Please take advantage of me!

Roleplaying and board games reviews, podcasts, videos and interviews

iStock_000002959336XSmallBy Paco Garcia Jaen

I have been doing my website and the podcast for a year and a half now. In this time, nearly hundreds of articles, pieces of news, reviews, adventures and podcasts have been published. All and all, I am very happy with how the website is progressing, and I am happy that people do take it seriously.

However one thing that really puzzles me is how few companies take advantage of G*M*S Magazine and the podcast. I am going to bet something (don’t know what yet. I’ll think of something soon) that if my website were on paper and not online, people would use it a great deal more and the articles published would have more gravitas than they have now.

Why do I say that? Because hardly any company takes advantage of what is said in the website.

Publishers and designers, let me put this clear to you. We are THE media that spreads the word about your products and you’re wasting a chance to use us to your advantage!

Here is how you should be using my website and my podcast, or any other:

  1. Send us press releases. And make clear they are press releases. True enough that not everyone of us will publish them. I for once have very limited time and will only publish the ones that companies send me and personally ask me to publish. Raging Swan Press is the perfect example of this. However, sending anything, even if it is automatic, is better than nothing. If I don’t have the information, I will never publish, period. The solution: Get a mailing list organise and add the blogs and websites you want to target. Don’t wait to be asked, be proactive!
  2. If you can afford it, send review copies of your materials. If you can’t afford it, send a PDF, or a print and play. Just be honest about it. Most of us bloggers and podcasters will gladly pay for shipping costs if that gets the game sent. Also, we LOVE to help small companies who need the push, so talk to us. Again, not everything will be published or project undertaken, even if we want to. We have busy lives and we can’t cover it all. However, I can promise you a physical copy will pretty much guarantee a review and, if available in some sites, an unboxing video.
  3. Ask us to be in podcasts. Sometimes we are so lost in our own stuff that we don’t see everything that’s in front of us. If we are not asking you to be in our podcasts, tell us! It might take a bit to clear the backlog of interviews we have to make and the episodes we have to publish, but we will talk to you. That’s what we’re there for!
  4. When we publish a review in our sites, make a comment. If you don’t agree, just tell us why. Tell us why we have missed the point. Tell us what you like. Tell us what you have learned. Make a comment. Show you’re engaged with your audience and with your media. People seeing your comments, that is the readers, will see that you’re approachable and likeable.
  5. Use quotes from the reviews. Yes, copy and paste a sentence from the reviews, put it in your website and product and put a link to the review. Movies do that all the time, and they do it because it is proven that something with a good review, even if it has bad reviews somewhere else, will attract more people than something with no reviews at all.

We are here to spread the word of a hobby that means a lot to us, and if you don’t see that as an asset, then you’re missing out. Big time.

Sharpen up your marketing skills and start using the tool that is the online media to your best advantage.

Trust me, we shan’t complain!

 

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