Can anyone give me some references to marketing books they've and found helpful? I'm thinking about getting the following book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1578518261/qid=1067278035/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/002-2262246-4588037?v=glance&s=books

Thanks
Doug Linley
Illusive Studios

One of my favorites is Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got by Jay Abraham. It's not just about marketing; it's about how to uncover hidden assets in any business and turn them into new profit centers. This book (and Jay's audio programs and articles) have given me a ludricrous number of ideas, many of which have made me thousands of dollars for very little effort.

Jay's "thinking outside the box" philosophy is really hard to apply because you often can't see when you're in a box in the first place. For instance, one assumption I challenge was that the idea that tech support has to be an expense. I asked, "What if I could turn tech support into a whole new profit center?" No, I'm not going the way of MS and charging for tech support.... But by thinking along these lines, I started figuring out ways to use tech support to generate more sales, such as by giving out extra coupons to people who contact tech support, letting people know about complementary games they may enjoy, etc. By applying some of these ideas, it's actually starting to work. I can't say that support is making a profit, but it's definitely generating some additional sales now that it wouldn't have if I saw it only as an expense.

The whole idea of testing (such as the A-B split test I'm running now) is also something I got from Jay's philosophy.

I've read a lot of other marketing and sales books, but they mostly sit languishing on my shelf. When I want to increase sales, I usually just thumb through Jay's book again for yet another idea.

Steve,
I've been meaning to buy some books for a while now on a variety of marketing/business/motivational topics just to broaden my horizons. I've been putting it off for a while now (since I'm a somewhat slow reader, it kinda makes me hate to actually read), but I think it's time I just do it. I was looking back through some posts, building up a list of recommended books I want to get, when I came a across a post of yours from June. You said you were going to set up a recommended reading list with amazon affiliate links. Before I actually go and order, I was just wondering if you still planned on setting it up any time soon.

Thanks for the suggestion Steve! I just ordered that book. Any suggestions on sales or business books?

Thanks again!
Doug Linley
Illusive Studios

Yup, still planning to setup that book list. I've typed up a few and keep adding to it. When I get a sufficient amount, I'll post it online.

I'm reading Purple Cow right now, and having a tough time figuring out how to apply that to an indie game business.

Siebharinn, the basic premise of Purple Cow was to learn to make a product or service that was diffrent that the brown cows around you.

So as you work on projects, keep that in mind.

Maybe it will be finding unique ways to market your games. Or maybe it's being unique twists on your game.

One example might be those " crazy world" or "truth" ads for antismoking.

They are brutaly presenting facts that just seem diffrent than the everday boring ad you see.

So how do you stand out from the herd of brown cows? Why should anyone give your products another look? those are some of the questions that you have to answer to create your own purple cow.

There seems to be a real shortage of Cat food managment games. :)

I understand the premise. I'm just not sure how to apply it. Purple Cow talks about the ideal customers being the bleeding edge crowd, because those are the ones that will sell your product to the rest of the curve.

But with indie games, it doesn't really seem like you want something *that* revolutionary. The indie approach seems to be more defensive. Don't do anything *too* unusual or you'll alienate this group. Don't use the latest DirectX library because you'll alienate that group. Walk the safe path.

Maybe the shareware model itself was a Purple Cow. Maybe online sales versus retail sales. But can you give an example of a game that changed the world? Doom maybe. Tetris?

Or maybe I'm reading too much into. Just make it stand out, don't necessarily make it exceptional or world changing. Perhaps I need another read through it.

Hey... where was that link to "10 mistakes..." Steve presented? There was link to amazon.com and some nice books about selling.

Originally posted by Dexterity
I started figuring out ways to use tech support to generate more sales, such as by giving out extra coupons to people who contact tech support, letting people know about complementary games they may enjoy, etc.

Yes this sort of thing works really well for me too. People write for hints on Aargon - I give them a hint and then, oh by the way have you tried this other game? Did you know there was a hint guide and so on... Often people just haven't looked. Same with Pocket Aargon. It's a game that requires a registration code. It's a PDA title but most people with palm devices also have PC so I always mention that they should check out my site. A lot of these people are coming from Palmgear or other sites and they've never visited or thought of visiting Twilight. Every time you speak to a customer you should turn it into an opportunity - and it can be good for both you and the customer - it need not be an annoying hard sell.

Originally posted by Siebharinn
Or maybe I'm reading too much into. Just make it stand out, don't necessarily make it exceptional or world changing. Perhaps I need another read through it. [/B]

Ya it's been a bit since I read through it, but I think you can look at it in varying levels.

Preferably you would want to be unique but be relevent the as many customers as you can. Often times that is a contriction.


However, if you take the SIMs as an example, it was a unique game and there was a pretty large market for it.

Wolfenstien 3D was a Purple cow as well.

But you can have more modest creative streaks. games like tanks-> Scorched earth -> worms.

I do find it interesting the amount of old games that we're fun or unique in the past, but nor really been remade that much like:

Burger Time
Mr. Do
Centipede
Dig Dug
etc,

There we're a lot of creative games that the core idea could be brought into the 21st century.

Look a CrimsonLand, a game that captures the feeling of Robotron or SmashTV, yet I couldn't name many more games like it. Not true for FPS, we could name them all day.

Perhaps not earth shatering, but diffent than what a lot of other folks are doing and there are a lot of folks in thier 30s that played games like that back in the day.