Yes, Forumwarz uses Google adsense, which pays Crotch Zombie everytime someone clicks on them. Ad blockers can remove these, however the net average of hits per ad click is 1 every 100 visitors.

Now, if Crotch Zombie were really advantageous they’d do a couple things…

First, figure out their CPM rate, as that’s the number most web advertisers use (CPM stands for Clicks Per Thousand. The M is a roman numeral M.) Then come up with a CPM rate value, this multiplied by the number of unique hits Forumwarz receives will be the price that they charge advertisers for ad space every month (this is how most people do it, the old fashioned way without using Google adsense. Adsense is fine, but I bumume they make less money through them.) As the number of CPM rises so to can Crotch Zombie raise their prices. And at the rate of growth Forumwarz is receiving the time for them to act on this is now (if not a week ago.) Anyway, you build up a relationship with advertisers, track your growth and everything’s magically delicious, etc. Log in to see images!

Then they could put up stuff to buy. Physical things like t-shirts, mouse pads and stickers, etc. Further increase the Forumwarz merch and Crotch Zombie brand. This is also affected by that 1/100 rule (for every 100 unique visitors about 1 of them will buy merchandise. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re already seeing these numbers for brownie points.) That plus the brownie points adds an extra source of revenue.

All and all I’d say if they ran unique ads, google ad sense, merch and brownie points they’d be pulling in enough cash to pay for server bills by the time episode 2 is released. There’s a huge lurch in users, but that number will go down as time goes on between now and episode 2’s release. All and all they could still charge for episode 2 and people will still pay for it, but with the added cash flow from other parts of the site the cost for buying episode 2 will be drastically lower than what they’re projecting now (if they’re doing any number pushing.)

I’d also hope they’d put up an e-mail newsletter so people who enjoyed Forumwarz and stopped playing can be notified when episode 2 comes out. Log in to see images! Xerxes edited this message on 02/28/2008 2:06AM