Marketing on the Geek?

We had a similar experience. The ads generated some additional website traffic, but not an overwhelming amount.

Now we use ads on BoardGameGeek just to do product or contest announcements - specific shortrun ads that give gamers a reason to click on them.

-How much time did a 50$ add last?
-What kind of adds did you use: static images or flash animations?
-Do you believe it can make a difference?

soul

I just did a text ad. I don't remember how long it lasted. A week or two? This was way back in the beginning, however.

Of course, there is also the free solution that you can try. I have tried a few of them:

- Forum banner network: On allegro.cc, there is a banner network for all the allegro members, you are allowed to place one Ad and they strongly suggest you to display their banner network ad on your web site. In this case, everybody is advertising everybody else.

- Link exchange : I barely tested it, the idea is that you try to find other people in the network where you would like your banner to appear on their web site and their banner to apprear on yours. This way, you are completely in control of the banners displayed on your web site.

- Free Web banner network : You display the banner network on your web site. Each time it is viewed, you get a credit. This credit is automatically used to display your banner somewhere else. So if there is more people on your website, you gains more display on other sites. But the ads does not necessarily match the content of your website even if you can specify ad categories you want.

Personally, I think that the 2 first methods are the best, but if you want to exchange links with the second method, you'll need to take the time to find other people to trade with.

I ran banner ads at http://www.schlockmercenary.com/ They were inexpensive and had an impressive click-through rate. I wasn't selling anything at the time, so I can't tell you how well that worked, but I did see a notable increase in the number of downloads. I also saw an enduring increase in the number of regular visitors to our site.

I mention this because the people who read Schlock Mercenary are (generally) the type of person who will also play board games.

You may also want to try one of the mini-banners at http://www.starslipcrisis.com/