As some of you may know, we have been running ad campaigns for Mizahar. Whoa, this guy must be crazy, spending money on something that's not making him a penny -- that's what I'd be thinking of myself if I were an outsider.

Yes, Mizahar is a strictly no-profit activity. Most websites of its kind are stuffed with ads left and right, whereas we even removed our banner exchange after we noticed some obviously dishonest behavior - namely, the same barely active site showing up 90% of the time. We believe in providing the best possible experience to our users, not in scraping a few cents with some silly ad scheme. I know from past experience what happens when a guy makes a roleplaying site and then one day decides it's "only fair" for him to make a living off of it -- by lying big time about his traffic and costs to foreshadow site shutdown if his users don't pay him. (Why am I writing about two different scams in one paragraph? That's sad. )

So, Miza will never, ever go that way. Back to the ads, though. I believe in the Mastercard motto - there are things money can't buy (but a Mastercard can, apparently). The best thing about the internet and information technology in general is that it has opened avenues to ordinary people that were previously the domain of mega-corporations -- no wonder the latter now want it back. Single users can make professional music, publish high-quality movies, and influence the masses. And run ad campaigns. Mizahar's campaign costs about a coffee a day at most, sometimes less than that. I haven't been to the movies in 15 years (call it an allergy to the idiots who believe a movie deserves a running commentary. Theirs.) I can just pretend I went to watch one. Mizahar is far more satisfying to me anyways.

And starting today, as shown in the pic, we have Facebook ads in addition to Google ones. I'm very curious to see how they compare. Ads are a tricky thing, and very much a trial-and-error learning for me. Cost per click, relevancy, clickthrough rates, conversion rates, return on investment, were all foreign concepts to me until last month. On top of that, a game like Mizahar is very difficult to target, mostly because finding good keywords for it is no easy task. Technically, it is a "play by post", which performs well on its own, but most people who play these games don't even know that name. If you target "rpg", you're doomed - people think of WoW & co. They click by mistake, fail to see a mob to bash with their mouse, and leave. On the other hand, if your words don't get enough clicks, Google will think your ads are bad quality and will show them less and less, or charge you more to show them. You end up having to target obscure keywords, see how they perform, and switch them out if they don't do well.

What does "doing well" mean? Well, I judge it like this... if the user bounces (i.e. looks at the home page and goes back without reading more), then it's bad. If he registers, it's good. If he doesn't register, but reads many pages, it's still better than nothing - we may still win this person some other day.

Facebook ads are intriguing. No wonder many believe social networks to be the advertising platform of the future. On Facebook, I can target people by the interests they list in their profiles; even though clicks tend to cost more on average, they are a lot more focused. Our ads are targeting people who like to write fiction, roleplay and storytell, for example. Moreover, you'll never see the ad if you are already subscribed to the Mizahar page on Facebook. We'll see how that goes. Feel free to suggest new and better ways of advertising Miza!