free portal starting up

[WaveRider]

My friend just gave me one of his websites to manage. Currently the site is being used to display a bunch of useless crap submitted by twisted people. However, it does seem to generate a surprisingly large amount of traffic.

My intention is to get rid of all of the current content and turn the site into a family friendly portal for indie games.

So to kick this off I'm offering to host your games free of charge. Everyone who submits their game before the new year (2006) will never have to pay to have that game hosted at this site. You supply the game, I supply the storage and bandwidth. (15 MB limit per game for now.)

I won't have a payment system set up until after the new year, so accepting payment from customers will be up to you for the time being.

If you're interested you can submit your game by sending me a link to the game, a screenshot that you want displayed on the page, and a description that you want displayed with your game.

email: admin@starfiregames.com

remember, the goal here is family friendly, so nothing too profane or adult oriented please.

[Bmc]

just to clarify... are you offering to host the games, or to sell them?

if you plan on selling them, well portals don't usually charge to host the files. they absorb that cost.

it would probably be more worth your wild to look into an affiliate program, like reflexive's

http://www.reflexive.net/index.php?PAGE=Affiliate

[WaveRider]

just to clarify... are you offering to host the games, or to sell them?

I'm just offering to host them. I understand that portals don't charge to host, but not everyone's game makes it onto reflexive or realarcade. I'm not charging either, and if your game sells from my site, the profits are all yours (unlike reflexive).

Just look at it as hosting the game on your own site without worrying about bandwidth.

I apologize for not being clearer. I do not intend to charge for hosting, but eventually it will be set up like other portals, charging a percentage of sales (hopefully a smaller percentage than others... there's a lot of competition out there).

The percentage thing will not apply to games submitted before the new year. Any game submitted and accepted before January 1st 2006 will never be charged a percentage of sales.

[Sharpfish]

What amount of traffic are you expecting to get? (numbers)

If you plan to go to "full portal style" then in effect that is what you are now from the business plan side (but are in a promotional/game sign up period), how do you plan on advertising and / or competing with the established portals.

Are you saying you won't use "casual game" style vetting (the kind of games normally apreciated by a portals "1 a day" audience) and are just sticking anything that comes your way on the portal? (sans adult / ultra violent games)?

Fwiw if you won't be able to compete with the other portals on advertising, customer base, sales/support handling, developer support etc then you may find it hard going and may have to change to affiliation.. have you planned for that?

Good luck with it - but it is very hard to setup this sort of thing now that the men with the money are in the game (Yahoo, MS etc), unless of course you are part of a larger company or are a loaded! ;)

[WaveRider]

I appreciate your concerns. Thank you for your replies.

I have been very fortunate over the last three years to have been given the opportunity to manage a couple of successful business websites. These sites have afforded me the experience and funds to take some chances.

Yes I am new to the casual gaming scene, but I believe that with my experience I should be able to learn as I go.

As I said I appreciate your concerns and I certainly look forward to any advice you can give me in the future. For now, however, all I am looking for is content. I would be very grateful if we could reserve the rest of this thread for those interested in participating in this offer.

All I am offering right now is simply the chance to have your game hosted free of charge and possibly reach a wider audience. If I fail in this venture you've lost nothing. If I succeed, maybe I can help put a few extra bucks in your pocket.

Thank you.