How to promote mailing list

[rockford]

Hi all,

I manage, for 3 month now, to improve the popularity of my website (20 to 40% more visitors / month). But, unfortunately, they is only few people who's subscribe to my mailing list (feedburner mail subscription).

I had an idea : promote the subscription by offering a free game (just a link in the confirmation email so be simple).

So, I'm looking for a game that I can offer (it could be a win/win deal, by promoting the author, website, etc., and the game can be an old game but still fun to play like the games offered by BFG)... any idea ? Do you think it's not feaseable ?

Thanks for your help.

PS : the game will need to be translated in french, I can make the translation.

[jcottier]

The best way would be to make your visitors think that they need to enter their email adress before downloading any games.

Check arcadetown.com for a good example.
Most people will assume that they need to enter it, not even reading that it is optional.

JC

[MindToy Games]

The best way would be to make your visitors think that they need to enter their email adress before downloading any games.
Check arcadetown.com for a good example.
Most people will assume that they need to enter it, not even reading that it is optional.
JC

IMO: That will annoy and push away just as many people as it "tricks". These days, most people will see that as a barrier and move on to a site where they can just do what they want without the hoops.

[jcottier]

Well, you need to decide what are your priorities. Being Mr nice guy or making some money.

Just look at what the pros are doing and stop asking yourself the wrong questions. Just look at arcadetown's traffic, and you will understand that your comment has no ground.

JC

[ChrisP]

I had an idea : promote the subscription by offering a free game (just a link in the confirmation email so be simple).

So, I'm looking for a game that I can offer (it could be a win/win deal, by promoting the author, website, etc., and the game can be an old game but still fun to play like the games offered by BFG)... any idea ? Do you think it's not feaseable ?

I think it's a good idea. That way you get to make money and be Mr Nice Guy. Win-win. :)

[rockford]

Yes, it remains my choice, but I'm still looking for a free game :-).

[Devman115]

Why not throw one together quick? You could make it in java or python or something, and it would only take a couple of days if you knew what you were doing.

PS- For all the people who told me lite-c was a bad idea, I didn't go with LWGJL, but instead went with the java programming library gtge. Thanks!

[AlexWeldon]

Well, you need to decide what are your priorities. Being Mr nice guy or making some money.

Just look at what the pros are doing and stop asking yourself the wrong questions. Just look at arcadetown's traffic, and you will understand that your comment has no ground.


Why so hostile? The guy's entitled to his opinion too, and reality is probably not quite as simple as either of you are making it out to be.

My guess is that it would depend on the target market. If it's made up of less educated, less tech-savvy adults (as I'm sure is the case for certain types of casual games), you're probably right. They have no problem giving out their email address, except for laziness, so tricking them would probably work. On the other hand, they don't know how to work their spam filters properly, so you'd stand a higher chance of your newsletter just ending up in their junk mail box.

If your games are at the more serious end of the casual spectrum, then you're probably dealing with somewhat more experienced (and jaded) internet users, who may very well get turned off if you demand their email in return for downloading something.

----

To rockford, here's my idea:

Having read jcottier's post, I went to check out arcadetown. Ugly-ass site, but they have tons of games there and I'm sure they do pretty well for themselves because of that fact alone. However, while there, I played a few games and one of them was Gold Miner Vegas.

It was fun for a few minutes... probably wouldn't have a whole lot of staying power for me, but I can see how it would appeal to the aforementioned lowbrow, ADD crowd. However, it did one thing that I thought was very clever from a marketing perspective.

Within the game, there's a store where you can spend your money to buy powerups for the next level. After a few levels, an item comes up in the store which is a "free trial of the download version" of the game (I was playing the browser version).

I thought that working this kind of advertisement into the actual game play (as opposed to just having a banner at the top of the screen or whatever) was quite clever. The only problem I had with it was that the item itself was free, not only in real life dollars, but in terms of game dollars in the shop. Having just read this article (http://www.justadventure.com/articles/Best_Ending/Ending.shtm), I realise how much people like to feel rewarded for good performance in a game, and how much that's missing from many games these days.

All this to say, I like your idea of providing a free game, but how about this. Instead of asking for their email address up front, let them just download the free game, and have it inform them that if they beat it, they'll receive as a reward, a free e-coupon (delivered by email, of course!) that will give them 10% off the next game they purchase.

Then, when they beat the game, take them to a page on your website where it asks them to provide their email so that they can receive the e-coupon, and "as an added bonus," subscribe to the newsletter that will also keep them up to date on "exciting new products," and "special offers."

What do you think?

[rockford]

Hum :-) a couple of day seem to be very short to create a real game (I don't want to offer a tic-tac-toe ;-)).
I'm still hoping for an author who wants to offer a game to promote, for example, his other games. Or just a nice guy :)

I took a look at BFG, they offer (for a mygamespace subscription) 2 games over Atlantis, Fairies, Magic Vines, Slot Words and Top Ten Solitaire. This are real games, I don't expect one of them but one like Kaboodle (but in french), or another puzzle like should be great.

[jcottier]

I am not hostile 8^) I just go straight to the point, if I offended someone, I am sorry.

Anyway, this topic was already discuss and most people who did put "enter your email address" close to the download link said they had a massive improvement with their mailing list (just search this forums).

At the end of the day, a fat mailing list is priceless, this is why the big site are creating special download tools to be sure to "trap" or should I say keep their customer.

BTW, arcadetown is a MASSIVE site with a HUGE traffic. Just check them on alexa. This is why I was giving them as example...

JC

[rockford]

JC, I like your idea (just need to explain that the email is optional, like arcadelab) but this feature need me to create a special page with redirection, and also I'll can insert direct links in my posts, but construct a special link like xxxx/mydownloadpage.php?link=xxx (with link encoded :-().
If you have a technical tip to make that without effort, I want it !

[RinkuHero]

I suggest not using feedburner; I believe it turns people off from email lists to use it. I don't have any data to back that up but I myself hate subscribing to feedburner lists and I don't mind subscribing to traditional lists for developers who I like the games of.

I also think all these gimmicks like 'free game for signing up!' are a bad idea. Just put the email list in a visible place, and if they like your games they'll subscribe to it, if they don't they won't. If you aren't getting enough subscriptions, use that as motivation to increase customer loyalty by creating better games, or at least more unique/memorable ones.