I am currently in charge of advertising for gaming related website clanwars.cc It has all the programming done to compete with major competitors, but we just can not seem to get the word out about the site. I am not being provided with any funds to advertise the site, so what would be the best ways to go about advertising the site. We do have some free gear laying around from sponsors like EA Games, Nvidia, and Z Boards.
Not really advertising, but try and get a .com. The .cc is really going to kill it. Heres some free things you can do: - press release - submit to social networking site - post on some forums - submit to some free directories - tell your friends
First I have to say that it is hard to use press releases now for free...there is no such thing like that, they all cost money now that prweb went min $40. I would say that the best way to do it is by going were the gaming nerds go and talking to them. Tell them about it and your free stuff. If you find the crowed and what they want, they will flock. Find the forums the chat rooms, the social areas. Go offline and find people. Talk to them and get them to join. If you tell them to tell all there friends they will join too. Gaming is like a cult. People are nuts about that stuff. If they have 5 friends they will share it with them... Thanks, George
You could also look in some gaming groups on sites like Myspace and like George said that them know about your promos. Gamers are usually inherently lazy, and love free stuff... might a well give them what they want!
http://www.prleap.com/ News releases distributed via PR Leap appear in: Google News, Google Search, Yahoo! Search, Topix.net, Technorati, MSN, Ask News, Moreover, NewsNow.
I will try some of those things... Maybe we can give away a free Z Board Gaming keyboard or something. But the thing is what would they have to do to get it, that would maximize traffic.
For starters, stop thinking in terms of "advertising" - that implies bought space. What you're really looking for are free promotional strategies... same family, but different things. Drig gave some good examples to get you started. Free press release sites won't get you the same results as manual distribution, but they won't hurt. The best I've come across is www.pr.com. While PRleap gets many releases into Google news, it doesn't get them all added... PR.com seems to. Distribution to your client's local media outlets, and also over the newswire of the Associated Press (www.ap.org) by submitting to the appropriate writer or editor for your beat, or to the most relevant regional bureau. Just to start you off, set up some kind of competition where people would register (or whatever they need to do on your site). Announce the competition well in advance, so you give people time to hear about it, spread the word, and get involved. Send a preliminary press release out with whatever prizes you already have, how they can join in, etc. About a week before it actually begins, send out another press release as a sort of "last call" for registrants, re-emphasizing the prizes and giving more specific details about the competition rules, how many people have signed up so far, etc... show some kind of progress beyond the first release. When it's over, send out a press release announcing the winner, what they won, and any plans for another competition (if it's successful, make it a series and solicit sponsorships from companies to get prizes... you can contact them directly, or send out another press release announcing that you're opening up sponsorship opportunities for your regular competitions to a highly targeted audience and how it's a publicity op for the sponsor.
So pretty much make a contest and get it wide spread all over the internet? And the bigger the prize I am guessing the more poeple...
It doesn't have to be something huge, but something with at least some recognizable value certainly won't hurt. You could have a huge prize, and still get no results if you don't promote the contest enough, or far enough ahead of time. You'd be surprised how many large companies are willing to get involved with small sites. It costs them very little to send a product as a prize, as they have numerous "review copies" and other promotional copies set aside just for this kind of thing anyway. Plus, it's often cheaper for them to send a product and let you do the promotion through press releases and such than it would be for them to have their PR person or agency write and distribute just one for them... and you give them a highly targeted audience. You just have to go to the PR or marketing person and simply ask.
Well we already get tons of free prizes every month for free... it would just be a matter of picking the best prizes and making them into a package. We are trying to get the gaming community really into this site similar to xbox live and other competitive systems.
You guys have some pretty nice prizes on the site for sure. How about hosting a tournament of some sort for a specific day, say, a saturday around noonish, maybe followed with an evening tourney so people could call and tell their friends. Maybe during the afternoon tournament give out entries to all participants for a big prize in the evening tournament, could be attendance required to win, and possibly put a viral spin on it by giving them a second entry if they get a friend to register, or for each friend they get to register.(I may be talking out of my ass, not sure if that works or if gamers would find that to be spammy.. gamers are a fickle bunch..) In any case, the idea would be to create some buzz in your focus gaming community on a boring saturday and make it a really fun event. World of Warcraft does this with their holiday stuff, and people really seem to get into it.. obviously your site is a totally different genre(FPS vs. MMORPG) Another idea would be if you could get some exclusive prizes or something. Like say, around E3 or some other gaming con, if you could get EA or some other company to offer a one of a kind prize of some sort (autographed gear, pics with their hot chicks, anything "behind the scenes", that sort of thing). You could obviously create some buzz promoting that.
True... I want to get the new design done for the site first though. Right now I feel its junk along with everyone else working on it. We just need a good idea thats easy on the eyes and easier to use. I definately want a viral effect on the contest, so I need to think of a way to get gamers on here. As for game types, we do all and any games. If we dont have your game, you pay $200 a year and we will create it and host it for you to control.
Good Idea... We actually have the screen capture program that you can video tape the computer and such too.
Here's a tip that could bring you in thousands upon thousands of visitors... Make a simple funny video revolving around a game on the site. It's not terribly hard to do, and many of the major sites will probably mention it (possibly even the head site if it's done well). That will establish yourself and act like a press release on fire. Brian