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Advice on my idea and execution so far?

Idea threads

Bo_

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Apr 24, 2011
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I've been procrastinating execution for a long long time. So just a month ago, I bought a domain just to force myself to start working on something.

Some background info: I'm very good in this game, let's call the game Mario. I've spent 4 years addicted to playing Mario and analyzing game plays by top teams in the world. I've played for several competitions as well.

So my idea was this, I started a site and I'm now blogging about Mario strategies. I've received several positive feedback from a forum, my post was Facebook-liked by 12 people in 2 days. (it's not a lot, but for a blog with only 4 posts and barely any effort on traffic it's pretty good imo)

I went into this solely because I needed a kick in execution. Fortunately, there is a need in the Mario community for my site, and the other 1-2 sites that produce decent strategy articles often write a huge wall of text that's extremely boring. I guess my 'selling point' is its simplicity.

The thing is, I'm not sure whether this idea is worth my time. How am I supposed to monetize it? Is the scale large enough for me to earn millions? I believe Adsense would be a good place to start once I have published enough articles and have decent traffic, and maybe followed by a release of an eBook..? But I still have doubts on it's profitability. I can safely say I'm one of the first who's trying to get into this market.

So should I continue to work on this idea..? I do have a couple of other ideas, some would require a little start-up cost, and I only have around $300 to play with.
 
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Darkside

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I don't see your idea as particularly fastlane since you'd have to write lots of articles to get more search traffic. Even blog sites with multiple writers have a hard time getting traffic. However, you should do it just for the experience.

It's better to get amateur mistakes out of the way now on a business that likely won't succeed than to ruin one with much better potential because it's your first time. So, the lesson is to fail fast to gain enough experience.
 

mrhahn

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I would say it's the a little of both slow and fastlane. The thing with your game is that it's not going to be around forever. Maybe it's the hot thing right now until the next iteration or next big game. That means more playing, and more writing for diminishing user base. Even if you find a monetization for it now, such as selling an "Tips and Tricks" ebook or something, it'll be outdated when the new game comes out.

Darkside is right in that it's a good experience in trying things out in a niche you can contribute some good content, but I think it requires too much ongoing work in the long run.
 

rico

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Are there any products based around your game?

I know a guy making a few thousand dollars a month from a card game linked to a computer game. He's organised the cards online, linked to online sellers etc and takes commissions.

Add your advice in article form which will be great for SEO, then monetise through other products. That will give a lot more return compared to standard adverts.

eBook potentially good too, although I can't see many people paying for tips when there's thousands of youtube walkthroughs and tips videos for each game.
 
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Bo_

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@Darkside
Is it possible that I slowly remove myself from the equation? Will that make it fastlane? e.g. I'll slowly build a team of writers that are willing to contribute for free (there are many out there), set up a forum so users can generate content for each other, etc.

@mrhahn
Actually this game is growing extremely fast. More and more people are getting hired to play this game competitively, mostly the people in China. Last year an organization actually bought over this China player for 40k RMB. Once again maybe I can think of ways to remove myself from the entire project slowly... like hiring writers and building a forum. Is it viable then?

@rico
Yes. But the products are really terrible imo. I would say the best product so far is a personal coaching system... running on a blogspot.com url... that received 2 sign ups last week (which is barely $25 USD). So the market is really untapped imo, I would be one of the first to do this.

Yes that is my main concern as well. There are tons of free guides out there, but the real pros can't be bothered to create content to teach player these advanced strategies. And there are many many self-proclaimed pros who have really no clue about the game. IMO the demand is there, but I'm not sure if it's profitable enough to be "worth my time".
 

Darkside

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@Darkside
Is it possible that I slowly remove myself from the equation? Will that make it fastlane? e.g. I'll slowly build a team of writers that are willing to contribute for free (there are many out there), set up a forum so users can generate content for each other, etc.


If you could do that then it would be fastlane, assuming that you could get enough visitors of course. Like I said earlier, I think you should go for it. Even if it doesn't earn you much money, you will gain valuable experience from it.
 

wallstreet

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I used to level up characters and sell strategies for dofus.com. You most likely won't make millions but I'm pretty sure you could earn some nice coin. What you need to figure out is can your market afford to buy anything from you, and are they old enough to get debit/credit/prepaid cards?
 
D

DeletedUser1

Guest
The thing is, I'm not sure whether this idea is worth my time.

First of all...it's an inspired idea that came to you and you alone, so of course it's worth your time. Also to add, this sound like a passion you have and most passions leads to something prosperous. I would continue - no matter the time - to keep going with this because if you don't..................someone else will.

T
 

marcospolaca

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I work in game development... and the best thing I could add is follow your base. Like mrhahn said your target game won't be around forever, but you can stay with your audience.

You said you were liked by several facebookers? What else do they like?

Can you build an information product around your ideas? Like a strategy guide? (just watch out for copyright laws, they're a little screwy with that...)

Lots of indie strategy guides floating around on the iphone appstore. It's a low entry barrier so of course there's lots of competition.

If you can differentiate from what's already out there and build up a larger base, you should do fine. Just make sure you get a good return on your time investment, you don't want to spend the rest of your life writing game strategies. (unless you do, in which case go for it!)
 
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