You may have noticed that banner images giving tips on various Longshanks features and tools occasionally appear in the area which usually displays game artwork. These banners are intended to showcase functions and features of the site which either aren't well known or we think could be useful for more people.

For the past several years, we have also featured advertisements for specific events among those banner images. Thus far, those have been limited to three events which have a close association with Longshanks: Second Wind, Squad Goals, and AdeptiCon.

These have always been intended as a pilot program with the intention to offer banner advertisements to other events in the future. I'm happy to announce that the future is now.

Starting today, any event may be advertised in that same location. In addition, banner advertisements may be used to promote event tags, player communities, and (in limited quantity and lots of discretion) external websites and tools.

The biggest advantage of this for advertisers is that Longshanks provides an extremely targeted audience. If you are trying to promote a game tournament, what better place to advertise than the website where people who might attend your tournament go to find tournaments?

We want to stress that this does not mean Longshanks will suddenly be overrun with ads. In fact, a typical user won't see any more advertisements on Longshanks than you currently do. You may just see a wider variety. To that end, we have some terms and conditions to ensure that we maintain a well-curated selection of advertisements which are non-intrusive and extremely relevant for people who use Longshanks.

Terms & conditions

Each advertisement will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Longshanks reserves the right to adjust pricing and/or refuse any advertisement for any reason. We are going to be very selective when approving advertisements, especially ones that link to external websites.

In each advertisement location, a random ad is shown 50% of the time. Game artwork is shown the remaining 50% of the time. A maximum of 50 ads are allowed to be active on the site at the same time.

The pool of advertisements a person may see will depend on how they view the site. When someone views Longshanks for a specific game system, they are not shown ads targeted to a different game. When someone views the site generically for all game systems, they are shown a mix of ads for every game system as well as ads for no specific game.

Pricing

The cost for an advertisement depends on the thing being advertised as well as how long and how often you want it to appear.

The prices for typical advertisements are shown below. All advertisements have a two-month minimum.

What this means most of the time is that an event host can post a banner advertising the event for two months prior to the event to increase awareness of the event and boost ticket sales for only $20. We think that's a pretty good deal and we hope you'll agree.

If you're interested in advertising an event, community, or something else, please contact us.