Help me fill in the blanks! Indie Resource Guide

[Promaginy]

Can you help me create guide to the resources that should be evaluated when it comes to promoting one's game? If this guide is well done, it could become the basis for an updated FAQ that could answer most of the 'how do I ...'

Please direct me to links for the following categories. Also, please share a brief rating of the usefulness of the resource in the advancement of your business if you have relevant experience. So if your game was on the Yahoo! Games portal, please briefly state whether the experience was good/fair/bad for your business and why.

Category: Portals
e.g. Yahoo! Games

Category: Affiliates
?

Category: Publishers
e.g. Matrix Games
e.g. Shrapnel Games

Category: Software Submission Services
e.g. Shareware Tracker

Category: Software Hosting Sites
e.g. Download.com

Category: Website Hosting
e.g. HostPC.com

Category: eNewsletter Services
e.g. ?

Category: Website Search Optimization
e.g. ?

Category: Domain Name Registration Services
e.g. ?

Category: Promotion (Press Releases/Advertising)
e.g. ?

Also, if there are any categories that I missed, please add them. Thanks!

<edit - thanks to Teeth for the correction to e.g. from i.e.>

[GameDevCn]

About getting the money :

Category: Payment
e.g. PayPal

Category: Registration
e.g. swreg

Category: eCommerce
e.g. ?

<edit - thanks to Teeth for the correction to e.g. from i.e.>

[Teeth]

Pedantic note: i.e. should be e.g. in this case. e.g. means "for example" and i.e. means "that is to say". Subtle, but important.

[lowemark]

Adding a couple quickly before class..

Category: eNewsletter Services
www.yourmailinglistprovider.com
www.ezinedirector.com

Category: Domain Name Registration Services
www.joker.com

[Nexic]

Category: Affiliate
http://www.gamexzone.com

Great affiliate that will give most games a go. Im getting about 2 sales per day through them.

[ggambett]

Hosting : PowWeb
eCommerce : Plimus
Affiliates : RegNow / Plimus / eSellerate
Domains : GoDaddy

[GBGames]

You can probably find a lot of this information at http://www.indiewiki.org

[Promaginy]

You can probably find a lot of this information at http://www.indiewiki.org

Thanks! I saw that site a few months ago but completley forgot about it. Its a great start.

BTW, is it possible to do polls on this forums to determine who are the best recommended services?

[ErikH2000]

Prom, I welcome you to add content to www.indiewiki.org to make it more complete. Company ratings can't go there unfortunately for legal and practical reasons. Best of luck on your project.

-Erik

[TomB]

Business and Legal Info
www.gamedevkit.com

[Andy]

I like your site Thomas

Site: Get the Kit! Get the Kit! Get the Kit!
Me: Well. OK.
Site: NO WAY!

[GBGames]

Wow, welcome Tom! I remember reading your always insightful posts at the IGDA forums. B-)

[Dan MacDonald]

Awesome Tom, I'm glad you got this done!

Just by way of introduction, I've spoken with Tom at the last two IGC's where he's hosted one of the sessions. He is one of the few (only?) people I know that is hardcore gamer and attorney which makes him a lot of fun to talk to. Tom has done a lot of work with indies and loves seems to genuinely enjoy educating game developers about the importance of intellectual property and clear assignment of ownership that most indies are (for the most part) ignorant of. Anyway, long story short, it's good to have you aboard Tom!

[Greg Squire]

I'd also like to welcome Tom to the forums as well. I met Tom at the last IGC and he's been a great help to the Indie community. His breakout sessions were very helpful to me. Also, if you haven't read his articles on http://www.gameattorney.com, you may want to do that sometime, as they're very helpful as well.

[Promaginy]

Prom, I welcome you to add content to www.indiewiki.org to make it more complete. Company ratings can't go there unfortunately for legal and practical reasons. Best of luck on your project.

-Erik

Hi Erik,

I'll definately fill in some blanks @ IndieWiki.

But is possible for these forums (Indiegamer) to use polls? If not, is there another place were it is possible to conduct free polls?

[ErikH2000]

Hi Erik,

I'll definately fill in some blanks @ IndieWiki.

Cool! I appreciate it.

But is possible for these forums (Indiegamer) to use polls?

I don't know. It doesn't look like it.

If not, is there another place were it is possible to conduct free polls?

If you set up a mailing list on Yahoo! groups, polls are included. I'm not a big fan of Yahoo! groups for mailing lists because there is no protection from spammers using spoofed e-mail headers to post crap. (You can't ban the user, because it isn't his fault!) But the polls are relatively secure, requiring a web sign-in. If you were talking about rating companies, the membership-only participation you can set up there is better than a public forum.

-Erik

[Mark Fassett]

For various reason, the people that run this forum have decided that turning on the polls would be detrimental to the type of community they wish to have here.