Self-Advertising, and Proper Marketing - Getting Your Mod/Custom Story Known

[Kreekakon]

Hey there everyone! I mainly created this thread as a bit of a talk session between the many custom story, and mod creators for Amnesia.

This is something I've been very concerned about, hence the title: The importance of advertising your work, getting people interested, and making as much people play it as possible when it does get released.

I've been here for a very long time, and rarely have I seen anyone on the forums advertise any of their work on a large scale. This is a particular shame for larger projects, because it very well may cause potentially several years of love, and effort get buried after a few days once the mod leaves the front page.

Working hard is important, and so is making your mod the best your vision set it out to be. But all that can very well be potentially pointless if when your story comes out NO ONE plays the damn thing, and the only way people ever knew about it was that they saw a "released mod" on the long list of Amnesia mods.

You could very well have created a masterpiece, but end up earning the "Best Mod that No one Played Award".

So this is why I think many mod creators, and not just the ones who make Amnesia ones should in addition to making quality work also know how to present their work to others so that people can know your work exists, and get the recognition it deserves instead of being a quietly released work that slowly sinks away days within release.

In my opinion there is no place for self-pride here ("Only those people who care enough to find my mod deserve to play it!"), or even to some degree...principle ("Overhyping something bad business practice, and I don't do it!"). You spent months, or years working on something...you DESERVE to be shameless, and selfish in shoving your work down people's throats (Well not too much but you get what I mean)

So comes the main reason I made this thread in the first place...I want you guys' input on this whole matter, mainly revolving around two questions although you can go out of this zone if you so please:

1. What are your thoughts on all this?

2. What would you believe is a good, and viable way to promote your own work, and get it known to as many people on the internet as possible?

Happy posting!

[DnALANGE]

Good idea,
I also have an idea..
Don't know IF this is interesting but here it is :
Could there be a thread that has MONTHS in it:
so FINISHED MODS : examle :
Januari : Modname 1 Finished
Modname 2 Finished
Mod3name finished
Februari :Modname 15
Modname 16
Modname 17 etc etc
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SO every month there will be a new thread so people can SEE the NEW mods.
And if they want they can look for the MONTHS.
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i think this might be a good idea , because of this :
Then people won't be annoyed with OLDER mods\story's.
AND New mods will be sort of on top cause of the upload date and thread on the top!
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The only thing is there might be a thread that has the UPDATED mods!
Maybe we could think of something like that?
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SO overall :
MAIN thread -> create MONTHLY threads IN there for mods for every month.

Just an idea...

[Kreekakon]

While it is also an important demographic, this is more than talking about the forums. Forum goers should be able to relatively easily find new releases periodically in Showcase.

I'm more leaning towards the general public of the internet, and potentially people who may not even play Amnesia so hardcore like us.

[PutraenusAlivius]

Make a feature thread. Each month, the thread should showcase the month's CS/FC releases, good or bad.

[Daemian]

Thumbnails at the top of the forum.
It could present the latest mods, or featured ones.
And be controlled by moderators only.


I know it's presumptuous, but it's just an idea.

[Kreekakon]

These are all possible ideas guys, but like I said earlier: The forums I feel already have a good enough deal of custom story exposure given the Showcase section, and the abundance of people that come on here everyday. It could definitely use more exposure don't get me wrong, but at the very most that's more considered the secondary reason I made this thread.

The primary is how a creator is to get word of his mod out effectively beyond the walls of these forums to perhaps the ModDB community, Youtube community, etc. People who know about Amnesia mods, but not necessarily follow them all that often, or get notified of new ones.

Successfully marketing a mod to these people will likely mean that mod's audience may very well likely beyond be triple of what it may have been if it was just left on the forums. The potential players on this forums is greatly dwarfed by the amount of Amnesia fans which are scattered all across the internet.

How do you think one can broadcast/market their works to these people? A way I've currently thought of is similar to what FG did with AMFP, give it out to Yotubers who may be able to help spread the word (Doesn't even have to be the big ones), or ask them to help give shout-outs. Alternatively one could also continuously update on a mod's status on somewhere like ModDB perhaps to increase likelihood of exposure.

EDIT: Just so we're clear it doesn't mean that I DON'T want to see forum suggestions. Throw those out if you like as well! Just remember that if you can think of wider-scale things that'd be even better perhaps!

[Karba]

I would like to see the monthly thingy mentioned above

[DnALANGE]

How do you think one can broadcast/market their works to these people? A way I've currently thought of is similar to what FG did with AMFP, give it out to Yotubers who may be able to help spread the word (Doesn't even have to be the big ones), or ask them to help give shout-outs. Alternatively one could also continuously update on a mod's status on somewhere like ModDB perhaps to increase likelihood of exposure.
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Those youtubers mostly play what they prefer, and that is their right offcourse!
SO, asking them if they want to play would NOT result more people going to FG forum...
We need to set up something here for the OLD & NEW users that they can see : That is NEW and those are OLDER...
SO people don't have to play\download mods that they already have played! I have that some times! and it is annoying to play something SOOO familour! and then after 15 min you are like . DARN! i've dont this before!
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Overall we might concider something mentioned above,
ALSO cause MFP assets will be availabel {soon} there will be a LOT of new story's to play,
and people who visit this forum may have a sort of "right" they could play NEW story's!
Don't get me wrong, OLD mods\story's are also AMAZING!!!
But i think when aamfp assets are available, we see new awesome mods!
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So... maybe a poll or??
This is just how I think about what this forum could need.

[DnALANGE]

People, he's asking about your opinion on best ways to market a mod, not if what that guy said is a good idea. Stay on topic.

READ!?
this is 1 of those ways to show your mod.
IF it is on the monthly treadh people will see that at first and will download.

This is a normal discussion and .. Robo, don't worry... we understand your message...

[CarnivorousJelly]

Uhm... We could try something similar to this on MODDB? Unless that's what that group is, in which case it might need a little tidying up (it looks like a fanclub to me, so....). Anyways, ignore me, I'm just thinking c: