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CATCHING THE ELUSIVE GUESTY FISH

Most roleplay boards will need to advertise to stay afloat. But the advertising business is a tricky thing to get into, and there are a number of conventions on the RPG circuit that need to be adhered to if you don’t want to upset people. Flashy trendy ads are great, but what is it that really draws in the elusive ‘Delicious Guesty Fish’?

The following is based on experience, common sense and conversations throughout the RPG-Directory. This mostly applies to adverts for Guest Friendly Forums, although the advert writing tips can apply to almost anything.

PREPARATION IS KEY

Are you ready to rock?
You have a forum, congratulations! But before we open to the public, lets run through a few things that you may have overlooked in setting up your forum. The moment you start advertising, you are claiming that your board is finished and ready for play – and this will be what your guesties are looking for. Half finished boards can be a turn off to the Elusive Guesty Fish and they may swim away in fear. So a quick list of things that ought to be present:

Rules. One of the most important topics on your board. If you don’t have it up, you’re not ready to advertise. Remember that you can only logically enforce rules that your members are aware of. If you don’t have any rules listed, be prepared for mayhem – and a lot of confused new members.
Applications for your characters. This is also highly important. Guests contemplating joining a forum will often check administrator profiles before registering or writing their own. Not having your application posted can make you look like a ‘lazy’ administrator. It can also give the impression that administrators are not required to submit profiles, creating a divide in your community where the administration are not held to their own rules – not an image you want to portray to your new members.
Skins and images – most importantly, if you’ve changed the skin, change the forum markers to match. Aesthetics shouldn’t be everything in a roleplay forum, unfortunately it is becoming more and more of a factor for guests choosing forums to play on.
Plot/Setting. For roleplays that have no set plot, a guide to the setting is just as important. Even for relaxed ‘anything goes’ forums, you will encounter members who want more concrete information on the world they’re playing in. Always remember that what is clear in your head, is not always clear to your members. Writing it out for all to read ensures a lack of confusion across the board.
Character application forums. For forums that do not have a required character application, a thread explaining the acceptance/process to roleplay involvement should be posted instead.

There we go, nothing too stressful. Now all you need is an advert, right? Well… let’s get to that!

WRITING YOUR SWEET ADVERT

Don’t forget your sinker!
There is nothing more frustrating than an advert with out a link. Without a link, your advert has very little point, so make sure you’ve included it! It is, unfortuantely, something that happens all too easily. But there are a few other mistakes that can lead to even the most interested guesty fish to abandon your advert without getting to the board.

Mixing your board link in with a paragraph of text can be a fatal mistake. Not all boards are designed so that the link colour is different to the main text. This means that your link looks exactly like every other non-linked word in your advert, and the end result? Poor guesty fish doesn’t know where to click – and you’ve lost your guesty.

This isn’t to say that you can’t have one or two cleverly hidden links in your advert. But you should always make sure there is one obvious link. This is most effectively done by repeating the link on a separate line beneath the rest of the advert, as a text link that states the site name. Other adverts now have a variety of links at the bottom of their adverts, and this is also quite effective.

Think about it. What would you find quicker?

This:

Welcome to RPG-Directory!
We are an advertising/services board specialised in RPG’s. Not only can you advertise, find affiliates or discuss forum management. We also possess a great community and have various boards for everyone to enjoy.

Or this?

Welcome to RPG-Directory!
We are an advertising/services board specialised in RPG’s. Not only can you advertise, find affiliates or discuss forum management. We also possess a great community and have various boards for everyone to enjoy.

RPG-Directory

Obvious is good. When it comes to adverts, sleek, clean and subtle is out – don’t ever forfeit the guesty’s ability to find your link for the sake of a pretty ad.

Fancy versus Function
Another key problem in adverts is readability. This applies on three fronts.

Font.
Text size and
Text colour.

Keep things default as much as possible. As stated before, beauty in an advert is one thing – but it should never compromise the reader’s ability to get the information they need. People will click off adverts they can’t read. You need to make sure that your links and content are legible in every possible situation.

When you advertise, you will be posting on a wide range of boards in different colours. This is why changing the text colour is never a good idea. What may look fantastic on blue, might blend in on white or look hideous on orange. Unless you plan on tweaking the advert for every colour, keep it default.

The default colours of the board will always be readable. Even if they’re not particularly readable to you, they will be the colours the members of that board are capable of reading. The same goes for the text size.

Ultimately, your audience is the members of that board. So it makes little sense to change font, colour and size away from something they are comfortable with. Making text larger is a lesser crime than making it smaller, but all font changes should be used in moderation.

But if you’re desperate to continue with an advert that gets fancy with colours and sizes – make sure you preview on each board you post to. Otherwise you may end up with a terrible looking advert no one wants to read.

It looked as pretty as a picture, until they banned images…
Not all guest forums allow images posted. Keep that in mind. Anything you want to say through an image should also be said through text as a backup. There’s nothing worse than loading an advert that sounds interesting only to find out the best parts of the advert are:

(user posted image).

Another issue is linked images. When images are blocked through the board, (user posted image) will not link to your board – but to the image that was meant to be shown. This is a little counter productive if it is the only link in your advert. As above, and as always — make sure there is a link that is obvious and cannot fail.

Transparent images can also pose the same problem as coloured text and may blend into the board colours. Solid images are usually your best bet. Keep it simple. There are still Guesty Fish out there swimming in the deep dark dial up, so try not to overwhelm them with images. Too many images can also look cluttered, and the emphasis should be on the text and links rather than your ability to shove sixty icons into a post.

Inform us Boris, please don’t bore us!
The Delicious Guesty Fish is a rare breed, and like all fish, has a short attention span. Pages upon pages of information may stun or frighten the Guesty Fish in the same manner as unreadable text and clashing font colour.

The point of your advert is not to give all the information you can. It is to hook Guesty Fish into your board, where they will find all the neccesary information to join. We’ll focus more on exactly what you need to say later, but for now consider what would make the greatest impact to you.

Half a novel describing every known detail about your RP.
A short teaser linking to a longer description on the site.

The more information you put in your advert, the longer you’re keeping them on the advert and off your board.

Find your focus, write fantastic adverts!
One of the main problem people seem to have with writing adverts, is ‘not knowing what to write’. But the bottom line, is that if you can’t think of something – no one can. Describing your site can be a tricky process, but you are the person who knows it best, and you are the only one who knows exactly how hard you’ve worked to make it unique and interesting.

Find three things that make your board different from everything else out there. They could be any aspect of the board you choose, and will generally be something you’ve worked hard to achieve. Possibilities are, but not limited to:

Unique setting.
Original RP, or unique twist on fandom(s).
How long your forum has been running.
The OOC community of your board.
Interesting characters on your board.
Interesting plotlines happening on your board.
Particular board celebrations happening.

My three things are usually along the lines of ‘great OOC’, ‘Australia’ and ‘interesting characters’, but yours will of course be different. Once you have discovered what makes your board different from every other board, think on ways you can point these three things out to the guesty fish in the best light. But do not forget the three main physical components of an advert: site title, information and the link!

Lyrics like landslides..
There is nothing wrong with having song lyrics in your advert. But as with all decorative elements, use them in moderation. The guesty fish is more interesting in reading about your site than reading a song, so you might want to keep your finger off the paste button.

Some of the greatest adverts have small snippets of songs that add a new flavour to the advert, some great adverts have no lyrics at all. If you choose to have lyrics, keep them appropriate to the site, and only paste over snippets that will fit with the feel of the advertisement you are writing. They should accent the main body of the advert, not dominate it completely. One to three lines of lyrics is perhaps all that is needed to make your point, whole songs will most likely send the guesty fish swimming for other boards.

SPAG…hetti and understanding.
Good spelling grammar is not always necessary for roleplaying. We all have typos, we all make mistakes — if you can’t find more than five mistakes in this documentation, you’re probably not looking hard enough. It’s a generally accepted fact of life that people cannot be perfect every second of the day.

However. When advertising, you need to make it perfect.

This includes common mistakes like canon/cannon (a cannon is a weapon, a canon is an established character from a fandom), typos, and words that are commonly mis-spelt. If you have a problem with spelling and grammar, and you know it – use a spell checker to double check your advert. If your native language is not English and you are writing an advert in English, use a spell checker to double check your advert.

If you don’t have a problem with spelling and grammar, use a spell checker to double check your advert.

If you are an English professor with a thorough understanding of English and grammar, use a spell checker to double check your advert.

There is no force on earth that stops humanity, except for a good dose of common sense – so never take your ability to type straight for granted. Always re-read, double check, and get others to check your adverts for other problems that may arise.

Also remember that while you know what you are trying to say, you might not be explaining it in the most effective terms to someone who has never seen your board before, so it is always wise to get it double checked by someone who is not you, and not a member. They may pick up incorrect word usage, typos, grammar mistakes and confusing sentences. Strangely enough, a great place to do so is here at RPGD! Just make sure you remove the links from your advert before posting it up (and put them back before using the advert, of course! XD).

Taste and propriety.
You may run an R rated board. This is your choice. But when writing your advert keep in mind that boards with lower ratings may not appreciate strong language being posted on their board. These boards may also have filters that exchange your carefully chosen strong words for something less effective, like ‘marshmallow’… which might make you look more ridiculous than you intended. It is always a wise idea to steer away from strong language where possible.

This also applies to images of a mature nature. Whatever the rating of your site, be aware of who is going to view your advert. And of course, if your board is of a high rating – include a clear warning in the advert to warn away users who may be offended by the content of your board.

Preview… is not a dirty word!
If you’re posting on a board software you’re not familiar with, or if you have colours outside of the default – preview your ad. If you’re not sure it’s going to be right, preview your ad before posting. If there is the slightest chance it might not be as you wanted it to be — preview your ad!

Just like spell-checking, always preview!

Failure to preview your advertisement does not end in embarrassment for the forum you’re posting on – it ends in embarrassment for you. Ultimately it says that you are careless in how your board is represented, and have posted an advertisement that wasn’t properly thought out. Some very, very, very nice admins will fix your coding for you – but this isn’t their responsibility. It is up to you to make sure your advertisement displays properly.

Code, code, recode!
It is not difficult to recode your advertisement. Trust me.

The easiest way to recode, is to write the advertisement for your forum type first. Once you’ve got that done, find a forum software that is different – paste in your current advert, and preview. You’ll then see what you need to change to fix it. This will usually be align and sizing tags, and shouldn’t take any more than a few tweaks to make it look just the same as your original advert.

Tip: Always keep your advert codes! Once you’ve worked out the coding for a particular board software, post it into your advert topic ready for next time. This saves a tonne of time, and means you can advertise in a greater range of boards.

Forum softwares you will most likely need coding for, are Invisionfree, Proboards, IPBFree and Zetaboards. You may wish to add SMF, phpBB, Hyperboards and Invision Power Board to that, or you may create your recodes as you stumble upon different softwares. Having a HTML version of your advert is also a good idea, as Yahoo and Livejournal groups accept adverts in HTML.

Don’t ever let not having a code turn you off advertising on a particular forum software. For something that only takes a few minutes, you will open yourself up to a wider audience and a great variety of places to post your advert.

SLAM IT, BABY

The real Guest Friendly.
Guest friendly advertising boards have become almost a standard among roleplays now. But there seems to be an unfairness that arises out of the guest advertising circuit, and it stuns me every time to see it. Forums labelled ‘No Proboards!’ or ‘No Invisionfree!’ or similar are frustrating to see… but consider it this way.

When you cut advertising to one forum software, you are limiting your ability to advertise on an entire strain of RP boards. This means you are cutting your own market down considerably. The aim is to have your advertisement posted everywhere guests can see it – if you can’t post on Proboards because Proboards are not allowed to post on your board, that’s a lot of people who are going to miss your board.

Considering how easy it really is to recode your advertisement there are very few reasons to ban any form of forum software from advertising on your board. If your reason for doing so is because they forget to change the coding – relax. How they represent their board is their business and not a reflection of your forum.

Also keep in mind the impression you will leave with the names of your advertising forums. It is now commonplace to have ‘first link’ and ‘linking back’ forums, and cute clever names are not a bad thing. However, when your advertising forums are labelled along the lines of ‘virgins’ and ‘whores’, be mindful that you may be turning away advertising admins who otherwise may have explored your site more thoroughly – or even the elusive guesty fish!

But let’s speed up the process, let’s advertise like it’s 1999.
So, you have your guesty friendly forum, your advert and you’re ready to go. How to go about it? How do you find all the other guest friendly forums around?

The answer is simpler than you think, and it all starts with one board. Find one guest friendly board, and have a look at all the boards that have posted there. Click anything that sounds interesting, (or everything if you like), and have a look at their guest friendly boards. Again, open anything that looks interesting… once you’ve exhausted their lists of adverts, post your own advert and close the site.

Do this for every board you open.

Using this method, you should be able to hit upwards of 50 boards in a sitting. Always remember to read advertising rules for the forum where applicable, and have your best manners on when it comes to advertising. After all, it’s someone else’s pride and joy that you are posting on.

Keep your advert topic in one window, and do all the like forum softwares at once (do all your invisionfree together, all your proboards together and so on). You may have to do it in chunks, and swap adverts from time to time, but it does speed up the process quite a bit.

If you have auto-complete set in your browser, let the computer fill in the forms. Key presses for me to post my advert are:

` ENTER (fills in `Mousie)
CLICK to next field.
t ENTER (fills in Tallygarunga Academy of Magic)
TAB
t ENTER (fills in the australian HP revolution is here)
TAB
CTRL-V (paste advert code)
CLICK-POST/PREVIEW

Some boards have captcha checks that will slow you down a little, but once you have a method, typing in the check codes shouldn’t be much of an obstacle. Don’t be discouraged, this is a system that works – and with experience, can become second nature.

IN SUMMARY
Don’t forget your link.
Keep your formatting simple, with colours and font size changes in moderation.
Don’t overwhelm the viewer with images and lyrics.
Focus on the three best points of your board to write a great advert.
Recode for all board types to save time later on, and accept all board types to widen your market.
Preview your board whenever you’re not sure how it will turn out.
Too much information may turn people away, let them get on your board to read the nitty gritty.
Spelling and grammar is not optional in advertising, and…
Always be considerate of the boards you’re advertising on!