Hits fluctuate in both short-term and long-term trends.
Much of the strategy of the game is in recognizing one from the other
and investing accordingly. Use the price history charts, which will
show how the features have fared since the first day of the game.
Check back daily.
Although you don't need to check the status of the game every day,
it helps if you do. Every time the prices change, you have an
opportunity to make money, so the more of these you try to take
advantage of, the better off you'll be in the long run.
Buy low; sell high.
It seems like obvious advice, but you should still keep this in mind.
If you find yourself buying a site that just went up a lot because you
hope it will continue to do so, think twice about it. If you find
yourself selling a site that just went down a lot because you want to
avoid additional losses later, again, think twice about it first.
Sometimes these are good choices, but most of the time they are not.
If a site goes up by a large amount and you didn't own it, it's
probably too late to gain anything on it. And if a site you own
goes down a lot, bailing out will only make the loss permanent --
if you hold onto it and it goes up later, you're all set.
The game isn't the stock market.
When you play the stock market, you can invest money and, in spite of
short-term fluctuations, be reasonably certain that a smart
investment will mature over a long period of time. The Site Market
Game doesn't work like that. The prices are set according to how
many hits the features get relative to the others -- so that even if
hits on the RinkWorks site as a whole go up, the prices will
still average out to be the same in the long run. To make money here,
you need to take advantage of as many individual fluctuations as you
can.
Traffic patterns can be different on the weekends.
Weekday and weekend traffic patterns are often a little different
from each other. Keep that in mind.
Don't worry about joining the game late.
Early in the game, players have a disadvantage of not being able to
see how the prices have fluctuated and extrapolate how they might in
the future. So if you're considering entering the game but
think it's too late to do so, don't worry about it. You'll
have the advantage of seeing how the prices fluctuate from the
start. And if it really is too late to amass the amount the
lead players have, you can practice for the next game.
Don't be discouraged.
There's no way to win with every single investment. Over the course
of the game, you'll make some unwise purchases and miss out on some
good opportunities. Everyone will. That's how it works. Stick in
there, do your best, learn from your mistakes, and it ain't over till
it's over.
