Recruitment

How many games on here have seen an increase in players since signing up and advertising their game?

 

I haven't advertised here yet, so I don't know. I'm not sure I've had any traffic from the other directories I've posted in, but my game is on Dreamwidth, which is kind of a different beast than most people are used to.

 

None of my members have ever come from RPGfix, but I haven't used it enough to say for sure how worthwhile it is. Anything that allows you to spread your site's links and banners around is always good though! So I'd advise you to put a link to your board in your signature, and just post within the community.

 

I get regular referrals from RPGFix according to google analytics but I can't verify that I have gotten any actual members from it. I enjoy the community, though, so that's enough for me.

 

Hmm I also have not posted my ads here so couldn't say.

 

I'm pretty new and have yet to get any members, but I totally agree that it probably boils down to how active you are and how anything that gets the name out there is a plus!

 

To be honest, when I advertise in directories and advertisement sites, I find that I don't actually get an increase of people from the directory itself. What I have found is the more places I advertise, the more likely people are to find the site in a google search, as many of these types of sites have pretty good SEO. (There was one I advertised in for the longest time because a keyword search that I was targeting, it came up higher in the list than my game did)

 

Community and increased Google visibility are good reasons to keep it up!

 

I've certainly been having trouble finding good RP directories to list my site in. Do you have any recommendations? Either on the directories themself or how to find them? Currently we're only listed here, Distant Fantasies (I see a lot of overlap in the forums between these two) and rpol.net. We tried to list in Roleplay Gateway, but with their link in our footer long before we submitted to their directory, two months after submission I gave up and pulled them off our site. >.<

 

I like http://rpg-directory.com personally. Lots of overlap with here and D-F, but the community's pretty active.

 

There are things I dislike with RPG-Directory - namely they cater to forum-roleplay. Sure, they /say/ you can advertise with other kinds, and I've seen some get through, but the Stargate Game I'm aGM of, is PBEM - the archive is currently hosted on Y! Groups - couldn't get on there because I didn't have the proper information to prove my admin account (despite the screenshot of my Y! Group admin stuff). I've found this site: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/pbm_list/ to have pretty good SEO, despite the dated look (it can take a day or two for the admin to approve your message). I've also had good luck with http://pbemplayers.com/ when I can get through their SPAM filters. (The admin of that one doesn't respond to inquiries and seems to have gone on vacation, but it has pretty good ranking in a search last I checked). Both support all types of RP, despite their name.

 

Thank you both, I shall look at all three sites to get listed.

 

As far as I know, I have never got a new member from anything other than a Yahoo ad group. Now that my original game is defunct, I've had zero luck in launching a different game.

 

I began Irenic with only one other member who was fabulous enough to help me drum up some activity at the start. Which means that the overwhelming majority of my members have joined because of adverts posted in forums or listings. I think afiliating with other like minded communities can also be beneficial.

 

I just joined, and I am curious as well. I am sure that the exposure is helpful for any game though, so it might be a good idea to just work on and see what happens.

 

I agree with this. Most of it is improving your google rank and search results for SEO purposes.

 

I do a lot of advertising for my forum, but I also like to make it useful advertising. For example, I run a tumblr blog for partner searches within the genre that my forum caters to.This brings in the kind of roleplayers that I'm looking for without spamming. I run a Facebook group that is similar to this as well. I also use Twitter, Youtube, and other popular social media outlets to get my forum out there for people to find. Like others already said, even if people don't directly find you through these mediums, it still helps you make it into more google results.

 

None yet, as I too am new

 

I'm new to this site, but I do like that it allows you to post your site in the signature, and the active community and willingness of members to network with each other seems like a big boon. But I agree with what a previous poster said -- often, it's the Google SEO boost that tends to be more helpful than the ad itself.

 

Haven't really seen a change but we literally just opened the site as well as just posted the ad here. Hoping for some action very soon, too! :)