Are you looking to promote a product or service? You've probably already discovered that banner ads aren't always the best way to go about it. You have more to say than really fits in a tiny image, or people are tuning out your ads or even blocking them with software.
If the traditional approach is no longer working for you, it's time to consider a new one: guide sponsorship.
An overview
When you sponsor a guide, your message will be attached to one of the most popular content types on our site. Our guides perform well on both Google and social media, and yet it's more affordable to sponsor a guide at HonestGamers than you might think.
Our typical price range is $150 to $1500, depending on the complexity of the game you want us to write about (guides for more complex titles tend to generate the most traffic, but they also require a lot more time and energy to produce).
We're happy to cover both upcoming games and retro classics. Please note that for an absolute monster of a game requiring many pages, such as Grand Theft Auto 6, the price would be higher.
Here's what your investment gets you:
A special page on the guide that contains the sponsor message you provide with a prominent link from every page in the guide to that message, OR...
...an optional ad banner, 720Wx90H, also on every page in the guide, which displays for all users
Absolutely no competitor ads on the guide you sponsor for the length of that sponsorship
Natural promotion on social media to increase the guide's reach
Original and premium content produced by site staff and/or a freelancer within our custom CMS
* If your message includes links, the links will have "nofollow" or "sponsored" tags applied in order to adhere to Google guidelines.
We're offering the possibility of sustained exposure for a relatively small investment, lasting for the lifetime of the guide (unless you ask us to remove your message when a campaign ends).
Would you like to see what a guide looks like?
Take a look at Watch Dogs guide for an example of the sort of content you are sponsoring. Please note: that example guide currently shows both ad banners and a link to a sponsored message, but as noted above, you would choose between one of the two options.
Since it was posted, pages from that example guide have already been loaded more than 400,000 times (according to internal figures). They continue to attract new traffic to this day.
Some disclaimers
Although guides tend to perform well, there is no guarantee you will see big numbers. There is some guesswork involved. Guides for older games might eventually secure tens of thousands of impressions, or hundreds of thousands. Some will receive a trickle of traffic at first, ahead of a flood. Others will start with a flood and quickly taper off as interest in the game subsides.
It's possible that some guides will turn into a more ambitious project than initially anticipated. In such cases, a complete guide for all of the game's content may no longer be realistic. In such cases, we will work to provide a thorough guide that covers essential aspects of the greatest interest to visitors, ensuring it remains a valuable addition to the site that serves readers and your sponsorship well.
Game guides sponsorships do not include future DLC that the game's developers might add after release. We may opt to add content related to that DLC at our discretion, and at no additional cost to you, but we make no promises. The guide produced through your sponsorship covers the initial release of the game, with the content available at that time only. Later editions the publisher releases (such as a "Game of the Year Edition" or a compilation) are separate listings on the site and your sponsorship does not cover them.
HonestGamers has been live in one version or another since 1998. We plan to remain online for a long time to come. However, there is no guarantee we'll be around forever. If we have our way, the site and your guide will still be available 20 years from now. But that won't happen if our outlet folds.
The future of guides at HonestGamers
The Watch Dogs guide isn't our only success. We'd like to believe it's just a taste of things to come. We might cover hundreds of additional games in the future with support from sponsors. Each guide can increase the reach of each existing one.
We love writing about games, and we're good at it. Put our passion and professionalism to work for you!