I see everyone here asking how to promote their informational, health, auto, or webmaster types of sites...but I don't believe those techniques apply to my project. After recently selling my successful webgame of 4 years, I have dipped into the roleplaying genre. The problem is: I forgot how to "get up off the ground" and as it stands, I have 0 members (although it is my first day of release). So, how do you promote a webgame such as this?: http://wysteriaonline.com All I have done so far is put it into a few signatures. That and crossing my fingers. Some really genuine help anyone?
How does your competition promote their business? That's where you should start. I'm not just talking about blatant ads either. Look at where their name is and what they are doing.
Is it a MMORPG, or a straight up RPG? First impressions(from the front page graphic of what I assume are the main character types) it kind of reminds me of Kingdom of Loathing, simply because it looks like it is a bit goofy.. You could certainly market to the Kingdom of Loathing folks (careful, some of those people are fierce and take their stick figure game very seriously!!), otherwise other gaming forums and the such. Knowing how gamers are when it comes to competition, you could host a contest for first player to reach level XX or first player to <fill in the blank>. Also art contests, cool in game events, special "limited edition" bonus items only available for a limited time, etc. Things to entice people to sign up and check it out. Then, hopefully the game itself has that addictive quality to keep em' coming back. (aka are dying to get to level 22, but once they get there there is even cooler shit at 23 or 24...) Anything you can do to get a good core group of players in there playing is probably your best bet. It seems like these types of games can have a bit of a "viral" aspect to them once you get people who are really into playing. (think World of Warcrack, or again, Kingdom of Loathing). I remember this game I used to play back in the day, Pimpwars.. that game was great for the longest time. It self imploded eventually, but in it's prime, it was one of those things everyone was telling their friends about. Another HUGE tip from my perspective is to get some activity going in your forums!!! Even if you gotta start it yourself! (not that I have time to play any additional games, but my first inclination for this kind of thing is to see what the community is like and what's going on in game? Is it going to challenge me or am I going to be playing the game all alone. I don't know if others are this way, but it feels like a waste of time to fill out a profile and create a character if there isn't going to be anything going on) With the forum dead, I assume that the game is a bit of a ghosttown too. Now mind you, this is just coming from a casual gamer perspective, I have no idea about actually running a game. Good Luck!
I'm trying to figure it out. But when I do, how will I do that without coming across as rude? I don't want to just jump into someone else's forum and attempt to sipher members from their website.