Still, I wonder why Chase required me to enroll in this program. Why did they not just enroll all card holders in the program and inform them of the fact? According to Chase, enrollment was necessary in order to properly distribute bonuses. That seems specious, since they know everything I do with their card. How else would they bill me?

Clearly, Chase gets more loyalty out of customers who know they are getting an added bonus. You can’t really make that your message to your community, though, can you?

Or can you?

Could Chase have told people the reason, the real reason? Could they then have used that as an opportunity to encourage those customers to tell their friends and family about Chase VISA?

One problem with hiding your motives is that you can’t talk about them. Being transparent about your motives frees you to follow up with a clear call to action.

What do you think?

In 2007, I became aware of the One Laptop Per Child project. Of particular interest to me was the mobile ad hoc networking technology the it employed, allowing each laptop to act as a node, routing packets to other laptops in the network without a need for a base station. Since then, I’ve been wondering how such technology could help our mobile communications networks.

In September 2007, the BBC reported that Swedish company TerraNet AB planned to use mobile ad hoc network (MANET) technology to create a “new way of making calls directly between phones, for free.” While free telephony is certainly attractive, what excites me about this development is the move toward a ‘living’ telecom backbone, once that can survive catastrophic events like the attacks of 9/11.

All systems have weaknesses. Take the power grid in the United States, for example. “Our analysis indicates that major disruption can result from loss of as few as two percent of the grid’s substations,” said Reka Albert, assistant professor of physics at Penn State, who led a research team studying the issue in 2004 (source).

Our telephony infrastructure certainly has similar weaknesses. I wonder how initiatives, like those undertaken by TerraNet, would revolutionize the way we communicate. I wonder how the broad dissemination of MANET technology would effect the survivability of our telephony systems. And I wonder why we’re not seeing more of this technology from major operators and providers.

TerraNet’s founder, Anders Carlius, had this to say to the BBC back in 2007: “One of the biggest things against us is that the big operators and technology providers are really pushing against us, saying this technology doesn’t work and it doesn’t have a business model.” I hope they’ve changed their minds over the last three years.

What do you think?

Image (c) One Laptop Per Child

When I’m on the road, I rely on my Flip. You can get a Flip UltraHD Camcorder (Affiliate Link) for under $150. I’ve even seen the non-HD ones for under $100 at Walmart and Target. When I compare this to the $500+ I paid for my Marantz recorder, the Flip is a steal.

I love the Flip for a number of reasons:

(1) Compact. You can fit it in your pocket. You can’t say the same for more robust, specialized equipment.

(2) Audio Quality. The Flip has a directional stereo microphone. You record what’s in front of you, and don’t have to worry too much about background noise leaking in from the side or behind.

(3) Ease of Use. The Flip comes with video editing software on it. You don’t need it on your computer. Just pop out the USB port, plug it into your laptop, and you’re good to go.

I especially like the Flip for audio podcasting. When I’m on the road, I record my audio using the Flip, strip the audio into an MP3 using Format Factory (freeware), then add in intros and bumpers using Audacity (freeware). FileZilla (also freeware) is my FTP program of choice, in case you’re wondering how I get the finished audio up to the web.

So there it is: Flip + Format Factory + Audacity + FileZilla. Podcasting that can fit in your pocket, and almost any budget.

As an aside, I’ve also used my iPhone as a mobile podcasting platform. The Voice Memo feature is decent, in a pinch, and you can run the audio through Format Factory and Audacity if you want to pump out MP3s for your podcast. An iPhone is a little more expensive than a Flip, though, so while it qualifies as ‘more compact’ it doesn’t win on price. And… you can’t do video (yet) with your iPhone.

Guest:

Mentioned:
* http://chattydm.net/
* http://www.perf.etsmtl.ca/
* http://twistimage.com/
* http://www.paxsite.com/paxeast/

There are over 2,000 Third Tribe accounts right now. When you have that many highly motivated entrepreneurs in a closed community, the one thing you will not lack is conversation. Third Tribe is new, but I can already see that the volume of ideas and opportunities can quickly overwhelm.

Chris Brogan said it himself, when he wrote, “I can’t keep up.” (NOTE: Chris was not talking about Third Tribe, but about the demands on his time in general.)

$47 for access to people with “big brain” seemed like a good deal, so I became a member and tested the Third Tribe. Some of the classes have been interesting, but I do not think I will renew my membership. The community is just too large for me.

I fear it may be too large for the founders as well. If the goal is to create a self-helping community with some guidance from on high, they may succeed. However, if the goal is to give meaningful attention to Third Tribe members, I do not think the Tribe will live up to expectations, regardless of how talented the founders are.

I wish the Third Tribe was smaller. I’m sure I am not the only one that would pay $150 per month, if that meant being one of 500 people with direct access to the people at the top. I might even part with $300 per month, if that meant the Tribe was half-again as small – because it would likely then be twice as useful for me.

One of the features I use extensively within Gmail is Groups. By creating these lists within my contacts, I can track who I met at Gnomedex, or who listens to RPG Countdown. I can easily see if someone falls into multiple categories, which helps me when I’m in contact with them. This is important if, like me, you have over 10,000 people in your address book.

The one thing I haven’t had – the one thing I’ve been looking for – is a way to see where my contacts are in my social graph. When I’m talking with a fellow podcaster, it’d be nice to know if they are on Facebook so I can attempt to connect with them there. Until now, I’ve been playing this game by ear, relying on my ability to spot holes in my social graph and plugging them manually.

Today, I found rapportive.

When I open an email from someone, rapportive allows me to see which social networks they participate in. It easily allows me to note if I am connected with them, so that I can take steps to reach out if I am not.

Rapportive isn’t perfect. It relies on plumbing account data based on the addresses in your contact list, so if you don’t have the right email on file you won’t get all the data available on someone. Likewise, if your contact hasn’t maintained their social profiles, the data you get may be out of date. Still, this is a wonderful, and free, tool to help with CRM.

Example URL: http://ephealy.com/sample-blog-post

Let’s say I want to tack on a tracking code for Facebook before feeding it to a Facebook page so that traffic resulting from Facebook can be tracked. Example Facebook URL: http://ephealy.com/sample-blog-post?tid=12345

And let’s say I have a different code for Twitter that I’d like to tack on before bit.ly takes over and the update feeds to a Twitter account. Example Twitter URL: http://ephealy.com/sample-blog-post?tid=67890

Is there a service that can handle this type of thing? I’d love to hear from you, if you know the answer.

I’m tired of this up and down, connected and unconnected, lifestyle. I just spent 5 minutes staring at my screen, considering it’d feel to take a baseball bat and smash it all: computer, desk, lamp, white board… everything. Unfortunately, smashing my computer isn’t going to solve anything.

Service providers are the bane of my existence, and the current culprit is Comcast. When AT&T can provide better coverage for my iPhone than the company that has a static line running into my very home, there is a problem. AT&T, the company that can’t seem to provide consistent coverage for an hour drive to Seattle. And don’t get me started on Verizon and their willingness to sacrifice years of customer loyalty over stupid billing errors.

I don’t want your day of free service. It does me no good when there’s no service.

I don’t want $15 or $30 off my bill for the next six months.

I want to pay the full price and have internet access.

Read The Article: How Not to Hurry

It reminds me of a song by Poi Dog Pondering called The Ancient Egyptians. (like launches iLike preview)

My grand mother once told me that she liked to keep life simple. I balked at her then, but learned the wisdom of those words as time went by. Lately, it seems I’m forgetting the lessions I already learned.

Another song to mellow me out…

In January 2009, I had the same problem. Instead of trying to figure out which ones to keep and which to ditch, I killed them all and started from scratch. My current bookmarks all grew naturally over last year, and I even tracked the sites I visited most often during 2009.

It’s 2010, though, so I’ve decided to refine my list again. Here’s how it looks:

* http://ephealy.com/: My home page. I have to verify that it’s working and that my new posts make it up, so naturally it’s on top.
* http://gamecryer.com/: My game review site, which I update every third day, or so.
* http://www.warpigradio.com/: My radio station, which I update weekly.

* http://www.timeanddate.com/: I obsessively check this, watching the days tick down until I’m free and clear of the Army. Come 15 November, Uncle Sam won’t hold sway over me. Until then, this link gets checked far more often than I care to admit.
* http://twitter.com/: I still use the website just as much as my Twitter client (twihl).
* http://www.facebook.com/: Outside my own sites, Facebook is my primary outreach tool. Very powerful. Very important to me.

* http://www.google.com/admanager/: For administering my advertising network.
* http://www.google.com/analytics/: For monitoring my sites.
* http://feedburner.google.com/: For monitoring my feeds.

* http://www.hulu.com/: Where I waste time and burn brain cells.

* http://atomicarray.com/: The bi-weekly gaming podcast I co-host.
* http://rpgcountdown.com/: Casey Kasem meets Roleplaying Games.

* http://www.rpg.net/
* http://www.enworld.org/
* http://paizo.com/
* http://www.geekdo.com/
* http://www.niftymessageboard.com/
* http://werecabbages.com/
* http://www.koboldquarterly.com/

* http://dupontchurchofchrist.org/

Everything else gets deleted. Who knows what sites 2010 will bring to my attention; I guess we’ll find out in 12 months!

If you would like to advertise in either of these great periodicals in the future, you will need to contact Wolfgang Baur and Joseph Goodman, respectively.

I want to thank everyone here that I’ve been able to meet because of my time representing these magazines, and I especially want to thank Wolfgang and Joseph for their friendship and the opportunity to work with them.

Google Local is important for website traffic for local businesses. If you’ve already submitted your shop, good job. If not, make sure you’re listed.

IDEA: Sponsor game days at the local library. Bring in some games and demonstrate them. Don’t sell anything, just give people fliers with directions to your store (and the website) and a coupon good for a small discount. The flier will remind people where you are and help them get there. The coupon will help you track how many people came to you via the library.

While at the library, put a sheet so that people can sign up for updates from you about future events, both at the store and elsewhere. The important things you want are name and email address. With the email address, you can find out if they are on Twitter and Facebook, and invite them to join your fan page if they are. Don’t spam these people, just let them know you will keep them informed and do just that.

Bring games that are easy to learn and easy to play without a lot of explanation (FLUXX, for instance). You can bring an RPG if you like, but I would focus on family-friendly games. Leave the hard-core stuff for game conventions.

This idea was influenced by a talk I had with Scott Nicholson from Board Games with Scott. You can hear the whole discussion here.

IDEA: Find out if there are game clubs at local schools. Talk with publishers about sponsoring these clubs through you. Ask them to donate a couple copies of their games for this purpose. Put your store logo and website, etc on the boxes (a big sticker on the inside of the of the lid _and_ the back of the box / book would do fine) so people can find you. Treat these clubs like you do the library game days…

Ask the club leader to offer members a special discount card that gives them a small discount at the store. All they need to do is come to the store and pick one up – in exchange for their name and email address, of course (see above).

Keep in touch with the groups. Invite them to parties at the store. If you have two or three, maybe have club-on-club tournaments or competitions. Encourage the members to come in and demo games in the store so that they can breed new gamers for their clubs (and new customers for you).

IDEA: People that live in your area visit websites from time to time. Consider purchasing advertising that is only targeted to people that live in your area.

Victoria Comic Convention (Victoria BC)
http://www.victoriacomicconvention.com/

NeonCon (Las Vegas, NV)
http://www.neoncon.com/

Emerald City Gamefest (Kenmore, WA)
http://emeraldcitygamefest.org/

OryCon (Portland, Oregon)
http://www.orycon.org/

There is.

Step #1: Click on the Home Page

Step #2: Hover over the right hand side of one of the updates in your news feed until you see the Hide option

Step #3: Click on on the Hide option and select the option to hide the person whose update you’ve selected

Step #4: Select ‘View Live Feed’ (Upper Left)

Step #5: Select ‘Edit Options’ (Bottom Right, near Footer)

Step #6: In the dialog that pops up, unhide the person you ‘hid’ in Step #3 (above), and then change the number of friends in the bottom left.

That’s it. You’re done.

http://ephealy.com/transparentgames005.MP3

http://ephealy.com/transparentgames004.MP3

John,

At some point, we should have a little chat about ‘boring business stuff’—stuff like how we’re going to handle money, whether we’re going to pay for any contributions, or whether we’re going to look for people to share profits. Before we bring someone like Jess on, we should figure out, at least in part, how we’re going to split dollar bills.

Any thoughts on this?

- Ed

http://ephealy.com/transparentgames003.MP3

http://ephealy.com/transparentgames002.MP3

http://ephealy.com/transparentgames001.MP3

My girls went to the dentist today—and loved it. They came home telling stories about ‘the fun dentist’, and asking when they could go back.

What can we learn from my girls’ dentist?

(1) First impressions set the tone: When I was a kid, the waiting room at my dentist included a windowless paneled wall, a couple chairs, and a Mr. Potato Head (missing most of the pieces). As soon as my girls walked into their dentist, they were greeted by a huge fish tank—not doubt inspired by Nemo—and a cache of toys, surrounded by a bright, colorful, warm environment. Where I was off balance and on edge, their waiting room said, “Get ready, kiddo. It’s time to have fun.”

(2) Establish rapport: When it was time to bring the girls in for their check-up, they weren’t sent down a creepy hallway to a lonely room where they had to sit all alone for 20 minutes. Instead, a dental hygienist sat them down and, pulling out a tray of multi-colored nail polish, proceeded to paint their nails in rainbow hue. For a young girl, what’s more fun than having a young woman spend 10 minutes making you feel special?

(3) Involvement removes fear: Familiarity may well breed contempt, but it can also allay fears. After getting their X-rays, the girls were given miniature version of the X-ray photo to keep. When the dentist looked them over, she had the girls follow along on their own copy. All those machines and strange tools were, all of a sudden, not as scary.

(4) Entertain: The lights at the dentist have to be bright. They are really really bright. It’s one of the most annoying things about dental visits. Not here… the girls were given—to keep—special flowery sun glasses to wear while they were in the chair. They pretended to be at the beach.

Oh, and before poking around in their mouth, the dentist brushed glitter on their now-dry nails and let them pick out sticker highlights as well.

And when they came home, they were sent off with a bag full of cavity-fighting lollipops, gum, ‘special toothpaste’ and new Dora toothbrushes.

The extra attention may have added 15 minutes to the visit. The gifts may have added $5 to the bill. The joy and excitement in my girls’ after experiencing something that terrified me as a child?

Here’s a peak at the madness:

This Just In…From GenCon 2009! Pre-show #2:
On the second pre-show episode of This Just In From GenCon 2009, I joined Ryan Macklin to talk about convention survival.

Diana Jones Awards: I was proud to sponsor this year’s award. Dominion walked away with the well-deserved recognition.

Day 1

Atomic Array: Gen Con 2009 Special Edition I: Paizo Publishing, 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming and Mongoose Publishing.

I took some nifty videos as well. If you’d like to check them out, hook up with me on Facebook.

Day 2

Atomic Array: Gen Con 2009 Special Edition II: Mongoose Publishing, Terra/Sol Games and Paizo Publishing.

Pathfinder RPG (Atomic Array 029): Jason Bulmahn talks about the new rules. James Jacobs and Wes Schneider talk about Council of Thieves, the first AP using the new Pathfinder RPG.

Day 3

Atomic Array: Gen Con 2009 Special Edition III: In addition to our normal coverage, Brandon Hodge continues to get us interesting ‘gamer at the con’ quotes.

This Just In…From GenCon 2009! Saturday 5pm: I cohosted an episode of This Just in… with Ryan Macklin and had a blast. Guests Eddy Webb (White Wolf Publishing) and Brennan Taylor (Indie Press Revolution) were awesome.

Day 4

Atomic Array: Gen Con 2009 Special Edition IV: Paizo and Mongoose and Fat Dragon Games and more quotes.

RPG Countdown: Best of 2008 Special: We’ve counted down the 100 hottest selling digital RPG products of 2008 – 25 each day. On Sunday, we reached #1!

If not now then when
Tracy Chapman, “If Not Now…”

On a recent episode of Atomic Array, we featured Geist: The Sin-Eaters, the new storytelling game from White Wolf Publishing. I like many things about the game, but the one I keep coming back to is the tag line: “A Game of Second Chances.”

Part of the intrigue in Geist: The Sin-Eaters surrounds the question, “If you came back from the dead with a second lease on life, what is the most important thing you’d want to accomplish?” This is the very question we posed to the Atomic Array audience for that episode’s giveaway. The responses we’ve received vary from comical entertainment to open-hearted introspection, all very good. While we’ll be announcing the winner on our August 14th show, there’s another question that grew out of my experience with this game, and my review of the entries, that I can’t shake:

Why wait?

If you can put your finger on that one thing you’d like to accomplish—that one task as yet undone that you would focus on if given a second chance—why not go for it? You’re not dead. While you still draw breath, you have time.

This is your second chance. The past is dead and gone; you cannot change it. Today is a new day and the beginning of your new life. This is your second chance. Use it.

We mention:
* Pathfinder RPG from Paizo Publishing (Check out the video preview of the book!)
* Eclipse Phase from Catalyst Game Labs and CthulhuTech from WildFire LLC
* Geist: The Sin-Eaters from White Wolf
* Fantasy Flight Games
* Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)
* Days of Wonder
* Hero Games & Champions Online

If you want to bring me some Girl Scout Cookies, I’ll be at the Saturday 5pm show. Bring Tagalongs! (Tip: Dairy Queen has Girl Scout Cookie Blizzards. I’m just sayin’…)

It’s easy to see how iPods and file-sharing services are killing off the market for hard copies of music CDs. But, RPGs are books. They play more by the rules that govern that industry and the fact remains that most people still like to hold their books in their hands. Stacks of sliced-up dead trees aren’t very portable – you can’t fit 1,000 of them in your pocket – but ‘screen resolution’ is never an issue. And while the new ebook readers will certainly solve this issue eventually, for now there is no way to replicate the experience of holding a book in your hands. Most people simply prefer printed books.

For RPG publishers intent on reaching more than a few hundred gamers, this means that local retailers are very important. They represent – for now – the easiest way to get in front of a large number of potential customers. Some publishers are experimenting with direct-to-consumer sales, but most cannot replicate the reach they get when utilizing the network of gaming stores.

Given the current market, it seems that playing at a local retailer would be the best way to interest new people in a game. So I wonder… How many people actually play at their local retailer as opposed to somewhere else?

Third Eye Games: http://www.thirdeyegames.net/

A companion article to this episode can be found here:
Reviews: The Good the Bad and the Frustrating

The importance of reviews

There are two schools of thought when it comes to reviews. One regards them as an essential marketing tool, though one not without risk, and the other thinks they’re an unnecessary distraction.

Part of the problem is that it can be extremely difficult to correlate reviews with sales. But Adamant’s Gareth Michael Skarka has another perspective on why reviews might be overrated.

We’re a small, niche-market entertainment business. Gamers will pick up stuff that interests them—even if there are reviews that say a product is poor. They’ll pick it up to see what they think of it themselves. They don’t invest much in the “authority” of reviews, preferring to keep their own counsel. Gamers are opinionated and amplified by the internet. If there is a review that says it’s poor, there is bound to be another that says it’s good. Even in the face of ‘internet conventional wisdom’—for example, “this game is nothing but poorly designed power-gaming”—sales of the ‘poor’ products are largely unaffected. Gamers purchase what interests them.

So why do so many companies chase reviews? The most obvious benefit of having your product reviewed is the opportunity to let gamers know it’s out there, and to build buzz. It never hurts to have someone respected in the community endorse your product. Such an endorsement helps to separate you from the competition. Even if the review hasn’t convinced the reader to buy your game, when he comes across it in his local store, it’ll already be familiar—even if the review was less than positive.

For unknown companies with few products and little capital available for marketing, reviews offer a relatively inexpensive option. Thankfully, reviews are also more useful to companies with less brand recognition. As a company grows, and with it their reputation, customers are more willing to take a risk on it’s products, even in the absence of reviews. This is not to say that reviews do not benefit more established companies—only that reviews are proportionally more effective as a tool in the hands of those without an established customer base.

Reviews can benefit companies beyond tracking customer interest; the review itself can tell you a great deal about your product. It is easy to dismiss one bad review as an outlier. It’s a lot harder if the majority have concerns about your product. If this is the case, it might be time to take a second look.

You can also use reviews for marketing in less obvious ways. HinterWelt’s William Corrie uses reviews from retailers to open discussions with other retailers about his products.

Often, the hardest thing about contacting retailers about your product is the opening statements. With a review like those provided in industry magazines, you get a third party resource to reference. You can say things like “Scott Thorne of Castle Perilous said the Squirrel Attack books will sell well” or reference what a customer is saying as an independent reference. It is always difficult to just say to a retailer that your product is good… because. Whether it is a customer review, a retailer review or more informal reference to the comments of another industry professional, it can open doors.

So how do you make the most of the whole review process?

Useful reviews start with the right reviewer

To start, you need to find someone willing to review your products. It’s an accepted practice to offer a complementary copy of the product, and you can usually find any number of willing amateur reviewers. But remember, at the end of the day, you want a useful review, and that means a few things:

First, it means someone who’s going to actually analyze the product. Just listing off the table of contents may tell the reader something about it, but it doesn’t give you any information about what the reviewer thought. Similarly, a review that just says, “It’s great” or “It’s terrible” doesn’t tell you much about what’s working and what’s not.

Second, you need to take into account the reviewer’s audience. Are they the type of customers you’re trying to reach? If you publish board games, a model train forum isn’t likely to expose you to the right audience. More than that, any comments the review generates aren’t likely to be helpful, because they’re not coming from the demographic you’re targeting.

Preston DuBose, from 12 to Midnight, explains:

Seek out reviewers who prove, through other reviews, that they know how to analyze and review a product based on its merits. There’s nothing wrong with a reviewer expressing personal opinion, but good ones back it up with reasons why.

Audience is also important in other ways. Are they the type of audience that typically engages in conversation about reviews? If so, you’re much more likely to get useful information, whether or not the review is a positive one. And then, of course, there’s audience size to take into consideration. As Joseph Goodman says:

’Quality of the reviewer’ takes on a new meaning when it’s a reviewer with a well-read blog.

Finally, you don’t want to overlook the credibility of the reviewer.

…it’s not just his grammar skills, but his stature in the industry. An endorsement from Monte Cook can drive a direct increase in sales.

Once you’ve found a few people you’d like to review your product, setting up a review is very simple. Finding the right person and the right audience… that’s the trick.

What to do if you get a “bad” review

Now, of course, eventually, you’re going to get a bad review. It might be because there’s a problem with the product, or it might be because the reviewer had a fight with his girlfriend. The important thing is how you handle it. The last thing you want to do is to turn a bad review into a bad reputation for you.

Fred Hicks, of Evil Hat Productions, puts it all into perspective:

Thank your detractors. Yes, it may appear that a man possessed of little more than a simian intellect has just reviewed your product in some sort of strange moon-language, but the point remains that he invested time in writing something about your game. He probably has readers, too, some of whom will disagree with his opinion. Let them take on that job. Your job, as a publisher, is to be gracious in the face of any critique. Say thank you, perhaps offer a factual correction or two, stated neutrally and calmly, and make your exit. Exposure is exposure. Leave a link to your product behind, and you’ll probably net a few sales no matter what this joker said.

Besides, your goal here is to get useful information from the review, so in that respect, negative reviews are actually MORE helpful, because they point out ways you can get better. Maybe it’s too late to change this product, but there’s always the next one.

Just remember: many gamers don’t even read reviews

Reviews are just one tool in your arsenal—one you should use in conjunction with other marketing tactics. “Gamers purchase what interests them.” Reviews might help lead gamers to your product, but in the end it helps to remember that they can be more helpful to you than they are for your customers.

RPG Review Resources:

• DriveThruRPG
• Flames Rising
• Game Cryer
• Out of the Box
• RPGnet

A companion podcast to this episode can be found here:
Eloy Lasanta (Third Eye Games)

NOTE: This article was researched and authored with Nick Chase.

At the core of my iPhone infatuation is the ability to access and maintain my contacts, email and calendar in real time. Personally, I use Google services for all of these things – Gmail and Google Calendar, to be precise. There are thousands of iPhone applications, many of which may be great, but I rarely use more than a handful.

These applications are not deeply integrated with my phone.

An illustrative example: Skype

The Skype iPhone application is nifty. I can chat with my Skype contacts and, if I’m using wi-fi, make phone calls as well. Unfortunately, I have to have the Skype application open in order to use it. This is a pain.

Skype instant messages are, in effect, SMS/MMS. It would be nice if, instead of having to log into the Skype application, any IMs I get sent via Skype would push through the native iPhone Messages application. The same would be nice for phone calls. Let my Skype contacts see that I am mobile, but logged in, and let them call me even if my Skype application isn’t open on my iPhone. When I get a call, have my phone ring like a normal phone call.

Deep integration of iPhone applications would make my life easier – and make those services more useful to me, as a mobile user.

Shel’s Blog: http://blog.holtz.com/
For Immediate Release: http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz/

gamerati: Shel Holtz (FIR)

I met Dana at ConQuest NW in January. Through email, we’ve been discussing the art of terrain sculpting. Below is an editing version of that conversation:

EPH: Tell me a little bit about yourself, your business and what you do in broad strokes.

DMD: I have been building terrain since I was in 6th or 7th grade, and started building a lot more complicated pieces when I started playing Warhammer in high school. I am a big believer in turning hobbies into careers, and so I came up with a modular system of building houses so that I could produce them quickly and keep a high level of quality. We use plastic resin to make the houses, which picks up fine detail well and is very durable. With this system I am able to make many different houses, and it allows me to rotate new designs in often. I also do custom orders, if my customers want large castles or entire villages built with different houses and walls, etc… I do the house building and my wife does most of the painting and keeps the houses on eBay and our website.

EPH: What scale do you usually produce in? Do you produce terrain in different scales, or are they all the same? If you have a default size, do you produce different scales for custom orders?

DMD: I build my houses for the 28-30mm scale and I haven’t branched out to other scales yet. As far as custom orders go, I normally stick to whatever I can build with my modular pieces which keeps the scale the same, but it does make the custom orders much more affordable, while still allowing them to be unique. I would be willing to do custom orders in different scales, but because I would have to sculpt new pieces and make new molds the turn around time would be much longer and the price much higher than my standard scale. Normally, I charge only a little more for a custom order house than I do for a standard house of the same size.

EPH: So what’s the process for a custom order? What do you need to know from a potential customer and how do they go about asking you to make something for them?

DMD: The process for a custom order is as simple as emailing me with a request or idea of what is wanted. I don’t have any formal method for custom orders large or small.

Some custom orders I receive are large orders of 15-20 houses, where the customer ordered multiple of the same house, and all they need is for me to swap out a few pieces and change some colors on the roofs so that all of their houses are unique. Those custom orders are easy to take care of, especially because usually the customer is more concerned with variety than they are with specific designs.

Sometimes the custom orders are very specific and I need a description and drawing. Or something I have done recently, when I need to get a more specific design approved, is have them download Google Sketchup, which is a 3d modeling program for the computer, and I do a prototype model and send them the file. The prototype model doesn’t have any color or detail, but it is the exact shape that the final model would be in 3D, and it allows them to turn it around and view it in perspective from all sides. Or if they don’t want to do that I can send a movie file of a turnaround of the design. This process enables me to get a very clear idea of what they want and prevents any real miscommunications.

EPH: So you use 3D modeling in your design. How has your experience in the video game industry helped make your terrain modeling work better?

DMD: I would have to say that in the beginning it was more the other way around, and my experience with building terrain influenced my choice of career and my ability to do it well. And now I am able to take my ability with 3D modeling and use that as a tool to prototype ideas and figure out appealing designs quickly. It works very well to be able to build 3D models in just a few minutes and be able to get a feel for how it will look when it is done with my pieces, and that helps me be more creative with the end product.

EPH: If I want to build my own models (real world, not virtual), what skills do I need to have? What skills would it be helpful to have?

DMD: I believe a couple of the most important aspects of building good terrain are less about skill and more about craftsmanship and attention to detail. No terrain you build will end up looking good if you used a cardboard base and it warps up around all of the edges so you have a half-inch gap between the base and the board. Always use a good base. You need to take measurements and make straight cuts with sharp X-acto knives and rulers. You also usually need to use putty or plaster to cover joints and make clean transitions between different elements on your terrain. Basically if you want to make good terrain, the most important thing you can do is take the time to do it well, and good terrain always takes a lot of time to build. On top of building the terrain well, attention to detail is then what makes it shine. Take the time to make little rivet heads for where you need bolts. Use jewelry chains or make your own miniature chains (tiny chains are almost as good for making something look like a cool detailed miniature as skulls and spikes are for making something look evil!). When you have the transition from an object, like a rock or a house, to the base, don’t just run your turf straight up to it. Use tiny rocks and other materials to make it look like there is gravel, dirt, or weeds. When you are done with the main aspect of whatever piece of terrain you are building, take half again as much time, or more, to add the little things that will bring it to life. The great thing about building terrain is that while it is an art, it doesn’t take any particularly special skills or talents to build pretty good terrain. You just need to get good instructions (like how to build terrain books or articles) and then pay attention to the advice above.

Being able to sculpt with clay is probably the most important extra skill for making terrain. One of the turning points in my terrain building is when I went from trying to find real world items that had the right shape and texture for what I needed, to sculpting my own out of clay (usually sculpey). I used to spend hours wandering around in craft stores and hardware stores looking for just the right pieces and parts for my projects, and now I just sculpt exactly what I need, and if I need lots of the same thing, I make a mold and reproduce it.

In my opinion it ruins the effect of terrain if an observer can figure out what materials you made it out of. You shouldn’t be able to tell if something is made of Styrofoam or cardboard, or be able to figure out what objects you just grabbed and painted for the details. That is where being able to sculpt with clay, or use other raw materials to get the effect you need, really sets the best terrain apart.

What would really help my work is having the necessary equipment to make more complex molds and cast the miniatures. Right now it is a little bit too expensive to justify the cost for me, but it will open up a world of possibilities when I get it. The other thing I would love to have, but it will probably be a long time before I get it, is a 3D printer so that I can sculpt my original pieces on the computer and print them out. I will still have to make the molds, because even if you have your own printer 3D printing is still too costly for production, but it will make everything else much easier.

EPH: I’m sure you use your terrain in your own games. What do you play?

DMD: I have played Warhammer Fantasy since I was about 14, and I have recently picked up Warmachine.

On yesterday’s Marketing Over Coffee, Chris Penn said he’d been able to look into the developer docs for Wave. What he discovered was that Wave was more than just IM on roids – it’s a federated protocol, apparently using XMPP, that allows for synchronous real-time streaming of information between multiple platforms.

If this is true, then Wave is potentially a game changer, allowing information to not just flow into a conversation, but back out of it to update outside sources; bi-directional exchange. Bi-directional interfacing of services will allow us to break down the silos that keep media channels independent.

Twitter, Today: I post an update and followers A & B see it. If follower A replies, I can see it. If follower B is not following follower A, though, follower B can’t see follower A’s reply to my initial update.

Facebook, Today: I post an update and my friends can see it. If anyone replies to that update, all my friends can see it, regardless of whether they are all friends with each other.

Twitter + Facebook, Today: I can dump my Twitter stream into my Facebook account. This means that my Twitter followers and my Facebook friends can both see my updates. Unfortunately, at this point the conversation fragments. When my Twitter followers reply, my Facebook friends don’t see that side of the conversation. This is true of replies on Facebook as well – they don’t push out to Twitter.

Google Wave and Microblogging: With Wave, if I’m understanding it properly, you can post to Twitter, populate your status updates on Facebook, and any replies from any sources can be seen by all participants in the conversation. It won’t matter where people enter a conversation from, they will all be able to exchange information with each other. Twitter and Facebook, Plurk and Seesmic, it won’t matter which account your using – as long as you’re added to a wave, you’ll be able to participate with individuals on different platforms, using different services.

Conversation portability. Very cool.

UPDATE: I was totally wrong about what Wave is. So what. I want my version!

The commercial starts out with a guy tooling around in his garage. He’s working on something, but you’re not sure what it is. At first, I thought I was watching something about home improvements – a Craftsman, or maybe Sears, commercial.

A third of the way in, the scene switches. Now the guy is driving down the road in a truck. I’m not sure what he’s built – an electric wheel chair, or maybe a spiffy weather measuring device – but he’s bringing it somewhere. Off to the beach he goes, the tailgate sporting CHEVROLET is big white letters. Huh. Maybe this is a Chevy commercial, I thought.

So half-way into this minute-long commercial you get near the point. The wheel chair weather station rolls down onto the beach and we find out it’s a sophisticated Frisbee launcher.

I’m thoroughly confused at this point. What is this commercial about!?!

The only vocal in the commercial: “I dream of being my dog’s best friend. What’s your dream?”

I still don’t know why I’m watching this. Who is speaking to me and what do they want me to do?

Three seconds from the end, the logo for the Washington State Lottery graces the screen, followed by the question: “Whose world could you change?”

This is a well-made commercial – nice music, nice video. If I were grading it on cinematography, I might say “cool.” It’s a commercial, though, and its purpose is to communicate with me, the audience. I spent 90% of this commercial trying to figure out who was talking to me. That doesn’t make for a very positive audience reaction.

If you’re making a commercial, or placing an advertisement, don’t make people guess about the most important things:

(1) who is speaking to me?

(2) what are they talking about?

Sears and GM should thank Washington’s Lottery for the lovely marketing.

I asked a number of industry professionals to join me for an informal chat about board games. We talked about a number of things, from the apparent strength of the current board game market to ways all levels of the industry can help each other bring more games to more customers.

gamerati

Hans Isaacson: President of Uncle’s Inc, with five retail locations (Uncle’s Games, Puzzles and More!) in Washington State. He started out in the industry in 1990 as a retail clerk (the store’s “game guy”) for the former parent company of Uncle’s (Book and Game Co.) and worked his way into a partnership position when the two founding owners parted ways in 1999. The “Game” in “Book and Game Co.” became Uncle’s Games. He is partnered with Shannon Ahern (founder of Book and Game Co.) and Karen Stephens.

Scott Nicholson: Host of Board Games with Scott, a video podcast about board games, and participant on the On Board Games program. An associate professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, Scott researches gaming in libraries as the director of the Library Game Lab of Syracuse. His upcoming board game, Tulipmania 1637, is due out from JKLM in 2009.
* Twitter: @snicholson

Jeff Tidball: Independent writer and game designer, and a co-founder of Gameplaywright. He has served as Vice President of Product Development at Fantasy Flight Games, worked on staff at Atlas Games and Decipher, and done freelance writing and design for a cast of thousands.
* Personal Home Page: jefftidball.com
* Twitter: @jefftidball
* Facebook: Jeff L. Tidball

Mike Selinker: President of the game and event studio Lone Shark Games. Some of his recent games include Pirates of the Spanish Main, Key Largo, Unspeakable Words, Link 26, and Stonehenge. Before that, he was a creative director and game designer at Wizards of the Coast, helping to relaunch Dungeons & Dragons and Axis & Allies, and writing such games as Risk Godstorm and the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game.
* LiveJournal: The Most Beautiful Things
* Facebook: Mike Selinker

Board Games (gamerati)

Bulgaria was an opportunity for me. We had very low expenses while living overseas and so I was blessed with a chance to build my businesses without having to worry about paying too many bills.

In April, I ran across an article by Chris Brogan entitled ‘Social Media for Your Career’. Chris mentioned a lot of things in the article, but I focused on his mention of LinkedIN. Based on his recommendation, I decided to take LinkedIN for a spin (http://www.linkedin.com/in/ephealy).

One thing I noticed was that you can sort potential connections by geographic location. I decided to see how many people were in my neck of the woods: Sofia, Bulgaria. Right now, there are almost 5,000 people in the Sofia metropolitan area with LinkedIN profiles. At the time, though, there were far fewer – 41 to be exact. With so few people to choose from, I decided to scroll through the list and see what popped out.

On the second page was a rather generic listing for ‘CEO of Haemimont Games’. I had no LinkedIN connections who knew this person, so I had no way to contact him via the service, so I relied on another useful service: Google. What I discovered was that Haemimont Games produced some pretty cool products. Even better, their offices were two blocks away. I called, gave them my credentials as a gaming professional, and asked if they’d like to get together. As luck would have it, they were having a company outing at the local bowling alley the next day and asked me to drop by.

As it turned out, Haemimont was looking for people to help write for their first Xbox title. I’d worked on various game products and Rone, my business partner, had sold screenplays to MGM – we had the skills they were looking for, and I told them as much.

The meeting went well, as did the next one. By the end of May, Moonstew Games was knee deep in our first computer game project (to be released this Christmas).

And that’s how social media helped me land my first Xbox gig. Thanks to Chris Brogan (blogger), I learned about a networking site for professionals (LinkedIN), which pointed me toward a potential business partner. Without those two first steps, I would never have met the good folks at Haemimont Games.

Social media won’t do it all, though. It’s great for making connections and sharing ideas, but it took a real-world connection to seal this deal. That’s just as an important a lesson – something I’ve learned time and time again. The internet is great, but it’s no substitute for face-to-face communication. Instant messages and a webcam can’t replace a living, breathing person.

Likewise, nothing replaces experience. If Rone and I didn’t have a resume to back us up, I doubt Haemimont would have given me more than an invite to go bowling again.

Be professional with a solid track record, be prepared to show that record to others, and strike when opportunities arise – you’ll do fine. Social media can help you find those opportunities, though.

For instance, I have a new podcast coming out this week. It’s a show about game design and game mastering, for people who enjoy roleplaying games. I could announce the show at any time, but why not make the announcement at a time when people are most likely talking about RPGs and podcasts already? Furthermore, why not release each episode during that ‘sweet spot’, if one exists?

Let’s see if one does.

Mentions of the terms “rpg” or “roleplaying game” by day of the week:

Fridays are a good day for RPGs – with 20% more chatter than on Thursday. RPG discussion appears to taper off steadily thereafter, with a nice little spike on Wednesdays.

This makes a lot of sense. Most roleplaying happens on the weekends, when people have more free time. If I wanted to give them something to talk about, I might want to do it just before the weekend, so it’s fresh in their minds before they get together with friends or chat about their gaming experiences online.

I looked at what time of day people are talking about RPGs as well. 9 AM and 6 PM PST see definite spikes in RPG conversation. Whatever the reason, those are the times I need to remember when deciding when to talk about my RPG-related news.

Mentions of the terms “podcast” by day of the week:

Unlike RPGs, there doesn’t appear to be a definitive spike in chatty about podcasts on any given day of the week. The weekend is slightly more active, but the percentage of chatty on a day-to-day basis stays pretty consistent.

Likewise, there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference in volume of chat during the day. Podcast discussions seem to be a little more popular in the morning than the evening, but not enough to make any real hard judgments.

The Verdict

I’ve decided that I’ll release my new show on Thursday afternoon. This will give people something to talk about on Friday, and it will be fresh in their minds as they go into the weekend. On Fridays, I’ll post on various forums and news sites about each episode, driving conversation about the show so I can take advantage of the Friday spike.

On the Wednesday before each episode releases, I’ll pre-promote the show on forums in a similar manner, riding the mid-week wave of RPG conversation to remind people that a new episode will be coming out the next day.

I didn’t wake up one day and decide to be an advertising salesman. I certainly never expected to run ads for a network of sites. No, my expansion into the world of online advertising was by chance. When someone waves a large chunk of money in your face and asks you to take it, you don’t say No. You find out how to earn it.

That was how I started. An advertiser wanted to place ads on the Kobold Quarterly website – more ads than I could handle. I didn’t want to turn down the money, so I had to find sites to put those ads on. That’s how it’s been ever since. My expansions come when I outsell my inventory. Necessity is the mother of expansion, at least in my case.

The first nine months went well. The average effective CPM (eCPM) across all the site in my network was $2.00 – and that includes wasting 30%-50% of our inventory on AdSense. Come the New Year, though, it was a new game. Nobody – at least nobody I was talking to – was buying ads. Our eCPM dropped to $0.50 and I was not happy; neither were the owners of the websites I represent.

Since late April, though, there’s been an explosion in advertising. This month, 87% of the impressions on my sites are sold, and we’re looking at $2.50 average eCPM. No warning came, only requests for advertising space.

So what’s changed? Will the online advertising market continue to weaken, or will marketing budgets recover soon, and with them the size and frequency of online advertising purchases.

I don’t know.

It’s a fun industry, though. If I ever figure out the whys, behind the whats, I’ll let you know. In the meantime:

(1) If you use online advertising services, which do you use?

(2) How’d your average eCPM change recently?

(3) How do you diversify to guard against sudden network failure in a commodity market.

The Open Design Podcast will be available via the Kobold Quarterly website, your subscription service of choice, and will air on War Pig Radio.

OK, so now that you know what it is, let’s talk about what gaming companies can do with it.

Privateer Press could imprint unique icons on the bottom of each Warmachine mini. When held up in front of your webcame, two things could happen: your account could be updated to note that you own that figure and an animation of that figure, moving and posing and ‘doing things’ could appear on the screen. Privateer could tie that animation to a set of keystrokes, allowing you to dictate which action or pose your virtual figure takes.

Your turn. What cool ideas can you come up with?

What you’ll be doing (to various degrees)

• Contacting publishers to learn what products they plan to release this year.
• Contacting retailers to learn what products are selling.
• Helping design podcast shows, including format, pacing and tone.
• Managing data for existing marketing projects.

Requirements?

• Gamer.
• Have an interest in the business side of games.
• Not scared of numbers.
• Not scared of talking on the phone.
• Available at least 5 hours per week.

Jason’s Home Page: http://jasonfalls.com/
Jason’s Blog: http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/

gamerati: Jason Falls (Doe-Anderson)

Jason Henderson is the world’s leading expert on search engine optimization for the Miva Merchant shopping cart. We spoke about landing page optimization and email marketing.

Stan! (Super Genius Games) talks about market research, and treating your business like… a business.

Steve Russell talks about how the patronage model changed everything about the way he does business at Rite Publishing.

Related: Atomic Array 023 (Rite Publishing)

War Pig Radio broadcasts great programming 24 hours a day so you don’t have to search for something interesting to play over your store speakers. Industry news, product reviews, and interviews with the people who create the things we love—you can find it all on War Pig Radio.

On March 21st, Gamers everywhere will be playing Dungeons & Dragons and War Pig reporters will be bringing their stories to you live via internet radio.

War Pig: Radio for the Gamerati
Home Page: http://www.warpigradio.com/
POC, Ed Healy: warpigradio@gmail.com

(1) How did you hear about Atomic Array?

47%: Host mentioned it on message boards or in IRC
24%: Promotions
12%: RPG Podcasts.com
6%: Google Search for “RPG Podcasts”
6%: Heard promo on another podcast
6%: iTunes Search

(2) What was your first episode?

40%: Episode 001 (Colonial Gothic)
13%: Episode 005 (Interface-Zero)
10%: Episode 010 (Shadows of Cthulhu)
37%: Various Others

(3) How often do you listen to the show?

13%: Once, never again
73%: Every show

(4) How do you listen to the show?

50%: Website
43%: iTunes
7%: RSS

Episode 011 (Pathfinder) is by far our favorite among our regular audience.

I also learned that some people love the rants and the CthuLou segments from Episodes 010 (Shadows of Cthulhu and CthulhuTech), but these also have a number of people that don’t care for them. The picks, on the other hand, aren’t as popular – but we didn’t receive any negative feedback on them, either.

Right now, I pay $0.10 per kWh. With this plan, I’d pay $0.1125 per kWh. A 12.5% increase.

I asked the PSE advisor what the average monthly power consumption was for homes of my size in my area: 1,000 kWh. Mine: 579 kWh (yay me). So my average monthly bill is $57.90 right now, and would be $65.15 under the Green Power Plan – a $7.25 per month increase.

Not that big of a deal, really. I can go to Starbucks or Jamba Juice two less times each month and pay for that. I can safe Mother Earth _and_ lose weight. Good deal, right?

That’s not why I’m doing it, though. I’m not known for being an environmental champion, but I do recognize that developing alternative energy sources is important for us. It will not only help the environment and reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy, but it’ll also push the technological envelope in ways we don’t (and can’t) realize right now.

Will it have a measurable effect on pollution in my area? I doubt it. Washington State is already fairly green – we are the “ever” green state, after all! Besides, to really solve the global environmental challenges we may face in the future, we’ll need some influence over the second and third world countries ( *cough* China *cough* India *cough* ). I doubt that me switching to wind power will accomplish that. What it may do, though, is add a little more incentive to solving the green energy issues domestically so that we can export that technology to our less advanced friends.

It worked in Africa with cell phones and cable TV. Why can’t it work with renewable energy?

You’re probably asking… “So what’s with the ‘Kill A Tree’ thing?” Here’s the rest of the story:

So I sign up for the plan and the adviser says I’ll be getting a confirmation in the mail. I ask him if that is necessary. I mean, why do I need them to kill a tree to thank me for saving the planet, right?

“If I don’t send you out a confirmation, you won’t receive the quarterly program reports that detail the progress we’re making.”

“You mean, if I let you kill a tree to thank me for saving the planet, you’ll continue to kill more trees every three months to tell me how other people are saving the planet as well?”

Thankfully, he allowed me to opt out of both the confirm and the newsletter.

This is great for websites, but how long will it take for this same ability to translate into other platforms?

Assume for a moment that I publish an eZine. I decide to sell a PDF edition and offer advertising space to companies who want to reach my readers. If I’m a speculative fiction rag, I might sell a full page to TOR, but I’m not going to be able to land one for the local book shop. It’s not economically feasible for the local shop to purchase advertising that will only be relevant for a small subset of those it will appear in front of.

What if I could geo-target advertising, though? What if I could allocate a single page for ads relevant to the subscriber’s mailing address? I could then offer a low-cost advertisement to a number of local stores. Each store would only appear in those issues that were sent to subscribers living in their local market.

The same logic could be used for POD as well, with ads being determined by the demographics of the purchaser.

Geo-tracking would be very cool. Taken a step further, you could have an HBO advertisement that changes based on age or gender—Sally sees one for Desperate Housewives, while Sam sees one for Deadwood.

So tell me, is this technology available today? If so, point me at it.

I set up a MySpace account in a fit of boredom. The service had already been out for some time – long enough to become notorious of the immaturity of the content. But it was also known for being a place for artists to self-promote. That interested me. MySpace was good, allowing me to reconnect with some people I would never have been able to keep track of. It was my at-arms-length social network, though. I’d fire off a friendly message now and again, or post on someone’s page, but I wasn’t too engaged.

When facebook came along, it held no appeal to me. What did I need another MySpace for? I had my answer soon enough as MySpace suffered from security breaches that resulted in tons of annoying spam. It got so bad for me that I signed up at facebook and told all my friends at MySpace that I was shutting down my account. I’ve never gone back, and don’t plan to.

A similar tale can be said for Plaxo and LinedIN, except in this case LinkedIN has proven to be such a valuable service that I have no incentive to migrate to Plaxo. And I’m loathe to maintain multiple account and profiles on networks with duplicate scopes. I’m sorry Plaxo, but LinkedIN is where I’m at, and you’re going to have to work really hard to convince me to give you the time of day.

And so we come to micro-blogging and Twitter. Twitter had me – hook, line and sinker. Like others, though, I’m getting frustrated by the little whale that couldn’t (stay off my screen). I don’t think it’s the outages, though, that are driving people to seriously consider other services. While I have a sizeable cloud of contacts on Twitter, and I like simplicity of the service and the “personal news ticker” feel, it’s just text. Other services, like Jaiku and Pownce, use MMS instead of SMS – making them a little more attractive because of the added functionality. The only things saving Twitter right now are the entrenched user numbers and the fact that the other services don’t (yet) have interfaces that are easy to use.

Take Pownce, for instance. If I had a twhirl for Pownce, I’d be in heaven. Pownce Monkey is OK, but there are many things that need to be tweaked before it’s a truly useful application. If Pownce would implement geo-tracking elements a la BrightKite… Well, let’s just say that I wouldn’t shed a tear for Twitter.

Here are a few ways to make sure your illustrations are working for you, and not against:

(1) A great artist or photographer is only as good as the subject matter. You must have a compelling idea with which to grab the reader’s attention. Before trying to spec out an artist for your advertisement, spend a good amount of time refining the idea behind your advertising message.

(2) Few gaming publishers use photographs in their advertisements. This is unfortunate, since photographs attract more readers than illustrations—three times more.

(3) Keep your illustrations simple. Crowded scenes don’t pull the reader’s attention as well as those containing one central figure.

(4) Four color advertisements cost 50 per cent more, on average, than black-and-white. However, they are 100 per cent more memorable to readers.

(5) Illustrations with “story appeal,” elements that arouse the reader’s curiosity, are more successful at grabbing a reader’s attention. If you don’t have a story to tell, it’s best to focus on your product; make it the subject of your illustration.

“On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. It follows that unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 per cent of your money.”
- David Ogilvy, On Advertising

Include your product’s name in the headline. If you don’t, 80 per cent of readers (who never get past the headline itself) will never know what product you are advertising.

The best headlines promise the reader something—nostalgia, quicker play, lots of action. What are you promising your customers? Communicate this promise, somehow, in your headline.

If you have news to tell, place it in the headline so that customers will read it, don’t bury in the body of the ad where it will go unnoticed. Headlines with news in them are 20% more likely to garner a response from customers. If you have a new product to release, this is prime news and you should place that information in your headline.

Certain words engender consistent responses from readers. Introducing tells your reader that your product is something new and entices them to read on so they can learn more about it. Now has a sense of immediacy about it, focusing the reader’s attention on your headline and drawing their attention to the message you are trying to convey. They appear regularly in advertising for a reason: they work.

Write plainly. Puns and double meanings may show how agile your intellect is, but they are counter-productive. Your advertisement has to compete with a host of other content for the reader’s attention. Broadcast what you want to say in language that is easy to understand.

The magic number of words in a headline is ten. Anything longer and the readers are unable to digest what you are trying to tell them.

If you want to read more about writing headlines, pick up a copy of Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples.

Ad campaigns do not operate in a vacuum. Customers will hear about your product from other sources; they will read about it on your website, see it in the catalogues of online retailers, read comments from other customers on gaming forums, and thumb through it at their local gaming store. You need a mechanism for segregating your advertising effectiveness from the influence of these other sources of information.

Customers love promotions and special discounts. Even a marginal reduction in price can be a powerful incentive to induce customers to buy your product. This is also a great way to gauge the effectiveness of your ad campaign.

Establish a unique promotional code customers can use when purchasing your product from an online store. Only place this promotional code in your advertisements, and in no other place, so as not to dilute the value of the feedback you will get from related sales. This is probably the best method when using print advertisements, such as in magazines or direct mailings.

If you don’t have the ability to create promotional codes, create a separate product page in your online store dedicated to the promotion. Place the URL to this special page in your advertisement, but no other place. This way you’ll know that sales generated from that page are the direct result of your advertising campaign.

Special URLs are a must when using online ads. You need to know which purchases are the result of a customer clicking on that banner. If you are placing multiple banners on different websites, or on different sections of a given website, create a different target URL for each placement. This will tell you which placements are performing the best. You can always aggregate the sales from each later on, to give you a picture of the overall effectiveness of the campaign.

Direct mailings or magazine inserts are also useful for measuring an advertisement’s effectiveness. The number of returned cards will give you a direct read on your customer base. These methods also allow you to ask for a small amount of personal information from your customers, so don’t pass up the chance. At the least, you’ll be able to build a database of names and addresses of people interested in your products—prime targets for future offerings.

Another advantage of direct mailings and magazine inserts is that customers could use them as coupons at their local gaming retailer. I am not familiar with any recent attempts, within the gaming industry, to use coupons on the retail level. It is something to consider, however, and I would be very interested in hearing from publishers who have tried this approach.

These are counter-productive goals, and a waste of your money. However, far too many of the ads out there fall into this category. Advertising is how you educate potential customers about your product; it is not art, but a means to disseminate information. The goal should be for the reader or viewer to find the advertisement so interesting that he buys your product.

Here are some things to keep in mind when planning an advertising campaign:

(1) The wrong advertising can actually reduce the sales of a product. Don’t believe the people that say all advertising increases sales to some degree. It doesn’t. An ad campaign that turns customers off to your product actively undermines your efforts to get them to buy it. It is better not to advertise, than to advertise poorly.

(2) Do some homework. Look at some of the advertisements that other publishers have used to market similar products and find out, if at all possible, how successful those ads were. Did they generate sales? How many?

(3) Talk to some customers. Ask them to look through some ads and give you feedback. Note the types of ads ‘spoke to them’ and why. Emulate those things in your ad campaigns that worked; ditch the rest. Find out those things that draw a customer to your product. What is the promise you can make to a potential customer to get them to buy your product?

(4) Properly position your product. What is your target audience? If you are publishing a game for mature audiences, speak to them in terms they understand and respect. The hobby gaming industry is not homogenous. There are many different types of gamers, who play many different types of games. Don’t try to advertise to all of them at once, with the same product. Target your advert to those potential customers who are most likely to want to buy your product. If you want to target a different demographic, make a different game.

(5) Image is everything. It is your product’s personality, and made up of the product’s name, how you package it, its price, the nature of the product, and yes… the style of its advertising. Every advertisement you run for a given product should contribute to the brand image. Every advertisement you run should consistently project the same image. Customers buy a product for its image as much as they buy it for its merits. Be consistent with your image, and if it resonates with your target audience, you will continue to see sale after sale.

(6) The hobby gaming industry is filled with products that are similar to each other. All you can hope to do with your advertisements is explain the virtues of your product more convincingly than the next company, and to differentiate your offerings by the style of your advertising. You do not have to convince customers that your game is the best, only that it is good. Put your best foot forward, and focus on your product’s strengths. If a customer feels that your product is good and feels uncertain about someone else’s, he will buy yours.

(7) Measure how well your ad campaigns work. You will never know if your ad campaign is a stinker unless you can get feedback as to its effectiveness. Have sales climbed, and is that increase due to the ad campaign? If so, stick with what works. If not, go back to the proverbial drawing board and create something that does. Remember my first point…