Art can help a product stand out

But (professional grade) art costs money. And here’s the situation a lot of us are in:

“I have this great product or product idea. I have not published it or made money from it yet. I want the best possible artwork to make my product stand out. It’s going to cost me a lot of money that I don’t have.”

Sounds problematic, right? Johnn Four recently quoted something he read in a RPG forum: if you want to make a small fortune with roleplaying games, start with a large one. Pretty funny. But thankfully, it’s not quite true. The only way you can turn a large fortune into a small one is by spending money without earning money.

Ok, so let’s go back to the art problem.

You’ve got to spend money you don’t have (yet)

This is exactly how you shrink your fortune. So be careful. Stop dreaming about the best possible art and start thinking about the best possible art you can afford.

Are you publishing your first book? What makes you think you can afford a bunch of interior art? Focus on the cover art and the quality of your written content and just accept that the perfect book or product isn’t in your price range. It’s a sacrifice that will help make your first product a financial success.

Now let’s go back to the fact that gamers do great work and give it away for free, just because they are passionate about their hobby. Some of these gamers producing great work are artists. It is fair to assume that the best artists are recruited by the bigger RPG publishing companies, however there’s always an up-and-comer somewhere. And they are trying to break into an industry where free is almost a standard – just as you are. You may not have much money at this point in your endeavours, but that young artist doesn’t have high (or any) expectations.

So ask around.

You will find a great artist

That’s how I found an artist for my latest project. I asked around. I asked my friends, my coworkers, people I used to work with. Eventually, Dan, from Obsidian Portal, suggested someone who is looking to break into the RPG industry. He is an accomplished artist and needs to pay the bills with his art commissions, but he understands that the initial payouts in the RPG industry will be lower than they would be for a random corporate gig. It’s fun work. It’s worth it.

The bottom line is that there are great aspiring RPG artists out there and that they are willing to work at a price that will not see your fortune shrink from large to small.

The technology hurdle is often the most intimidating and frustrating. I just bought a new domain name for my case study and had to wait 72 hours for the new domain to kick in where I live (one of the few downsides of living in Hawaii!) and it usually takes half a day at the most. I had blocked out a few hours to set up my newsletter and website and that went down the drain.

The key with technology is to be persistent. Don’t give up. Work on something else when you get frustrated and try again a day later. There’s always going to be something wrong (or so it seems!).

Think about it this way: computers and the internet are a young technology. It’s going to take time before everything works on the first click, every single time. I like to compare this to cars. I’m convinced that in 1915, cars were more trouble than they are now. Maybe the next generation of nerds and geeks will have a harmonious relationship with their widgets and gadgets. For now, we’ll have to roll with the blows.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition GSL

If you’re publishing books that are based on other systems, it’s important to comply with the guidelines for doing that. I believe Wizards of the Coast will accept individuals as licensees for the D&D 4th Edition GSL, but I’m not sure. I’ll try under my own name and eventually apply for a new license if and when I incorporate this project.

Here’s a link for those of you looking for information about the Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition GSL.

I am now ready to start a new project and I decided, after discussing it with Johnn, to make my RPG project a Gamer Lifestyle case study. I’ll keep a log of what I do, what I learn, and how I use the concepts we laid out in our RPG publishing Strategies book and our RPG publishing coaching program.

Motivation vs Excitement

The most important task I’ve tackled so far is to refrain from doing anything. I wanted to let the excitement that new projects bring fade away. That creative rush is a blessing if you only have one project on your plate, but it is a curse if it overhauls your schedule. I have plenty of obligations as it is, so I wanted to make sure this idea made sense. Lucky for me, I have a plan, my checklists are ready, and I should be able to run my project on 5-8 hours per week.

Where’s the edge?

Any aspiring RPG publisher or game designer needs an edge (or many edges). It’s a competitive industry because there are so many passionate gamers who produce admirable work. The best edge is consistency. Pay your dues. Be part of the community. That’s a difference maker.

Although this is a case study for the Gamer Lifestyle coaching program and I want aspiring gamer-entrepreneurs to see that it’s possible to start from scratch and do well, I realize that I have an edge in the reputation department. I founded an award-winning D&D website and I fully intend on using that edge, leveraging my contacts, and my reputation. It’s an advantage that you might not have. However, the Gamer Lifestyle strategies I will be outlining in this case study are the ones that got me in this advantageous position.

I have strengths that I will rely on heavily (I like web design, I know programming, I enjoy marketing) and weaknesses (I don’t want to write too much, I can’t draw, I find crunch tedious). These weaknesses will turn into outsourcing costs if I’m to succeed. My strengths can turn into free labor if I deem that my project requires it. We all have different skills and strengths and it’s important to run a project or business accordingly.

So what’s interactive about this project?

I have many things in mind, but for now, you can try to find my new website!

Visit this article on DungeonMastering.com for all the details: Playing RPG’s for a living?

State of the Mongoose Address

A few hours ago I received the following question by email:

Hannah’s selling Martial Flavour for $20. It’s a good product, but I was surprised at the price. Did you and Yax help her set it?

Do you think that going in low is a mistake? I was planning on selling my product $1 for the first two weeks, then $3 from then on, with a release schedule of a new product every two months. Do you think I’m shooting myself in the foot?

These are great questions. I quickly answered back, and then thought you might find the answers interesting and useful as well. So, here they are:

“Yes, we did help Hannah set her price.

At $1 you’ll need to sell 20 times what she does to make the same money. At $1 some people will not buy because they’ll think the price is so low it can’t be worth much – probably just as many, revenue-wise, who think $20 is too high.

Hannah is taking advantage of affiliate marketing. At $20 she has enough room to give part of her profit up as sales commission and still have enough left over to pay herself. This extends her sales reach dramatically.

One can always lower a price in the future, but it is much more difficult to raise a price.

You are doing a promo, starting low and finishing high. You are training your customers to buy quick at the cheap price. In time you’ll always sell the most units at your lowest price. You want the opposite. Especially during the new release phase.

Never lower your price for new releases. Add more value instead. Limited time or quantity bonuses, for example.

Hannah has three more items coming in the series. She won’t be able to sell them as a bundle for $80. But her $20 price today gives her many bundle pricing options – something $1 products would never have unless you made a ton of them. She is setting her business up for future success.

You asked me about the cost of ezine advertising. My current rate is $50 per issue. At Hannah’s price she would need to sell just three and she’s made her money back. You would need to sell 50. You need to make sure your business is covered with positive cash flow so you can meet your expenses and make strategic purchases, else you won’t be in business for long.

Hannah is also declaring to the market what she thinks her product is worth when setting her price. You are telling people your product is worth a pack of gum. At $1 I personally would not go through the hassle of a PayPal or shopping cart transaction to buy. No offense intended.

Just my thoughts.”

I know the person who asked me the questions well, so I was able to be a bit blunt. But I hope you see the wisdom in what we’re telling our students: create remarkable and unique RPG products and never undervalue yourself.

To help others, you have to help yourself first

The Gamer Lifestyle program is all about helping others craft a better life for themselves. We hope to help many gamers and entrepreneurs to create a reliable revenue stream from their hobby. Someone pointed out that it’s difficult for anyone to know how seriously they can take our advice on making money from RPGs, since there’s now way to know how well we’re doing ourselves.

So I decided to share my DungeonMastering.com earnings every month, starting in June 2009.

June 2009 earnings report

July 2009 earnings report

August 2009 earnings report

September 2009 earnings report

Here are the guidelines I established to offer you meaningful numbers without having to bore you with too much accounting:

1. I only log revenue that is deposited in my Paypal or bank account. If I sell a third party product, the payment is often delayed 15 to 60 days. Until then, it only helps to do projections, not pay the bills!
2. DungeonMastering.com costs me $450 / month in outsourcing, web hosting, advertising, and other fees like aweber, e-junkie, paypal, D&DI – yes, that’s a business expense! – etc.

October 09 earnings:

• Dungeon Mastering Tools memberships revenue: $371.00
• Advertising revenue: $0
• Affiliate revenue: $175.60
• Book sales: $372.88
• Total: $919.48

Book sales are #1 revenue stream for the second consecutive month

I’m really happy with this since 100% of my book sales setup is built on the Gamer Lifestyle model – it’s the exact setup we teach in our coaching program. Keep in mind that Johnn was the writing and publishing expert in Gamer Lifestyle. I had marketing, business systems, and web technology expertise.  So combining our areas of expertise and being able to phase out the unreliable advertising and creating a more regular, reliable revenue stream in less than 3 months is very rewarding.

Changes to payment processing

I switched all my payment processing to e-junkie. It’s the best I’ve seen. It integrates with Paypal so I get all payments straight into my PayPal account. The only drawback is that they do not support PayPal recurring subscription payments. So I’m temporarily testing the Dungeon Mastering Tools membership as a one-time payment subscription instead of monthly. Since I had issues with retention, a one-time payment of $45 might end up outperforming the $10/month pricing previously in place.

How do you compete with free?

Here’s the thing about working in the gaming and creative writing fields: people do it for free.  With a little effort, WOTC could get free content for almost all their magazine articles. I know I get enough free articles sent my way to have 10 decent articles per month for free on Dungeon Mastering.

However, good game companies don’t want free stuff from amateurs. They are looking for writers with a unique voice. As a writer, the only to find your own unique voice is to write, write, and write some more. Do it for yourself. Do it for your friends.

Another thing to keep in mind when you write is the reader, the customer. We all write stuff for our campaigns which is fun and cool when we play it with our friends.  But the value of what we prepare is rarely in the writing. The value is in the flow of the game – we prepared our game by writing content so the story flows naturally – and the value is also in ourselves – our personality, our enthusiasm. We sell the story to our friends, in a way. They are a receptive audience and we have the benefit of using context, body language, and assumptions. This is impossible when you write for complete strangers.

So the first step is to do it for yourself, write, write some more, and find your own unique style and voice. Oh, and publish everything to a blog – it’s free and easy and makes your work available to everyone.  The second step, once you have found your voice, is to start writing with the reader in mind. Every word you write has to be about the reader. Do you think what you write is cool? Probably. You have to if you want to have fun writing. But it doesn’t matter what you think of your own writing. What matters is your reader, your customer. What does your work do for them?

Always keep your reader in mind. Make a difference in their game, in how they play, and you’ll get noticed. At first, hardcore gamers will find your blog. If you make a difference in their life, they’ll tell their friends. Word of mouth, FTW! It’s slow growth, but with consistent, regular work, people will take notice, Google will take notice, and you will grow your audience and eventually some gaming company might notice you. But at that point it doesn’t matter anymore.

By that point you will have found your unique voice, you will have built an audience, you will have new contacts – readers and other bloggers. It doesn’t matter what the big companies think anymore because once you figure out who you are, what you can do for others, and how to get people to pay attention to you, numerous opportunities will be there for you to seize.

Have fun on your journey.