[BIG][BIG]Introduction[/BIG][/BIG]

If you haven't figured out how to successfully market your clan/guild/order
yet, then you need to read this article. If you are famous, gaining new members
each month, and aren't worried about your guilds future - then you can skip this
one. When it comes to advertising/marketing your 'guild', you must be energetic,
creative, and aggressive - always looking for a way to get YOUR GUILD NAME and
URL onto a high-traffic site. Period. Once you are in the limelight, the magic
will begin. There are a few things that must be done to attract attention to
yourself, your guild, your members, your stories, (you get the picture), etc.
1.) You must have something WORTH sharing with the community, 2.) You need to be
creative and detailed with whatever it is you are sharing, 3.) You should make
sure that you provide all the necessary information, 4.) If possible, you should
make sure that your 'news article' is cleanly written, spell checked and perhaps
"HTML READY". I have learned from MANY news sites that the reporters LOVE IT
when someone submits articles/news that already contains the correct HTML
coding. They will love you, and they will usually post your news without a
hitch.

[BIG][BIG]Something Worth Sharing:[/BIG][/BIG]

News sites aren't usually interested in the fact that your guild is, "Now
Recruiting!" or "Open for business!!" - who cares. News sites want to know about
events - both guild and game related, creativity involving the game - such as
your tales of adventure or something wonderful that is worth sharing with the
rest of the community. Also, news sites are very interested in your discoveries
- such as new spells, game systems, artifacts, hidden levels and so on. If you
can use this to 'structure' your news in a way that it appeals to any of those
categories, you are almost in business. You see, if your guild is planning a
nice event, you can either advertise on your guild page and attract a small
audience (usually your own members/allies), or you can think big and have it
appear on a news site, attracting hundreds (possibly thousands) of people. If
your guild has created a guide, resource, program, map, spell listing, or some
other useful information that the community should see, that is also a
GREAT way to indirectly advertise your guild and get THOUSANDS and thousands of
visits (which will indirectly lead to people asking about membership into your
guild/clan - trust me). The hardest part about recruiting and growing your guild
is becoming "KNOWN" to the community. Once people become familiar with your name
and web address, the rest is pretty much easier. Your guild's management team
(officers, council, 'whatever') should be aggressively seeking new places and
methods to get guild related news posted to the community. Like the title of
this article says, "The Squeaky Guild Gets the Grease", meaning that if a guild
is visible enough and creative enough, they will get the members and fame.

[BIG][BIG]You Need to be Creative, Detailed & Provide All the
Information [/BIG][/BIG]

As you draft your news article, keep in mind that you want to share this with
several news sites for that game. You want the news to be clear, concise and
very informative. If you have someone in your guild who is good at writing,
perhaps have him/her write up all your guild ads. If you have someone good at
HTML, let them take that ad and make it look nice for forums and news sites.
Make sure your news items ALWAYS provide a link back to your guild's web site,
contains an email address for a guild contact person, and always sign off with
your guild's name written out (along with your guild's abbreviation). This will
help with your visibility and the awareness that the community will have for
your organization. If planning an event, make sure you share the vital
information: Time, Date, Location, Reason for the event, Possible prizes to be
given away, various events/games that will be held, etc. If your event is
"ROLEPLAY ORIENTED", perhaps provide a mini-write-up for it, giving a taste of
what it is all about. If you make it interesting enough and build the suspense,
people WILL attend.

[BIG][BIG]Spell Check and HTML Ready! [/BIG][/BIG]
[P]Once you write your news item and reread it to yourself a few times to make
sure it is accurate, you should then SPELLCHECK your writing and add the HTML to
it. I usually add the HTML elements after I write the news/article. After the
news is ready to go, I send a copy of it to myself via email, and then place
that 'ad' in a folder called, "Guild Ads". That way, if the event is recurring,
I will have a copy on file.
[P][BIG][BIG]Other Topics: Email Addresses for News Sites & Guild
Advertising [/BIG][/BIG]
[P]Let's say that you are playing Asheron's Call and everything you do as a
guild revolves around that game. Your news will be for AC related sites, your
guild advertising will be for AC players, etc. You should go out and find all of
the premium news sites and keep a list of the email addresses used to submit
news for each of them. Once you complete this task, email it to yourself (for a
copy in your files) for future use. That way, when you have new news to
announce, you won't have to visit each site to get the word out. (TIP: Send
INDIVIDUAL EMAILS to each news site. I think that as a news site staff member,
it is a turn-off to see the names of '5' other news agencies on the same
message. I realize this takes a little more time, but it will be well worth it.)
Throughout this article I focused on Guild Event/News Items, but didn't really
mention anything about good, old fashioned "Guild Ads". I love well written
guild ads, they are VERY IMPORTANT in the grand scheme of things. As with other
news that you will be writing, make sure you write the ad first, spell check it,
add the HTML, then mail a copy to yourself for your files. (TIP #1: Before going
on your Guild Advertising Campaign and posting your newly written guild ad, make
sure you first TEST IT on your own forum. You will save yourself some
embarrassment should there be errors with your HTML. Once you SEE your ad
looking good, go ahead and cut/paste it onto other forums.) (Tip #2: While
visiting all of the "GUILD ORIENTED" forums, record the URL for those forums
into an email message and send it to yourself - yep, for your files! In the
future, it will save TONS OF TIME when you go to advertise again.) When
advertising, please make sure you keep your guild ads to the 'Guild Forums'. If
you don't, you will DEFINITELY upset the natives and your ad will lose its
effectiveness. Also, it is an embarrassment for your guild, trust me... I know
firsthand. (The learning process can be SO difficult) The nice thing about Guild
Forums is that they are less traveled and posted on. That means that your ads
will persist for days, weeks, even months! People tend to visit guild forums to
have a look... read a few posts, then move on. I posted ads about 7 months ago
for our EQ faction and I am STILL receiving site visits from that ad! Amazing...
it goes to show you that your ads DO work, if you stick to the rules. (Tip #3:
Get tracking services right now for your site. I highly recommend "Extreme
Tracking", a free service that monitors your site and records information about
visitors. It is what I use to find out where people are learning about our
guild, or who is talking about us (and posting our URL). I love sneaking up on a
guild message board and replying to a post someone made about me or the guild I
am involved in. It makes me feel... well... KEWL. For the URL to Extreme
Tracking, visit: http://www.gamecore.net/brimstone and click on the "Resources"
link.) In the end, it is all about being persistent and aggressive with your
guild advertising. You must constantly be working on ways to get your NAME
(guildname) onto a site that has a TON of traffic. If you aren't doing this, you
will not grow as fast as you possibly can... nor will you attract some of the
super-creative members of the gaming community. (Warning: Once your guild is in
the spotlight a few times and people are aware of your existence, DO expect to
have ANTI-SOCIAL players applying for your guild/clan. It happens. Like leeches,
they hop from one host to another looking out for themselves and nobody else.
Avoid them like the plague and someday they will grow up and be QUALITY members
of a guild.)
[P][BIG][BIG]Closing Statement [/BIG][/BIG]
[P]If you would like to reprint this article, or any other article from this
site, you are more than welcome to do so. If you have any questions, please send
them to me - I would love to hear from you and perhaps post your replies to my
guild's web site, or onto this site. My email address is:
brimstone@lostorder.com. I appreciate your time and interest in this article.