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Thread: [Tips to Gain Players] - How to successfully advertise your game.

  1. #1
    Staff Puppet WTF RPG Staff's Avatar
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    [Tips to Gain Players] - How to successfully advertise your game.

    The older WTF RPG gets, the more members it will have and the more games will be hosted on our site. The more games there are mean the more opportunities you'll have to play something really exciting (which is good!) - but it also means that you may find yourself having trouble attracting members to your exciting rpg!

    What can you do to attract people to your game?

    Here is a list of ways. More will be added in time as effective strategies are added or pointed out.

  2. #2
    Staff Puppet WTF RPG Staff's Avatar
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    * Use the Advertising and Recruitment forum!
    Of course!
    Tip: Make sure all the information a prospective player needs is readily available and/or that you're available to add information or the answers to questions in your first posts so other people can find the answers easily.

    * Use the Character Pool feature!

    The players of these characters are actively looking for a game to play in! Read over the offered bios, making sure that the genre(s)/rating level they select fits your game, and send them a well-worded and welcoming invitation.
    Tip: Make certain you give them whatever they need to know to make their joining your game easy. Provide them a link to your game. If they need to do some edits to their bio, let them know. Be willing to answer any questions they have.

    * Use the "full-featured" rpg system.

    You may prefer to use our forums to play your game, but don't discount that the full-featured rpg system is a great advertising method. The various search options mean that more players will be able to find your game.
    Tip: A good icon and title will go a long way here. Try to find something attention-grabbing for your icon (though any icon is better than the default!) and avoid the urge to 'decorate' your title. Mods will likely remove unnecessary "decoration".

    * Use tags wisely.

    Using good, pertinent tags on your game (whether you are using the full-featured system or the forums) is a sure way to make sure it's easily found by those interested the type of game you're running.
    Tip: Read the Tagging Tips guide.

    * Write a great introduction.

    Don't skimp here and write something lifeless and dull. This is an area where what you say will truly influence whether or not people are excited by your game. What is the potential for your game world? Is it an epic battle between factions? A terrible game of cat and mouse? Does your game offer zany hijinx or romance? If your game were a movie, how would it be described?
    Tip: Don't be tempted to go overboard here, though. If you put too much information here, it may intimidate people who are looking for something that's easy to pick up and understand. Also - don't forget to use good formatting so people can read the information easily! Huge blocks of text are hard to read!

    * Use your signature in the forums (and encourage players in your game to use them too).

    Advertise your game in your signature! If you have a banner, that would be even better! And if you're active in the forums, more people will see your link or banner and might check it out.
    Tip: As tempting as it may be, you probably don't want to require that your players advertise your game. Some people would rather use their signatures for other things. However, offering in-game bonuses for players who advertise for you might be a good compromise. And if you're using a banner - make sure it's a good one and consider changing it every so often.

    * Greet newbies and help out in the Mentoring forum.

    New users to any site are usually very grateful to people who are helpful and pleasant to them when they first start out. Even if a game you're running right now isn't to their tastes, they may remember you and think to send people your way. Or maybe your next game will be up their alley and they'll be happy to join. If you've got a good signature advertisement for your game, you won't even have to point out that you're running a game - they'll probably check it out on their own.
    Tip: Unless they ask if you're running a game or outright say they are seeking a game like what you're running, it's probably better to let your signature and your profile do the work for you. If you give them the impression that the only reason you're chatting with them is to advertise your game, they may not be so keen on joining.

    * Recruit your friends/people you've roleplayed with to the site.

    Now, you may be thinking, "But my friends don't want to play the type of game I need players for - that's why I need players." But don't forget the viral effect of bringing more people to the site. Maybe friends-of-friends would be interested in your game.
    Tip: Don't annoy your friends with constantly trying to get them here. The last thing you want is for your friends to gripe to their friends about it - it might put the friends-of-friends off looking into the site and sabotage the effort you were making in the first place.

    * Advertise your game on game listing services and communities.

    There are various communities out there entirely for advertising your games to get other players. Check out places like LiveJournal or roleplay discussion forums that have no roleplaying areas of their own.
    Tip: Make certain, of course, that you are operating within the rules of the other site! Last thing you want to do is get banned from another site because you didn't check their rules!

    * Make sure your game is active.

    This is especially important! Active games advertise themselves. Most of the RP listing categories actually sort by activity - or sort out those games that are inactive.

    Most people are leery of joining a game if it doesn't seem active. Why put all that effort into researching the game and writing up a bio if the game dies by the time they get in? If you can't post every day, try to make sure your players can be active enough to help carry the game.
    Tip: Make sure any activity requirements you have are reasonable. People who might otherwise be interested in your game may pass it over if they feel like they'll be ejected from the game if they get busy with work/school/family or go out with friends on a whim.

    * Get Featured!

    There are two ways to go about this.

    The easiest way, of course is to donate. Just throw some money at us to keep the site alive and self-sufficient and your game will land on the rotating banner up top, shown to everyone on the site in traffic-heavy areas. No hassle. Just straight to the top.

    The second way is to build a darn good game and hope the staff pick it.
    Tip: Read the Getting Featured Guide.
    Please do not send this account PMs/etc. It is not monitored daily by staff and does not accept PMs/etc.

  3. #3
    Staff Puppet WTF RPG Staff's Avatar
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    Have an idea of drawing attention to your rpgs that's not mentioned above?

    Think that we're crazy for thinking a suggestion is a good one or think you could improve an existing suggestion?

    Feel free to leave your comments here. The guide will be edited from time to time to include new suggestions or alter existing ones.
    Please do not send this account PMs/etc. It is not monitored daily by staff and does not accept PMs/etc.

  4. #4
    Member Spring-heeled Jack's Avatar
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    I took the advice found here and found a few LiveJournal communities to advertise in. I think it would be more effective in attracting new users to the site (and hopefully trickle down to the game or games I run) if others also had easy access to these communities, so I'm posting them here.

    I did not advertise at all of these, but did join "just in case" I ran a game like that in the future.

    Highly recommended you read all information in the "User Profile" section before joining/posting to avoid doing something against their rules. Also highly recommend looking at the ads posted to get ideas of how to make more attractive posts.




    General RP Advertising Communities
    community.livejournal.com/_rpg_ads_/
    community.livejournal.com/__rpg_ads/
    distinctrpgads.livejournal.com/
    i-wanna-rp-now.livejournal.com/
    non-multifandom.livejournal.com/
    players-wanted.livejournal.com/
    role-play-ads.livejournal.com/
    rp-promo.livejournal.com/
    rp-promotions.livejournal.com/
    rp-want-ads.livejournal.com/
    rpads.livejournal.com/
    rpers.livejournal.com/
    rpg-classifieds.livejournal.com/
    rpg-connect.livejournal.com/
    rpg-list.livejournal.com/
    rpg-promo.livejournal.com/
    rpg-promote.livejournal.com/
    rpgcharacterads.livejournal.com/
    slash-rpg-ads.livejournal.com/


    Original Setting RP Advertising Communities
    imadethisrpg.livejournal.com
    original-rpgs.livejournal.com/


    Original Character Advertising Communities
    oc-friendly-rpg.livejournal.com/
    oc-rpgads.livejournal.com/
    onlyoriginalrpg.livejournal.com/

    Genre-Specific RP Advertising Communities
    animerpgpromo.livejournal.com/
    comicsrpwantads.livejournal.com/


    Pen and Paper/Tabletop-Based RP Advertising Communities
    pnp-rpgs.livejournal.com/


    Special-Interest RP Advertising Communities
    slash-rpg-ads.livejournal.com/




    TIPS:
    * Use several different banner images, colors, words. Variety in your ad will attract different people and may get someone who ignored it in another community to pay attention to it this time.

    (More after I figure out what works and what doesn't.)
    This here is Satan, - we might say the devil, but that ain't right, and gennelfolks don't like such words. He is now commonly called 'Spring-heeled Jack;' or the 'Rossian Bear,' - that's since the war.
    Henry Mayhew

  5. #5
    Administrator Maneki Neko's Avatar
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    Oh, wow. Thanks, Jack! That's such a huge list.

    When I make a proper game, I'll use this as a handy reference to promote it. :3 Thank you!
    Maneki Neko
    "To respect the (shark)cat is the beginning of the aesthetic sense."
    - Erasmus Darwin

  6. #6
    I will use this as soon as I finish making the foundations of my rp!

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