Category Archives: The Gazebo on Locals and Patreon

Adventures in Gaming, Magic Pig Media, News, Rants & Reviews, Playing It Wrong Podcast, The Gazebo on Locals and Patreon, The Gazebo Videos

Happy New Year! 2020 in Review and Plans for 2021

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I don’t have to tell you that 2020 sucked but for this post I want to stick to a few more positive things.

Let’s talk about the money side first and get it over with. I admit that I’m not in this for the money. But actually made a little this year. After web hosting and other minor expenses, I made enough for pizza. I know not much and nothing to brag about but at least it’s positive. Digging down into the numbers a little bit more, my three main sources for income were (in order) DriveThruRPG sales, Lulu Sales, and Patreon/Buy Me a Coffee. Amazon was hardly anything and, for me any way, hardly seemed worth the effort.

The blog did really well this year. Better than I had hoped for. Blog traffic increased 37% over 2019. I hadn’t expect that. Oddly enough, it seems that more traffic is coming from MeWe rather than Facebook.

The Youtube Channel and Anchor Podcast. Oh this part is a little depressing. I admit I hadn’t posted a video in months. I had plans but everything in the world seemed to go to hell and I just didn’t bother. Then Google changed the terms of service. Basically, if I wasn’t monetizing the videos with their ads then they would, just not giving me a cut. Sigh. We see enough ads online. I don’t want that extra annoyance on folks. And on the podcasting side, the audience size just isn’t really big enough to warrant the time put into it. This doesn’t mean that I’d done with these. I’m just planning on taking a slightly different approach. I can post and host videos and podcast audio right here on the blog plus I can post some of these things directly on MeWe and Locals. It might be worth the effort just to see what happens. I haven’t solidified a plan yet but it’s mulling around in my brain and just might work.

Patreon/Buy Me A Coffee/Tip Jars. All was going well on Patreon until they decided they needed to start charging sales tax. Sure fine it works great for material goods but they got really vague about things like early access and PDF’s. I personally felt that the way they were going about it wasn’t in the best interest of Patrons. I’m still going to use Patreon as a sort of continuing “tip jar” and I’ll post some exclusive content, free stuff, and special deals or something. I’m also considering adding a PayPal Tip Jar on the blog. I know it sounds like I’m begging but I’d rather do that than have a bunch of ads. As I’ve said before, I ain’t out to make a bunch of money. But I do want to at least break even.

Locals/Discord/Social Media. So Locals is a little bit like Patreon but more focused on building a community. So I could put my Locals behind a pay wall but haven’t done that. I’m not sure if I will. That will depend on how many folks head over there and how far it goes. I do plan on putting some exclusive content up there too. Like some of the other things in this post it’s a plan in the making. As far as Discord goes. Well, I belong to a bunch of servers but I don’t spend much time over there. I really should and don’t have any one to blame on that but myself. So in 2021, it’s time to have some fun on Discord. I doubt I’ll do my own server but may hang out regularly on a few. Social media is really becoming a cesspool. Twitter is where brain cells go to die. The last couple of times I stopped by there it was a total and complete dumpster fire. Facebook is getting just down right annoying. I really like MeWe but sometimes it seems like there isn’t a lot going on . Like a lot of things, I don’t have a solid plan. Part of me wants to ignore Facebook for a month just to see what happens. Another part of me is thinking about posting more gaming stuff to direct Facebook feed. On MeWe, I plan to be more out going. Comment more and interact with folks more.

Projects and Gaming. Forgotten Tales of Sword & Sorcery is my main project. I’m working on it now and it’s going well. I’m already putting some notes down for two supplements for it. So I’d say that’s going to be my main project for 2021. And gaming. Hell, I really need to get some more gaming done in 2021 but about that in another post.

Thanks for sticking around till the end of this and thanks to all who have supported me one way or the other over the crap fest that was 2020. Let’s get some stuff done in 2021 and make it great year.

Magic Pig Media, My Gaming Projects, News, Rants & Reviews, The Gazebo on Locals and Patreon

Alternatives: Itch.io and Locals

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Alternatives and choices are good.  So I’ve stumbled across a couple of platforms that I’m looking at.

First, let me talk about itch.io.  I’ve heard of it before and didn’t pay it much mind.  Then Necrotic Gnome put the preliminary PDF’s of their latest Kickstarter up ther and lots of folks started looking more closely at it.

ithch.io is more focused on video games rather than table top games but you can still upload and sell PDF’s there. So yes. It’s basically a store front. On the plus side, they don’t take as big of a chunk as DrivethruRPG. I went the non-exclusive route so their take 35%.  But then DrivethruRPG does have the name recognition and that’s where most folks will go when they’re looking for RPG stuff.  So you get that virtual foot traffic there.  On itch.io, you’re kind of on your own to drive the traffic to your stuff.  So that kind of balances out.  So I think it’d be good for new products or may be sales or just a back-up type store front.  I haven’t uploaded anything yet. I’m deciding what to put up there.  But it does appear to be a viable alternative.

Now on to Locals.com.  This more like a Patreon alternative but there’s some differences.  First, Patreon seems to be more focused on delivering some sort of product while Locals leans more towards building a community.  Sure you can still give folks stuff for subscribing.  The one with Locals is that a community generally won’t go a subscription model until it hits about 100 members because unlike Patreon you can follow a creator without actually paying them any money.  You will still be limited to certain posts, content, and so on like Patreon. They also use Stripe rather than PayPal. For me, that’s a bit annoying since I need to create another account to move around money.

I don’t have a plan to shut down my Patreon.  I still plan posting the occasional PDF and beta rules and early announcements and that sort of thing.  But I went a head started an community over there on Locals.  My plan for this is another place where us old grognards can sit back and yak.  It may grow from there.  Who knows?

I ain’t trying to get rich off this stuff. As I’ve said before, I just want to make enough to cover the web hosting, buy more games, and the occasional pizza and beer.

So come on over and join up the They Might Be Gazebos Locals community.  We’ll see what happens.

Adventures in Gaming, Magic Pig Media, My Gaming Projects, News, Rants & Reviews, The Gazebo on Locals and Patreon

Gazebo Gazette Issue No 2 is out

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It’s back from the dead! This is one of my goals for 2020. Doing a quarterly E-Zine. That was the original plan but it got derailed.

So head on over to Drivethru and check it out or you can help support the blog, podcast, and Youtube channel by checking out the Patreon. Partons at Bard Level and above get PDF copies for free and earlier!

Thanks. And Roll Dice. Kill Monsters. Take Their Stuff. And Have Fun!

Playing It Wrong Podcast, The Gazebo on Locals and Patreon

Episode 2 Season 4: Of Dice and Characters

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Lot’s is going on this week. The biggest news is that Issue 2 of Gazebo Gazette is out to Patrons and should be coming out on Drivethru soon. What else? I start my Swords & Wizardry campaign in The Blight this week. And I’ve been having some real bad dice mojo in 5E. It’s time to roll up another character. And possibly the most boring reading of Tomes of Ancient Knowledge.
You can subscribe to the podcast on most platforms or heck. Just stream it here.

Remember. Have Fun. Roll Dice. Kill Monsters. And don’t forget to take their stuff. See how I changed that up?

Like this post or others? Then consider the They Might Be Gazebos Patreon.

Magic Pig Media, My Gaming Projects, News, Rants & Reviews, Playing It Wrong Podcast, The Gazebo on Locals and Patreon, The Gazebo Videos

A Little Self Promotion

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Time for a little self promotion on the good old blog. I’ve updated the benefits on the Patreon and now I’m sort of updating the goals. I know folks don’t want to part with their hard earned dollars. Heck, I was really resistant backing someone on Patreon for years so I understand. But to get more things going, I’m sweetening the pot. I’m going to move ahead on some goals based on outside goals. So here’s the deal.
You want bonus episodes of the Playing It Wrong Podcast. I’ll start doing a bonus episode if we get 50 Likes on the Facebook Page. Patrons will still get this a week early.
For the Youtube Channel. I’m setting the outside goal pretty high: 100 subscribers. Why? Well, that’s the point that I can get the much lauded custom url. Also, the videos take more effort and time. So I want to put my effort where the audience is. I’ll post videos there as things just pop up but it won’t be on any sort of schedule.
Time to grow the audience and see what happens.
please visit the Patreon and check it out. Thanks!