#did I just blaze this post for $4.20

[shaldreth]

WoX's Secret Sale Numbers

Making this an entire post because I wanna add pictures. lol Women of Xal was 15% off on Steam last week, and we told absolutely no one* about it! Why? Because we wanted to see if we could get some people to convert their wishlists to actual purchases without any advertising whatsoever. I wanted a baseline understanding of how Steam works.  *Well, okay, I did mention it during a livestream on Friday. I didn’t think about it ok my brain just went into ad mode aaaa Turns out that Steam does actually advertise your sale for you in some capacity despite claiming not to, even if that’s just sticking the game on the “sale” page. Because we made about 4x as much last week as we usually do. Numbers and graphs under the cut! 

Pre-Advertising:

Let's start with the period of time before we even started using tumblr Blaze. The first Blaze post we purchased was the $4.20 one on 4/20, so here are some numbers on our sales from the three weeks prior to that week.

Before any advertising whatsoever, we were selling less than 1 copy a day, and making about... $5 a day.

Tumblr Blaze:

Our first Blaze purchase was that $4.20 sale and it was probably tuned a little weird because apparently some people saw the post like three times in a row. Oh well.

We've Blazed a post about WoX a total of 3 times, and the exposure has been gradual but definitely noticeable. Since then, our daily average sales increased to 1 per day, making about $11 a day.

Thanks, tumblr! <3

Steam Sale:

Now the fun part. We put the game on sale for 15% and said absolutely nothing about it, just to see if we could get some of our 1,800 wishlist listings to convert. And they sorta did! 3 copies sold per day, and $47 per day!

Wishlist Conversions:

So let's talk about those wishlist conversions. We've had 2,193 unique users on Steam wishlist the game. 237 of those later deleted their wishlisting, whereas 155 were converted to actual purchases. This leaves a total of 1,801 users who have currently wishlisted the game. Over the course of the 15% sale, we've had 14 people purchase the game off their wishlist and 21 (!!) add the game to their list. The sale actually resulted in a net INCREASE in wishlistings, which is wild to me.

Overall:

Y'all want a graph? Here, have a sales graph. We'll go over it together.

The first peak circled in fuchsia is from our initial beta release in August. The second peak in yellow is from our full release in October. The third peak in green is a little hard to see, but that's right after we started using Blaze. You can see that our sales have generally increased since that point, which is awesome.

And the fourth peak in white is from the 15% sale. Even without any advertising, that sale outperformed our tumblr Blaze numbers. Granted, they're so close together that I have no doubt some of the tumblr blaze people are mixed in with the sale people. I'm sure a few players saw the game through tumblr, bookmarked it for later, and then saw a sale a few weeks later and decided "why not?".

Thanks to everyone who's bought the game. <3

#Women of Xal #WoX #more boring financial stuff #if you follow me for gaming stuff I am so sorry lmao

[jamieuowmedia]

S1, MC2005, Social Media, Advertising and Branding: Marketing Case Study #2

In this blog post I will be discussing and analyzing Tumblr’s recent addition of the Important Blue Internet Checkmarks to the site from a marketing standpoint. (Apologies if this post seems longer than all the other posts, I was having too much fun writing for this subject and the comedic nature of this service did not help with curbing the jokes.)

Description:

Tumblr’s Important Blue Internet Checkmarks are a satirical product at its core. As the name of this service implies, it features two blue checkmarks, reminiscent of ones Twitter awards its verified users, that show up on all posts a purchaser makes next to the username. They cost $7.99 and can stack up to 24 according to some sources, though some have been able to stack up to 44 at the same time.

Background:

The checkmarks are a direct satirization of the the Twitter Blue paid verification badges. I have discussed the Twitter Blue paid verification feature and the chaos that happened during its existence, but here is a quick summary of it: Twitter launched the paid verification feature as part of the Twitter Blue subscription service in an attempt to garner financial support from its users. It did not reach its intended audience, instead it became a tool for trolls and imposter accounts to wreak havoc on the site, posing as actual famous figures and airing their dirty laundry to the rest of Twitter, causing Elon Musk, the current owner of Twitter, to roll back the decision and disable the service entirely.

However, there are other reasons for the existence of Tumblr’s checkmarks as well. Tumblr has been considered a sinking ship for most marketing experts as it has consistently lost money for most companies it belonged to. Despite purchasing Tumblr for an astounding 1.1 billion USD, Yahoo eventually sold it for just 3 million. The culture on the site is also antagonistic towards most brands, and users have made fun of all brands’ attempts on capitalizing on them. When Tumblr was plagued by strange Manscaped ads, a user pointed out the comedic value in a mens’ care product company advertising on a site that has “the smallest male population”, where “the majority of male users do not have testicles”, as most male users on the site are trans and were not born with body traits Manscaped caters towards. To continue running the servers of Tumblr, the staff has come up with merchandise and subscription services for the users to purchase, including one that removes ads (which was widely rejected) and Tumblr Blaze that distributes the purchasers’ selected posts to random users on the site, which initially had the price tag of $4.20 (which was widely celebrated for the simple reason of “forcing others to see your sh*tposts”).

Execution:

The feature was first revealed to Tumblr’s userbase on the staff’s official blog, the post poking fun at Twitter’s paid verification feature by explaining that the Important Blue Internet Checkmarks are a better deal because you get “not one but TWO checkmarks for your blog”. The post also noted that the checkmarks themselves are not a verification status, instead, they are merely “Important Blue Internet Checkmarks, which in 2022 is just as legit”. Furthermore, they are advertized to have the potential of turning into “a bunch of crabs at any time”, a throwback to an April Fools joke feature that gave users a button which, when clicked, spawns crabs on the web version of your Tumblr. The checkmarks began as a web-only feature, but was quickly implemented for the mobile app as well.

In addition to launching the service, Tumblr also set up a pre-order option for stickers and enamel pins of the checkmarks themselves. They are sold at a price tag of $3 and $6 respectively, and also come in pairs.

Effect:

The service was immediately accepted and celebrated by the userbase. Having witnessed the slow deterioration of Twitter, many users found the satirical nature of the feature hilarious. The fact that Tumblr has never offered any form of official verification to even actual celebrities made it even funnier, as now even some random internet citizen can have a supposedly higher status on this site than Neil Gaiman, Taylor Swift and Ryan Reynolds.

The feature also provided a way for users who are not as well-off to financially support the site. Most users are aware of Tumblr’s financial issues behind the scenes, but some may not necessarily have the side change to financially support the site via merch purchasing or post blazing. The $8 price tag of the Important Blue Internet Checkmarks gave users a slightly cheaper option to both indulge in their humor and support the site.

Personal Opinions and Reflection:

Tumblr’s display of its thorough understanding on its userbase really helped propel this campaign to success. It fully utilized its users’ distaste for Twitter’s recent endeavors and their sarcastic humor to create a product that truly caters to no one but its userbase. My takeaway from this is that, sometimes, the best way to sell an impractical product (like the Important Blue Internet Checkmarks) is to cater towards the parts of human brains that crave a good laugh.

[thebibliosphere]

Holly Mop sending good vibes your way ✨💖

#holly mop #dogs #shih tzu #dogs of tumblr #did I just blaze this post for $4.20 #yes yes I did

[katy-l-wood]

I just did one of the $65 blaze promotions and it only lasts 24 hours. Thought it would be useful for you to know.

I think it actually goes until you get the promised number of impressions? At least according to the Staff post. And @thebibliosphere said her post didn't end after 24 hours, so???

Who knows. I just did the $4.20 special to see what's up.

#Tumblr Blaze

[latestnews2018-blog]

Aussie star steals Ascot diamonds

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/aussie-star-steals-ascot-diamonds/

Aussie star steals Ascot diamonds

Merchant Navy (R) ridden by Ryan Moore wins the 4.20 Diamond Jubilee Stakes ahead of City Light (C) ridden by Christophe Soumillon.

Dubai: Six years after Black Caviar exploded out of the starting stars to blazing a winning trail in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, the showpiece race on the final day at Royal Ascot, another speedball from Down Under claimed the spoils at Saturday’s glorious finale.

Merchant Navy, a four-race winner for Aaron Purcell in Australia, was specifically sent to Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle Stables in Ireland to target the Diamond Jubilee.

And what a successful mission it proved to be as the pre-race favourite, Godolphin’s Harry Angel, blew his chances when playing up at the gates and never quite got into the race.

But victory did not come easy with big-race Belgian jockey, Christopher riding a blinder aboard American raider City Light, only to be beaten by a short-head by Merchant Navy at the line.

Moore told ITV Racing: “He’s a remarkable horse and he’s beat a high-class field today.

“I thought he would win easier, but the American horse leaned into me, we got very tight and he just lost his rhythm for a second.

“I’m delighted with him and it’s a pleasure to ride these sort of horses.”

Earlier in the afternoon Sir Michael Stoute’s Crystal Ocean earned himself a vote for two of the season’s biggest races, the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Ascot, July 28) and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (October 7), when winning the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes in emphatic fashion.

The winner was supplying Royal Ascot’s most successful trainer with a 11th win in the mile and four furlong contest which dates back to 1879.

Crystal Ocean was cut to 9/4 favourite for the King George and 10/1 for the Arc by British bookmakers Sky Bet.

Racing PR Manager Michael Shinners said in Sportinglife.com: “It looked a straightforward task for Crystal Ocean but it was a taking performance and he looks set to make a big impact in the Group One races over a mile-and-a-half from now on.”

Stoute said: “He’s really continued to progress with his racing. He’s got a lovely temperament and he’s a joy to train.

“It was straightforward. He is so uncomplicated you can do what you like with him. He is a relaxed horse. It is so far, so good.

“We will take him home and look at him for a little while, but I expect that (King George) is likely. We will take it step by step. I think we will get brave now.”

Soldier’s Castle gifted trainer Archie Watson a maiden Royal Ascot success when landing the won the Windsor Castle Stakes under a strong ride by Danny Tudhope.

The trainer said: “This is only our second year training and our second year with runners here. After Nate’s run I thought I might have to wait a bit longer than an hour for that first winner!

“This horse means a lot to us. The owners have all put a lot of faith in me as a second-season trainer and sent me a lot of kit. I’m just delighted that I can repay their faith.

“Danny is a world-class jockey and I’m very lucky to have him ride my horses. It means a lot to the whole team.”