16 Dec, 2009, Scandum wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
Looking to supplement my income I'm giving the MUD advertisement business a try. I've been developing TinTin++ (a powerful multi-platform MUD client) since 2004, and popularity has steadily increased with currently 1400 to 1800 downloads a month, with the user base being roughly comprised of 40% Windows, 40% Linux, and 20% Mac OS X users.

I'll be out of town for the next couple of days, but am planning to release an advertisement enabled tintin++ before the 31st. For anyone who's interested I need the following information, preferably before the 24th.

1) Name of the mud
2) Website url, if you want it included.
3) An 8 line description (can be shorter), wrapped at 80 columns.
4) Address and port
5) $100 - preferably through paypall (We'll settle the details through email.)

Email me at mudclient@gmail.com if interested.

I was also thinking to include one non profit mud for free, requirement would be more than 10 players online on average, no strong emphasis on roleplaying, some form of pk, a decent website, mud must have been up and running for more than 4 years, and a brief explanation of what sets your mud apart from the average mud. Email me with the info if you're interested in the freebie (do make it clear you're after the freebie) and I'll get back to you if I pick your mud.
16 Dec, 2009, Chris Bailey wrote in the 2nd comment:
Votes: 0
Scandum - Interesting….I use tintin++ on a semi-regular basis, am I going to be swamped with ads if I upgrade? Good idea though.
16 Dec, 2009, Scandum wrote in the 3rd comment:
Votes: 0
The advertisement will be on the opening screen, I doubt it'll bother many people, and if you have a startup script to automatically connect to your mud you probably won't see it.

I think most of the exposure will be to tintin newbies, and people with hanging startup scripts (when their mud is down).
16 Dec, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 4th comment:
Votes: 0
Scandum said:
and if you have a startup script to automatically connect to your mud you probably won't see it.

$100 might be steep for something that a lot of people won't see unless they're total newbies or can't connect to their current MUD. You might want to look into some kind of referral-based system. I am not at all sure that I would consider paying $100 for second-class advertising like this, where I only get exposure when the user is having an incomplete or broken experience (newbie or error situation).

This might also belong in the 'promotions' section, given the obvious promotional nature of your request (i.e., giving you money in exchange for advertisement – you're promoting a service).
16 Dec, 2009, Chris Bailey wrote in the 5th comment:
Votes: 0
If I had a game I was planning to advertise, I would do it. I will keep it in mind for the future. $100 isn't much if the length of the contract/advertisement/whatever is even..a year? That's less than 9 bucks a month
16 Dec, 2009, Tonitrus wrote in the 6th comment:
Votes: 0
Wouldn't "newbies" and "people who can't connect to their current mud of choice" be pretty much your target audience anyway?
16 Dec, 2009, Chris Bailey wrote in the 7th comment:
Votes: 0
Tonitrus - You are absolutely correct.
16 Dec, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 8th comment:
Votes: 0
It depends on how many people put advertisements in the client. If it's just a small handful, you have good chances of getting that "front-page" exposure on those rare events. If it's 20 people, you have a one in twenty chance of getting on the front page when that player's MUD happens to be down. Presumably MUDs don't go down temporarily or permanently an awful lot, so you're paying to get exposure to a limited group of people on a limited number of occasions.

Having a catalog of startup scripts for advertised MUDs would already be much better, and presenting that list of MUDs would be more effective and most certainly more fair than selecting one at random.

Also, there's price per month, sure, but that should be compared to value per month, to get some kind of return on investment. You can already advertise for free on any number of websites, so what very particular advantage does a particular means of advertising provide? I can give you all kinds of advertising schemes that cost you even less than $9/month, but give you less exposure than this.
16 Dec, 2009, Chris Bailey wrote in the 9th comment:
Votes: 0
When the remark was made that it would be seen only by newbies and people whose mud were down, it wasn't literal. When the tintin++ application is started, it will display the information for a random server, as I understand it. You will be less likely to see it if you use a startup script that connects directly to your mud of choice. In that scenario, you will probably only see it if your MUD of choice is not working.
The catalog of startup scripts is also an excellent idea though, and I feature I would like to have in tintin regardless =)
16 Dec, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 10th comment:
Votes: 0
I know it wasn't that tt++ would say "oh look, there's a script, I won't show the ad", but it's effectively the same thing. It's not like people are likely to scroll up to check out an ad when they're already playing their game.
16 Dec, 2009, JohnnyStarr wrote in the 11th comment:
Votes: 0
It seems like a good idea in theory. But sites like TMC can help someone find the exact thing
they are looking for. Even newbies want to know if it's got PK, or other things that drastically change
game play. In other words: It just seems like you might get a lot of 'hits', but finding the right fit
will make or break your player base.
16 Dec, 2009, Orrin wrote in the 12th comment:
Votes: 0
Obviously the exact value is going to depend on the number of other advertisers, but I think it's a reasonable cost for what is being offered. Certainly an icon on the startup screen for zmud would cost considerably more.
16 Dec, 2009, Scandum wrote in the 13th comment:
Votes: 0
So far it looks like I've got 3 advertisers, I guess being a notorious forum troll is finally catching up with me.

On the bright side, the muds involved will probably get their money's worth.
16 Dec, 2009, Zeno wrote in the 14th comment:
Votes: 0
Personally that's too much for me. I can afford it, but it's the same price I pay (for a year) for my VPS.
16 Dec, 2009, Tonitrus wrote in the 15th comment:
Votes: 0
Scandum said:
So far it looks like I've got 3 advertisers, I guess being a notorious forum troll is finally catching up with me.

On the bright side, the muds involved will probably get their money's worth.


I think David Haley's point about a random chance in a limited (although valuable) situation might be a bit of a hindrance to you. How much space do your mud listings take up? [Edit: Oh, you included that information in your original post, how [i]sneaky[/i].] You could maybe show a mini-list or show multiples (maybe of different type) at the same time. Or even have a tintin command to show a different ad.

e.g.,

#ses blah blah.blah 0000
#Trying to connect to blah.blah port 0000
#COULD NOT CONNECT.

#SESSION 'blah' DIED.

HAPPY KITTEN MUD

[Looking for other options? Type #nextad]

#nextad

EVIL DEATH MUD

Although I also think mud listings should contain a lot of fields about types and features and such. I see a lot of mud listings that look interesting to me until I click them and see that they're NOPKILL with ENDLESS REMORT and the only allowed interaction with other players is hand-holding and pats on the head.
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