For anyone who’s interested in MMORPG’s (massive, multiplayer online role-playing games), the launch of Lord Of The Rings Online is a big event. LOTRO (as it’s known to its players) is a highly anticipated MMORPG set in Tolkien’s fantasy world.
What’s interesting, from an Internet marketing point of view, is how the marketing rollout of LOTRO has been handled. It’s been a multi-stage process… which can easily be adapted to selling your own products online.
Instead of just saying, “here’s the game, come and play”, the phases of launch have been…
1: Stress testing. (a few players who had to apply to help test the server load)
2: Pre-Order Beta (more players, but only those who had pre-ordered the game)
3: Open Beta (a few weeks free play, available to anyone.. starts today I believe.)
4: Game launch (the retail pack ships and is available in stores)
If you paid $10 for the Pre-Order pack, you get a special “Founder Offer” including unique in-game items (Enchanted Cloak of Regeneration, Ring of Agility), the chance to explore the world before everyone else and the chance to “lock in” early pricing of either $9.95 per month or $199 lifetime play… plus your character will “roll over” into the full launch… so you won’t have to start afresh. You still need to purchase the full retail box ($50 approximately) to redeem the Founder Offer, but I can imagine that early game access and discounts on pricing is an enticing proposition for many people.
If that sounds like “early bird discounts” or “first come first served bonuses” to you, then you are probably already aware of Internet marketing tactics used during the launch of new products. It’s interesting, to me, to see a MMORPG launch using similar tactics… rewards for being one of the first customers.
Of course, this ties in very nicely with my Insider Rollout Secrets product where I describe making sales of $250,000 from an ebook launch. 
Michael Cheney said, referring to Insider Rollout Secrets, “I’ll be honest with you – I studied it word for word over and over and applied everything from it to my own launch.”
And what did Michael do? Yes, make $250,000 in sales within seven days during his Adsense Videos launch.