Game Site Webmasters

Free site content

2006-12-19T17:54:00.000-08:00

Do you want free flash games for your site? Then check out this link: free site content for your website includes free games and free animations. Just click the download link and then upload the file to your site. Finding content has never been easier. Also try this link for free games for your website

Reach Ads Are Super - Reach Ads!

2006-10-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

Try out reachads.com which is all about games. They only pay about 4-8 cents per click currently (pretty new) but all of the ads are banner ads and are game related. I get about a 4% ctr and earn almost 2$ every 1,000 visitors. (compared to less than a dollar for adsense and adbrite)

Once this site grows they will pay better, so I suggest applying today and try them out. This is mostly for gaming sites that want gaming related ads. If you want to serve game related ads I really recommend reachads.

Earn Money with your arcade site.

2006-10-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

So you want to earn as much money as you can right? Well, try Text Link Ads. Basically you sign up, and start sell text link ads! No discriptions or anything. I've earned over 150$ a month using this program. How much did I earn using adsense, yahoo and adbrite combined? 40$. So start selling some ads!

Free Site Content and an Ethics Lesson

2006-08-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

Alright, here's an unfinished list of sites that allow you to download some of the games and host them:

http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/download
http://www.freegamesforyourwebsite.com/
http://www.armorgames.com/freecontent.html
http://www.miniclip.com/games/en/webmaster-games.php
http://www.2dplay.com/freecontent.htm
http://www.flashgames247.com/pages/freegames.html
http://www.gamesreloaded.com/gamesforyoursite.php
http://www.neodelight.com/about/freecontent
http://www.heavygames.com/free_content/index.asp
http://www.dailyfreegames.com/free-games.html
http://freegamesforyoursite.com/
http://www.lostjungle.com/add.php
http://www.mousebreaker.com/index.php?page=freestuff
http://www.arcadetown.com/free_content/index.asp
http://www.freeworldgroup.com/koalafiles.htm
http://www.craziness.com/ (Site was down when I wrote this, I'll edit in direct link)
Comment if you have more and I'll edit them in.

Also if you find a game that you want but do not see it on a free download list, then take five minutes and write the developer and 9 out of 10 times they'll let you host it for free.

Example Email: (Please don't copy and paste, at least change the wording a little bit)

Hello, I was wondering if I could host your game, GAMENAME, at my site www.YOURSITE.com

Also you will be credited for the game. Your name/site name and a link to your site/email will be presented above the games.

EX: Author: 2DPlay

If you agree to let me host please reply saying so and the way you wish to be credited.

Thank you,
Your Name

In conclusion: Remember game developers are your best friend. You wouldn't have a site if it wasn't for there hard work. The least you could do is credit them in some way and make sure you can host the game before you do. Also remember that the creator of the game holds the copyrights, not you.

PS: There are developers who create lists in public forums of sites that do steal content. This just gives your site a bad name, so don't do it. (Proof)

PPS: A blog about how game developers can get your adsense account deleted. (Click)

MySpace + More

2006-08-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

MySpace

Myspace is a great place to market a game site. I started a myspace account for my games (http://www.myspace.com/dabontvgames) less than a week ago and my site is seeing the best traffic all month. I know a lot of you don't makes games, but I suggest to be honest about the whole thing (Don't start a profile about a hot girl and then suddenly start posting bulletins about a game site you like... Might work, but not that honest.) For example just start a page about your site, put a game or two in the profile, put some links near the games and watch the traffic increase.

Also for those of you who don't want to manually add friends (non of us do) check out adder robot the trial version let's you request 40 friends a day (that's what I use) but if you register (good idea) you can max it out at 500 or something a day.

Increase Traffic at Forums

Alright, I've had a forum for over a year now (for game makers, mainly tcg makers) and the traffic has been meh. Then google sandboxed me a couple of months ago and 90% of the traffic was from members. So then I set up a group project: The results: In about a month it's had about 120 replies, a lot of new members, and the current members check back at least twice a day. That's exactly what you want with forums; keep your current members coming back.

So n short if you have a gaming forum start up a little project or something and see what happens.

Forums + Social Bookmarks + Link Trade

2006-08-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

Forums

Alright, I tried the whole forums thing, I signed up to 6 or 7 high traffic game related message boards, made a handful of posts at each, each day, and the end result = no clicks. I put a link to my site in the signature and didn't get any results. If you plan on posting in forums you'll probably have to do it a lot to get results.

Social Bookmarks

http://del.icio.us/ : I found this site to be useful for original content. If you have a game blog, a game related forum or have a game news site, then this is the place for you. You'll easily get traffic and some back links. If you're lucky you'll get a digg post.

(related: http://www.blinklist.com/, http://www.furl.net/)

http://www.stumbleupon.com/ : If your site is just flash games, you better sign up at this site right now. The trick is to review one or two of your games every so often, and then watch the traffic come. If you're lucky you'll get about 500 uniques on the first day, and then you'll get a couple here and there.

Digg: The big daddy, basically if you have game news and so forth this is a good way to drive in a bunch of traffic, and you can try to promote a game at your site, but my rule of thumb is to only use games that you've made, it will help you get your site out there really quick.

Link Trade

Once you've got a good amount of content you're going to want to trade links. There are a bunch of sites who will trade links, and sites using phparcadescript have an automated link trade. So find some high trafficked sites and build up the PR.

What I did was searched for "phparcadescript" and then once I found a couple of sites I traded links with them. The traffick isn't great but it will help your site in backlinks.

Link Dumps

2006-08-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

I'm going to follow up on this post to report traffic and so forth but I've just submitted a couple of games to a few "link dump" type sites. For you reference those site are:

Game Links
Info: The admin says the wait is about a month until you get approved, but if approved you'll see about 200-500 clicks the first couple of days and probably a couple here and there down the road.

Arcade Storm
Info: None.

Game Dropper
Info: Your link will be put on the front page within seconds of submission.(Automated) It looks like you get about 10 or so clicks on average, but top game has over 500 clicks.

Heavy Games
Info: If your game is accepted it will also go on kickingames.com.

Well in a few weeks I'll follow up with traffic reports and revenue reports!

Original Content = Good Idea

2006-08-05T19:47:00.000-07:00

Having content that you made or sponsored will be very good for your game site. Why? Every flash game has a link back to a site, and if the game is good enough it will be on thousands of sites... Think about it.

Al right, I just started making flash games and a couple of days ago I decided to upload a beta of a game I'm working on and see what people thought of it via stumbleupon .com. Click here to view the game.

Long story short I received about 15 clicks to my site from the game and more then half of the people who clicked came back! And if you notice the link to my site is kind of hidden. (Have to roll over the credits button) I don't know exactly how many people viewed the game (I'm going to estimate anywhere from 300 to 500) So give or take an average CTR of about 15%. Now just image that game getting hundreds of thousands of views!

Look At the Facts: Look at a lot of the big arcade sites, freeonlinegames, armorgames, monkeygames... they all sponsor a lot of games and get there games all over the Internet.

Once you've created or sponsored a game now you have to promote it like crazy. Upload it to as many sites as you can. If it makes a couple of high traffic sites then it will eventually (speculation) make it's way around the Internet.

Sites:
freeonlinegames.com
spikedhumor.com
newgrounds.com
... a lot more

Well, I know most of you probably don't even have flash (It's expensive) so that puts you at sponsoring games. This price will range probably on the quality of the game. If you are very interested in this go over to newgrounds and look for anyone looking for a sponsor.

My Services
As I said I'm still learning flash, but hopefully I'll have some really good games coming out soon. If anyone has a good idea for a game I'll give you a link back to your site and make the game for free! (Gives me some learning experience, post your ideas).

Banner Exchange: In Depth Review

2006-08-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

Alright, here is an in depth review of 8 different banner exchange programs. I'm going to give the average CTR from the past 2 weeks (that my banners recieved) and additional comments if need be. The banners I am using are: flash banner and GIF banner, I made the flash banner and the GIF banner was a freebie from gammersbanner. The sites are listed in alphabetical order.

Arcade Banners
GIF Banner: CTR %: 3.42%
Flash Banner: N/A (Just added my flash banner)
Bonuses: 25,000 free impressions after the first week active.
Comments: This site allows flash banners, but they must be approved by the admin. The response time is really fast.
Recommended: Yes

Arcade Sponsor
GIF Banner: N/A (Not in use)
Flash Banner: CTR %: 2.2%
Bonuses: 25,000 free impressions when you sign up.
Comments: haven't had any problems with this site, also they give away prizes randomly... So look out for that.
Recommended: Yes

Arcade Traffic
GIF Banner: N/A (Not in use)
Flash banner: CTR %: 2.78%
Bonuses: 100 free clicks
Comments: This banner exchange is based on clicks not impressions. It's a 10:6 exchange ratio. (Not that great)
Recommended: Yes/No. It's an alright program, but not great.

Exchange Hog
GIF Banner: CTR %: 1.61%
Flash Banner: N/A (Not allowed/ Don't work)
Bonuses: 5,000 free impressions on sign up.
Comments: I don't think I received the sign up bonuses. Also they say you get 5,000 free impressions for each member you refer but I don't see a ref link. Also you can't upload banners, you have to supply the URL.
Recommended: No

GamerFlow
GIF Banner: CTR %: 2.3%
Flash Banner: N/A (Not allowed)
Bonuses: None
Comments: This a click exchange program, 10:9 click exchange.
Recommended: Yes.

GamersBanner
GIF Banner: CTR %: 1.11%
Flash Banner: N/A (Didn't Use)
Bonuses: 50,000 bonus credits.
Comments: They supply some nice free banners.
Recommended: Yes/No, if you find a better banner to use then try them out.

Gamers Cafe
GIF Banner: CTR %: 1.56%
Flash Banner: N/A (Didn't work)
Bonuses: 5,000 Free impressions
Comments: You have to transfer the free impressions to get them. Make sure you do that.
Recommended: Yes/No, It's an okay program.

More Gamers
GIF Banner: CTR %: 0.84%
Flash Banner: CTR %: 0.96%
Bonuses: 50,000 free impressions.
Comments: The CTR is pretty low, but the free impressions help out.
Recommended: Yes/No (Some days the CTR is very high, others it's very low...)

Other
I've recently started trying out these two programs (CTR no available)

Arcade Affiliate
Comments: This program is in beta, but there are a lot of options and bonus credits so take a look see.

More Playerz
Comments: Just signed up with them and expect good things.

Final Words
I suggest you give all these programs a try just to see what works for you. Different banners will have different results.

Banner Exchange

2006-07-30T16:18:00.000-07:00

Banner exchange programs are probably the easiest way to increase traffic and revenue. Let's face it, people who click on banners, will click on ads. My traffic has increased 3 fold since I started using exchange programs and it continues to grow. Below is a list of banner exchange programs, going from my favorite to my least favorite.

Arcade Banners
Arcade Sponor
More Gamers
Gamers Banners
GamerFlow
ExchangeHog

Some of those are ref links, some are not. I'm no longer using Komodobanner.com because the CTR was really low. And I just started using ExchangeHog and tt's turning out like komodo.

If you've tried any others please post them. (I've tried to try moreplayerz but no luck, heard good things about them though.)