Hey! I have looked for this topic here but I couldn't find anything so I am asking here. I was just wondering how I can get more visitors and get more sales on my itch.io page? I've tried all sorts of advertising but I got very few sales.
Here they are:
There's your problem. I'm not sure what works, but scammy SEO "experts" and Facebook definitely don't. Try word of mouth. Get a presence on more social media. Comment on blogs. Keep a blog. Post on other forums. Talk to people (that's what marketers call "engagement"). Don't just try to sell.
Also, if you have trouble selling your creations, how come they include a book that among other things claims to teach, I quote, "getting profits from your games"? You're sending mixed signals. :)
Hey! Well that company sure did the job and it seemed professional. The guy who I've hired for $600 has 4 years experience in marketing and I could tell he knew what he was doing but it didn't work. He used Facebook Business.
I feel that those advices you have given to me won't be of (much) help to me.
I honestly don't know but may be my book isn't so good. It seems I've made a mistake in "getting profits from your games". But I did give at least some good advice in the book, based on my experience. That part seems to not be in my experience, I'm sorry if I've done something bad.
Actually, I have posted on Quora about my ebook and it has sold. Maybe your ideas/advices for me aren't so bad after all!!
Well for someone who wrote a book about it, you sure do not know how marketing works. Your views are not the problem it is the book; This looks so cliche that many other "developers" wrote in the same fashion. The book has public domain images with the book cover program I seen in many other books. The file is PDF instead of an actual working file for known book devices like amazon or B&N.
Your design in book does not even look like a book but rather something you liked from a computer. No way to know how much words you have put. Very common title like you didn't put effort on the title. On the topic of effort the sections are so common in other "game development 101" books it might look like you stole it from an article. Lastly, your book vs free articles about game development startups is what makes people not want to buy it. A quick google can help people find the same article with the same title and the same section from the book.
Do you even know anything about books, you you even have rights to use unity logo on commercial book sales, etc. The marketer you spend $600 wasn't bad at his job it was your book that fail. Sorry if i'm being harsh but you really have not made any reason for people to buy your book.
My strategy is less business-oriented, but it has provided great information and motivation to create more. For reference I have around 200 views in 2 months over 3 titles. They are all free browser-based games. I have been emailing personalized links to people I already know. It serves a dual purpose: in addition to game feedback I am able to reconnect and share what I've been up to since we last spoke. It's also good feedback because it's not all coming from the lens of "game developer," which is primarily what you get from the most active itch.io members. A lot of people who might be fans of your game probably have no interest in making their own games, they just want to be entertained. Figure out what those people what in a game
I will add that I have not reached the stage of selling yet, but I am using user feedback of in-progress work to guide future development. It is giving me confidence that when I eventually DO try to sell something, it will be something that people want because it has components that people react very strongly to (in a positive way). If you show your friends and they're all like "meh," maybe you haven't built something that *can* sell, even if you get it in front of all the eyeballs $600 in facebook ads can buy you.
You can remedy this by following the public-facing steps No Time To Play suggests, but I wouldn't underestimate the power of your personal network. People who know you are more likely to candidly offer critical feedback without worrying about offending you. I say this as someone whose very first piece of feedback on the first version of my original game from the itch.io community (which was and still is classified as a prototype - fate of project unknown) was a one-star rating with no text. I decided, hm, maybe the itch.io community isn't really into the kind of games I want to make, but whatever, I can still easily share this link directly with people who already know and respect me enough to give me real, constructive feedback.
I made some of the improvements my friends and family suggested after that very first one-star version of the game and I started getting unsolicited feedback from the itch.io community. This is still very much a work in progress, but I'm quite pleased with the attention I have received after iterating for only 2 months.