Arcade Admin – The Arcade Owners Ultimate Resource

Hey Guys,

This is a list I have complied to show the Top 8 Best Av Arcade Pro Designs – Now you may not agree with my chosen sites, if so feel free to comment and tell me why! The list is complied based on the site’s design, rather than its popularity – this list was going to be 10 but no other sites powered by Av Arcade stood out from the crowd.

When deciding on a site, it most have a good site design, navigation and overall layout was key – while also my own personal taste has some weight.

And here they are, Well done to each of the sites listed!

1 – Mangima

2 – Albinoninja

3 – NoobOwned

4 – Oacie

5 – NinjaClanArcade

6 – WebBreak

7 – NoWares

8 – OMGItsaninja

Looking forward to your comments!

ArcadeAdmin.Com is proud to present another interview with an arcade script owner! This interview is with Aashwin, who is the owner of the new up and coming arcade script Trade Arcade Pro. I’d like to thank Aashwin for taking time out to answer a few question’s – Enjoy the interview guys and be sure to check our previous interviews!

Are you able to give us a short insight into your background?

I started programming (or making websites) so i could manage my clan site for a game. But quickly turned into a real thing. I realised that making websites is not just a hobby but actually a business. Thats really how i came into this business.

What do you do in your spare time?

Gym, Football, Friends and that’s all I can think of at the moment.

How did the idea of TAPs come to you?

I used to mod other scripts a lot but I really needed something that was mine, and that did what I wanted it to do.

What was your biggest challenge getting TAPs to where it is now?

Developing it. Theres a lot of barriers when developing a script, not just developing a script but litterly anything (Such as coding/graphical issues). The biggest problem was, keeping my self motivated and not giving up easily. Another thing was my server being a total mess on the beta day. It just made my life 3 times harder.

Do you own any other script/sites

I do run sites which is one reason I developed TAP. A few include: www.flashjolt.com , www.playonlinegames4fun.com At the moment my portfolio is rather large, so I am planning to reduce the size of the sites I own.

In the short history of TAPs which date stands out the most for you?

Probably the release day of TAPs, which was the 2nd November.

Have you taken any steps in the design of your script to accommodate for SEO?

A couple. I have included some basic features like redirecting www.mysite.com/123/SOME-RANDOM-NAME.html to www.mysite.com/123/THE-REAL-NAME.html I do believe its duplicate content and most scripts dont take that seriously. Other than that custom Meta Descriptions and title tags are the SEO things. But tbh, theres a limit in what a script can do to boost your SEO rankings

With the creation of so many different arcades, where do you think the industry will be in 5 years time?

I think arcades will slowly die out… Many people come to this business thinking they could make money within a few months and thats not the case. Many people will also give up, the sites that provide unique features and have the $$ to invest will stand out.

What are your top 5 SEO tips for arcade beginners?

Links Building

Content

Those are the 2 things I think are important

Then there is stuff such as the following are also very important;

H1 Tags

Emphasize text.

Making your site for the user not the search engine

TAPs is still very new, what are you main objectives to get a foothold in the Arcade sector?

I want to provide “good” support to my customers rather than providing no support and selling a lot of copies.

Why does your script stand out from the rest?

For the following;

GEO Trading

Graphs

Hour based stats

Are we going to see any major updates in the coming months?

Not major but minor updates like 1.2 hopefully once we can get 1.1 sorted

1.2 will probably be more trade related updates (newer monitoring features).

For the Online Gaming industry what do you believe is the greatest challenge going forward?

Providing Unique Content.

Who is your direct rival in the Arcade Script world

I dont think there are many, but ATS is one… i am not against it either. Great script, it was the script i used to use aswell!

What is the key features that make TAPs stand out from the crowd?

GEO Trading.

What do you believe are the key points to run a successful arcade?

Unique Content

Investing money

What, in your view, is key to retaining gamers on an arcade site?

Providing somethign they are interested in rather than providing every game on the internet

Well, I was having a read of a post at Av Arcade Forum and it has provoked me to comment here. This post is relating to your arcade, and some of the things you need to do to make it a success!  This is an open blog post, so all feedback/comments are welcome. This isn’t a definitive guide on what to do, merely my experience:-

1.Uniquness

What makes your arcade stand out from the crowd? It’s the way in which you make it unique, that means offering something that no other arcade has, even if its just a theme – its unique and a good talking point. When I talk about uniqueness, its about how you can do something different, its all about the users, make the user feel at home by offering them something unique(different) – in return they should pass on your site with word of mouth (and social media)!

Don’t stick with the status quo when it comes to managing an arcade [such as game layout, social media, use of game tags and categories] go wild and try something new, be unique – this is be one of your key selling points!

2.Theme

This is a key area of your site. Put your self in the position of a user, would you use your site with its current design/navigation? Sometimes I see arcade theme’s that are a horrible to use/navigate – remember semantic development is what you need to aim for, with all your pages being valid! The theme is what’s going to engage with the user, ensure its what your target audience wants to see form your site, but also ask for feedback!

Take examples such as miniclip, a nice simple design, thats easy to navigate and assessable to all users (even those with an impairment). The design is what’s key, you may have poor quality games, but if the theme stands out from the rest, your still going to get an audience.

Design it, Make it Unique, and get FEEDBACK from your USERS

3.Features/Modifications

This is a key area in my view, having something to engage and retain the user while also attracting new users into the mix. Areas such as leaderboards and chat rooms on games all increase user participation and retainment. Offering features such as Facebook Connect are also a good way of retaining the user, while also attracting new users – use the FB Connect as a method to connect to the users profile and update their status with games they are playing on your site.

4.Search Engine Optimization

This one is a no brainer, but still it always has to have a comment on this area. Always focus on SEO to some extent, within your titles, descriptions and page layout (tags cloud) – also link build and link exchanges, try to use social media as a tool, twitter “tweets” are a good way to drive traffic to your site!

5.Quality Games

Well we’ve covered all aspects about the site, but what about the content – the reason people come to your site? Always focus on having good quality games, that engage and retain the user on your site. Also try to use social media in this area as well to share your site and the quality games you have. Ensure you take the time to play each of your games, and write custom descriptions and How-to-Play instructions. Quality games are only part of the solution, but linking within the other sections and you’re on to a winner!

A side tip – Look at the big picture! Always look to see what your competitors are doing, even trailback their link exchanges and try to match them – It’s all about how you can be successful, not how others can be!

-I’ll update this post when I get time, at the moment I still need to formulate my idea’s!

Andy at Av Arcade has just released Av Arcade Pro 5.3 beta!

Be sure to head over to Av Arcade and check on some of the new features coming to 5.3!

New features include;

New Admin Panel

New Game Feeds

Suport multipul leaderboards

Removing games from the site

Support for DCR games

Look out for more news!

Another great interview brought to you by ArcadeAdmin.Com. Thank’s to Chuckun for taking part in this interview. Check out Chuckuns blog at www.chuckun.co.uk

Are you able to give us a short insight into your background?

Sure! For the best part of six years now, I’ve been developing PHP scripts. It all started seven years ago, at the age of just twelve, when I became part of a gaming clan forum. The owner, just a year older than I was, was my initial inspiration into the world of web-development. He could do some great things with PHP.

Then, through simply playing around with open-source php scripts, I was able to start writing PHP scripts myself! I began developing MODs for AvArcade fairly recently though. I decided to set up tazgames.com and looked into the best script to use, and came across Av Arcade. I love the script, and love the community even moreso. That’s all the motivation I need to work on it!

What do you do in your spare time?

I tend to use my spare time to study new programming languages or features, or simply alternative methods of manipulating programming languages. On a more fun level though, I also enjoy playing a free FPS called Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, if I’m feeling like taking some time off!

How do your mod idea’s come to you?

Usually I get asked to create the MODs I make. Or I see a request on the AvArcade support forums, so I take it upon myself to fulfill it! Sometimes I see a really cool feature on a website, and realise something similar would benefit my own site, so I’ll produce a MOD everyone can use. However, sometimes it’s purely an impulse idea I just randomly think of – those ones, I have to jot down though, as they’re there one minute, gone the next!

Do you own any other script/sites?

I run several websites, but I don’t like to build connections between them, so the only ones I publically announce ownership of are: www.chuckun.co.uk, www.tazgames.com, and www.visitors-online.com

I used to own a couple of simple open-source scripts. However, I stopped distributing them, as I didn’t feel they reflected my ability as a programmer any more, as I wrote them years ago. I hope to release some new scripts soon though!

Which is your best Mod to date?

The Report Game MOD was my best MOD for AvArcade. Since that was used in AvArcade 5.2, I would say my best MOD in development, is the Mass eMail & Newsletter MOD. I have some great ideas for the mod, such as scheduled mailing and other nifty features which will make it a true must-have!

What’s the though process behind developing a mod?

Well to be honest, I find thinking too much about how I’m going to do things, overwhelms me (if it’s complex enough to require thought). So I tend to dive in at the deep end, and just get on with it, and work out the arrangements as I go. This used to cause ‘messy’ coding for me, but I’m used to the general structure of things now.

The general process however, is to create the backend first, then front-end core features, then the template features the user sees to control the mod.

How do you relax at the end of the day?

Usually with a beer or a cup of tea, talking to my girlfriend, and watching a film – Oh the good life!

How do you think Google, and the way it indexes site affect the way Arcades operate?

The best idea Google ever came up with with regards to intelligent indexing, is ‘Sitelinks’ – the 4/5 links that you see some times underneath the top results for searches you make. If your arcade categories get recognised as the substantial navigation pages by google, and you have your categories listed under your homepage result on google, your visitors can instantly find just what they’re looking for! This will most definitely benefit the operation of your arcade.

With the creation of so many different arcades, where do you think the industry will be in 5 years time?

Well, a couple of years ago we saw the crash of the arcade website industry due to the influx of webmasters hopping on the band-wagon. However, I believe that the poor revenue caused by this is slowly forcing people to close their arcades. I think in five years time, people will avoid making arcades, and they will become more profitable again as the numbers of them drop.

What are your top 5 SEO tips for arcade beginners?

1. – Keyword density. Make sure you include premium gaming keywords where relevant. Such as “Play *game name* – The free online game from *site name*” instead of just having the game title. This is absolutely essential.
2. – SEO URLs. No doubt this is obvious, but it really is a must. Also be sure to include the category AND game name in the URL for perfect SEO.
3. – Page content. Arcade scripts generally dont offer enough word content.. Search engines do not like websites with few words.. So make sure you put extra words wherever possible, such as “Browse all our cool action games” instead of “see all” underneath each category..
4. – Image ALT tag. Arcades display a LOT of images.. Be sure to make use of the ALT tag within your script wherever images are used. This can generate interest via google images, and counts towards your page’s content type too.
5. – Page Titles. The order of your page title is crucial. And with gaming websites, I would reccommend using *gamename* – *sitename*, as anybody looking for a specific game isnt going to care what your arcade is called when they google the game, so you want the game name first.. However, take into consideration point #1!

Are we going to see any major updates in the coming months for any Mods?

The Mass eMail & Newsletter MOD will be receiving a lovely update shortly! Scheduled mail is almost ready – which has been long awaited by many, so watch out for that! I will also be releasing a few new mods too, with any luck!

For the Online Gaming industry what do you believe is the greatest challenge going forward?

Well it’s quite clear now that the market is pretty much at saturation point. Anybody looking to set up an online arcade is going to experience difficulties making any real money. The biggest challenge right now, as with most websites, is creating a unique environment to keep people coming back.

A major key now is social networking integration. As long as you have a plug to one of the major social networking websites, you have a chance of making your arcade work. However, even then you face a massive difficulty in making any good money. My advice is to stick in there, until the faint-hearted ‘give up’ with their non-earning arcades, and free up the industry a little.

What do you believe are the key points to run a successful arcade?

A unique theme is a must! And it must be ‘cool’ – if you make it look professional, it’s going to look too boring for an arcade.. You want something colourful and appealing to both children and teenagers.. So a ‘cool’ look is definitely the way forward!

Inscentive – Offer inscentives to make your visitors want to register.. Once they register, they will most likely return.. And if not, grab the mass email & newsletter MOD and make sure they dont forget about you!

Do something different – I believe that the only way to be truly successful is to do something unique that people will recognise.. Whether it be sending custom t-shirts out to anyone who reaches the #1 player, or creating ‘groups’ or ‘clans’ who will compete.. It’s always good to create a situation people will want to put effort into.

What, in your view, is key to retaining gamers on an arcade site?

As previously mentioned, inscentive, and unique ideas are key here. Creating awards, achievements, or prizes is always an easy way to keep people playing.. But a more automated (and cheaper) method is to create rivalry! Let people compete against eachother with highscores, and they will be determined to stay and claim the title..

Where do you believe online gaming will be in 10 years time?

On the internet, ten years is a LONG time.. Realistically, anything could happen. The way things are looking with the youth of today, gaming could even be banned in 10 years time. Now there’s a dreadful thought, right? But realistically, I believe in 10 years time, online gaming will be incredible. ‘Flash’ games may be created in HTML5, which leaves room for some incredible movement!

Thanks Chuckun for taking part in this interview! Comments welcome!

Another great article, brought to you by ArcadeAdmin.Com.

This is an interview with Dom, The owner of GamesButler.Com. Thank’s Dom for taking part in this interview! We’ve had interview with Andy, Owner of Av Arcade and an interview with Brad, Owner of Arcade Trade Script, But this interview is different as its looking at the management of an arcade.

Dom has some interesting points about new methods of SEO, So make sure you take note of some of his suggestions! GamesButler.Com for example has an Alexa ranking of 56,165 so he must be doing something right!

The Interview

Are you able to give us a short insight into your background?

Of course. I started dabontv.com when I was 16 as a way to bypass my schools server and play games at school. I started to get traffic from google and I was hooked! From there I taught myself html,css,sql,php etc. and went to an Art school for Web Design. I started GamesButler.com when I was 18 as a school project and launched it almost exactly 2 years ago when I was 19.

What do you do in your spare time?

I like to hang out with friends, read, run, drink tea and of course play video games (Been hooked on StarCraft 2 lately)

How did the idea of GamesButler come to you?

I knew I wanted to start a site that had a secondary focus on game help and walkthroughs so I played around with different domain names until I came up with GamesButler.

What was your biggest challenge getting GamesButler to where it is now?

I think just keeping up with everything has been a big challenge. Going on vacation and coming back to 1,000 emails isn’t very fun

Do you own any other script/sites

Just dabontv.com and gamesbutler.com

In the history of GamesButler which date stands out the most for you?

Well November of last year I launch the member section to the site and things have taken off from there. March 2010 was a huge breakthrough moment as well (For traffic and revenue). I just launched a new version to the site last week so hopefully I can look back and think that was a huge breakthrough as well.

How do you think Google, and the way it indexes site affect the way Arcades operate?

Google traffic is huge for any arcade. I tend not to focus to heavily on seo anymore and just try to drive traffic to the site. I’ve learned that links come naturally and that will improve your google position.

With the creation of so many different arcades, where do you think the industry will be in 5 years time?

It’s hard to say but I feel that the system will be more closed. Big sites will release more games that are exclusive to just their site, and there will be a lot more rpg and mmo games that focus on micro transactions.

What are your top 5 SEO tips for beginners in the arcade world?

I personally feel seo (as we know it now) is slowly dying. I’ll post my new way of doing seo, then how I used to do it:

–new way–
1. Focus on driving traffic to your site, links will come
2. Original content, links will come
3. Focus on sharing links to facebook and twitter (and buzz)
4. Keep the site light and page load times fast
5. Strong internal linking, meta tags, logically page hierarchy, don’t
make the site look cheap/spammy

–old way–
1. Link exchanges
2. Submit links to do-follow bookmarking sites
3. Strong internal linking, meta tags, logically page hierarchy
4. Buy links on gaming blogs (never on other arcades)
5. Game plugs (still do this but more in an advertising sort of way)

For the Online Gaming industry what do you believe is the greatest challenge going forward?

Greatest challenge is to stay unique and different. With so many different sites and games it’s hard to make something that stands out. Also it’ll be interesting to see which platform will become dominate (flash, html5, unity)

What do you believe are the key points to run a successful arcade?

Do something original. Don’t try to be like a huge arcade site.

I used to think ‘How can I be more like Kongregate, ArmorGames, MiniClip, ect’ but you should really think ’What can I do better then these sites, what can I do different then these sites’

What, in your view, is key to retaining gamers on an arcade site?

That’s hard to say. There really isn’t a right way. My goal is to build a community and site people want to use and hopefully users will want to come back.

With the use of game sponsorship, do you believe that it works?

Yes it does work. Even if you lose money you still gained more traffic, links to the site, brand awareness and a bunch of other things. In the long term these are the things that’ll make you profitable.

So what are your thought’s on some of what he has said guys?

This guys, is a very old article I did – Over 2 year’s a go. I am publishing it here for you all to read as some of it is still relevant today. The good news is, I will be rewriting it in the coming days, So make sure you look out for it.

What Is Link Building?

This article is building upon my first article on link building which was done a few years ago now, my original ideas and perspectives have changed and I will try to explain why here.

Link Building is the process of creating inbound links to one’s own website or network. This can be done by reciprocal links, direct linking, signature links and social networking link backs. These different methodologies of link building alone are not enough to promote any site, they are required together, and unified link building of the different linking types is the way forward.

The value of links within directories still cannot be devalued but an air of caution has to be shown now towards link building in this way, [submitting sites to directories in the masses].

Link building is one of the best ways to drive certain types of traffic to your site, but only when you link to quality, directly related sites with your own. I am still amazed today that we still see pointless linking between sites that have not relation in terms of content. You will rank better within search engines when you ensure that you have relevant content to the sites that you exchange links with.

There are few types of linking as mentioned above, below is an explanation:-

Reciprocal Links

Reciprocal links or link exchanges are the process where two webmasters agree to show the other’s link on their website. After link building when the number of sites which link to a particular site is known as link popularity which helps in the search engine ranking of a website. This is the most common method that we see today, but three way linking has become the norm, due to the Top 3 search engines devaluing reciprocal links between two sites, thus why 3 way linking is a solution.

Direct Linking

This is where you have a site directly link to your site. This is generally a costly move to make depending on how you execute the linking. Methods such as having direct linking from web directories do provide a direct link but do little towards rankings within search engines or traffic. Having direct links from high traffic sites will yield a better result.

Signature Links

One of the new best ways to build up relevant, trafficable links. When using a forum you are able to use your signature post put most anything within it [depending on those forums rules] to being able to use this space to link to your site. This builds up link backs to your site but also allows for keywords population of your link.

Social Networking

The new phenomenon that has grown over the past few years is social networking, highly trafficked but not used by webmaster to their potential. The use of social networking to building links to your site can work in two ways, both in terms of gaining real traffic to your site but also getting picked up by search engines. The use of using real profile linking, groups, applications and blogging within social networking sites can be used to promote your site and create quality links.

Other quality links can be gained from having link backs from .gov, .edu and news organisational sites.

Advantages of link building.

1. Link building can help in getting quality traffic from relevant sites when it done correctly
2 High quality incoming links the site will also be seen as a valuable resource such as edu, gov and news organisation sites.
3. Link building helps in creating awareness, visibility and credibility of your site.
4. The site also obtains wider search engine exposure but this can also lead to being “banned” is done too aggressively.
5. Can create genuine user traffic

Today links have become important for all websites and they are worth the money. In fact, there are several companies dedicated to selling links (as opposed to companies that you can pay to do link building for you). This is a market, in my view, that has seen its day and has become saturated with pointless low-trafficed little PageRanked links. When looking to sell links on your site ensure you do it in a pure manner, meaning direct linking to a site and using quality keywords.

How Do Directories Help?

Within my last articles I had this area dedicated to directories and I still believe we should value web directories, but to an extent. Anyone who is anyone now sees it as a must to have a web directory which has saturated the market which has inevitably led to search engines devaluing these direction links. Its important to point out that directories are not seen as a source of traffic, but more in search engines optimisation of building links to a site.

Web directories are collections of web pages with similar subjects and similar content. These directories help in many ways as they are extremely popular with Internet users as they are considered a source of valuable information, but it has to be pointed out that this trend is changing users are most looking to niche directories to provide them with relevant informative resources.

Listings in directories improve your chances of Google PageRanking as well. If your site is listed in a directory, the search engines are more likely to find it and add it in their listings for free. Also submitting a site on directories helps in getting one way links [direct linking].

There are three kinds of traffic that you can get from the directories where you are listed. The first is click-through traffic, meaning that anyone who ends up on the directory page will be able to see your web site and information, and there is a good chance that they will visit.

The second is indexing your site. Search engines will crawl the web directory, leading them to your site and as a consequence indexing your site. The last way that the directories will increase your traffic, is increasing your ranking on the search engines themselves as they find the volume of links and references to your web site within search engines.

Overall link building is one of the most important steps in building a site; Getting quality links improves your PageRank and espouser to search engines but, more and more towards the end-user [your target audience] . Also the possibility of gaining traffic to your site.

I have seen many do link building to death, over doing it can work in the short term but in the long run it can affect your site. Link building has to be a slow process over time to establish your site and entrench your search engine rankings.

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So guys, What do you think? Any suggestions for what you believe should be in the rewrite?