Experiment: monetizing a Flash game - Part 3
Posted by Emanuele Feronato on 11/11/07 in Flash, Game design, Monetize
Multipart tutorial: available parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Another week passed and here I am with the experiment update. Read part 1 and 2 if you haven’t done it yet, then it’s time to know how it’s going.
Last tuesday I submitted Circle Chain to some other Flash portals. And, in my opinion, the promotion is over. With my game submitted to over 20 portals, I’ll wait for the viral marketing to work for me until the experiment is over. This make me ask a question:
When will the experiment end?
Although your Flash game will be listed “forever” in Flash portals, you must set a condition that will define that your game is not longer played, even if someone around the web still play your game. My end condition is: “Circle Chain experiment will be over when it will show less than 10,000 ads in a week”. I forecast this could happen in a week or two, unless some “big name” notices my game and put it on its frontpage.
Sites where I submitted the game
This is the list of sites where I submitted the game. Some of them published the game, some others did not. If you know a good portal that is not in this list, please leave a comment and I’ll provide to submit it.
In most sites you have to register and provide a short description of your game along with a snapshot. To optimize your time, write a short description of your game save it on a txt file. Then take a couple of snapshots and save them in different formats (gif, png, jpeg). This will make you save a lot of time when you’ll have to submit your game.
Another problem I found is that every site has a submission button in a different place. To quickly find it, search for “submit”, “add”, or “upload” in the page.
Automatic submission
www.newgrounds.com
www.gamegum.com (has it own ad share program)
www.kongregate.com (has it own ad share program share but no MochiAds allowed)
www.allgamesallfree.com
Submission after review
www.hallpass.com
www.flashportal.com
www.addictinggames.com
www.flash-game.net (only by email)
www.addictinggames.com (by email too)
www.killsometime.com (no registration required)
www.channel4.com (no registration required)
www.2dplay.com (only by email)
www.hispajuegos.net (spanish - only by email)
www.juegosdiarios.com(spanish - only by email)
www.juegos-flash.org (spanish - only by email)
www.jarkey.net (form without upload option)
www.gamesloth.com (only by email)
www.gamegarage.co.uk
www.thegamehomepage.com
en.t45ol.com (only by email)
www.ultimatearcade.com (form without upload option)
www.freearcade.com (only by email)
www.1001webgames.com (form without upload option)
www.flashgameasylum.com
www.ugoplayer.com
www.giocasulweb.com (italian)
www.flashgames.it (italian - form without upload option)
www.rexbin.com (italian - form without upload option)
Blog
Forum
www.tgmonline.it (italian, in this section)
www.ngi.it (italian, in this section)
Should you find a site that has an error, or if you know a good site that is not listed here, please post it in a comment.
You may have noticed that I linked some italian sites and forums. If you don’t know italian, just write “Ciao, ho creato questo gioco (link to the game). Fatemi sapere che ve ne pare”. It would be nice to have someone to provide links to non english speaking forums with the translation of “Hi, I made this game (link). Tell me what do you think about it”.
Now, let’s talk about incomes:
Mochiads: 88,107 impressions -> $45.33
Adsense: 21,760 impressions
Kongregate: 1546 impressions -> $0.25
For a total of $151.95, $38.95 of them in this week. I am just $20.05 under the first goal, and the popularity of my game is raising after a couple of bad days, as you can see in the left side of the picture
On the right side, you can see a bug in Mochi dashboard. Where is November 08? This happened around midnight of their local timezone.
Plans for next week
I won’t submit/promote Circle Chain anymore unless you tell me a good place where to do it. But I started the development of a one-week game and of a one-day game spin-off of that game.
In two or three days I will create a teaser-demo that I will send to a couple of Flash game sponsors. At this time of the experiment I dont’ want to make them bid for the game, so the first one (if any) that will reply with a positive offer will sponsor the game. Two important things that I will ask is letting me include Mochiads ads and unveil the amount of cash given for the sponsorship. I would like this game to be a “game for game console”… this means I would try to earn enough to buy a PS3… that’s $585 in Italy…
At this time you may wonder what kind of game I am writing… take a screenshot…
…and look… a door… a monster… a circle… numbered blocks… stars… will be enough to have my PS3?
Multipart tutorial: available parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
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Ciaren Coleman | Nov 11, 2007 | Reply
http://mochiland.com/articles/45-sites-to-submit-your-flash-games that has alot of sites to submit it to lol. btw on your game I think that you should say to your sponsor that you would make a storyline based around that site, like if it was armour games do a medievil theme or if arcade bomb make some bombs. I think that might boost the money quite a bit. plus is it $585 us dollers or is it italian currency becaus in england its £400 which is $800 usd.
Ciaren Coleman | Nov 11, 2007 | Reply
http://www.technroll.com/where-to-submit-flash-games/ that has an extremely long list as well.
Maciek | Nov 11, 2007 | Reply
I think you should include all the “buy me a beer” from monetizing a game topics.
Emanuel | Nov 11, 2007 | Reply
Hello, Emanuele. I read couple of your tutorials, and I found very interesting things there. Regarding this monetizing experiment, I’m just curious why don’t you use your programming skills in order to gain money. I mean … this is just an experiment, but, why don’t you submit more games to that portals in order to have more funds ? Anyway, it seems to me that you’re not that interested in money, and I’m saying that because you’re “wasting” time (I’m not actually refering to a real waste, but your time should be precious to you) so that we can learn something from here. Anyway, (this is becoming a too long comment) I wish you luck in your goal at monetizing chapter :)
Bob Ippolito | Nov 11, 2007 | Reply
There’s a period of about 10 minutes after midnight PST (UTC-08) where the previous day’s data is being finalized. The current day is always available because it comes from the real-time database.
Maciek | Nov 11, 2007 | Reply
and btw ps3 is 300gbp in england along with a controler and a game
Emanuele Feronato | Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
Ciaren: in Italy the basic ps3 (4GB + 2 usb 2.0 ports) costs 399 euro = 585 usd while the Starter Pack (60GB + 4 USB + 2 wireless controller + Motorstorm + Resistance) costs 499 euro = 732 usd
Emanuel: I am using my programming skills all days because I am partner in a web company and I teach online programming. I blog and make Flash games for fun.
Strid | Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
so people really click on those adsense ads ? :)
or do you earn money just by showing them?
Thomas | Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
Wow! Now by part four we’ll all be rich! Richer than astronauts!
Emanuele Feronato | Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
Strid: yes, people click on adsense ads. And they click a lot.
And Mar | Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
Where do you put your adsense ads?
And Mar | Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
Oh, I see it now. Is there a way to use adsense if you don’t have a page.
Kevin | Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
I don’t have a popular page as yours. But I can build a page with my flash game, or whatever, in it, maybe using geocities or some kind of free web hosting service. Is it possible to use adsense if I don’t have a regular website?
I want to know more about adsense because it seems to be very profitable. =)
Emanuele Feronato | Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
You can embed adsense even if you don’t have a website. But not all free web hosting allow adsense as far as I know.
Adsense is profitable if people come to your page to play. But if you game spreads massively, you’ll get much more from Mochi.
And Mar | Nov 14, 2007 | Reply
Can you embed adsense into your flash games?
Emanuele Feronato | Nov 14, 2007 | Reply
No, you can’t
Bradley | Nov 15, 2007 | Reply
What does it mean to have someone sponsor your game? Do they pay you and you provide their ads on the game or how does it work? Also, if a company sponsor’s you, do you still keep the rights to the game and are able to distribute it wherever and to whoever you want? Thanks
Gedas | Nov 17, 2007 | Reply
Emanuele, you say, that you want to go with sponsorship. Could you try http://www.flashgamesponsorship.com/ . That guy says, that he can find a better deal for small commission. I would like to see in your experiment how much sponsors is offering and how much more can squeeze an agent with contacts. Thank you.
Bradley you should look at this site, i found there all the answers.
Emanuele Feronato | Nov 17, 2007 | Reply
I konw that site, it will be a part of the experiment.
Gedas | Nov 18, 2007 | Reply
very good, next week I’m lunching my first game, thanks to your blog and this experiment. I very hope that part4 of this experiment will come in a next week, that i could follow your steps ;)
Bradley | Nov 22, 2007 | Reply
Hey, thanks for pointing me to that site Gedas. It had a lot of really helpful information on it.
Ashiin | Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
heya! I just read about your experiment, and thought i would mention a few sites to try to submit your games to. im a “big” game player mostly, but have a pretty healthy addiction to flash games :)
try these:
digyourowngrave.com
arcadebliss.com
armorgames.com
im not sure how much traffic they get, but im sure you could check that out.
Chris Benjaminsen | Jan 8, 2008 | Reply
You clearly forgot http://nonoba.com ;)
Osterello | Apr 18, 2008 | Reply
You forgot the first blogames in the world http://www.ecogiochi.it it’s italian and… Italians do it better ehehehe
Great article!!!
LorenzGames | Jun 24, 2008 | Reply
You forgot this:
http://www.lorenzgames.com
:)