Real Planning and marketing. Advice needed.

What is the best way to do some "Real planning and marketing"

Not just: "i've made a website, now i want visitors - i've $40 to spend"


I need some real help.

I plan on making a big multiplayer game using flash. It will be new, but not a new idea. It will still have less competition then say, a myspace site, or arcade. So i'm sure there are players out there.

But how do you plan on what is best to do. If it is worth making? hiring the artists, the designers, etc.

Then, onces it's made, getting people on it.


I might even need to hire someone to manage the marketing once the game is created -- if it's worth creating.

I need advice from people who have worked on big projects before. I dont want to waste my time and money creating somthing, if it is not going to work at the end.

Please offer advice below. (rep given for good advice)

Basicly how to plan, how to calculate how much can be made $$$, best way to advertise, anything to get a project going.

Many thanks.

 

I do marketing plans for projects like this. Basically organise your marketing plan into lots of different areas.

E.g. Marketing, Audience How you intend to run the site. You might want to carry out a press release but first experiment with different traffic methods.

PPC - Google Adwords

Adbrite is a good place to get cheap traffic as people can put your banner on their site for a small fee. You can check Alexa.com to see if their site is performing well. I would usually advertise on a website that has a rating of less than 50,000.

Also rentacoder.com and Elance.com have excellent programmers who would be willing to take such a project. If you give them more details you will find them.

Graphic designers - well on DP there are LOTS and LOTS of talented graphic designers and if you want to take things further pay them more to get a good job done.

If the idea is good then it could well take off.

A $40 is not enough, although you could consider asking someone to help you with this project, thug getting them to invest in the idea too.


Good Luck!

 

Planning is a must. Before you start, like you said: I would calculate the costs and earnings. Have a look around, post job offers requesting a quote from everything to programming and graphics designing. Outsource if you must..

After that calculate how much you'll be using to market the site (by yourself, if you hire something, that's additional costs for you). And then, finally: the results think realistically of what results you'll be getting from advertising though.

Good luck

 

- Set a mission and vision statement (Google for more info)
- SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Oppotunities, Threats) internal factors of your site.
- PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) external factors affecting your site.

 

Thats a textbook example from one of those Marketing books at University!

 

True but it applies to all kinds of businesses.

 

You better be sure of this before you spend a dime. There are specialists in this field whose only job is to "predict" the potential of a game. Unless you are pretty confident you have something, then don't do anything else. You can talk to gamers or get a "focus group" together to try to get more feedback on the idea, without divulging too much about your idea. This is a very high risk venture, so thread carefully.

Rich

 

Cheers guys, all good advice. Rep given

What is the best way to predict what multiplayer game will make. I dont think adsese will be any good, as the game is in flash, and i dont think it's allows by their t&c.

I really want to get all the predictions and planning done before i start anything -- just as you have all suggested.

Thanks again, any more info will be great.

 

you could sponsor some ones website for a competition

just a thought, apart from that there are lots of ways, I dont pay for links to my site and get good traffic, but I might pay people to get the links submitted for me

 

I would build an inexpensive prototype and run some focus groups among high school and college kids. You might advertise on Craigslist or go to a local campus.

Rich

 

If you can drive traffic to your game, you can definitely monetize it privately, which is where I would suggest the majority of revenue lies.

I offer marketing consultancy if you're interested - PM me for details. We can discuss what you want to achieve, and how you want to get there, and I can also point you in the direction of some good people that can help you along the way.