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[xiotex]

It's fairly easy to hire Coders, artists and musicians on a freelance basis in the indie scene but what about marketing specialists?

I can make games and people tell me they like them but I am absolutely crap at writing marketing text that sells them - anybody here want a freelance gig writing that kind of blurb? I know I'd pay for it and I'm sure others would too!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

there are a few freelance marketers around, but usually, unless they've made and marketed their own games, it's mostly fake or inappropriate skills. if you were to hire someone like that, make sure they've successfully marketed indie games before, and that their previous customers are happy with them.

writing marketing blurbs is probably more suited to a game's writer than to the game's marketer, though. i market my games but the writer for my games writes all the blurbs and press releases and such, because he's a much better writer than i am.

[xiotex]

there are a few freelance marketers around, but usually, unless they've made and marketed their own games, it's mostly fake or inappropriate skills. if you were to hire someone like that, make sure they've successfully marketed indie games before, and that their previous customers are happy with them.

writing marketing blurbs is probably more suited to a game's writer than to the game's marketer, though. i market my games but the writer for my games writes all the blurbs and press releases and such, because he's a much better writer than i am.

That's good advice and I can see where you are coming from with it. It just struck me that there was a definite  lack (from my observations anyway) of people offering their skills in this area.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

have you tried the indiegamer.com forums? there's probably some stuff like that there.

[xiotex]

have you tried the indiegamer.com forums? there's probably some stuff like that there.

I don't need one right now, it was just a musing that there seemed to be a lack of them

[xiotex]

have you tried the indiegamer.com forums? there's probably some stuff like that there.

After getting a couple of comments from people I decided to take your advice and post a 'wanted' in Indiegamer and what do you know, there ARE people out there that do this in the indie scene. Good news for me at least.

Thanks for the advice!

[mirosurabu]

Affiliate marketers? I wonder if there are any affiliate networks that support video games?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

you sound like you've never heard of reflexive's huge affiliate program; thousands of stock sites exist which just sell the games on reflexive

[mirosurabu]

Ouch...didn't count them. I was thinking along the lines of clickbank.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

"real" affiliate marketers stay away from games, for a number of reasons. the average price of a game is very small, whereas the money in affiliate marketing is selling small numbers of very hi-priced products, not in selling large numbers of very low-priced products. affiliate marketers excel at finding specialized audiences for things that only a few people want, but they're poor at promoting commodities. from what i gather, usually the minimum price of a product a typical affiliate marketer will go after is $99, but they prefer things in the $300+ range.

sometimes indie devs affiliate the games of one another, though. check out amaranthia's site, or hanako's, etc. etc.

[mirosurabu]

That's a good reason. Top affiliate marketers generally tend not to bother with building huge lists.

However, I'd say they deal with niche markets and indie game market is a niche market isn't it?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

depends on the game. they're niche in that only a few people play them relatively, but not niche in the variety of people that play them. i.e. anybody would enjoy the average indie game if they gave it a chance, whereas not anybody would enjoy a hardcore danmaku shmup if they gave it a chance. so i'd say typical indie games are less niche than shmups, 1v1 fighters, jrpgs, etc., because they tend to reach a much broader audience (potentially) than those genres do. but it depends on the game. dwarf fortress is niche. braid and world of goo aren't. typically commercial indie games are more casual and less niche than freeware ones.

nonetheless, there are still plenty of sites which do nothing but affiliate indie games, and even a couple of people who make a living affiliating indie games. typically casual ones though.

as an aside, bmt-micro and other e-commerce service providers typically allow easy affiliation of games; i set immortal defense's rate at 40% (meaning if someone sets up a site and links to the ID demo on it, 40% of the sale goes to that person if that person buys the game). so far though not many people have attempted to do that, besides a few tower defense sites like this one: http://www.towerdefence.net/ and forum threads like this one: http://hanakoforum.nfshost.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=711&sid=9b4a4a6497209c17195b12f3eff0a7e5

[mirosurabu]

I think affiliate marketing is more than just putting your game in someone else's catalog. Top affiliate marketers don't just make product website, they build their list, do the link building, find a promotional hook and so on.

But I agree with you in general.