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Sleuth Costs/Money
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Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

Oct-6-2004 11:35

Although I try to run Sleuth as professionally as I can, realistcally, it is more of a hobby than a business. Since I began offering subscriptions in April, it has made enough money to pay for it's recurring costs (advertising and hosting), with enough left over to occasionally invest in hardware upgrades.

So, the time I spend working on the game is donated, which is fine with me, since I enjoy offering this service and watching the community grow, and there is always a small chance that this will lead to something bigger.

Over the last few weeks, there have been a few interesting trends. One, rate of traffic increase, has sped up. We now are visited by around 200 new players a day, which is great, but it means there has been a cooresponding increase in my hosting charges since I'm now over my previous bandwidth limit.

At the same time, subscription levels have actually dropped significantly. I have no idea why that is happening, but it is noticeable.

Consequently, we're now in a place where Sleuth is actually losing money on a monthly basis. A situation I can't leave it in for more than a couple months.

So, I'm looking for ideas about how to bring in a little more cash:

1) Does anybody have any ideas as to why less people are choosing to subscribe to Sleuth, even as there are more players? This seems quite strange.

2) I'm thinking of carrying ads on Sleuth, at least for non-subscribed players. I can't just slap on Google ads because Sleuth requires a login, but there are other options I can look into. What is people's opinion on that?

3) Would anybody be interested in purchasing Sleuth merchandise (t-shirts, mousepads, etc) if I opened up a Cafe Press store?

4) Should I add further limits on non-subscribed players to encourage more of them to subscribe?


Replies

jstkdn
jstkdn
Well-Connected

Oct-15-2004 16:24

Ben, we want to help anyway!

Krumpkey
Krumpkey

Oct-16-2004 19:58

I started playing when I saw a link on Stickman Mysteries and subscribed the same day. Here's what I think and agree with others:

1. Although I joined the first day I played because it was soooo much fun, you should list the prices on the opening page so people know ahead of time what it costs to subscribe. I was hesitant at first (for about a minute :) because I didn't know what the cost was.
2. The cost is way too cheap! I wouldn't mind paying a few dollars more for the subscription.
3. Try getting more links on other mystery-related websites.
4. I agree that subscriptions could be less because you get to do so much of the game without subscribing. Limiting a few things after a 1-week trial period might help.
5. I have signed up with other sites which ask for my email address but don't send me emails. The request is simply to assure that one person doesn't sign up using several different user names. You could limit 1 "free" detective per email address.
6. The idea of selling a tracking form would be great. I felt the need to draft one up for myself and my husband (who also just subscribed) to make it easier keeping track of the case and I find myself changing it constantly, based on the new skills I gain.
7. If possible (and I don't know how it works), try allowing different ways to pay for the subscription. I know some people who don't want to sign up to PayPal in order to subscribe to a website but don't mind making payments online.
8. Finally, if someone doesn't want to subscribe because they feel it's too many cases for the time they have available to play, ask for a yearly donation in order to keep the site "free" for them.

Boy can I rattle. But I'd be willing to dish out more cash to be sure the site continues.


M. Zane
M. Zane

Oct-17-2004 15:24

Ok my two cents.

Subscription increase is not unreasonable.

Pop ups a no go!!. I like the way this site looks and annoying pop ups would ruin the ambience.

Marketing products is a way to go but I agree that before you pay the layout fee and screening fees, you should look into how items would sell.

Marni
Marni

Oct-17-2004 23:37

Hi Ben,

When I first started playing this game, it was great and I was thinking about subscribing, however 1. The games were becoming a bit too repeditive 2.-The main reason - I have an incredibly busy life..I like to spend a little time on the computer, and sometimes I'm away (for a variety of reasons) and found it frustrating to lose my faction standing. You have made the game so people have to play every day if they want to maintain a competitive edge with their character, and/or with their agency..If you had a subscription for a number of days (or website "hits" kind of like pay-as-you-go For e.g 30 days play for $5, which expires after6 months etc) you might have got me however, my competitive nature got the better of me and found the game structure irreconcilable. 3. I had a problem with 1 of my games which I was trying to get you to rectify, but you didn't seem to understand what I was saying to you, which I found frustrating also.

I hope this helps you..

Also when I first found this site, I reccommended it to a huge D&D fan, and he said it was simply too slow ie gameplay

Perhaps also, people playing might find it daunting to play against people who have over 2,000,000 points to their name?

Kind regards.

Isha
Isha
Old Shoe

Oct-18-2004 02:12

I do have to say that it took me some poking about to find this site at first. This was exactly what I was looking for when I googled "online mystery game", but it was not to be found on the first 2 pages. I know that there is a 'sponsored link' now, but you might look into what you can do to get this page higher up on google results.

Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

Oct-18-2004 10:14

Yeah, I can put more work into getting link exchanges to improve Sleuth's page rank. Does anybody have any specific mystery or game related sites they like that Sleuth is not listed on?


ijsbeer
ijsbeer

Oct-18-2004 12:16

hi, I know one mystery site where sleuth is not listed in links of games. it is: http://mysterymanor.net/


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