You've got mail

[bigbob]

this sounds like the start of a good idea to me. its a free form of marketing.. i would make it an entertaining, opt in permission based monthly newsletter. it could help with retention & increasing overall player activity/log ins.

know this idea has probably been flaunted many times, is maybe against staff policy to send out emails? but players could work on content for sending out, with an update of recent activity, Boomlands events etc? a few pics. I'm sure more than 1 or 2 old players would see the email and be unable to resist a return.

(it was this dudes idea i just made a new thread here so more people could see it. )

[WarmApplepie]

Nailed it. A catchy title with some recent pics of monster bash and other fun stuff like the gargoyles attacking with players on screen would definitely spark atleast a hand full of old vets intrest

[nubnub]

Dear GMs, manage a monthly newsletter for all of us whiney little twats - please include screenshots, event dates/times, stories, bios, special guests, user submissions, player vendor advertisements (for silver of course), scandals and shard details. We need something, anything, that will allow us to see what is going on in the shard every month... if we just had something. We appreciate all you currently do for us but we think you could do more. Make this happen!

Thanks -

[AshBorn]

From what I understand, it comes down to this: When you signed up for a forum account (past players), there was never any agreement to receive advertising.

The GMs are hesitant to start a newsletter, especially to old accounts, because they never agreed to receive them. Even with an option to unsubscribe, they are still hesitant without that initial check box saying 'I agree'.

However, perhaps new accounts can have this checkbox to start receiving newsletters. Or maybe one email can go out asking if old players (a year of inactivity or something) want to keep their forum accounts before they are deleted or something, and have that letter include some of the features about the shard. That would be an administrative way to contact old players without seeming like the initial purpose of the email is to advertise.

Something like: 'UOSA is purging old forum accounts. If you would like to keep yours, please respond with 'Keep Mine' in the subject line.' Following that, there is a few tidbits in the email with some of the exciting things that are happening on the server; include a link they can click to sign up for future newsletters.

[bigbob]

i would make it an entertaining, opt in permission based monthly newsletter

opt out advertisements are not only annoying, they are pretty ineffective this day and age. it needs to be a compelling invitation (maybe just a forum post by a GM) to receive the newsletter. it would be nice to include a pvp video as well as other topics mentioned. its likely going to be targeted to current players/forum goers as we wouldn't want to send out unwanted emails to people who don't currently play or visit the forums

[HardCore]

Boomland updates Facebook with activity. Done.

[bigbob]

Boomland updates Facebook with activity. Done.

I've never seen that. it looks nice, however an outgoing email would still be an excellent addition. the idea is for people to get something in their inbox to remind them of the server even if their not currently thinking about it otherwise. the good news is it looks like a lot of the works already being done!

on the facebook page- i would change the "about" section to include more searchable terms ie" Ultima Online Free Server, Best UO Secondage Server, Best MMO game etc.)

instead of the current

"www.uosecondage.com
IRC Chatroom: http://www.uosecondage.com/Chat
Help & Discussion: http://forums.uosecondage.com/"

[Boomland Jenkins]

We actually do surprisingly well for search-ability on search engines and through social media. I monitor our FB Insights and Google Analytics on a semi-regular basis.

For now though, I went in and updated the FB to include some of the new text I wrote for the new site. Adding a bit more information about what makes Second Age very different than other shards.

As for any type of campaign (email, paid, blogger outreach), sending traffic at the current website is a terrible idea as it's not built for conversions, it's got broken formatting, dated information, and at this point, a bit confusing to use. Whenever the new site (ww2.uosecondage.com) goes live, I'd feel much more comfortable investing the time and some of my own money into marketing. I have a circle of blogs/websites owned by "classic gamers" from being involved in that industry for a couple of years. I will be asking some of them for potential promotional spotlights (blog post/guest post, Ad space, etc)

[Wonder]

Boomland is the hero we need, but not the one we deserve.