Hey there, I've done Marketing services for alot of RSPS last 2 years or so, and gone well. I've spent alot of time studying marketing, and researching how the money is best invested for a positive revenue. This thread is just going to be talking casually about what i'd do if i was a server with a big or small budget, and didn't have idea how to get my server to start making some income or players. Keep in mind, i'm not going to be leaking any keywords or how i point my traffic when i do work. That would just lead to be never being able to work for someone else if i ever wanted realisticly. But this thread is more so pointing owners towards a better plan on funds.
P.S The thread is fairly rushed and once i have time i might add more sensitive info inside of here, with pictures of solid looking trafficads or create a statistics over positive revenues based on player counts etc. I just hope you guys can take some tips from here. I wish i could leak whatever i know but like i said before if i ever want to work for a RSPS again as a marketer that would be doomed :'(:'(
#1 Simple Pre-Release Tips.
When working on a project, you should with months prior to it start a free marketing. Open up Discord for the server, show sneaks, show updates etc.
Have the discord setup propper, Have relevant bots added to it. And have the players joining a discord that's well organized.
To build up the discord and the pre-release hype for free or cheap, you can create a Discord AD with a pictures of the content, or something that you like, then leave a discord invite and post it to servers that offer such thing. Now if you want to do paid ads towards the pre-release, you can pay for sponsorship spots, Hosting OSGP giveaways is smart in the sense that you are more likely to get people to click on the AD, That isn't always going to end up in them going to play the server, but it'll more likely boost the chances on you getting more people to join, and the bigger the discord is, the easier it is to grow it.
Keep the discord active, With the Sneaks, With the Updates, and don't overuse the @[Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]yone tag. Overusing it leads to people muting the server, now when you really need to use the tag, you have the majority of the people in the discord not knowing about the special news cause they either think it's something unimportant or have it muted.
#2 Social media Advertisment.
This is something that usually takes alot of time learning or if you know it beforehand, takes alot of time grinding. Most people do not like adverts that are grind-heavy or have slower results but more steady ones. Most owners want players now!! I'm ready to spend 1000$ but i want players right now!!, You should rather have a good pre-launch marketing strat, and then keep the player-ingame flow steady. Let's say the project is not released. We will run
Facebook ads. I'd almost always suggest using a ''promo'' or in other words a short, fast paced video that shows the content you have.
If the project is already released, and you lack in income, you can create a design with something that's for example on sales for limited time only, and on top of that, have players know that if they join today, they can use a command ::facebook and get something rewarding instead. This works well when the project is released, and you want clicks.
Instagram is also a site i've used alot. If you are the one handling the Instagram for the server, You can if you want follow up to 50-100 people a day on a brand new Instagram, the older it get's the more people you can follow. I'd suggesting you going towards servers who are similar to yours, follow people who recently liked their most recent post, it almost always ends up in few people being interested. This is a part of snowballing effect, getting players from alot of positions for way less than risking all them funds on videos on youtube. On instagram you should upload pictures/videos that are eye catching, I get the most traffic on pictures that show a pic of alot of players pvming.
if the project is unreleased and you don't have any players to use, i'd simply have picture of the upcoming content, what can people expect? etc.
Google ads. Now this is propably the most creative part about the social media ads, you can either burn money doing it incorrectly, or have it pay up so well. Since it's pay per click. If the ad is setup incorrectly, i simply mean your clicks are from people who just click cause it's random, or for the laughs of it. In other words, your aiming on a audience that dosen't care about RSPS or your type of RSPS. Google ads is all about aiming and having the correct keywords. Also you should focus on the locations of them, where do you mostly want them to be shown at? Surely the countries that most OSRS players or RS3 are from, cause it simply makes the most sense without 100% knowing it, that you'll also have that base play RSPS. I might later on do a simple tutorial on google ads if people want it.
Now a question people often ask about, how should i behave with my funds pre-release?
Okay you are launching a project in a month or so. Be organized, Know what ads you are getting for the funds you have, don't be late with advertisment plans that can lead up to you eventually being 3 days close to launch and asking yourself, ''okay i need ads''. Hire the people you think pull players, create social media ads and spend a good time on them! Keep in mind you are wasting your own money, get what you pay for.
#3 Youtubers.
Youtubers can be very good way to market a server if the income of the project is making sense. You cannot ever risk the start of the project on having youtuber/s saving the project from declining so hard that you eventually loose faith in getting it back up. Once a server dies player count wise, it's very very hard to revive it, cause the majority of the RSPS players have already heard about it or tried it, and will know about how it was playing it. AKA inactive and the marketing was done incorrect.
When you hire a youtuber towards a launch of the server, i'd suggest a server who has a normal budget pre-release for marketing 750-2000$. To investigate the Youtubers you hire. Don't let a video they do fool you. A specific youtuber can be having a huge decline in his activity, but his latest video was for a server with already big player count, which obviously leads to him having alot of people like the video or view it. Cause it's 9/10 times a giveaway included. Which pulls them towards the person. Look at their videos when they do videos for new servers, or servers with smaller audience. That's when you can really see the potential of what your server could get from them. If you are hosting a 317 pre-eoc server, you want a youtuber who plays mostly something similar, or if you are going towards, semi custom or custom you want a youtuber who mostly does custom videos. That is going to increase the chances of you getting players for videos. BUT keep in mind i'd never suggest relying on youtubers ever. I don't at all think they are always a poor investment, i've hired many of them and they have done well, but i'd mostly look at the as people who keep the server relevant, or boost the launch, or when you have a big update, have them showcase it. Casual video of nothing is nearly ever going to be something that goes great. Have a good reason behind hiring them. For players to see youtubers do a videos, is usually going to have them think ''ok this server is spending money towards marketing, they must spend time on development''. This is what they'll think, but if the server is awful obviously the % of CV is going to be poor. Advertise something good, get good results.
#4 How do i make a better income?
Now this is propably the factor owners think about the most
There is alot of different type of servers and depending on which revision or type you are going for you'll usually earn more having a server that allows you to moneytise it, instead of for example a OSRS server who only sells usually the same cheap stuff. With a custom server you can sell whatever you like, create whatever you have etc.
But that dosen't change the fact that every server can earn alot. Since with OSRS servers you are usually going to have a bigger player base than on customs, but going to earn way more on customs. To make it equal you have to moneytise both projects in a smart way.
For OSRS servers: i'd suggest the webstore to be something that isn't overpriced, but is needed. Something that speeds up the process of skilling or grinding in general. Keep useless stuff out of the store, and here and there you can add in ''Limited time sales" Such a Limited time Mystery boxes, Limited time Pet's etc. Nothing over the top since OSRS players hate Pay2Win servers.
For Custom servers: Now for custom servers, you can have custom sales whenever you want. You can hire a modeller that gets a cut on every sale you get on a model he created.
Now for sales, you can have limited time sales, first to donate x amount gets x, setup a daily goal in donations, if it gets hit a smallish rewarding event starts. Alot of things you can do to moneytise it.
I'll keep the thread updated whenever i want to edit it or feel like adding more sensitive information. It's fairly rushed, but hope you can get some solid tips from it.
