I have a new release coming up and I'm looking for unique, inexpensive ways to promote it in such a way that people will remember it favorably and buy it when it comes out.

I've tried several means of advertising before and none of them seem to work. I had a htree-issue ad in Knihgts of the Dinner Table which seemed to work OK but cost some dough I don;t have at the moment -- and the run was over by the time my game came out. Banner ads are seen by Internet users as little more than a nusaince and are either ignored or blocked alotgther by software. Search engines require someone to actually be looking specifically for you.

In addition, I need to raise money -- not spend it -- at this stage in my project's development.

What do people suggest?

I think in general advertising has some problems... it's not just banner ads that people find annoying. the first and best method of promotion is word-of-mouth. if someone says "this game is good" and customers see this as an honest opinion and not just a paid advertisement, that means more than all the pop-ups and full-page ads in the world.

so, the best cheap/free promotion would be anything that generates word-of-mouth. earmark a couple copies of your game as give-aways. if you have any playtesters who have become extremely familiar and fond of your game, ask them to do you a favor and run free promotional games at a couple gamestores. check rpg.net reviewers to see who is seen as honest and ask a couple "would you be willing to playtest and review my game for rpg.net?" do the same at any similar game review forums.

just to emphasize that this works: the reason I am here on the Forge is because I was lead here when I investigated Donjon, Trollbabe, Elfs, and Sorcerer after reading positive, interesting reviews on rpg.net. I purchased copies of all those games, plus the Sorcerer suppliments and Paladin, because I liked what I read. that means that both Clinton and Ron profitted directly from word-of-mouth generated by rpg.net.

Swap game ads with someone else.

Find a couple of people who have games up and coming, and swap a full page ad with them, you put one in the back of your book, they put one in the back of theirs!

And so on.

EDIT : If your up for it, i've got something coming up. Hit me at angered_shrubbery@hotmail.com if your interested.

-- Seamus

Hey Michael,

I see you're in Portland; what about having some free copies for take, and maybe one copy on display, at Bridgetown, Ancient Wonders, and maybe Camelot down in Newberg? Those are the big-three game stores I can think off in our area. I head down to Newberg every other week for a D&D game, so if you didn't want to spend the gas on the drive, I could probably assist.