Mini Project – Guild Wars Damage Calculator

Friday, January 11th, 2008

Categories: Ad Revenue Driven Websites

Here’s a post detailing an ultra mini small project that I’ve taken on. About a year ago, I was heavily into Guild Wars. What I had done was that I created a damage calculator (php script) for internal use within a Guild I was playing with. It looked terrible, but got the job done.

Click here to see the Guild Wars Damage Calculator.

I had some time on my hands, I skinned it really quickly, and started spreading the link. I figured I had nothing to lose. I hosted it on my portfolio’s domain name so there wasn’t any additional cost to host it.

The way I look at, any advertising revenue generated will be more then if I had watched a movie instead of skinned the site.

What I Had

I had a tight budget. I didn’t want to spend a cent, but was willing to invest some time.
I created a php script that did something useful, something that I couldn’t find in the community, and if you could find it, mine was updated and performed better.
It was online, which is a clear advantage over executable based programs.
I had a few hours.

Strategy

Utilize the fact that there are more then enough advertisers for the keywords “Guild Wars”. Relevant ads mean more click-throughs.
Use AdSense meant that I didn’t have to maintain the site and sell advertising. Next to no upkeep.
Host the calculator on my domain so people that are interested could clip off the folder name and end up at my portfolio.
Present a large link at the footer that would direct people who’d want to know more or contact me to my blog.
Use forums as a strategy for spreading the link. Fansites typically love resources or any kind of content on their site. This will work to my advantage.
Use rich keywords to link to my calculator in attempt to get some leverage on a SERP.

The result has been overwhelmingly positive. What I did was similar to hosting a free e-book. People see someone genuinely trying to be helpful and hopefully, bookmark the site for its usefulness.

If you’re interested, you can check it out here.