Hi everyone. Do you like gaming, play dungeons & dragons, or other adventurous games? Have you every thought about how to use your skills to make money or a career out of doing your favorite things? Then you should take a look at this book by Raymond J. Hicks. Money Master's Guide is a game mastering book that makes it a fun process to earning a profit. Check out the details below and purchase your copy now.
Chapter 2 - Building a Community
In 2003 I downloaded a pirated version of a program called “FRAPS” and started recording myself playing video games. I really enjoyed doing that and was finding a way to put them online on a website so that I could show people. This was before YouTube was a thing and Flash Animation was the big thing. My friends in my high school made fun of me for doing that saying, “Pfft, who would want to watch someone else play video games!” And taking that to heart I stopped doing something I enjoyed. Fast forward to today and a few months ago someone at Twitch.tv leaked a list of how much income streamers are making and it’s actually in the millions for the top tier. Thou- sands of video gamer YouTube channels exist and are getting paid sponsorships. And here is little old me, wishing I had ignored the idiots I went to high school with.
I tell you that story because whatever cool thing you enjoy doing, I guarantee you someone else enjoys the fact that you do it. Time and time again we see that they are often willing to pay money to help you keep doing it. The advantage we have today is that there are a wide variety of ways to find those commu- nities and get our voices heard. Between websites, forums, social media, reddit, patreon, kickstarter, word press, and an endless other set of distribution networks, it has never been more abundantly clear that finding your tribe is just a matter of consistency.
I want to start with a word of warning though. People can de- tect posers. If you are trying to infiltrate a group to cash in, you will be outed by them. I am part of many social media groups for creators and on a daily basis I will witness some “outsider” join a group day one and post saying they are long time mem- bers, drop a product link and then never be heard from again. This kind of post always ends up ridiculed and left unsolicited.
A lot of this chapter is going to be talking about social media engagement, however all of the same rules apply to any form of communication. Whether it’s meeting your friendly local gaming shop players, running events at conventions each year, or communicating with your readers in your publications, the principles are always the same.
What is far more effective in every circumstance is consistent, authentic engagement. Let’s talk about what that is.
Consistent and Authentic Engagement
Engagement is a two way street. If you want more people to interact with your stuff, then you have to authentically engage with theirs. I often see artists and writers complaining that “the algorithm” is preventing their stuff from getting out there. My fellow admins at The Stash will tell you I am also known to do this kind of whinging from time to time. The truth is that the algorithm often does show your content, but no content is that great that we go out of our way to react. What is true is that community members support the others in the community that they see supporting them. It is a give and take relationship. If you only want to take you will get nothing back.
If you want success you need to help build your community. Notice I am not saying “if you want to make money you need to post everyday.” I am very deliberately phrasing this in a way that removes the money from the equation. A lot of “how to make money” guides talk about this idea that consistent community engagement is what drives success, but I want to go a step further and tell you that from experience I know you can post every day and have no one give two shits about your work. The mentality of exploiting your community to make money is inauthentic and shallow. It’s also a bad approach that will only lead you to failure. If you want to succeed you need to help build and grow the social links you want to use to support yourself.
Looking at this aspect of the job from the perspective that we are members of a digital village helping each other out will change the way you approach marketing and even the services you are providing your community. People work hard for their money. Most folks are living paycheck to paycheck. Few of us could survive an emergency that made us lose our income for three months or more. So if you want those people’s livelihood, you better be providing a service to them that is valuable. Part of that service is about lifting up their posts and their endeav- ours. Liking, commenting and sharing the things they enjoy putting out into the community. Helping them get out of the algorithm black hole. You will find the more generous you are with your time towards them, the more relationships you will build online, and the stronger your community is when you ask for their support.
This is about building authentic relationships, real connections and a sense of connectedness that is more than superficial. Conveniently, doing such a thing on a consistent basis is also rewarded by every algorithm social media has. All content platforms reward consistent engagement. The more you engage with someone the more you both see each other’s content.
Activity - Authentic Engagement
Okay, so at some future date you are going to have a product. That’s great. Now how do people magically hear about it? Let us say you want to post it to facebook groups, reddit, twit-ter etc. Guess what, if you just stroll in there and spruik your wares, you are going to get next to zero response. So how do we fix this? Right now, before you have any products, you need to start engaging your community. Here’s our activity:
Pick a day and if you are going to do this weekly, fortnightly, monthly, etc. That day is going to be your “engagement day.” This is the day that you are going to just dedicate 30 minutes to an hour and a half just going online and spreading the love. Your first engagement day is likely to be just making a list of places you are going to visit each engagement day. Save the links in a document somewhere so you can go on every time and get there straight away.
The goal of an engagement day is to earn a bit of street cred and karma. By authentically going on reddit or facebook or what-ever and helping others find success you can really develop that mutual community we have been talking about. Review other people’s products. Comment on other peoples threads in a positive way. You want to help others by supporting their work. This will slowly make you a familiar face for others, so when you finally post your own stuff you won’t look like a poser. Guess what, you won’t look like a poser because you authen- tically will have built relationships and community. Surprise,
I tricked you into being a nice person, but in the long run I am sure you will thank me.
Avoiding Toxicity
If you view your engagement as “building a community” rather than “exploiting a market” you will by default avoid many of the terrible things that happen online. This can be a lot harder than it sounds. It is very easy and in vogue to be negative. Shit- ting on things makes us feel socially powerful in the short term and those kinds of content headlines often get good interaction and analytics as well. The problem is that in being negative like that you will create a community that thrives on deconstruc- tion and destruction. Is that who you want reviewing your products, chatting in your discord or patreon feeds and com- menting on your own hard work?
By role modelling positivity you will stand out from the crowd and set the tone for how we communicate in our tribe. As a content maker (of any kind) you are the leader of discourse. The way you approach things will influence how people speak back to you. The best way to avoid having a toxic fanbase is to not be toxic yourself. Some good examples I have seen from my own content engagement would be Goobertown Hobbies, Midwin- ter Minis, the folks over at Pulp Alley, and Bridgett Jeffries of the Miskatonic University Podcast.
Want to read more? Check out the full book details below and purchase your copy!
Money Master's Guide
Game Mastering For Fun and Profit
by: Raymond J. Hicks
Genre: Nonfiction, Self-Help, Gaming, Business
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Is there a better feeling than getting paid for something you already enjoy doing for fun?
In Money Master's Guide we will show you several ways to pivot your already creative skills as a game master into a profitable side-hustle. In today's world everyone needs a little side money to help make ends meet. Why not find ways to use your gaming hobby to help pay those bills?
In this guide we will look at several different pathways for using skills you already possess to find financial freedom. The Money Master's Guide will explore:
Writing Adventures
Selling Fiction
Streaming and Podcasting
Running Paid Games
Hobby Blogging
Running Kickstarters
And many more methods from outside the box
Every chapter contains actionable activites to get you started on your path to becoming a Money Master.
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Raymond J. Hicks
Raymond J. Hicks is a fresh author with a love of making characters who grow alongside their readers. Dad, high school teacher, gamer and at one time co-host of “The Game Masters Stash” facebook group with over 17,000 followers, Raymond is always looking to give back where he can. He has a great sense of humour and counts among his highest accomplishments having reached 30+ years of age without ever once reading an author bio and that one time he was dubbed the prettiest pretty princess in a board game. Raymond believes we are all pretty princesses deep down inside and tries to allow his characters a time to shine in their own unique way, whether it's in fantasy, sci fi or adventure. He hopes you enjoy his writing as the one thing he wants the most is to share his stories with like-minded readers.
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