention of selling software. While it worked well for me, my average sale was a lot higher than the price of a game, and as such I don't know how it would translate in your situation.

The only problem I could foresee is the fact that the "unique targeted visitors" are not necessarily the same people that would buy your software after trying a demo, for instance, so you might have to expect an even lower conversion rate (unless you are already doing your calculations basedon number of site visitors).

If you're not getting a very good conversion rate then you should try and improve on that. You should read this great article for some ideas:
http://www.dexterity.com/articles/registration-incentives.htm

In terms of traffic, the best long-term strategy is to get your site to rank well for some well targeted search engine keywords. This way it is consistent, and you are in control. This can be done for free, you just have to do a little research about SEO.

When you say purchase a "targeted visitor" you are meaning their contact details?

If so, be very carefull of sending them anything you could get in a bit of trouble if what you send them is, in the eyes of the law, spam.

I have a little experience in web promotion and suspect I know what this deal is.

Firstly "Targeted Visitors" can be just that, people that were randomly targeted based on no information whatsoever!

With luck they will be selected through a database where they have revealed their intrest etc.. You are probably a targeted visitor when you surf gamasutra (logged-in)!(good) With less luck, they are spammed with generic rubbish which advertises your website!(not so good)

Anyway, long and the short of it is check the small print and make sure your getting a decent deal. Otherwise you might just get a load of nuns searching for cooking websites who surf straight off again.

Quote: Original post by DogCity
I have a little experience in web promotion and suspect I know what this deal is.

Firstly "Targeted Visitors" can be just that, people that were randomly targeted based on no information whatsoever!

With luck they will be selected through a database where they have revealed their intrest etc.. You are probably a targeted visitor when you surf gamasutra (logged-in)!(good) With less luck, they are spammed with generic rubbish which advertises your website!(not so good)

Anyway, long and the short of it is check the small print and make sure your getting a decent deal. Otherwise you might just get a load of nuns searching for cooking websites who surf straight off again.

I think there are only two types of visitors "Targetted" and "Un-Targetted". The way you can get these different visitors to your site can be done numerous ways, but at the end of the day, you either get someone who was interested in yoru ad and as such wants to be at your site, or was deceived with a phoney ad and as such leaves your site immediately. There is no middleground.