I love Jeff Vogel's games. He's got a great
blog too. One of the most insightful I've ever read.
There's no "tricks" to it. Just be honest, be sincere,
make good games. They don't have to be perfect. They're not AAA games, just recycled old games with a continuation on story and gameplay. The demos are fun, the games themselves are even more fun.
Personally, I've noticed a very clear correlation between quality software/games and sales. It's funny. I had a product which I didn't advertise.. did a little tweak, didn't announce the update other than changing the screenshots. Sales increased noticeably.
You can 'scrape' sales with ads, advanced marketing, whatever. All marketing does is increase awareness, which will increase anyway if you have good stuff. But I find that quality products always mean more sales. Always.
Oh and I agree with Paul Eres here. Discounts are bad in the long term for indie developers. It's different for a medium sized studio; the sudden boost in income gives you enough to hire a few people and kick the next game out a little faster. If you're going near solo, you'll be relying on long tail sales. Loss leader strategy - it's the leading way to make a loss.
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That's why I think social networking is so important.
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Uh, no.
Social networking is a bubble. Everyone's rushing towards it. Advertising on Facebook/etc is a poor idea now because everyone's overestimating it and ads are excessively expensive. Facebook's P/E ratio was over 90 in a field where 10 is considered high. Goes to show how overrated it is.
Not that it's 'bad', but you're kinda missing the point of the article. Take it easy, be a bottom feeder, don't bother riding the trends, because it takes a lot of resources you don't have.
Social media will work itself out. People will "share" your games. Spend less time on marketing, more on fixing bugs or improving graphics, and I guarantee that you'll make more money (though if you have a marketing guy, of course make him handle all the social media stuff).