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Otakar

Can I monitize my passion?

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6 Comments
by
Otakar
, 05-11-2010 at 12:50 AM (753 Views)
The late Malcolm S. Forbes said, "The biggest mistake people make in life is NOT making a living at doing what they most enjoy."

When I think of my hobbies I consider fishing, working in the garden, working on the house, watching UFC, and playing computer games. None of those compare to my first thought; role playing games. I enjoy the stink out of them. I like reading about them, owning them, getting with a few people to play and running them. I'm not a writer like some of the bloggers and posters on this site. I have been told that I have a good personality but that doesn't really come through the web. I have a nice family, a home, and children but I still feel that I can game with the guy who lives in his parent's basement. I would love to make a living out of my passion for gaming.

I'm retiring from 20 years of military service. I could go into a government job but I really don't feel like rolling the dice and hoping to get lucky with a good boss. What if I could do something like Farcaster? He has this site, I think it generates money, but he gets to interact with people and things that all of us are interested in here. I want to explore the possibilities.

I purchases a product on the Web that helps one build a site. I just got it yesterday and it has a lot of in-depth information, tips and advice as well as a lot of support. It had a 10-step process to build a great site that encourages traffic. The product includes a web-based brain storming application that checks the key words related to one's interest. The application goes out to the web, checks the demand and availability of a key word allowing the user to get an idea how profitable it could be to use that key word.

For key-words I think I'll try role-playing games or Dungeons and Dragons along with some other things I am interested in making a business. I finished step 1 of the process today which provides an overview of the following 9 steps to creating the site. Tomorrow begins the brainstorming process. The product guide stresses that step 2 may take longer than a few days. If I don't check in for a while, that's what I'm doing. If I do not choose a role-playing theme to the site I'll discontinue my blog as I wouldn't want to have a "fishing web site creation" blog on PPG.

I stop drawing a check at the end of August. My goal by then is to have a Web-based infopreneuer site (hopefully about role-playing) that I can see will have growth. By the end of August I want to see that this concept will either get rolling or should be dropped.

I am starting a blog to commit my self, in a sense of moving forward. I will let you know how it goes.

Jarrod

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  1. Farcaster's Avatar
    Otakar,

    I'd love to do the same thing myself. Although this site does generate revenue, much of that goes to supporting our bandwidth, server and occasional freelance costs. I'd love to take it the next step and make this my full time job -- the things I could do with this site if I had a full 40+ hours per week to work on it ...

    If I may offer some advice on starting up your website, I'd recommend that you find a niche that your site could fill that either isn't being filled today or that you could do better. P&PG has been as successful as it has because we offered a valuable service that wasn't being fulfilled out on the web in the form of our Player Registry. There were some sites out there that were trying, but they were leagues behind where they could be. So, find something that you can offer that is unique. Perhaps that is your voice in the form of Otakar's blog, or perhaps that is something else.

    The second thing I'd recommend is to forget about throwing a bunch of money at advertising and instead focus on building relationships in the RPG community. A tiny fraction of the members who have made it here came because of any sort of advertising. Many found us because people in the industry mentioned P&PG and were kind enough to link to us. Those are the kinds of relationships you really want to build.

    I hope you're able to find something that you can enjoying doing, whether that is running a website or something else. Keep us in the loop on how things are going.
  2. Otakar's Avatar
    Thanks for the encouragement, Farcaster. I am not putting all my eggs in one basket. If the product delivers as advertised it should be able to point out if a nitch is profitable. I have some other ideas if it doesn't work out. I will also put in some resume's but my greater focus will be able to work what I enjoy! I will let you know but if it strays from the RPG realm I'll blog it elsewhere. This just happens to be the only place I blog.
  3. Otakar's Avatar
    I ran the application in the program I purchased to check the Value Demand and Real Supply of "Role Playing Games" and "Play Dungeons and Dragons" as key phrases. Neither came back with a profitable result. This would mean that I would probably have to find another avenue besides an information site to build revenue. I did find another concept in which I am interested and knowledgeable that has some potential to be monetized. Since this is our game site I won't boar you all with the non-gaming details. I may still put together a site that includes my favorite hobby, gaming, but it just will have to happen after I do my primary site to generate income. Once I get to that I'll let you all know. Until then, look for more campaign blogs from me on here. I'm only about 6 sessions behind.
  4. Hatch's Avatar
    I took the government job route. Six figures and counting! Don't discount the gov't work :-)
  5. Farcaster's Avatar
    On the other hand, I work for a "government" agency right now, and I can safely say that I would rather be in the private sector any day of the week.
  6. Otakar's Avatar
    Hatch, That's encouraging in regards to the Gvt' job. You find time to game as well?