Its a great niche to get into, I recommend you atleast try. Btw: If you're looking for a good domain guarenteed to bring some easy traffic, check out my auction. Its going very cheap at the moment. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=628550
I recommend phpArcadeScript. You can start out with shared hosting, but successful sites will quickly need a VPS. Estimated cost: $50 startup, $25/month once you get going.
I use PhpArcadeScript and setup is around $40 and the hosting afterwards is around $7 a month if you don't get a VPS.
I have 3 small arcades. My biggest is KingdomArcade.com. I am promoting it now that I make about $100 per month and SEO is doing great so far. I can't wait until schools start again. Except then I will have to go back too
I am the proud owner of two Arcades. One site drivinggame.net is simply a experimental website I run. I use it to attempt risky advertising and promotions so that I can find out if it's safe to do for my main arcade site. So far it hasn't been banned by anything so it's doing well. As for the big one EchoArcade.com I can say a lot for it. It is a cookie cutter. It runs from a FREE script and uses 1300 games by miniclips, and other evil competitors. The site is powerful in revenue, traffic, pr, and backlinks. A couple months ago I started noticing that traffic was comming in from random visitors linking it on their myspace, blogs, facebooks, sites, and directories on their own. Now it's unbelievably stable and continuing to increase. It's at the point where I don't bother to promote becuase there is already so many people linking it that there's no point for me to bother with that. It runs on adsense, kontera, CJ.com, and PPC(banners). The keywords it has a force in are pretty good too. It took a lot of work but eventually it paid off. Online games, driving games, stickman games, and airplane games are some of the 50+ As for my other sites........struggling.
Remember... You should know when some people quote high traffic stats, they also own a banner exchange which they can easily syphon traffic from. The traffic is real, but many times the advice does not disclose this fact. Want to know the truth regarding traffic? 1. Find the keywords and wether or not they are in the top 10 on search engines. 2. IF not in top 10 THEN find the HIGH VALUE links the site has.. that is, a link to the arcade on very high traffic site. 3. Sometimes you just cant know without looking at the referrer report. Because its easy to buy thousands of hits a day. I said EASY not CHEAP. You can also drive thousands from social bookmarking. Of course there are always other factors. I will be starting a thread soon on my new service for SEO Analysis. If you are clueless about your SEO status this is for you. I will tell you where you are at, why you are there, what you may be doing wrong, what others are doing better than you and what you need to do to improve your situation. If you want to try my beta service for $10.00 let me know. thx
The only truly free script I know for arcades is Av Arcade. That is definitely the one he is using. Does anyone know any others?
Hey people Inspired by this thread and thanks to FIVE539 I started my own arcade. Gamerub.com Gimme tips.
I am looking to start my own arcade and I would be interested in knowing whether there are any free scripts available? Also are there any free games?
It's Called AV arcade. The support is crappy and the script is a total mess when you get it, but if you optimize the adsense, clean up the site, and try to cool off all of the cross sql callings, then its ok. Tip: Submit to 10,000 directories in the span of a year. 4000 free directory list. It will secure a lot of traffic for the future.
I have 2 very very small arcades, I don't really have the time to spend on them, working on more profitable niches. When I started them I didn't realize how much competition was really out there & the bandwidth they can consume, I'll have to keep an eye on this thread.
A friend of mine talked about opening one of these sites but the idea never got past the stages of looking for a domain name. This thread is just what I needed get me moving. As a complete newbie I appreciate any pointers you guys have. Are the games hard to install?
the games are pretty easy to find and install i would and would not reccomnd a game pack if your gonna spend load time on doing ur arcade dnt buy them add new manual popular games game packs normally have crappy games on. phpas script is the best easy to work with easy to desgin av is crap but its free when u own a arcade banner exchange does help if its a decent size one. Im selling my smakller one atm www.arcadeexchanges.com on a east pro banner $250 anyone intrested msn with arcade sites there is loads a competetion lots a poele are willing to help you. my starting guide for any noob that goona start a arcade is to make one degsin it. join lots exchanges buy some traffic 1000uv a day for a couplem months wokr on linking to other iste with game plugs once traffic is steady then work on seo and back links all it takes is lots of hard work My big site is now getting around 25k plays everyday its bring the bacon home anyone wnating to send me around 50-100 vistors a day can get a link and a game plug from me just conatct me aim or msn aim is kenplayarcade thanks
Great thread ! I don't own an arcade, but i'm planning to lauch one soon. I already bought the domain and am currently custom-coding the site. I hope I get here some ideas on how to promote a new arcade.
Has anyone's earnings picked up since the holidays began? Mine have slashed into a quarter, and there's no hint of recovery.
Presently, I run one games site, Eskimo Arcade www.eskimo.com/games/ It really started accidentally as an offshoot to my ISP web page I put a few games up for my customers and my own amusement but overtime it gained popularity so I kept adding and redesigning. It is entirely hand coded, no out of the box scripts, etc. Now it has become a significant source of exposure for my ISP products and generates some adsense revenue, so I'm trying to build it up more. Looking for link exchanges with other game sites, or game related blogs, etc. I'm also working on a new site but it's nowhere close to ready yet.