Jonhathan, a fellow RPG Blogger network member sent us an impassioned message on the network’s mailing list earlier this week. He was exhorting the virtues of making partnerships to increase our success as bloggers and RPG enthusiasts.
He was sharing with us what he got from this Copyblogger article about how all the work we did as a blogger was keeping us poor.
I started responding and decided that maybe making my response in a blog post would a better idea as several bloggers are not on the network or part of the mailing list.
Partnership IS key…
I strongly agree that one of Blogging’s biggest strength is the community it can build and the networking possibilities it provides by linking like-minded individuals. I gave myself a community builder voice and am extremely proud to think that I somewhat contributed to what we currently share on the RPG blogsphere.
Several of us are already linked. As Jonathan mentioned, the RPG Bloggers network is one of them, the Blog Carnival another.
The challenge of the Nerd Partner
However, Copyblogger’s point is about working less and making money. Partnership is presented as a way to share the work that leads to financial success.
Making money in RPG blogging is a recurring subject (it probably is in all things blog). However, Its a modest success for some (me included, for the moment) and one big pipe dream for most.
In order to achieve any sort of significant financial success you need to establish value. That value can be attributed to your work or to you as an individual. Once that value is established, people may pay you money to associate with you or your content or to acquire it in one form or another.
The underlying message I decoded from Jon Morrow (author of the Copyblogger post) was that partnership IS indeed a way to success, however you choose to define it. However, I think you need to build a name, a reputation and possibly a ‘product’ before you can partner with people who will trust you.
A big challenge of RPG blogging is that we’re all geeky nerds. We develop intense, highly enthusiastic passion for various subjects around our common theme. We have a near infinite amount of honest goodwill to tackle 1000 projects a week!
However, the nerds I know (myself included) are usually flaky and shaky business partners. Trusting an unproven nerd to deliver on a promise is a definitive business risk, especially if you’ve never met them in person.
Hell, just look at how many projects and series I tackle and don’t always see to the end. I for one would be cautious about associating with myself! 🙂
So I would say that as a potential partner in a future RPG/Blog endeavor you need to establish your credibility and then find people who have established their own.
You then tackle a small project with them and you gauge how working with them turned out.
(That’s what I’m currently doing in a few team projects I’m trying out)
Oh and if you do partner with people in a project that may involve money, try to address this as early as possible in the project’s lifecycle. It will save you a ton of trouble later.
The Big Idea!
Finally, once you have established your partnership, I think you need more than goodwill and a good range of skills. You need to build your partnership around a simple idea that everyone shares and that will excite people.
All the ‘oh yeah I’d be willing to do something” of the world are worthless until the “do something” becomes an actual tangible project/goal.
So I agree with the idea… be it more traffic, more blog revenues or starting an new RPG imprint, you need people to share the work. However, as any business ventures, you need to convince people you are a worthy partner and you need to find others you can trust!
That’s what I’m trying to do with my projects!
Well at least the ones I won’t flake on! 🙂
Hell, maybe I should write of them Internet Marketing blogs…
Blogging *is* about networking and like-minded people. Even though I’m not much on Dungeons & Dragons you have two things that I like in your posts: General tips for ALL GMs, and a charisma that makes me feel enthusiastic about GMing. There are a lot of dull “RPG Theory” blogs that–though interesting–read like a business memo.
I never thought about blogging my self until I came across your blog. In fact, my friend and I have completely different tastes when it comes to RPGs, and we’ve been thinking about making a dual-blog, with individual posts as well as featured “debates” where we thoroughly look at things from different perspectives. We’re really excited about this, even if not many will read it. If nothing else, it’ll be fun for us to do.
So at least for me, you’ve done something to forward the RPG Blogging sub-hobby!
@Michael: You are more than welcome to try your hand at blogging. Its hard but it can become very rewarding. Have a look at my ‘RPG blog Primer’ found in my Best of Chatty DM’s sidebar.
Also thanks for the kudos. I really want this little slice of the internet to be fun and friendly. I’m beginning to think that I have a large non D&D following… maybe its time I tried some other games. 🙂
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greywulfs last blog post..Winnie the Pooh and the Temple of Doom
“I think you need to build a name, a reputation and possibly a ‘product’ before you can partner with people who will trust you.” — /agree .
You must develop a brand name before people are willing to trust you. This is one of the reason why I was so (and still am) so surprised so many fellow RPG bloggers are willing to pitch in to help with RPG Blog Anthology project I’m working on. The idea for the Anthology came and I don’t think I’m really a “branded” blog at this point – unlike you sir.
Thanks for the bump!
jonathans last blog post..The New Cleric is the Old Cleric (Part 5)
@Greywulf: You just made my morning! Its funny how creative your spite for marketing makes you!
Blog: The Spamming!
@Jonathan: I truly wish you best of luck in this endeavor. I’m glad so many people are lining up behind you.
Happy to give you link love my friend. The invoice is in the mail.
@ChattyDM Yeh. I’ve been told before that I’d be good at marketing if I didn’t hate it so much 😀
greywulfs last blog post..What if: 4e came before 3e
It’s tricky to succeed big-time on a niche topic like roleplaying games. Start a World of Warcraft blog and you’d hit ten times the readers, or start a personal development blog and pull in a hundred or a thousand times that. There’s just more money and wider interest.
A D&D site can, of course, succeed within its niche, and there’s nothing quite like other people to help that happen.
Jonathan Drains last blog post..What’s New in Pathfinder RPG?
@Jonathan Drain: Wait I could blog about Wow… and get readers?
Nah… I’d much rather stick to tabletop gaming… much nicer crowd!
Chatty: I see what you mean about the people we work with; if I were to talk about all the difficulties that have come up with people moving on some of my projects, we’d be here all day. RPG company startups are not for the faint of heart.
Greywulf: That is awesome. Seriously awesome. If you ever feel like setting down rules for that, let me know; my lot would love it.
Jon: That’s nothing. Most popular blogger on the network I blog for routinely gets in the high four digits in unique views per day….. just for posting pictures. [Insert rant here]. It gets to where you stop wanting to even look at the statistics.
Ravyns last blog post..Interlinking Gods and Domains
@ChattyDM: Sweet topic 🙂 I must agree aplenty! Its funny you’re talking about turning a blog into a profitable “thing”… and I’m planning a series of posts about using blogs as a marketing tool.
I almost wrote “marketing implement” – that would work great in @greywulf’s Internet Makerting RPG…
@greywulf: Ah, the dark side of Internet Marketing 🙂 Where does the King of Nigeria fit in your game world? 😛
Eric Maziades last blog post..Debunking skill challenges
@Ravyn Thanks. Don’t tempt me 😀
@Eric If you send $2,000 to cover administrative expenses, I’ll tell you.
greywulfs last blog post..What if: 4e came before 3e
Partnering with people is a cool idea, i think.Networking is always important & it helps you earn some really good profits at the end.