From the monthly archives:

July 2009

Online Farming: From Acquisition to Monetization

by TrialPay July 31, 2009 Games

Online farming is all the rage these days—farming games are easily among the fastest growing applications on the Facebook platform. Take Slashkey’s Farm Town, for example. Legend has it that Slashkey, an independent developer, started the farming game by sending invitations to just twelve friends in February for testing. By April, its user base grew [...]

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How to Avoid Inflation in Virtual Economies

by TrialPay July 24, 2009 Digital Commerce

Virtual currencies are governed by the same economic principles of real money. If you don’t closely monitor your virtual economy, inflation can erode the purchasing power of your currency—which can deter new users from playing your online game. Inflation is caused by an excessive growth of the money supply, which can drive up the prices [...]

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Increasing Sales With Product Bundles

by TrialPay July 21, 2009 Bundles

When you order a Happy Meal at McDonald’s, you’re getting a package of complementary foods at a discounted price. Not all customers would buy a cheeseburger and french fries individually at full price, so fast food restaurants bundle them into a meal to boost sales. Any retailer—especially online sellers—can use the same bundling tactics to [...]

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Rethinking Cost-Per-Install (CPI) Advertising

by Lisa Contoyannis July 17, 2009 Advertising

In order to acquire new users, application developers are spending more than ever on advertising. Social network ad spending is expected to reach $1.3 billion by 2010, according to eMarketer. Developers have been turning away from more traditional advertising models, like cost-per-mille (CPM) and cost-per-click (CPC), in favor of cost-per-install (CPI; a developer only pays [...]

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TrialPay’s Best Of Web (BOW) Awards

by TrialPay July 15, 2009 Digital Commerce

Best Placement: Bitberry Software Welcome to TrialPay’s Best Of Web (BOW) Awards, where we recognize the savvy online merchants that best utilize TrialPay’s e-commerce solutions. This month we’re recognizing Bitberry Software for effectively using the TrialPay payment method alongside traditional payment methods. In Bitberry’s “Buy Now” page pictured above, customers can pay for BitZipper via [...]

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Top 5 Elements for Virality of Social Games

by TrialPay July 9, 2009 Games

For today’s social game developer, virality is key to driving user growth and lowering customer acquisition costs. Here’s a look at five elements that boost the virality of social games: 1. Publishing updates about the game through users Every game developer should allow users to publish their top scores or milestones on their news feeds [...]

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Online Games: What to Do When Players Won’t Pay

by TrialPay July 3, 2009 Alternative Payments

Interactive marketing firm Future Ads found in a recent study that 61% of online gamers are spending more time playing online games this year than last. But to the disappointment of game publishers, the industry’s recent rise in players doesn’t amount to higher sales—more than 80% are significantly cutting back on the amount they spend [...]

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