Now, stealth marketing or "undercover" marketing is how I made quite a bit of change in the MFC market early on (and still use on "peak" server times). I use them as an example for easy explaination. Here's how it started:
So after flipping a few myself to no avail, I realized there is a market. I tossed a few on the AH for 50g (Auctioneer hadn't seen any, so I was the first on the server to do so). I then announced in trade chat "Blizzard has gambling? Mysterious Fortune Cards in the AH! I am outside the AH in the Dalaran, come on over and get a free one, just open trade". And man did they start selling. A ton of em. I couldn't keep them in stock. I was paying crazy fees on all the herbs just to get enough cards to keep the market happy. This was the Saturday that I made just shy of 30K in an evening.
*Now there aren't too many markets that you can really utilize this on, but I have snuck into the giving away some Vanishing Powder (really cheap to buy) for free just to get folks into changing/buying out glyphs.
Ya'll know from reading my blog, I give away quite a few of my "tricks of the trade" that I have used for making gold, but here and there, I leave out a few. I thought it was time that I tossed this one out there, as the MFC market has dwindled (slowed), and this is a very viable option to get the rush back in on your server. No, you probably aren't gonna get 50g each anymore, but this is a great way to get the market flowing again. I have changed from my original format, as now when I do my "bark", I am in ORG, and I say "To my first five buyers, open trade for a free card. Make sure you purchase from XXXXX".
It seems there are issues with folks under "firewalls" to leave comments, I just wanted to post this email, as there is some great information here:
Hey Alto,
I was just reading your post on Stealth Marketing and was considering making a comment but for whatever reason, my work firewall disapproves.
In any case, I just wanted to say that a few days ago I started my own version of stealth marketing (probably similar to what others do) and have found it incredibly successful against the goblins more established in the market. I’ve noticed that in the crafting markets (bsmith pvp gear in particular) the big time crafters have been posting 48h auctions, throwing a dozen pieces up and waiting to see what falls into their mailbox. It’s almost as though they expect gold to be handed to them on silver platters.
And to quote The Count of Monte Cristo, “So neglect becomes our ally.” In order to combat them without actually posing as a threat I’ve been BARELY undercutting (usually a gold or 2) but posting in 12 hour increments and only 1 piece at a time. With 15 minute hearthstones and the portal network in org, I can ping pong around without any real difficulty. This allows me to post new materials almost as soon as they sell and if they do happen to log in they see one lone competitor posting for short time frames and usually only a single piece of gear in any one segment. It doesn’t matter that I just stole a truckload of gold off of their silver platter and sold 3x what they had posted. To them, I’m small fish and hardly worth the time. All they’re going to see from their side is a slowdown in sales on a few craft-ables unless they’re an Undermine fanatic with OCD tendancies. I’m will to bet they’re not. On a side note, I love your blog and read it daily. Keep up the good work.
~Fal
Do you guys/gals have a "little secret" that you do that you want to give away to the masses? Is there a trick that you have used or use that adds to your sales? Speak out! And if you try this little method on your server, bounce back here and let me know how it worked for you!