Need Help With Product in Tabletop RPG Space

[SmoothFranko]

Hey Guy's
So for a few weeks now I've been creating a digital product for the Tabletop RPG hobby. It started as a single page pdf to assist people who play these games to help cut down on the amount of work they need to do by providing instant adventures for busy game masters.

I'm not sure if anyone else has experience in this space but I have had a good response so far and have built a small following on facebook and reddit in a few weeks. I've been working on a more sellable product and am just about ready to launch. The issue I am having is distribution. After asking a few hundred people it seems most get their digital content from 2 places DriveThruRPG.com and DMsGuild.com (a sister site of the first). Now given the type of content I've been making and the restrictions on those sites I can really only post it on DM'sGuild, but they also take 50% of your revenue so not really an option. My third option is to create my own site to host these on with a ecommerce platform that supports digital products but I have no expertise in this area and am unsure on how to drive traffic to the site. I have also started a patreon (again not ideal as Patreon take a %) but wouldn't want to rely on this for income.

All the product is created by myself costs only my time to create (a few days for each) But given the marketspace I can't expect to get more than a few bucks at most per PDF (attached is a sample).
I'd really love some advice as to what my next steps should be.

 

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[BellaPippin]

This is awesome!

Not sure if the pros agree but if you have a small following I'd advertise it to them, trust word of mouth, send newsletters and maybe do a couple of giveaways like a nice pair of dice if they like and share your page? Also on Reddit w/o getting kicked out for drilling too much, you could create a discord and host a few sessions and get feedback and advertise your product. Is there any influencers you can try to have them review/show it to their audience?

Also have you thought about a subscription model? Once you have enough content how about an e-book with a big compilation of stories?

I can help you set up a Shopify store as long as you're not on a rush, I've got experience with design and web stuff. Also doing digital art if you need a nice cover, you would give me an excuse to draw something. You will need someone else to help with the traffic driving though, besides what I've suggested above. I don't have experience in that.

I have a couple friends that do tabletop RPG, I can ask them for advise on how to spread it too. Once you have something going, you can scale it huge just by offering it in several languages, me thinks.

 

[reedracer]

RPG stuff do well on Kickstarter.

 

[MHP368]

Why wont drivethru let you sell it?

 

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[broswoodwork]

Hey Guy's
So for a few weeks now I've been creating a digital product for the Tabletop RPG hobby. It started as a single page pdf to assist people who play these games to help cut down on the amount of work they need to do by providing instant adventures for busy game masters.

I'm not sure if anyone else has experience in this space but I have had a good response so far and have built a small following on facebook and reddit in a few weeks. I've been working on a more sellable product and am just about ready to launch. The issue I am having is distribution. After asking a few hundred people it seems most get their digital content from 2 places DriveThruRPG.com and DMsGuild.com (a sister site of the first). Now given the type of content I've been making and the restrictions on those sites I can really only post it on DM'sGuild, but they also take 50% of your revenue so not really an option. My third option is to create my own site to host these on with a ecommerce platform that supports digital products but I have no expertise in this area and am unsure on how to drive traffic to the site. I have also started a patreon (again not ideal as Patreon take a %) but wouldn't want to rely on this for income.

All the product is created by myself costs only my time to create (a few days for each) But given the marketspace I can't expect to get more than a few bucks at most per PDF (attached is a sample).
I'd really love some advice as to what my next steps should be.

How much does advertising cost on those sites?

If you could offer weekly adventure starts, delivered via email, for a reasonable monthly subscription price, and you focus on really build a brand around what you do, this could probably be a legitimate fastlane endeavour.

Edit: I see @BellaPippin already asked about subscriptions. I really need to start reading all of the replies first...

 

[SmoothFranko]

Why wont drivethru let you sell it?

They require their products to be classified under a game system, because my is indirectly related to Dungeons and Dragons even though it is more system agnostic I'd have to post it on Dms Guild

 

[SmoothFranko]

How much does advertising cost on those sites?

If you could offer weekly adventure starts, delivered via email, for a reasonable monthly subscription price, and you focus on really build a brand around what you do, this could probably be a legitimate fastlane endeavour.

Edit: I see @BellaPippin already asked about subscriptions. I really need to start reading all of the replies first...

Thats is kind of what I was doing with the patreon. So far I've been releasing them the single page version for free (with watermarks) on reddit and facebook every 2 weeks. but on Patreon they were being released as soon as they are completed.

As if yet I havn't looked into advertising on their sites

 

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[broswoodwork]

Thats is kind of what I was doing with the patreon. So far I've been releasing them the single page version for free (with watermarks) on reddit and facebook every 2 weeks. but on Patreon they were being released as soon as they are completed.

As if yet I havn't looked into advertising on their sites

I get it. The dmguild is like a marketplace, right? Are there any popular blogs that cater to the niche that sell banner advertising or similar? If you've already got a bunch of content, it could be a way of dipping your toe in affordably to see if it flies.

Also, etsy does digital downloads (no subscription option though), and the fees are much more reasonable than 50%.

 

[SmoothFranko]

I get it. The dmguild is like a marketplace, right? Are there any popular blogs that cater to the niche that sell banner advertising or similar? If you've already got a bunch of content, it could be a way of dipping your toe in affordably to see if it flies.

Also, etsy does digital downloads (no subscription option though), and the fees are much more reasonable than 50%.

Thanks for the idea. I just read the part in TMF that talks about building a brand not a business and I felt it directly related to me. I hadn't considered Etsy so that might be a way to go!

 

[SmoothFranko]

I Lauched an Etsy store this afternoon and after doing my usual facebook posting I made my first sale! guy' didn't even use the 20% off coupon I made. I would like some feedback on the store by SmoothDM if possible

 

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[broswoodwork]

I Lauched an Etsy store this afternoon and after doing my usual facebook posting I made my first sale! guy' didn't even use the 20% off coupon I made. I would like some feedback on the store by SmoothDM if possible

It seems like you're mostly driving your own traffic to start, but here's some things I've learned over the years to grab Etsy search traffic.

In my experience, you should make sure your item titles include the most likely term people on Etsy will be searching for, as well as specifically what makes that item different, so if you can get some mention of fantasy rpg or d&d (be careful with copywrite here) it'll help you get found.


I've found the best results when the first 140 characters of your item description include a longer form reading of your item title that still includes the most likely search term.

I couldn't tell for sure if you were using tags, but you'll want to use up all of them with every term or phrase that people may search for and simple description of your product.



Again, please be super careful with copywrite in the title, description, and tags.

 

[amp0193]

My third option is to create my own site to host these on with a ecommerce platform that supports digital products but I have no expertise in this area and am unsure on how to drive traffic to the site.

If you plan on making a lot of these, and want to make a business out of this... do this. You need your own website and platform.

Also put some, but not all, of your adventures on dmsguild. This is where the people are looking for this kind of thing, so this could be one of your initial traffic sources (along with word of mouth on reddit, etc. which you've already been doing).

Then on each of these adventures, put something on the first and last page with your website and URL and something like "want more adventures like this? go to smoothdm.com".


Don't look at it as dmsguild taking 50% of your revenue. Look at it as gaining potential lifetime recurring customers, while still getting paid 50%.


I don't think Etsy is the way to go, but I could be wrong. Did you get a sale there because someone searched on Etsy and found it, or because you told people they could buy on Etsy, so they did? If the latter... you may as well send them to your website and keep 100%.


Your "Instant Adventures for Busy DMs" tagline is excellent. I instantly know what you are about and why I need your product.

 

[SmoothFranko]

It seems like you're mostly driving your own traffic to start, but here's some things I've learned over the years to grab Etsy search traffic.

In my experience, you should make sure your item titles include the most likely term people on Etsy will be searching for, as well as specifically what makes that item different, so if you can get some mention of fantasy rpg or d&d (be careful with copywrite here) it'll help you get found.
View attachment 28407

I've found the best results when the first 140 characters of your item description include a longer form reading of your item title that still includes the most likely search term.
View attachment 28408
I couldn't tell for sure if you were using tags, but you'll want to use up all of them with every term or phrase that people may search for and simple description of your product.

View attachment 28409

Again, please be super careful with copywrite in the title, description, and tags.

I took your advice and tried to format them based on the most serachable terms and updated the
descriptions to match!

 

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[broswoodwork]

I took your advice and tried to format them based on the most serachable terms and updated the
descriptions to match!
View attachment 28410

@amp0193 is the level 9 wizard here. I'm Just like a level 2 scrub with no +1 gear.

Can you get your own website operational fairly quickly, and make sure all of your sales and listings on etsy and the dm site point to your site? Also, make sure you're saving all of the emails for later use.

I think you have a real opportunity to build a stand out brand and healthy subscription business here. I'm like giddy excited for you for some reason.

 

[amp0193]

I think you have a real opportunity to build a stand out brand and healthy subscription business here. I'm like giddy excited for you for some reason.

I wasn't even thinking subscription... that's an even better next level idea.

Especially as people are playing these games with their friends once a month or once every week or something like that. A subscription model would make sense.

 

[SmoothFranko]

I wasn't even thinking subscription... that's an even better next level idea.

Especially as people are playing these games with their friends once a month or once every week or something like that. A subscription model would make sense.

SO I thought I'd post a little update on my progress!
Iv'e made a couple more sales on etsy, and purchased my own domain (still looking at hosting).
I ran 3 day competition that went well had decent engagement given the size of my fb page.
I messaged all who had perticipated to thank them and gave them all a discount for the store as a thank you.

I've also followed up on a Adventure subscription service and there seems to be a mostly positive reception. I think I need to get some presales but im not sure how to do it right now , any advice would be useful!

 

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[AlessandroD]

How is going your product?