ENWorld Advertising

[PosterBoy]

I'll share another phenomenon I've noticed. I can't tell you why this works, but I've seen it work several times. I think Bastion were the first people to do it here, but I've seen a few others use the tactic since.

Basically, instead of buying X impressions and running a banner until they run out, buy X impressions, run four simultaneous banners, each allocated X/4 impressions. The advertising runs out quicker, but, for some reason, the number of click-thrus is significantly higher.

As I said, I don't know why that works, but it seems to.

That's a really good idea. Can you weight your banners? Then you could control how fast the impressions are used.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

As I said, I don't know why that works, but it seems to.

Variance breeds interest. I'm wondering if the same result would occur if an advertiser used an animated gif, but made one transition advertise one product/aspect and the other transition advertise something else, effectively have two entirely different ads in one. Has anyone ever tried that here to your knowledge? If so, do you remember how well it worked?

 

[Lichtenhart]

The problem with such a location is that the closer to the bottom of a page you get, the less likely it is your ad will be seen. When I'm looking through the forums, there are often final posts where I never see the quick reply window due to long sigs or similar reasons.

It could be that way, but I'm likely to press the post reply or the quote button just at the bottom of the page, that are below even the longest sig, and I would surely notice a banner there, whereas if I scroll quickly I can miss the banner at the top.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

It could be that way, but I'm likely to press the post reply or the quote button just at the bottom of the page, that are below even the longest sig, and I would surely notice a banner there, whereas if I scroll quickly I can miss the banner at the top.

Perhaps inline directly with the bottom line of the final post so that it's even with the final reply and quote buttons?

 

[Lichtenhart]

Perhaps inline directly with the bottom line of the final post so that it's even with the final reply and quote buttons?

Sure, that would work. Maybe at the top and the bottom between the post reply button and the page numbers?

 

[Sledge]

what the?!?! There's an ad on the forums? I never noticed it before now.... so that's why I can scroll to the right.

 

[Conaill]

Two thoughts regarding banner ads...

1) As a consumer, I rarely bother with ads that take waaay too long to get to their point. I have better things to do than watch an add that takes 10 seconds or more before you even see the name of the product. That's probably one reason why the Advancing Hordes banner does so well compared to some others. The Adventure Quest banner is essentially two stand-alone banners that alternate, so that works well too. As for Dundjinni... well it helps that they have some real nice eye candy to keep my attention long enough to sit through the whole thing...

2) I don't see *any* banners, since I'm using the Stealth skin. Considering this is one of the few money makers for EN World, would it be fair to charge community supporters for the ability to turn off the ads altogether? Alternatively, perhaps the ads could be displayed at 1/2 size in Stealth mode. That's probably enough to avoid your boss looking over your shoulder.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Basically, instead of buying X impressions and running a banner until they run out, buy X impressions, run four simultaneous banners, each allocated X/4 impressions. The advertising runs out quicker, but, for some reason, the number of click-thrus is significantly higher.

When I first started advertising Grim Tales, I sent Morrus (with permission) a link to my own server, where I hosted (and randomly served) one of six different ads-- one for each Hero (Strong, Fast, Tough, etc.)

This was the ad that said, "Every world needs heroes... Are you [Strong/Fast/Tough/etc.] enough?"

I don't know how effective it was (sales-wise) as Grim Tales was not actually available when I started advertising. I really do it more to raise consciousness than to drive my own web sales.

Worked at least once, I guess.


Wulf

 

[Morrus]

When I first started advertising Grim Tales, I sent Morrus (with permission) a link to my own server, where I hosted (and randomly served) one of six different ads

Yep, that's always a good option. Hosting the banner yourself means you can quickly chop and change it at the drop of a hat without replying on email contact with me.

 

[Roudi]

If I remember correctly, yours was the banner which didn't come through in the attachment? I recall talking to you about it and you sending me a link to the banner hosted on your own server. I then set the banner running and sent you the link to track it (that was on Saturday 28th).

If you need the stats, let me know - I can copy them and send them to you via email (your login to the ad system won't show anything now, since the banner has run its course).

Ah... I never received the mail concerning the banner tracking. That seems to be the root of the problem. I'll send you mail concerning the banner stats shortly.

Now... to touch on BSF's earlier comments:

Well, the banner in my sig is slightly different than the ad banner - one meets the 30kb requirements for ad banners, the other doesn't. It's completely unnecessary to buy banner ad space for what is, essentially, a non-profit product that I promote heavily through other means, but I wanted to expose MODERNIZED to people who might not frequent the message board.

The sig has been as such for over a month now. It's only been linked to the website since release day, August 23rd.

While nothing for MODERNIZED appeared in the main page Daily News section, press releases for MODERNIZED were posted in the PDF Publishing sidebars on the right side of the page, as well as in forums on RPGHost and 12tomidnight.com.

Your feedback is very valuable, but I think you're missing one major factor here... MODERNIZED is free. We're not selling it... at least, we're trying to promote it like we're selling it, but not charging money for it. I suppose customer - vendor interation still applies here, but to say the least, we're an unconventional case.

Though I've found your feedback on the banner's content to be very valuable. In truth, I was really going more for the attempt to inspire curiosity, but that appears to be less effective than stating directly what we are. I'll talk to my graphic designer and see what we can come up with as we prepare our next issue.