I'm writing up a short article on resources available to small press publishers for online marketing and I'd like to hear from publishers on this topic. What has, and has not, worked well in your experience? For those working towards publishing a new product, what steps do you intend to take to market that product?

Any comments are most welcome.

People are far more attracted to genuine personality than they are to commercial promises ... whether those promises are true or not.

The simple fact is, for better or worse, folks assume that anonymous people on the internet are lying to them.  So if you are anonymous, you get filtered out.  Your roleplaying game could be so great that it guarantees that the private parts of all players will tingle in a new and pleasant way each time the game is played, but none of that matters.  People tune you out based not on what you say, but on who you are.

They have to.  There's just so much crap out there.  How many Nigerian super-ball tycoons can try to shift their soon-to-be-siezed moneys into my eager hands before I start to think "I just gotta stop listening to these jokers, sight unseen."

The only thing I've seen work reliably is word of mouth by people who have an established presence in a community.  Straight up, anyone else gets tuned out immediately.

I've seen a lot of good come from excited reports of actual play:  the sincerity of that, combined with actual play that is actually entertaining, does a great deal toward selling the system.

And I've seen a lot of good come from advocacy (even luke-warm advocacy of the "Yeah, this might work well for people who like that kind of thing" variety) from people with established presences.

Finally, the very best way I know to publicize your game is, in fact, to capitalize on two wrongs making a right:  Find people who are known to be twits, and get them to flame the living snot out of your game.  Then everybody who thinks those people are twits will give your game a try, because if that jerk thinks it's terrible then it's probably worth a look.

Is this the kind of information you're looking for?

I'll be following this thread closely as we're currently marketing Operation Jedburgh.  

I'll list them in orders of what seem to work best.  

1. Name credibility (people or companies who are associated with quality products)
2. Reviews (I always see a spike in sales after a review, particularly a good one).  
3. Word of mouth (nothing works better than a neutral party talking about how good your product is on a forum---plus, it's just cool).
4. Professionalism (This has two parts:  1. Customer service is important---answering questions promptly, responding politley to criticism, etc.  and 2. IMO, a publisher shouldn't engage in flame wars.  I know a lot of people that won't buy a game from publisher X because he said Y on Board Z.  I always find it's better to bow out of an argument than engage an "internet warrior."  It's just not worth the time and effort when I could be writing the next game or supplement.)
5. Banner ads on large RPG sites (I don't hear this lauded a lot by publishers, but I've clicked several links that looked interesting and ended up buying a few games.  I can't be the only one.)

Anyway, those seem to me to be the most important ones, both as a publisher and a consumer.  I'm sure there are many others.  

Pete

EDIT:  And durrrr, Press Releases, particularly on sites that get a large circulation.  People have to know you created a game before they can buy it.  

Quote from: TonyLBFinally, the very best way I know to publicize your game is, in fact, to capitalize on two wrongs making a right:  Find people who are known to be twits, and get them to flame the living snot out of your game.  Then everybody who thinks those people are twits will give your game a try, because if that jerk thinks it's terrible then it's probably worth a look.

Heh, heh.  That's funny, but it's actually true.  

Pete

If you have an official forum or are a public figure on other forums, don't be an ass.

Don't be afraid to metion your game, but don't sing it's praises at every opportunity. Nobody likes a braggart or an attention whore.

Run online forum based campaigns if you have the time. If people can read a game as it's being played they're more likely to buy it (assuming it's good of course).

If your first product doesn't sell and you want to keep making more books, don't chalk the lack of selling up to people not knowing about it or being too stupid to see how good it is. Look for reasons why it didn't sell and fix them on the next one.

Don't expect to get rich quick. People working for big name companies in this industry make bupkiss. People working for themselves make even less than that.

QuoteFinally, the very best way I know to publicize your game is, in fact, to capitalize on two wrongs making a right: Find people who are known to be twits, and get them to flame the living snot out of your game. Then everybody who thinks those people are twits will give your game a try, because if that jerk thinks it's terrible then it's probably worth a look.

Heh heh. Pundit is the direct cause of my group having a blast playing Exalted. I probably would never have given it a look had he not lambasted it at every occassion. I also checked out Nobilis for the same reason. To his credit though, he's also the reason I seriously thought about running Amber for my group. Eventually it was the dicelessness, not the games themselves, that changed my mind on those last two.

Thanks everyone, please keep it coming!

Quote from: TonyLBIs this the kind of information you're looking for?

Yep, very insightful!

From my perspective . . .

1. Advertising is okay, if you have an established fan base. It's next to useless if no one knows who you are (and in certain cases it's just detrimental to your cause).
2. Establishing a net presence (i.e. become a "better known" on RPG-oriented sites) is important because then you can . . .
3. Spread the word about your games, etc., and explain what they are about. You're bound to find a few people who are interested in what you have created and are willing to shell out a few dollars to try it out.
4. By far the best way to market your stuff online is to have other people market it for you. Drooling fanboys and outright schills (the same thing really) will pitch your game whenever they can, epsecially when it is designated their favourite game.

I just wanted to add that taking a look at SEO techniques might help as well, i.e. link-sharing and webrings.  Those activities are potentially cooperative endeavors because of sharing an audience with similiar interests.  In addition, many of the suggestions made so far are also mentioned in SEO articles.

1. For Fuck's sake, whatever else you do, DO NOT go onto internet forums pretending to be a random gamer and suddenly "discover" your own product, singing its praises while still acting as though you had nothing to do with it. Don't send your co-writer, illustrator, wife, cousin, best friend, or the dude who works out at the gym with you to do it either.  You/they will be spotted, the whole thing will feel like an obvious shill, and it'll leave people with a very bad taste in their mouths, which could all have been avoided if you were just upfront about who you are in the first place and offered helpfully to tell people about your game, answer questions, etc.

2. Don't try to claim that your game is better than D&D, or will be the next D&D.  I think even the fucking Swine are tired of hearing that one.

RPGPundit

Oh, this one is very important.

Do not add your site to a webring unless the webring is tried and true (and very few of them are). Webrings are next to useless. But, then again, maybe you like having your game company site listed along with penis pump manufacturing sites, replica watch manufacturing sites, etc. If you join one of these crappy webrings, expect your inbox to be flooded with spam. Most of the spam is tagged with such witty lines as, "U can be man" and "Make Dick Big".

I think a transparent Net presence is the way to go. I'd like to see publishers hoist up an official Q and A thread after the release of a game to get initial impressions and tackle questions. It's promoting your game to new consumers in a way that isn't bragging or deceptive. I cannot stress transparency is the way to go. People can smell a shill a mile away and that low post count member who only fluffs a particular game while snarking criticism isn't fooling anyone.

Looking forward to the article when it's done.

I know some of us are already doing this but if you are going to be in a forum even remotely related to RPGs, then I think it would be ok just to have a signature that points to your website.  However, if you do point, try to make them revelant and do not spam with posts just to get said signature in there.  You won't get a ton of clicks but any of them could lead to a sale.