>There are a couple of things I know beyond a shadow of a
>doubt, and a few things in this area that I know what outcome
>I'm after but not quite how to get it.
>
>#1
>
>The landing page of all advertising needs to be 100%
>promotional. In my post on the Bucket (which anyone interested
>in marketing really needs to read)I talk about "the path."
>When you want to take your prospect down a specific path the
>only way to do that is to give them only one option. The page
>will have a TON of information about WHY you should play, and
>what will be great about doing CF - but will not contain
>anything that is nuts and bolts. (Like class/skill pages.)It
>will give a little information, ask them to play, give more
>information, ask to play, give more information, ask to play.
>
>I'm 100% sure this is the right way to do this.

I am 100% it is not. Well, its up to IMMs anyway
>
>Now where I'm not sure is where we run into seperating from
>this page or not. To me it's actually a question of search
>engine response. If I knew how, I'd build the page in such a
>way that people who are looking for "online game, free game,
>online roleplay, mush, moo, mud" etc. etc. are going to find
>our CF promo page. I know a few tricks that work for me in a
>local market, but I don't have a ton of experience getting it
>done on a global scale. Can someone help here?
If there was such way and I knew it, I would go to the bank with a sack for money. The "little" problem here is competition. Thats why you need to do MUCH more than just put key words in certain manner on the page. I stop a bit and describe three common ways of web promotion here

1. SEO. Work: requires a lot of work. Money: nothing to affordable sum (100$-200$). Time of waiting before the traffic will increase: large. Time of waiting before traffic will decrease when you are doing nothing: large. So, you just work hard and wait long but then can just sit and do nothing and enjoy the traffic. Its very roughly description of course.

2. PPC. Work: almost nothing. Money: little to millions $ (Google will thank you). Both times: very short (in Russian PPC its several minutes). So, you get for what you paid. It very good for CF I think. But need to verify

3. Traffic from other site, hidden marketing on forums. Has same properties as SEO, but several differences. Its long to describe them, just say that its more suitable for CF promotion I think.

The effectiveness of each way can be measured and checked.

>I DO know that one of the easiest ways to rank in the search
>engine is to use the key words in your URL. Therefore being
>carrionfields.com is going to rank us high for people
>searching Carrion Fields, but we're nowhere near the top for
>searches like "online roleplaying" or "free games." Which is
>really what we need to do... (Once I get done with the Bucket,
>and define our target market I'm going to start working on
>creating rather than capturing marketshare, and that kinda
>goes along with this post, that happens later tho.)
Oh, yes. Just make site with "cialis" or "loan" in the URL and go get your millions
Yes, it helps, but not so much as it will harm. The new site is MUCH worse for promotion than the old one. So, as for SEO we should stick with this site. For PPC and other ways we can try to make a mirror on different URL. The only sense - is to test effectiveness of onsite tricks/copy

>I also know that one of the things that matters in your search
>engine ranking is how much traffic your site gets. If you
>seperate the promo page from this page you lose the advantage
>of all the people who frequent this site.

Well, not so simple. But conclusion is right.

>That's why one of my suggestions was to have a promo page that
>appears at home on carrionfields.com, and then lock what is
>here now behind a password. If you want a password, you give
>an email and answer whether or not your new to CF. So that way
>we can do some damage control, cuz anyone new to mudding is
>going to overwhelmed by all the forums, help files and class
>info. I would much rather have them get really interested in
>the game, click to play, go through the academy, and then make
>their way on to forums later on.
No no no! It will turn away many, dont make things complex. If you wish to measure and see how your visitors are doing, there are much better ways to do it. Alas, IMMs dont want them or missed my offers about it.

And again wrong conclusion that interested person does not want to read more. He wants! Give him both choices, dont decide for him.
But outline and underscore the option he should choose, yes. Dont just take away all others from him. The menu is not so big, to be overwhelmed. And it can be grouped by topics to make it easier to understand.

>Someone who understands how we might rank high in searches for
>people who are bored and looking for free entertainment needs
>to weigh in more than anyone else right now. After that's done
>I can work with that person for the content of the page
>itself. In lieu of that, we'll do the best we can to learn
>about it and implement as best we can.
I do some *yawns*. Can do nothing now anyway.