Forums → News and Feedback → 3 Suggestions to bring in "customers"

I use the term "customers" lightly. Mostly because I know that people who come onto AG don't exactly buy anything (though if I had the money on hand, I'm sure I'd buy a thing or two from the shop). By "customers" I mean new people (or old people who stay around longer than usual).

Now then, I notice that there are massive amounts of ads on the site (DON'T WORRY, I'm not going to complain about how "OMIGAWD SO MANY ADS&quot. From these large amounts of ads, I can assume that for every ad clicked, or seen, or every hit from the site that the advertiser gets, AG gets some bit of money. Unless it's an advertisement agreement for "we rent out X amount of space for X amount of money". But my point being: more people have to come to AG in order to get more money through the ads, correct? At the very least, if the AG execs say to the advertisers, "We have so many people coming in to our site, your web site would get a lot of hits. Therefore, you should fork over a bit more for our advertising space."

I have a few different suggestions in order for that to happen. Of course, the standard AG3 upgrades that have been planned out will make tons of new fans flock to the internet gates of AG. But even with that, I have a few suggestions that I think would really help the AG website. I'll throw them out in number order.

1. Make the community button bigger.

Since I am a long-time member of AG (and an avid lurker), I notice that for every 10 people that pop into the AG community (excluding the newcomers forum), about 3 of them stay for an extended amount of time. Therefore bringing in potential "hey guys, join this site!" hits. I notice that every 10 people that pop into the AG community found the AG community the exact same way I did. Which is: "Community? What could that be? MY CURIOSITY MUSCLE IS TINGLING" after the 10th or so time that they've been here.

Point being: most people who come onto the AG community had no idea there was a community (despite being long-time members), or simply hadn't seen it. I suggest that you do one of many options:

A) Just make the community button more noticeable, or larger. I assume that it can't be all too hard. You could put it next to the AG logo, or simply in a more noticeable place. Put a slightly different logo saying "forums", which seems to be a more known version of "community".

B) Mention the community (or the preferred term, "forums&quot in the in-game advertisements. At the beginning of most AG-sponsored games, there is the AG logo and a link to the site, yes? Why not (when the game is on AG, or just in the ad itself) put a mentioning of the AG forums. After the logo pops through, show a brief (2-3 second) ad saying "With a thriving community!" or something of that manner.

C) Mention it in blog posts. A simple prospect, yes? It would be incredibly effective as compared to the time and effort needed to do the previous 2 options, and it would get a minor (but still helpful) amount of people to come into the community (and therefore stay for longer).

2. Art, Music, and Writing wants to write books for you.

And I know from experience that we really don't even care if we're paid. I know that myself would be happy to work on an AG-iverse (Read: AG fiction that the AMW has worked on and off with for a long time [members include: Thoadthetoad, Strop, Cenere, Freakenstein, and countless others]. Though the books wouldn't exactly be masterpieces of publication, it would be worth a shot to put a 4 dollar download for a PDF file in the shop. It would be convienent for the consumer, a tremendous feat of flatter towards the AMW member, and a win-win situation (given that the AMW member is happy with getting little-no pay, or a small compensation, or whatever payment is desired).

3. Strengthen the unheard community by letting them talk

Though this is lightly addressed in the "make the community button bigger" suggestion, this is a bit different. I was thinking of a corner (much like the "web games" corner) of the site where it would show a snapshot of a person's face (or an AMW member's rendition of you) speaking- via text of course- to the members of the gaming community. Think of it as an enhanced "new blog entry!" part of the AG homepage. It could include a link to the discussion (much like our regular blog entry box), links to what you're talking about, etc.

Thank you dearly for spending your valuable time reading my suggestions. I sincerely do hope that I have opened some brains into turning ArmorGames into an even more respectable and admirable site! I enjoy every second I'm here, and I only wish to make it better. If you see anything in my suggestions that should (or could) be improved upon, I'll be thinking of it in my spare time.