[Edit - No More] Get a Free Copy of Bonnie’s Bookstore
[Note - I'm no longer offering this.]
Currently, there is very little in the way of marketing/p.r. for casual games. There are no print magazines dedicated to casual games, and few websites, amateur or professional, other than the portals themselves. Therefore, to stir up a little bit of p.r. for the game, here’s what I’m doing:
If you have a blog, on any subject (i.e. doesn’t have to be games – could be gardening or politics or anything), I’ll give you a free, full copy of Bonnie’s Bookstore (i.e. not just the 60 minute trial, but rather, the full unlocked game).
All you have to do is agree to write at least 75 words about Bonnie’s Bookstore on your blog. It can be a mini review or any other kind of blurb. It doesn’t even have to be positive. If you play the game and hate it, go ahead and tell your readers that (though I think you’ll like it). 75 words is easy – this post alone is 278 words.
Final condition – your blog has to have a reasonable readership – at least 15 visitors a day. That’s a pretty low bar, but will hopefully prevent people from setting up a Blogger account purely to snag the game. Alternatively, if you don’t know your visitor count, but your blog has clearly been up and at least moderately active for 2+ months, that’s fine, too.
Want in? Send me an e-mail with your blog’s URL, and tell me whether you want the Mac or Windows version of the game. I’ll send you the download link and the registration code. Then you’re on the honor system to write something about the game at some point thereafter. I reserve the right to reject requests for bogus blogs or for any other reason.
E-mail me at psteinmeyer A T newcrayon D 0 T com.
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March 27th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
Hey Phil,
How very noble of you. Just thought I’d pass on the idea that the guys from Large Animal used to run a message board on their site. On it they’d run monthly contests for various prizes. However, it’s no longer up… I’m guessing it might become a maintenance/administration headache if it gets too big. But it might be another avenue to explore for generating an audience or more feedback on your games. Also, I know they collaborated with cheapassgamer.com with distributing prizes and promoting their stuff. That site (aka CAG) has thousands of registered users, however I don’t know if it’s the type of crowd you’re looking to attract ;^) Best o’ luck.
March 27th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
Any idea how I can tell how many hits my blog gets btw Phil?
I’m bloody clueless about this html website stuff.
Interesting idea though. I’m not a big word-game player but my mother would definitely appreciate a copy.
I guess I dont know if my blog gets enough hits to make it worth your while though. I’m not a big blog-promoter. In fact, I dont even know if ANYONE reads my blog. I guess I need a way to track it.
Phil.
March 27th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Phil – you can drop a free site-tracker into your blog code to monitor this. I use two of them, but prefer site meter – click on the icon all the way at the bottom of this page for info – it’s free.
That said, I did add the second clause to my conditions – basically any blog that’s been up for a reasonably long period of time and is maintained is ok by me. I just didn’t want to get besieged by one-post blogs that just got set up and nobody has ever read except the author.
March 28th, 2006 at 12:47 am
One of the things that’s helped me – although it’s not the quickest or easiest way to do so – is to route my site’s feeds through FeedBurner.
I’m fairly well up on the number of people who are *regular* readers using RSS aggregators. I’m also planning on writing a small WordPress page describing how to add an RSS feed to a reader to try and encourage more people to use feeds.
It would be nice if they would be touted more when they become standard features in Internet Explorer 7 (they’re already in Safari and Mozilla/Gecko derivatives, but they’re not yet talked about much).
March 28th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Did the Mac version of Bonnie’s Bookstore ever see the light of day?
March 28th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
I just ’stealth released’ the Mac version on my own site (www.newcrayon.com), and will do a bit more ‘public’ announcement once PopCap gets it out on their site.
March 29th, 2006 at 3:20 am
Bonnie’s Bookstore Review…
I took Phil Steinmeyer up on his offer for a free copy of Bonnie’s Bookstore. In return, I agreed to write about it, so here goes…
Bonnie’s Bookstore is in the “casual game” genre, a genre that is receiving a lot of attention these days due t…
April 12th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Word Play…
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April 12th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Hi Phil,
I wrote a review of the game here: http://www.the-rodeo.com/?p=162
Also, for some reason, my ISP won’t let me email you, so I had to write this here…
May 26th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
I just want to tell you that I like the game so much!
I’m a chinese girl.Before meeting with bonnie’s bookstore,I didn’t like to play word games.But bonnie changed my taste.
Bonnie also help me to improve my English vocabulary!It’s a great and useful learning method!
Best wishes to you and your company!
June 28th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Hi, I did a blog review and e-mailed you, and am still waiting for a response.
http://smudgedidentity.livejournal.com/58145.html