Profitability of Arcades?

[jeeplaw]

So I scored a niiiice domain name for an arcade site, however, I'm not sure if I want to pull the trigger or sell the domain name for a premium.

I figure between 25-50 for a good script
$70/year for hosting that'll give me 250gig/month
..

So at that point, without buying links, or getting articles created and submitted, I'm out $120.

I heard ypn does better than google, so I've got that account ready to go if needed.

So my question is, to those who run an arcade site- is it a boon or a bust to spend the money for a script license plus hosting fees? Are you making it back each month in clicks or cpm?

The name I scored was myspacearcade.org ;)

[Greg-J]

Figure about $97 for a good script mate ;)

And I like arcade sites. I have one that provides me about $200 to $400 a month and I don't do anything with it. No updating, no promotion. I just let it sit there.

There is definitely money in arcade sites.

[jeeplaw]

Which ad network are you running on it Greg? How long did it take for it to become profitable, and ,lol, which script would you recommend?

[Greg-J]

I would recommend holding off for a few weeks for SmashScript ofcourse.

I'm using gamescript.net and it has brought my server to its knees when I promoted it. The site in question is wtfrag.com.

It was profitable almost instantly, but that's because it's the banner that is in the default position in one of my products. I did some bulletin posting before it was played out and then just left it alone.

[jeeplaw]

Greg, can you tell me more about smashscript?

[Greg-J]

I can when it's ready, sure. Think flash game site CMS.

[LiamS]

When I had AdSense on my arcade site (http://www.arcadevids.com) I struggled to break $1/day. It must've been my ad placement since I was comfortably getting 100 uniques/day.

Just looking at Greg's arcade site now and the traffic it receives looks to be insane. Currently I see 80 users online and over 5500 games played TODAY! How do you do it Greg? :P

[Greg-J]

That was back when a bulletin to 10K friends actually had an impact. I get a fair amount of traffic from Google and others as well though.

[YourSQL]

There is money but no too much

[Greg-J]

What is with you man. You're just full of uninformed input today ;)

I know handfuls of people making 3 figures a day off arcades and a couple that make 4 figures. A day.

If you're calling $3k to $30k not too much, then o.k.

[sdsvtdriver]

The ones who got in early seem to be doing well.

But now, like Myspace scripts, how would one break in and actually make money?

[jeeplaw]

Greg,

I know the old adage of "it'll be ready when it's ready", so I'm not going to even go there with that question, lol, however there have been a few arcade sites popping up for sale here and there in the interim.

If you were a betting man, would you advise someone to hold off purchasing a site for another 20-30 days in lieu of a release? I'm in a position where I'd like to strike when the time is right, but I don't want to purchase a script that'll leave me wanting. Any teasers on features that your script will offer?

Specifically, I'm looking at sites that have this script in use- http://www.gamescript.net/ and www.flashgamescript.com

David

[Drew]

uhoh.......

[LiamS]

Jeeplaw, I would recommend staying right away from GameScript. I own ArcadeVids (http://www.arcadevids.com) and while the script is "ok", the support is beyond terrible. You'll be left waiting days for a response.

Personally, I'd wait until Greg releases his script, even if it'll take a few months. I have no doubt in my mind that the script will be 100x better than any arcade script available today.

Liam

[Greg-J]

I'm not going to promise anything right now.

Things are going to be very different after this weekend because we'll have nearly twice the manpower as we have right now, so I have no idea how much more work will get done I just know it's a lot.

If you're looking to buy an established arcade site I say go for it. We're going to implement db conversion from every other script to ours. We're also going to implement a feature that will allow you to keep your old URL's intact as well.

As for feature sets, we'll keep that hush hush for now - but know that I have something up my sleeve that the other guys haven't even thought about.

[Meads]

IS it worth jumping on the bandwagon and starting an arcade site or would you advise not too, as i was actually thinking about buying a script this weekend.

[jeeplaw]

Meads, from my own investigations into the profitability of doing such a site, my thougts are this:

If you can divert already grown traffic from one site to your new site, you're going to be ahead. If you're already here it means you probably already have a myspace resource site. Just tack some meaningful banners on there diverting it to the arcade site.

The question for me becomes one of features- which script will give the visitor a reason to keep coming back. Myspace is great for it's viral characteristics. All it takes is one link to spread around and bingo..traffic. It's what you do with it once you have it.

What i don't want to see is the script become nothing more than a resource hog. Why waste bandwidth and resources when you don't have any return.

David

[Scilynt]

Thats my throughts jeeplaw. Might as well grab a game site now, or create one for cheap and try to start building traffic. That way if/when you grab smashscript when it comes out you have some prebuild traffic going for it.

Greg mentioned how much he hates the wasted resources from other scripts so I assume smashscript will be more efficient. And knowing Gregs style, my guess is it will be nice and efficient with ads as well heheh.

[jeeplaw]

I'm of the impatient type :) I do like creating new site, but i'd rather repair and rebuild existing sites and build off of established traffic. I love turning 50 uniqes a day into 1500 :D

[worlddom]

Looking forward to it.

I have an arcade site getting around 100 uniques a day and earning around $1. Haven't time to play around with it and I'm even blocked from the admin cp following a recent server move and crap customer service.

Sooner the better from my point of view.

[Meads]

Meads, from my own investigations into the profitability of doing such a site, my thougts are this:

If you can divert already grown traffic from one site to your new site, you're going to be ahead. If you're already here it means you probably already have a myspace resource site. Just tack some meaningful banners on there diverting it to the arcade site.

The question for me becomes one of features- which script will give the visitor a reason to keep coming back. Myspace is great for it's viral characteristics. All it takes is one link to spread around and bingo..traffic. It's what you do with it once you have it.

What i don't want to see is the script become nothing more than a resource hog. Why waste bandwidth and resources when you don't have any return.

David

Thnaks for the information, i dont happen to have a myspace resource site either i reckon im a bit late for the whole myspace resource thing too hehe :)