Hi everyone. What are my options for banner advertising? I only know about Game Tunnel's banner system. Are there any gamer specific banner services out there? Any idea of costs?
Game Xtazy looks good for games and it looks like they have a portal also. I've never tried it so I can't be too sure.
GameXtazy didn't work for me. I payed $20 for 2 days, but because of the laziness of the staff I got an extra 2 days (they forgot to remove my ad I guess). I was at the top of the shooter category so I expected a good CR. 400 downloads and 0 sales. Of course my game could just suck, but on other portals such as BigFish Im getting more like 1.5%. GameXtazy seems to be a mix of portal and directory, which possibly explains the low CR. Eitherway its worth a shot, 20 bucks Isn't really a huge loss.
How does one get on the banners for some of the larger gaming websites that are out there? Do I need to go to each site and email them, or do they farm that service out?
Generally you ahve to email. Often you have to pester. I got quite good results on gamealbum.com once when my game was featured for a month. Bytten will soon have cheaper banner ads. Mark
I'm very interested in this thread, but I was hoping for more sites to be named. So far, we have: gametunnel (recommended by me) GameXtazy (mixed results) gamealbum (strange, I don't see banner ads here) Bytten (cheaper ads soon) I would like to add: Google AdWords (frustrating but ultimately worth it) What about a few high-popularity comic sites? I've seen several games advertised at various times on PvP Online Sluggy Freelance With PvP you have to request a press kit. For sluggy, the prices are listed here. Oh, hey, it looks like DIY Games takes banner ads, too. Has anyone here used them before? I would really love some more feedback on this topic. I want to spend another $100-200 on advertising right away and I'm not sure where to put it. I'm at a loss for sites particularly appealing to people who buy indie games. The game I want to advertise (Outpost Kaloki) has a good conversion rate on our own site these days but sells badly on typical big portals, partly because it's not a puzzle game. Thanks!
Stay, your post inspired me to check out a few sites that I like to visit myself. I found a few more to add... Moby Games HOTU The Review Outpost Thanks for your links. I have added them to my own list of places to contact when we get rolling.
Ignore PVP Online, several times I've emailed them having seen the press kit and asking for adverts to be done and shown, happy to pay the quoted price for them. They didnt bother replying. I also had a PVP banner on my site once, they said email them if you do this and you get some free stuff, again no reply. Its a funny cartoon (sometimes) but the guy doesn't give a damn about answering email.
You have to be *extremely* careful with banner ads, some sites, don't hesitate to sell lets say 100k impressions, but by the time you realise they are only chinese or israeli impressions it's too late... Do your homework very carefully before buying. ( contact previous buyers etc.. ) pat.
Thanks, all. I shouldn't be surprised about PvP. Funny comic, but I've found I'm much happier with it when I don't read anything else on the site. I double-checked on Bytten's prices, and they seem very high (currently $150 for 4 weeks), so reduced pricing there will be a good thing. However, they do offer free guest links with a small image. It turns out that DIY Games does take advertising and has reasonable prices (currently $20/month banner, $30/month tower), which I found out by e-mailing the owner, Greg. I'm pretty sure I'll go ahead and do that one. I am doing more research. I hope to post again to this thread before too long with more information.