Fourum Games

Fletch_smf: We played 4 regular games during September, and added TT- the New Nuts in the last week.
Fletch_smf: http://www.sixandfourum.com/images/reports/2011-September-Games.png



Fletch_smf: We broke our record for turn outs in all games.
Fletch_smf: Elektra peaked at 12, Prodigy NLHE hit 8, Prodigy O8 reached 7 and 7 turned up for the first game of TT
gjecat: steady growth
Fletch_smf: Averages are all up on August, so yes, building nicely
Fletch_smf: The Sunday double is our biggest turn out. I think people like playing two games back to back
Jordan Baker: id hope we can break more records this month now that our competition is based off forum games
sixandfour: anything on Bananarama?  Technically predates the forum, but worth knowing, as it is basically part of our schedule
Fletch_smf: Yeah, I didn't know what to say about Bananarama. I've left it to Ribby if he wants to report it. And I've added the figures in the graph for the last month.
sixandfour: fair enough, it's the Monkeys to take with as they please
Fletch_smf: Yeah. I didn't want to overstep any boundaries there
Fletch_smf: We finally finished the Well HUsNG series.
Fletch_smf: After declaring BPD's games forfeits.
gjecat: at long last
sixandfour: BPD where are they now threads soon to come
Fletch_smf: JB and Critterbug played the last game of the Prelim, with Critt winning and putting him and ribby in the finals.
Jordan Baker:
Fletch_smf: They played the best of 3 series on a Sunday Night during our regular double. Ribby won the first. Critt won the last two AND Elektra
gjecat: nice night
Fletch_smf: Apart from the disappearance of one of the players, I think it was a pretty successful series. And we will do it again.
gjecat: it was fun
sixandfour: yes, but there has got to be a time limit I think for next time
gjecat: agreed
Fletch_smf: Yeah, a rule will be put in place ... Shame.
Fletch_smf: The big comp in September was the Prodigy freeroll.
Fletch_smf: This was a lot of fun, and probably most people played in a freeroll, even if they didn't cash.
Fletch_smf: I offered $10 in prize money, and six gave a bonus $5 in the middle to spur on interest.
Fletch_smf: It ended...
Fletch_smf: http://www.sixandfourum.com/images/newsletter/FRLadderFinal.png



Fletch_smf: Oh that's right .... With me winning
gjecat: lol
Jordan Baker: how convenient.
Fletch_smf: When JB took the lead, and I caught up, we decided to sit out to spur people on. Then six took a first and it was the 3 admins at the top. We thought it best to remove ourselves from the running for prizes as the whole point was to encourage others
Fletch_smf: hghlndr6 took 1st. Twospd took 2nd which he chopped with bunchof6 as he promised. and wachinpntdry took 3rd
Fletch_smf: But there was a lot of railing going on, and it really became a good fourum comeraderie type comp.
Jordan Baker: ^ gained a few new friends because of it
Fletch_smf: Quite a few deep runs with members coming along to rail.
Jordan Baker: definitely strengthened the member base (of those who participated)
Fletch_smf: Not to mention the new sign ups and increased rake. A win win comp no doubt about it. We will definitely be doing this again.
gjecat:  I was AWOL I must admit
Fletch_smf: That's cool. We shouldn't all have to be here all the time. Like having kids, the aim is for them to amuse themsleves without us.
gjecat: true enough
sixandfour: you played RM games, which obv pays us better
Fletch_smf: So that's the games from September.
Fletch_smf: Oh, before I move on, Chato has opened a new home group at Stars. I'll add the info to our official page with the other sign up info. I'm not sure if he's going to be scheduling regular games, but do we want to include them in the official roster? Posted on the Calendar, etc?
Fletch_smf: Not for the October comp, of course. Just in genereal.
sixandfour: no issue with it, if he give us a HU
gjecat: ditto
sixandfour: he tends to do these on a whim
gjecat: yes he does
Fletch_smf: That's the impression I got when he just announced he'd started a new home group. lol
Jordan Baker: depends on how many. if its only 1 extra a week we could put it in the newsletter, but if its gonna be 2+ then that would sorta clutter the newsletter
Jordan Baker: we cant have like 9 forum games a week. it would be best to keep it around what we have so we can concentrate our efforts on making those ones popular
Fletch_smf: Yeah, JB, that's the other thing.
Fletch_smf: Is he going to create them in enough time for them to get a mention ... probably not. Unless it becomes a regular Friday Night game or something.
sixandfour: but if not for his whims, we wouldn't have an O8 game on Wednesdays, don't forget...
Jordan Baker: ^that also
Fletch_smf: Well we'll see what he schedules during October, and if he gets a regular going, we'll approach him about adding it.
sixandfour: right on.
gjecat: cool
Fletch_smf: Anymore Fourum Games business?
sixandfour: yah...
Fletch_smf: Thought there might be
sixandfour: not to be a debbie downer, but we should at least bring this up.
Fletch_smf: Sure.
sixandfour: we had a bit of drama about the Oct. Games.  We all know why...
Fletch_smf: The definition of "Team Comp"
gjecat: yes i was there
sixandfour: Now atm it seems things are on the mend, and even paint is joking about it... are we at all concerned this may flare up again at a more inopportune time?
Fletch_smf: Not really. I think it's been said and done. For my 2 cents.
gjecat: I would hope not , but wouldn't bet the bank on it
Jordan Baker: i would hope everyone could act like adults and realize this is a friendly game and nobody is going to cheat them out of their $1 bi, but i cant say for 100% assurance that it wont happen again
Jordan Baker: ill say that it wouldnt surprise me if it did pop up again.
sixandfour: I can see scenarios, esp. the final week when doing the opposite of proper strat may be beneficial, but I don't think it's a concern worht scrapping the whole thing either.
gjecat: neither do I
sixandfour: and I did put a caveat in my buyout "offer" that whining might forfeit you, so hopefully that sticks in their minds.
gjecat: team games almost always have some of this dwama , thats why i don;t talk much in them
sixandfour: So that whole tangent was a waste of 5 minutes, and we can move on?
Fletch_smf: Not a waste, but I think we can move on.
sixandfour: splendid.
gjecat: ditto
Fletch_smf: Cool

marketing report

Jordan Baker: according to the data fletch provided, the newsletter i sent out on sept 30th was opened 71 times in the first 24 hours. we had 141 clicks on the header logo that redirects people to the home page, which is abnormally high imo, but that is better than it having 0 links...link the forum game links we have. still cant figure that one out. only thing i can think of is that people see the forum games and just use the logo to get to the forum so they can find the threads themselves
Fletch_smf: ^^ Yeah that's all I can think of as well
gjecat: makes sense





Jordan Baker: im pretty happy with how newsletters currently are (since ive learned HTML), but im sure some of the 3rd party sites that offer newsletter programs (like the one we tried) could offer some additional cool features to make it look more official and inviting. we would just have to find one that TOS isn't against newsletters being sent out about gambling, and obviously no cost is a benefit. so its worth thinking about if we would eventually like to find a 3rd party site to send our newsletters out through
sixandfour: Fletch mentioned we should be more prepared to promote the November contest (whatever it is), rather than the last minute rush to whip up an icon and post it in the letter.
sixandfour: so perhaps we should be thinking on what to do, and have what we need to promote it a touch earlier this time
Jordan Baker: that is also a good idea. we should have the competition (and its rules, icons, promotion ideas, etc) hashed out before november hits
Fletch_smf: Definitely.
gjecat: surely a wiser way to go
sixandfour: that, and I think maybe I'll toss up a thread mid-month to garner ideas.
Fletch_smf: Sure.
gjecat: and maybe a poll to help in the final decision
Fletch_smf: The newsletter is starting to take shape. It's more inviting to read, imo. And it will just improve from here
gjecat: agreed
Jordan Baker: ^agreed, especially since we have images and icons on it
Jordan Baker: Anymore newsletter talk? if not, i will move onto FB
sixandfour: go right ahead
Jordan Baker: so at the last meeting we discussed the possibility of advertising on FB
Jordan Baker: so i did some research
Jordan Baker: and from the reviews ive been reading, its actually a very good thing. it's similar to google's advertising in that you can set daily limits on money spent/links clicked, to prevent us from running up a huge bill. if you guys have ever seen a FB advertisment, you know that they are very small, but there isn't too many of them on a page at one time, so it allows yours to be focused on.
Jordan Baker: we need 3 basic things in order to have an advertisment. a title, a body, and an image. we're very limited on what we can write, with the title having a 25 character limit, and the body having a 135 character limit.
Jordan Baker: i think we need to have our title and body be very basic so that they get a point across within our character limits. i also think it would be good to have a certain approach as to how we write the ads. for example, an idea i came up with would be to approach the advertising from a BF standpoint.
Jordan Baker: a title i came up with is "Need a new poker home?"
Jordan Baker: and a body that goes along with that is "Black Friday affected almost all poker homes - except Sixandfourum where we have weekly games, monthly competitions and freerolls!"
Jordan Baker: obviously we can do other approaches, but this is just something i came up with. so if you guys have any ideas of how to approach the advertising, please post them in the mod section
sixandfour: solid to me, unless someone comes up with better
Fletch_smf: And can the budget be as small as 5 cents a day or something?
Jordan Baker: i havent been able to look at how small we want the budget to be because in order to get to that portion of the signup i need a body, title, and image
Jordan Baker: speaking of the image
gjecat: looks good to me , not sure i'd get into the freeroll idea just yet , but i could be wrong
Jordan Baker: the image, like the body and title, is very limited. we have VERY small resolution settings for the picture. so i think it needs to be basic. and i mean really basic, like just cards, or chips, or a poker table. if we can pop the 6&4 logo in there without it getting too clustered, then im all for it
sixandfour: as for the image, that's easy enough.  There are a few stumbling blocks that have kept me from getting on it.
sixandfour: 1.  making enough to pay for them.
sixandfour: 2. getting paid.
sixandfour: the prodigy problems have kinda put a hold on this, as we cannot yet guarantee prompt payment
sixandfour: but if you need an img to get more info, I'll get on it.
gjecat: yes that needs to be handled first imo
Jordan Baker: i could always just use a fake image so that i can see if i can see some settings on price and limits
Jordan Baker: ill check that out tomorrow
Jordan Baker: and gjecat makes a good point about not promoting freerolls just yet. might be better off to wait until we have them going steadily
Jordan Baker: nothing else from my side
sixandfour: either way, I can make something up easy enough, so I'll make a point of it
gjecat: sounds good