Driving traffic

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Attollos Technologies, Aug 2, 2011.

  1. Attollos Technologies

    Attollos Technologies Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2011
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    iPhone Development Company
    Hey guys, in the build-up to our upcoming game 'Screen Invaders' I have regularly been posting in a blog, linked at the bottom of my signature. I was wondering how much experience anyone here has had in directing traffic to your blog in the prelude to your game being released.

    Any advice / tips would be greatly appreciated :D

    Thanks :)
     
  2. Shaz

    Shaz Well-Known Member

    Well, without posting any preview images or videos I can't even imagine how you'd do this. Well, not unless you're Capcom and people think you've got SF5 coming...

    I mean, I hope your strategy of being all secretive until the last moment pays off for you. But I don't get it.

    I don't pretend to be an expert on marketing. But as an unknown dev, it's hard enough to get noticed WITH something good to show, let alone nothing at all.

    If you haven't already I think you should start bitzing as many sites as possible, trying to get them on board to writing preview posts on your game with images/videos.

    I can say that I've found it a lot easier to get written about now that the game's out.

    Anyway, not trying to be a dampener on your new game enthusiasm. :) But just trying to offer some practical advice.
     
  3. headcaseGames

    headcaseGames Well-Known Member

    Jun 26, 2009
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    Mobile Game Developer
    Hollywood, CA
    Yikes! Your blog is very plain-looking (pardon my frankness). I'm the pot calling the kettle black as my own blog is fairly aesthetically unpleasing at times (...) but yours really is stark. Just clicking over to it doesn't inspire me to spend time there. Put up some images, something visual (doesn't have to be gaudy). I feel like I am looking at homework :(

    And I agree with the poster above, being secretive about your game leading up to release is a serious handicap in the world of app marketing, unless you have some seriously crazy secret weapon up your sleeve like no-one's business. Otherwise, when you release your game you might as well open your screen door and yell out into the neighborhood "hey my app is ready, come and get it!"

    Driving traffic/generating interest and enthusiasm are extremely important aspects of business which are not to be taken lightly. You are doing a disservice to all the hard development work you've been grinding on when you don't make some kind of honest, well-planned (and researched) effort on "how the heck do I sell something?" Again, if you have some celebrity who is gonna pimp your game, or it's some gorgeous UnrealEngine looker, than you've got nothing to worry about, but for 99% of us little independent developers that is pretty far from the truth.

    Anyway I am not trying to give you a hard time, just be aware of the reality. There's so much competition (and getting worse) and honestly, so much of what is out there is of decent-or-better quality that one would expect. It's rough. If you have to delay the release of your app simply because you might need to make significant changes to your marketing plan, that might make some considerable difference.

    That all being said, in direct answer to your question "how to drive traffic to a blog?" Well apart from my initial rant up above (make it look like something), you really need to work hard to promote it. This forum and others like it are full of people who can help you do the work. they are your potential customers, and it's up to you to figure out how to excite and captivate them, make them an interactive part of your campaign. This will require creativity on your part, a fair amount of trial-and-error, and spending (at least a little bit of) money. Patience as well, because you'll need to build something up and have it develop "a life" over time. Hold contests, promotional giveaways, tie it into the content on your blog, on your facebook page, twitter, whatever it is that your presence can be most strongly located. Figure out where the center of your campaign will be and try to drive all of those sources I just named toward ->IT<- lest there be any confusion or doubt; always remember that people have ADD, especially nowadays, and they generally haven't got time and interest to jump through whatever hoops there are to figure out what some little developer is trying to promote.

    It's actually not too difficult, but like I said you need to work your way through it to a certain degree; figure out what works, for you - what you can afford, what YOU have patience and perseverance to follow through with, and also very importantly how can you theme it to a proper campaign relevant to what you are selling?

    If you half-ass all of this (as most people do) then you will already know what to expect. If you work hard right now, you may still fail, but you will learn a great deal and have a much clearer idea of how to plan things better (and execute them) with the next project.

    "Now get out there and kick ass!!!"
     
  4. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
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    Berlin, Germany
    less words more pictures..

    as for the basic look headcase already covered this..

    then again who is your audience? fellow developers? possible customers?

    i highly doubt its the first ones.. clicked on the after effects post.. readed

    watched the video.. rolled my eyes.. let out a "oh jeez"... and scraped the blog as an interesting and usefull source of information..

    following a few tutorial and making a generic trailer is not making anyone professional..

    the thing is you don't want to look professional, you should act professional..

    and post like this make me wonder who you are writing too.. and especialy why..

    since you are very sparse with actual .. i would call the blog at the time being.. boring and completly pointless..

    - day 1: we have a name , but its fun not to say anything maybe tomorrow..
    - day 2: hey name is blurb cxyz, amazing right.. comment on that (not)
    - day 3: maybe pictures.. but don't steal our ideas.. pls! thnx.

    *yawn* in all honesty.. just plain boring since you don't give any kind of information.. you just dance around your games developement without actualy giving out any interesting info at all..

    i mean who cares about your banking problems? and who wants to even read that on a dev blog..

    in the end there needs to be a reason why there should be traffic coming your way.. that reason is interesting information.. if there is none.. there is no traffic.. and if there is none.. there never will be traffic..

    maybe you should ask yourself if you really need to blog.. in all honesty.. if you don't have anything worthwhile to post.. just don't post..

    most of the threads on upcoming games are giving more accurate product information than you do on your blog..

    also pretty silly and pointless to ask for feedback on a title if one does not even know what the game looks like.. could be a racing simulator.. then the title would probably not fit at all... ;)

    cheers..
     

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