Creative Ways of promoting gamemod related software

[InterfaceLeader]

Hi!

I recently got handed a new, and awesome job (yay! At the perfect time too). Part of it involves marketing a gamemod program called CrosuS. I'm aware of the obvious methods - making relevant comments on gaming blogs with the link back, dropping the link in forums/blogs I'm already active on, and starting reciprocal link exchanges where I can. There are some benefits - for example, we can include a mod, and the mod website can include the "Download through CrosuS" button.

That's the beta version I've linked, version 1 + new website rolls out August 1st.

Some ideas:

• Arranging Game Tournaments for CrosuS total conversion mods through local Cybercafes.
• Giving the program to gaming magazines to include free on those demo disks they include.
• Adwords/MSN Click/Text Ads
• Social Bookmarking sites Stumble/Digg etc.
• Competitions, gaming days, tournaments etc.
  

However, I need more ideas, preferrably that go with the cheaper viral approach rather than the big glossy expensive approach. I want to make a success out of CrosuS!

Thanks in advance

[Waker]

I think a good way to start would be letting people know on your website what CrosuS is as it took me a while to work that out. If I'm right its a program that downloads mods and installs them from an index.
The kind of big promotion wouldn't work so well. I feel this being more of a word of mouth thing so partnering up with games and game magazines would be a good idea.
One thing that might go down well would be a way for people to easily find online matches with a particular mod as that's kind of hard to do right now and many ways a lot of programs are spread is by your friends telling you need it to do something with them.

[InterfaceLeader]

The new website/next version of CrosuS goes out tomorrow, so it should be more obvious what it is - it does a search for all mods relevant to the games you have installed on your computer (e.g. if you have World of Wacraft, it looks for WoW mods, if you have Half-Life 2, it looks for mods for that), and we are trying to build in a way for people to find online matches. We have a couple of servers, though they are mainly dedicated to a specific mod (Iron Grip).

I'm thinking maybe asking cybercafes and university computer clubs to give out copies of CrosuS to their customers/members. Although I'm not sure how expensive it would be to produce hundreds of CDs and package them. Anyone have any experience of that?

[Minsc]

How do you make money with it?

[InterfaceLeader]

We currently have an Amazon affiliate store, we're also planning on releasing premium features and possibly paid-for mods once we have a large user base.

But we need that large user base first ;P