I'm planning to self-publish a game, and I've been trying to think of non-traditional ways of marketing it. From what I've read (not a lot), personal recommendations are one of the most effective ways of marketing, so I'd like to encourage people to tell their friends about my game (assuming they like it, of course).
One idea that occurred to me is a referral/affiliate program. This is not new, of course -- Amazon.com has had an affiliate program for years. I could set up a similar system for people to link to my Web site and receive a percentage of sales from that link, or some other reward like promotional items (T-shirts, posters, etc.) or discounts on future purchases.
To handle non-Web referrals, I could add a field to my checkout form where you enter the name of the person who referred you, and if that person has registered as an affiliate, they get a percentage of the sale or other reward.
Has anyone had experience with this kind of program? Are there problems with it? Do you think it would be effective on a small scale?
