Updated the Cards!

Another new little feature on our weird website! 😁

Inspired by Reddit (and I remember that also YouTube was experimenting it few time ago), now if you put your cursor on the usernames into the comments area and you can see a preview of their stats and profile page! 

Check it out!

We also updated the URL of our social pages!

New Twitter URL, now with over 1,000 followers!

New Facebook URL, now very near to 3,000 likes!

2019 vs 2018

Hey guys! We missed to post the stats about 2019 Vs 2019!
We was distracted by this month that is going very good!
So...Here they are!
The 2019 was very positive! More new users, more page views and more sessions!
What's the main reason? Probably the social networking and the good games!

As you can see Facebook is still the social #1 for our traffic, also because on indiexpo there are a lot of pc games and Facebook is used by "pc users".
YouTube helped us thanks to several big YouTubers that played several games uploaded during the 2019 on the website!

We are continuing to grow up and a lot of users visited the website typing directly " indiexpo.net" in the URL bar!

They know it and they like it! And we continue to improve it with new features, new games, new developers and new events also this year!

12 Steps to Link your Game's News with your Social Accounts

Link your Game's News with your Social Accounts (Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, etc) now is very very easy, thanks to the Feed Rss made by indiexpo and IFTTT.

With this system you can save a lot of time!

And it is very easy and fast "to setup"! We can see how with 12 Steps!

Let's go!

1. Sign Up to IFTTT, going on its website

2. Click on My Applets

3. Now click on New Applet

4. Click on +this

5. Now click on RSS Feed

6. then click on New Feed item

7. Now here it is important part: in the Feed URL you have to put the link to your News. It's https://www.indiexpo.net/feed/news/name-of-your-game.xml (obviously replace name-of-your-game with the name of your game...)

8. Click on +that

9. Now you can choose your social. Here we can try with Twitter (but you can also select Facebook, Pinterest, imgur or other social networks)

10. Click on Post a tweet

11. Now in the first part, you can put the main hashtags, like #gamedev, #devlog, #indiegame, etc., then the link and the content.

Here it is the base used (we suggest you to use this): #devlog #indiegame Link:  {{EntryUrl}} News: {{EntryContent}}

12. Click on Create action and then on Finish

Very easy, very fast, very effective.

This is the power of IFTTT + indiexpo feed rss!

6 Tips for using hashtags in a Game Page

A hashtag — written with a # symbol — is used to index keywords or topics on indiexpo. This function was created on Twitter and now we use it also on indiexpo, to allows people to easily follow topics they are interested in.

Using hashtags to categorize Games by keyword:

• People use the hashtag symbol (#) before a relevant keyword or phrase in their Game Description to categorize and help them show more easily in indiexpo search.
• Clicking or tapping on a hashtagged word in any message shows you other Games that include that hashtag.
• Hashtags can be included also in the comments.

Example of a Game with a hashtag:

Tips for using hashtags:

• You cannot add spaces or punctuation in a hashtag, or it will not work properly.
• We recommend using no more than 2 hashtags as best practice, but you may use as many hashtags as you like.
• Type a hashtagged keyword in the search bar to discover new games based on your interests.

6 Tips to Get More Subscribers on your Game

How many time you thinked "Oh! C'mon player click and subscribe!" ... ?

We already talked about how the first players of your new game should be the players of your previous game, inspired by several posts and books of Seth Godin.

If the player click on subscribe it's easier and faster. In fact when you will put a news/update on your indiexpo game page, every subscriber will receive an email about it.
And the 85% of subscibers open their emails on smartphone and check/open them.

So... how to increase your subscibers with news/updates ?

1. Create remarkable content. Your content needs to be amazing if you want people to stay subscribed and forward your games to their friends, family, and colleagues that aren't already on your list;
2. Promote an online contest, like a free giveaway (and don't forget to promote your contest on social!);
3. Add a link to your followers' signatures that leads people to a landing page where they can sign up for your game (you can also use the image that you can see in the Statistics Area)
4. Promote one of your lead-gen offers on Twitter or Facebook. Create a "Sociali Campaign" to promote your free resource to your followers;
5. Run a promotion on a partner game page or social page that targets a new but appropriate audience to collect new followers;
6. Add a QR code to your print marketing collateral (you can find it also in the Statistic Area) that people can scan to opt in to your "database".

Also for the Game Developers is the Time of the Video Interviews !

Community : a social group of any size whose members share the same passions, hobbies, works and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.

It's nice to see how the interviews of the developers are showing and making a nice community (and not only on Twitter where the developers use #indiedev only to promote own games and ignore the others), where they report their experience, the followed indie games and authors and how they develop their games.

The interviews for a game developer are very important and in particular the video interviews. Now it's the time of the videos. It's not fortuity if Facebook is making moves to become 'video first'. Mark Zuckerberg says video will soon consume the lion's share of attention of its 1.7 billion users. And it's making aggressive moves to get people to make and view more video.

With a video you can tell fastly and easily infos about your games, passions and your favourite artists. So we're catching this opportunity realizing short videos with fast questions and fast answers.

The previous Summer we wrote posts (on this blog) about the Game Marketing and several developers contacted us. So now you can find their interviews here or on our Facebook Page.

We will continue to publish this kind of interviews and if you are a developer and want to join... contact us ! You will be added you in list ! :D But remember to share your free game or demo on indiexpo! ;)

See you soon !

New Features ! Feed Rss, E-mail notifications, New Games, AMP Pages, New Languages and so on !

New Features !

- Feed Rss for your News !
See the News-Area of a Game page and click on the icon to see the Feed Rss and follow it.
If you're a developer, read here how to link your feed at twitter.

- E-Mail Notifications
Added the email notifications and a Setting Area to customize it.

- Levels, Points and Powers !
Click on the icon on top-right and discover your level and powers !
Read here about how to earn points.

- Added AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) for each game.
- Added new Languages : Russian and Polish.
- Coming soon new games in exclusive. Stay tuned !

How to Add your own RSS Feed to Twitter (or Facebook)

Many developers use Twitter (or Facebook) as a way to communicate with gamers, fans and followers, keep up with trends in their area of expertise, like a devlog and advertise their own game. Now indiexpo helps you to share your game (and its news) on Twitter(or Facebook), with the RSS. It stands for Rich Site Summary, is a way that developers can notify others of a newly published post.
By automatically sending their news to Twitter (or Facebook) via an RSS feed, developers can save time and, when publishing scheduled game news, stay active on Twitter even when they’re not online.

Here we explain how to link the News about your game to Twitter (or Facebook).

1. Register with Twitter Feed by entering your email address and a password of your choosing. Twitter feed is not part of Twitter, but a free service that automates the RSS-to-Twitter process for Twitter users.

2. Enter your game name.

4. Go in your Game Page on indiexpo, click on News and then click on the icon. 

5. Copy the URL link. This is the RSS URL.

6. Past the RSS URL of your game.

7. Choose Twitter from the services available. You can also feed your RSS to Statusnet, Hellotxt and Facebook from your Twitter Feed.

8. Authenticate your Twitter (or Facebook) account by clicking on the large blue “Authenticate Twitter” box. This takes you to Twitter, which will prompt you to enter your Twitter user name or email address, and your Twitter password. Then click “Allow.” Twitter will then direct you back to Twitter Feed with a green bar at the top of the page that reads, “Twitter authentication successful.” The same for the Facebook account.

9.  Click “Create Service,” and the service will begin feeding your posts with the next one you publish.

How to increase the Fan Base of a Videogame ?

Several developers asked us : "How to increase our Fan Base ?"

Do you have a game... or several games based on the same character/plot... but only few players ?
Do you want to know how to increase your fan base ?

Oh, yes. The fan base, in this time, it's all. If you have a good and big fan base... when your new game will come out, they will download it and talk about it with their friends ! And it will be able "to beat competition" in the first page of the store or on indiexpo in the "Most Downloaded Games !"

But... how to increase it ?
Our answer is very easy... i don't know.

I don't know... and i don't think that there's a right answer.  I can't tell you : "do in this way... and ... ta-da! Here it is !".
Oh, yes. You can pay. You can "boost" the post about your game on facebook with a lot of money... but it helps you only in the first moment. It will be only a big but very fast fire. And few minutes later... it's all like before.

The only thing about "how to increase the fan base" that we can tell you... is our experience... and the our tools.
Do they work ? Mhm... yes. They works good.... they work sufficiently...  so... they work. Until now. I hope.

First of all is very important to know your community. It's very very important.
And not only with polls or generic questions. But every single user.
If you can... meet them ! Organize free event and meet them. Or join and talk to them. Discover what they do and what they love in your game, if they have ideas, if they have tips for you and/or for your games.

Remember that you're doing a game for your community, for your players. You can start the game... and develop the game... but then the game is of the players. So, you should help them and "serve" them. Your game is like a "service" chosen by the users. You can think your Team (or you) like... McDonald. McDonald chooses how to do his "sandwich", it cooks the BigMac but it's for the customers ... and McDonald will serve them.

All of this ... but never give up your identity.

New Share Buttons !

New Share Buttons on indiexpo ! They are always about Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus... but now they are also Faster, Easier and Coolest !

.. they are FEC !