In the first part of this guide on arcade development, we looked at the starting point given to flash arcade webmasters by the particular arcade scripts they chose, and explored the importance of working towards standing out from the competition. Along those lines, we looked at how buying both game packs and video packs for your arcade can be a step in the direction.
In this entry, we’re going to start looking at the “roads less travelled” in terms of the type of content your site can offer in order to help make it even more unique and, as such, increase the chances of repeat visitors.
Know your audience
First thing to consider is your userbase; where is your traffic coming from? In most cases, your visitors will usually be at the lower end of the age spectrum, and many arcade webmasters tend to associate their audience as being bored schoolkids filling in the few spare minutes they get on the computers during particularly boring lessons. Take note that this is not always the case; its just as feasible for a middle-aged housewife to stumble across your site as it is for young internet users - Gaming is universal!
Additionally different people might be looking for different games. For example, people specifically looking for flash versions of old NES/Atari arcade games are probably doing so out of nostalgia from previously using those systems, which would generally put them over 20 years of age and out of that ’schoolkid’ demographic.
Theres absolutely no way to narrow down the particulars of each and every visitor your flash arcade will ever receive; so you’ll need to think about what your core audience is made up of which, as mentioned, most likely consists of teenagers - however remember not to assume that these are the only people visiting your arcade site; and bare in mind that if you target a specific niche then your audience will probably change accordingly.
Make the most of Myspace
Myspace is, without question, one of the biggest things to hit the internet in a long long time; and a few hours scoping out there pages will probably tell you that a lot of their audience matches the demographics of your arcades audience too. Theres a good chance that your Myspace-using visitors will spend more time on Myspace itself than on your site, so giving them a way to “bridge” the two can only be a good thing.
There are a few ways to take advantage of this. Firstly, you could set up your own Myspace page specifically for your arcade. Building up a large friends list, commenting on other profiles and reporting news from your arcade such as new games etc could help to build up a sense of familiarity amongst your community and, as such, repeat traffic generated from the “brand awareness” you will have created for your site.
Secondly, you could offer your visitors ways to feature the content from your arcade site on their Myspace page; scripts such as TopMediaScript and phpArcadeScript offer embed codes which visitors can use to easily place details of games, videos etc on their Myspace page (or pretty much any other type of website) - in my opinion this is an absolute must-have feature, since it takes little effort to put into place for you, and requires no continuous work - so even if having this feature only gets you an extra visitor a month, its one visitor you might not have previously had.
Finally, you could actually offer Myspace content on your website. Myspace users, in general, make good use of the sites ability to add a range of items from avatars to sparkly graphics to random funny images - and by adding an extra section on your site where your visitors can get those aforementioned items gives them yet another reason to drop by. You can buy Myspace content packs which should give you a good start in this area.
Undoubtedly the best thing to do is to combine all of those point mentioned on your arcade - ie if you have a Myspace page, use it to promote the Myspace content and embed codes on your site.
Social Bookmarking Baby!
This is THE big buzz phrase of the internet these days - social bookmarking/social networking is a pretty big cornerstone in the whole “Web 2.0″ phenomenon. The concept, truthfully, is so simply and ingenious that its surprising nobody really thought of it earlier. Why spend a small fortune advertising your website when you can get your users to do it for you? Why spend hours and hours creating content when your users could be doing the job on your behalf? Sites like Digg live and breath on this concept, and theres no reason you can’t put some of the ideas into practice on your own arcade site.
First and foremost, lets start with the basics. Once again, this goes back to the particular arcade script you decide to use. As a bare minimum, your script should include the following social-bookmarking/networking features:
- - Commenting system for your arcade users
- - Embedded social bookmarking links (to sites like Stumbleupon, Digg, Technorati etc)
- - Embedding and linking codes to your arcade games etc
- - “Tell a friend” feature
- - RSS feeds of your latest/popular arcade games
If your script does not include any or all of the above features, you should really consider either coding them in or switching to a different script.
Even if your arcade script does include those features, you should look at ways to potentially improve them - if you have an RSS feed, perhaps look at ways you can introduce multiple feeds; ie one for your new games, one for your popular games, seperate feeds for each category etc. If you have social bookmarking links/buttons, look at whether you could add more, giving more options to your users for sharing your arcade site.
As mentioned these features should come as standard and, in some scripts, they do - which once again means you should look at ways to go “the extra mile” in the quest towards standing out from the crowd. The main area in which you could consider doing this is in content creation. If you are able to encourage your users to actually upload their own games and videos to your site, then this is a big step towards building an extremely strong community who have a vested interest in your arcade site and, as an added bonus, you get more content too. A user ranking/points system based on uploads, or even contests for best uploads/most uploads could help in this area and is definitely at least worth a try. Of course if you’re going to really push this, then you need to make sure you have a robust system in place for not only facilitating uploads, but also recognizing them and giving credit or rewards to the people doing the uploading.
Kerching!
Lets face it, the main reason most people become an arcade webmaster is to try and make money - its not something to feel guilty about, and if you’re reading this guide or indeed other articles on this website then you probably have the same motivation in mind. As such, the prospect of generating a little extra cash from the measures you take to increase traffic is certainly an enticing one.
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to reach this “double-header” effect in both giving people a reason to visit your arcade site which simultaneously increasing your revenue streams.
The first i’ll mention is Big Fish Games and its ‘Principal Network Partner’ scheme. This is basically an enhanced affiliate scheme which gives you the ability to add free flash game downloads to your site; with commissions being earned should your visitors sign up and purchase premium content. This is one of those things where there really is no downside. Worst case scenario, you make no money, but the additional of game downloads to your site gives visitors yet another reason to check you out and keep coming back - best case scenario, the game downloads attract a lot of visitors and make you a ton of cash. Its win-win all round - visitors get a new feature, you open up another channel for potential revenue. For more info, check out the Big Fish Games website and scroll down to ‘Distribute our games’ (its free) - theres a lot more info there, as they have far more features and options than I could mention in a single article
The second option i’m going to mention is called Revver - this is an absolute must for any of you who feature videos on your website as suggested in the last installment. Basically the site works like Youtube - people upload their videos, and other users can take the embed code and stick those videos on their own site. However, there is a twist… short ads are shown either before or after the video plays; and when this happens both you, the person who added the video, and Revver.com themselves earn a little cash from the advertisers who placed the ad.
At my last check you do earn money for impressions, however obviously even more is earned for clicks. Now I won’t lie - we’re not talking megabucks here - you’re most likely looking at a bit less than you would normally make with Adsense; however again this is a no-lose scheme… your visitors get to view extra content, and you open yet another revenue source.
Whats more, unlike youtube, you can actually customize and brand the flash players these videos show up in, which is a nice little touch that adds an extra element of professionalism to your arcade site. There is a bulk package of approx 3500 Revver videos available for TopMediaScript and for phpArcadeScript in which you can inject your own affiliate code and branding, which eases the process of adding new videos “by hand”.
Once again, like BigFishGames, its free to get a Revver account, and all users automatically get their own affiliate code.
SO… hopefully this installment has given you more food for thought and will have you looking at a variety of other options for diversifying your arcade site. Remember the absolute worst thing for you is leaving your site the way it came with the script - while doing so isn’t an iron clad guarantee that you’ll fail, taking steps to be more unique is certainly a step in the right direction to ensuring that you don’t.
Our third and final installment will make its way to these pages in the next few weeks, and will look at some of the finer points of managing and maintaining your arcade, such as how the look and feel of the site can make a difference, plus the importance and benefit of community building.
I hope you enjoyed this article and found it informative and, as always, if you have anything to say, please feel free to leave your comments.
