1) The cflogofinal.gif or .jpg. I don't need the animated version. Give me the biggest resolution you can find. It gives me more room to work with that way.

2) A plain black version of the cftitle.jpg at the top of this page. No swirly thing in the background. No highlights. Just black. Again, biggest resolution.

3) The "fine print" you want me to put at the bottom of any flyers I make regarding trademark/copyright stuff. I will just transfer that precisely as you all would like it.


That should be all.


Please respond quickly. I am eager to do this and have the day off.


Zulg or whoever: If you could tell me how to make my little HTML link below actually work here, I'd appreciate it. It's not behaving!! (I'll insert the actual address later once I figure out how to make it look right.)

Zulg edit:
mailto:yadayada@yada.com?Subject=CF%20Artwork

Pretty sure you can't get fancy with the URL and hide it as a link named Mek. But the above will work.
End Zulg edit

<EMAIL><a href="mailto:yadayada@yada.com?Subject=CF Artwork>Mek</a></EMAIL>

I don't have access to these things where I am right now. I may not have them anywhere at all, but I'll look once I'm home.

I think Amaranthe and Thror did most of this site design and they might be the best people to try to hit up for a quick response.

I've done some digging around, and damned if I can find the original image for that. I'm sure it must exist somewhere, but I'm at a loss.

Ive been talking to Stunna a bit, and what we need is a pure advertisment web-site. This site should only containt vital information, and alot of "Play now" buttons. I think we need updated graphics for this site, essentially making it look more 2007'ish than this highly '97'ish page.

For such a site we would need a fresh, but not "bold" versions of the art on this site. Essentially we need a site that convey exactly what is needed to lure people to log on. No distractions like a forum or lots of information on imms, spheres, cabals and other obscure stuff.

This site would also need to contain a simple but good java based telnet client, considering Windows Vista don't come with telnet preinstalled(Curse them!). This client would need the basic stuff to ease play, like macroed walking and simple alias functions.

This site (carrionfields.org) should not be linked from that page, since the last thing we want new players to view is the forums :), but once they are hooked, we can guide them to this place and QHCF.

(This is the essence of some tidbits me and Stunna talked on.)

I strongly suggest a big, fat, shiny link to Zmud so that new players can play the game in the most user-friendly way. Also, a downloadable settings file for it (this would have to be agreed upon by the Imm Staff) with newbie friendly directions would be essential.

I can't imagine playing this game, for the first time, on telnet and enjoying it half as much as I would with Zmud.

Just my 2 pesos there.

I agree with the notion that client accessability and accessability of common client questions that CF players would have is probably a big deal, though. (That is to say, the top 10 things someone would want to do with ZMud or whatever in general might not be the top 10 things someone would want to do with ZMud for CF. I think the more client-savvy players probably have some idea of what those questions are for their respective favorite clients.)

And I was really wondering how that players types so really fast to use all them long-named spells and skills :)

I have forwarded the info to the Imps for review.

Contacted Zmud? You mean getting the CF logo onto Zmud along with the other muds?

That and trying to get some income from Zmud by having a link to their site for more marketing. I did this within the last two weeks, so the info is with us.

Okay, here is what I will do. I know they charge to have an icon on their software, but, maybe if I can get a list of names of players who have a paid for zmud license that play CF, I can get a price cut. They know we are a free mud and might be willing to work with us some. I will see if I can get them to give me a link so that the players can contact them directly with their info for proof.

I'd also make the case that we're looking into a marketing push that's aimed at creating new mudders, not bring existing mudders to CF. That goes nicely with advertising zmud here.

I have asked for info from the creators of Atlantis at Riverdark the same thing. As soon as I get a response, I will forward it to the Imps. From all of the software I have seen out there for Macs, Atlantis is the closest thing to Zmud. It is actively being worked on and still available for free, though that will change in the near future.

The creator of Atlantis is adding our info to their directory now. It is currently only text, but, when the retail version becomes available, they may use icons. This was free. There may come a time when linked profit sharing may come into play and then for those who use it will be able to link directly from this site to raise more marketing funds.

nt

He asked a question about the software over the newbie channel.

Do you think a pure advertisement site is a better choice vs., say, one or more 'landing pages' for new player ads on this site?

I agree that most of the current content of this site is ass for attracting new players, though.

I will assume you ment that we still use www.carrionfields.com, but make extra "pages" on this one that has nothing to do with the site we are looking at now. I think its perfectly feastable to have the advertisment sites on this web-address, but it is a question of "Do we want brand new players to come to the forums, untill they have played the game a bit.". I know making extra pages costs money, so I guess its a economical issue aswell. But discarding that, I.. think.. it would be a better idea to have a site called thecarrionfields( for example ) as a pure advertisment site.

I agree. The advertisement site should employ SEO techniques. When you google the word carrionfields, you get this site. When you google the word MUD, well we're not in the first 10 pages. Haven't tried Dungeons and Dragons, but you get the point. People looking for Muds to try are googling MUD. I also wouldn't oppose bringing in some of the content from that other site into this one or the advertisement site, and wrapping it in a litte "beginner's package" format. I find some of the things on that other site helpful.

This text-based world is often intimidating to start with. The first question I'm asked when someone sees me playing is consistently "How in the hell do you know what's going on?" Followed immediately by "How do you know where you are, or where to go?" There has to be something (if even small) that we can do to lessen the learning curve just a little without changing game mechanics.

Yes, SEO could help.
No, CF does not need to be promoted by MUD word.

I may be mistaken, but as I remember from my check soem time ago MUD is mostly searched by those, who seeking mud fights by women (huh) and some other stuff. This is easy to verify by using some tool like Wordtracker. I already did it. So, MUD its too common word (just not sure about cap letters, but doubt it changes something).

There are many other words, though. But in CF's case I think SEO is not a primary way of ad.

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.

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?

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.)

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.

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.

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.

>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.

>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

I don't think anyone doubts that this is good for a number of reasons. Network marketing also comes to mind. We're not quite there yet... Market, Message, Media have to come first.




>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.


I want him deciding what class to play based on the in game description of classes, not on information found on the forums. I don't want him wondering what is going to be the most PK viable for him, or considering the combinations of specs and legacies and all that. Let him do that later. We want him to do ONE thing, role a character and play it. I don't want him to start pondering what to play, then wandering off and forgetting all about CF. Strike while the anvil is hot.

ONE path.

Read the "before you run an ad post." Pleeeeeease.

There are steps in a marketing plan, STEPS. *sooob*

In my post on the Bucket (which anyone interested in marketing really needs to read)I talk about "the path."

Man, you really are a marketer-at-heart, aren't you? ;).

As a side, if I wanted to find a good book on marketing, would the book that sells the most copies be the place to start?

The ad agencies are really good at making stuff look like everything else. If you get the book everyone is reading, then you're doing what everyone is doing. You want to be DIFFERENT. :)

As to marketing books, I like anything by Dan Kennedy. I have given this guy literally tens of thousands of dollars and it has ALL paid me back time and again. www.dankennedy.com

Also I like,

Gary Halbert
Jay Abraham
Napolean Hill
"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
"The Fall of Advertising and Rise of PR" is also a must read for anyone who wants to make it in the next phase of the marketing climate.

Many many more... but I'd start there.

So you gave that guy tens of thousands of dollars? He must be really good at marketing then. ;)

That site wont appear from the air, you need to spend quite a time to make it. What will we get? A new site.

Then, you will have two sites, which already certainly does not help to promote (you need to split your efforts when promoting by some ways)

Other thing, I strongly disagree, that forums and all that game info "distracts". That seems to be a common disbelief, that "selling copy/site should be short". No. It should be interesting. And if it is, the person can read more detailed info and can not leave. So, he has choices: if he is interested, he reads more; if not - he leaves.

All this info about cabals and imms helps to outline the benefits of CF. Quite well made, roleplaying world with many choices we all like (I mean character combos), with many interesting skills and spells. Actually, that was how I made _my_ choice to play CF. It was recommended to me and I have read all site, from bottom to the top and started to play. I did the same for other MUDs and they did not seem to be interesting for me with their skills/classes/etc.

But the goal to make simple and obvious scenario of reading for new visitors is good. What I would think about, is to make landing page, which will describe the game in common + to make FAQ. And make three links at the bottom of main page (right when the story ends).
What is CF for new players
CF FAQ
Try it right now

As for design, I think its secondary matter. If someone can redesign it, that would be nice, but not so important. People search information and fun, not piece of artwork.

Making client is very good, but who will make it?

The only situation when two sites are needed in our case is two make two different sites and measure conversion of each.

The site design has everything to do with recruiting new players. Having a site that draw people in and make them interested in trying it out, is of the utmost importance. It is one of the basic things advertisers do to draw customers, make the product look tempting at first glance. The first thing every new player will see is the website, and if it looks crappy it will drive away alot of players. This.. im certain of.

I am too. This is just the secondary thing comparin with content making, increasing traffic and all other things.

You said: Other thing, I strongly disagree, that forums and all that game info "distracts". That seems to be a common disbelief, that "selling copy/site should be short". No. It should be interesting. And if it is, the person can read more detailed info and can not leave. So, he has choices: if he is interested, he reads more; if not - he leaves.

You are absolutely right that the page needs to have a lot of content, and there is no such thing as too much. Totally totally totally right. I disagree though that these forums contain the kind of information that is best for this purpose.

I can create that... that needs to come AFTER we define our target player.

There is a lot of cart before the horse going on right now. Please *sob* read the Bucket post.