Note  60  Osse         (10/09/08 09:49)  T2T Advertising

Greetings All,
 
The results of the Advertising Initiative survey (survey read 10) 
are unanimous in their support of us undertaking some efforts to 
advertise The Two Towers to potential new players. 
 
In light of this, and with the help of some generious donators, I 
have taken some initial steps. Currently, I have the following paid 
advertising campaigns going:
 
    1) Google Adwords ad running on related sites and searches.
    2) 2-months of banner ad placement on www.topmudsites.com, shown 
        randomly in rotation with other muds' banner ads (to see it,
        you may have to refresh the page a few times).
    3) Banner ad currently showing on www.thenoobcomic.com, a popular
        gaming-related serial comic. (Note that this ad is shown based
        on a daily bid, so that it may not be showing by the time you
        read this.)
        
In addition, we have been making a more concerted effort to keep T2T
in the Top 10 listing on topmudsites.com by voting for it (see 'help
mudvote' for more info.)
 
The results, so far:
Since we started advertising, we have seen a slow but steady increase
in average user counts, with the daily minimum playercounts increasing
from ~18 to ~30. Max user counts have increased from the mid-60's to
the mid-70's. Also in the last few days we have seen a marked increase 
in the number of new player creations from new, unique IP addresses - 
yesterday (Oct. 8) saw _23_ new characters from new, unique IPs. That 
number is the highest we have seen in quite some time (pre-advertising 
average was ~8 per day). The average over the last 5 days is 18. 
 
It's a good start, and I think we can do even more. I would like to 
thank the players who have contributed to this effort thus far - 
Vhailor and Esker. Between them and myself, we have raised US$250 
for this advertising initiative so far. Your generosity and commitment 
to T2T deserve our deepest thanks.
 
A note regarding advertising funds: At this point, we are keeping the 
advertising funds separate from the "main" funds raised by the recent 
pledge drive, since we prefer to keep that money focused on keeping 
T2T online and covering necessary server maintenance.
 
Osse