battlenet � Glowleaf

Nov 11

Zerg Rush!

Can of SPAM, Cardinal Sin, Doodling, Fire and Forget, Internet Marketing, Mind over Pixels, Moniez, Noobs, RGBhat, Social abuse, Techniques, WebWriMo challenge 1 Comment �

I could not decide which pic to use on this post, so I decided to settle this issue the way I settle all my dilemmas: I just put them all up there.

You decide which is the best one. The demotivational? The in game pwnage? The Starcraft 2 Zerg Rush with cool 3D graphics? Or the real face of Starcraft? I got no poll plugin on this site, so just vote at the comment section.

What does a jergling have to do with affiliate marketing?

Nothing actually, and it would be very weird if I actually had an answer to that… Oh wait, I do.

How can we leverage on the Battlenet system to make sales? Here is a technique that is neither new nor secret, and works fine if you do it right.

The idea is to use your battlenet account to host a game on battlenet, and in the title area put up your url. Simple as that!

But, every hardcore Battlenet player knows that the games need their slots to be refreshed in order to stay visible on the queue. So, download this little script, and there it is, auto refresh!

Here is the to do list:

Get a warcraft/starcraft account.
Register a free Battlenet account.
Download the battlenet refresher.
Get a CPA offer, direct link it from a domain name. Something with starcraft/warcraft/game/cheat/maps/patches in it.
Run the refresher script.
Fire up a game, host it. In the game’s title put up your domain name.
Make sure it refreshes and people join and quit.
Leave the pc box running till it crashes.

What will happen? People look for games to join, and the refresher script will close and open your gamer slots, maintaining your hosted game in the list. People will join your game, look around, see the link, and leave after they figure out you are never going to start the game. Hopefully somewhere along the way, your url will seem interesting enough for them to Alt+Tab and type it in their browser.

This technique works, but you need some imagination, trial and error, and some intimate knowledge of the online gamer community to make it a killer.

A hint is to use warcraft III maps that have cool thumbnails and look interesting, and are not well known. People will join to check it out and download it. Also, DOTA latest maps work too, people join so they can download the map without getting kicked, and in return they notice your url. If you make it look interesting, they will visit.

Keep in mind that the online gamer crowd is more tech savvy on average, you will need something more than a random CPA to make this work. You might find some idiots to rip off with some crush offers, but in general those kids know how to navigate the net. Think minisites with warcraft maps, think cheats, think mods, think warcraft/starcraft jokes, etc.

So, if you have a copy of Warcraft III, this is a simple method to promote some offers. Depending on your chosen domain name, your chosen map and the traffic at that point in Battlenet, you can easily get 400 uniques in a day with this. I used to leave an old pc running this 24/7. Your promo will stumble on diminishing returns after a few days, so try to refresh the whole presentation a bit.

EDIT: This post had so many spelling and grammatical errors, that it was enough to convince me to go for a walk. C ya tomorrow.