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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ironvyper" data-source="post: 4338446" data-attributes="member: 59739">I think that renting gaming tables and internet access is probably the key to being successful. However as someone who has been gaming for years and never gamed at a store maybe listing the reasons why i never wanted to play at any store before could give you a better idea what keeps people from doing so and help you to work on those things...1. Privacy. I like to run semi-mature games and horror themed games. Theres nothing worse for your sense of suspense or immersion then someone wandering over and asking you what game your playing and if they can sit in or watch. I've had players bring SO's to in-home games do this and its terrible for the enviroment, i cant imagine how hard it must be in a public or semi-public venue. 2. Grownup time. Gaming for me is grown up time to relax and forget about work and the kids for a few hours. Just to sort of re-live being a free teenager with some friends and having fun. We all usually have a 6 pack when we game or more and no one does much to  watch their language or character behavior. That sense of being able to totally relax and just have fun seems like it would be seriously inhibited by playing in a business. 3. Food. When we game everyone usually chips in for pizza or some other take out and brings snacks. Ordering a pizza to a store thats in the middle of business hours seems.... inappropriate.          On to more positive things though. As someone whose spent years working in sales and marketing i can offer some advice.    Optimize your website for search engines. Its not hard to find companies to optimize you for 50$ to 100$ rather then the 2 or 3 thousand others charge. I say this because i tried just for curiosity googling your site. My results are          "game stores in fairlawn nj."   Your meetup group came up #5, the stores site isnt on the first page at all.      "gaming stores in fairlawn nj." Again your meetup.com group comes up at the top but no listing for the site itself.      "dungeons and dragons stores in fairlawn nj"  Meetup.com group. but not the site itself. Also #4 on the search results is a 4e demo from windows.       With different combinations this is repeated over and over. Its good to have a meetup.com group and its good to have it listed. But lots of people who might buy books from you aren't looking for a meetup, they have a group already or just don't want to join another site online so wont even click on it.       Having a website is nice, but if your not optimized to where your site actually comes up if people run a search for what you offer its really not going to do you any good. Its the same as having a store off a dark alley in the ghetto wont get you walk ins or paying for commercials on the golf channel at 2am wont get you business. Your website in this age of business is both your commercial and your business location. It has to be treated as such and set up to where people will find you.     Looking over your website i noticed a few things too. Your online store needs to be set up and opened ASAP. You can incorporate your knowledgeable customer service by posting your own reviews of everything on your site. Try to get your employees and currently loyal customers to do the same. Then you can create a more interactive ordering enviroment and by being a local store your more likely to have people who glance at it want to come in and chat about games because they saw how active your site is. Once they're in your store they're at the mercy of your salespeople. Along those lines try to get some of the people who game at your store to put up story hours in your forums and post any openings they have for players. Make yourself a community spot online and its more likely to follow in person.      Also theres some dead links on your home page. Anything thats "coming soon" should be "coming down" because it makes it look like your under construction, not a finished store and website. Its better to have less listed but have what is up be fully fleshed out and supported then having a bunch of good ideas that arent done. It makes people glance at your site and think to themselves "oh its still under construction. I'll check back in a few weeks" and then it slips their mind and they never do. Its like having an empty store shelf, you always keep your shelves faced so that customers think your a well organized and stocked store that does lots of business. Same thing with your website, dead links are the same as blank shelves. Makes it look unfinished and disorganized. And post pictures, just look how many peoples responses here involved stores being dingy,dark and disorganized. It sounds like yours isn't so show that off.      BTW if any of that sounded snarky or sarcastic i didnt mean it to. I do most of my business presentations face to face, not being able to insert jokes, body language and tone of voice detracts from the freindly presentation of ideas. but it was all in good intention.</blockquote>

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