soooo website

[marchionessofmustache]

So, I was waiting til I finished the tutorial part of the website to launch it, but I'm starting to think maybe I should start with just a Play Diary website? It sounds horrible but I don't know if I could manage updating both play diaries and tutorials regularly, and I'm already losing a lot of motivation because the idea is overwhelming.

Plus the tutorial site would still start with just like... one little thing which is like... not really substantial anyway? Like, I've only written the first project's lessons, which is pretty basic. The idea was to launch with that and continue adding a new lesson weekly but like...

I know it is ridiculous but writing a lesson and writing a play diary in one week seems like a lot of work even though it's like extremely minimal work?? It's not that the actual WORK is a lot of work, it's that I already realize that I have to find times when I'm not having problems with anxiety or depression or sensory shit and I have to be alone and etc etc plus switching focus is almost impossible for me so if I feel like doing play diary but need to work on tutorial or the other way around I will like... just get overwhelmed and do nothing lol.

Like, I know it sounds stupid and it's like "ok but sometimes you have to do stuff you don't want to do" or whatever but believe me it's NOT THAT LOL. I'm not just being finicky or lazy like my brain literally will fight with me and make me increasingly ill if I try to force myself to switch focus or force focus on something it's not already focusing on. And I seem to have little control over when these focus shifts happen, though trying to force new ones usually makes them ALL collapse and then I just focus on like... being depressed for a while???

But yeah IDK I think I might just finish up the play diary site as it is and launch it, and then start adding new content to it. Maybe I can even continue doing several diaries and wait and do the tutorial thing later...?

I found this like 'coffee' crowdfunding site (I forget the name but it's like a weird spelling of coffee lol) where you basically just accept $3 donations called "coffees" and you can like set goals and stuff on it? It seems better than a donate button and less intimidating than a Patreon to a potential donor, so I might try that out once I get the site up.

I keep thinking about it so I think I'll probably end up doing it, but I still want to do the "every NES game ever" play diary lol. Maybe once I get the site up and running and finally edit the Innocent Life diary and get caught up editing unsaga (since there's a lot more now), I'll start it???

But uh IDK.

The main reason I didn't want to launch the website w/o the tutorial thing is because hosting costs money, and it was going to be like... two separate subsites hosted on the same server, and I figured it would be better to like... already have both in existence when I pay for hosting since it will be a substantial amount of money for me (and probably cut like... a couple months off of my "this is where you run out of food" time limit) and I was hoping to do a little minor monetization with the sites, but uh...

I'm really terrible at promoting myself already, and I don't really have anywhere to promote the tutorial site?? I mean, I have accounts at a few game dev forums and stuff like that but like... I'm not going to just go make a topic like HEY GUYS GO TO MY SITE AND PAY FOR IT ALSO SORRY FOR NOT PARTICIPATING HERE FOR YEARS LOL

But I'm more likely to "promote" my play diary site because I'm active on game forums and stuff and constantly talk about it anyway? So I can just mention it and I won't feel like I'm like... imposing. IDK LOLLLLL;;;;

But I also was thinking, that if I can get the PD site up and running well enough, and finish Dens's coloring book thing, I could get back to working on Rogue Nightmare, and I feel like having a bigger game like that published will give me more credibility and attention for a game dev tutorial site anyway??????

And then I can use the web hosting to host a devblog for the game and stuff.

IDK like honestly this seems like a WAY BETTER PLAN since like the chance of me successfully monetizing either of these things is like pretty low and like that's not really the reason I'm doing it (monetization is more just like... a life necessity LOL because I'll need to make up for the cost of hosting somehow) but I just hate changing plans even if the new plan is easier and better??? Like it just feels 'wrong' and like... makes me feel like I shouldn't do anything at all.

Why... is my brain like this...????

Anyway, opinions/reassurance/something? Is putting off the site for probably a very long time just for the sake of having a small part of the tutorial launch alongside it worth it? You have to keep in mind that I may not be able to continue to afford hosting, so there's a chance if I don't launch the tutorial site, I may never get to launch it.

But I guess if I keep holding off, I just will end up spending all money on food and have $0 total so... nothing will launch XD I mean that's like quite a way away -- I have enough money to eat until 2018 at least. How far into 2018 I can go, though, I'm not sure yet. But there's a lot of time before then so anything can happen. Maybe I'll become functional enough to do Real People work or something soon?

Comments

[thenicochan]

What’s the monthly cost of hosting? Just curious. You could even do a Patreon or something, but you’re working in a sort of niche-market, so there may be time when you’re not gonna be covered. Alternatively, you might get over covered sometimes. It just depends. You could promote over on your Youtube, etc. I can’t remember if you have a Backloggery (you totally should if you don’t), but you could also set up a promotion there. I’d be happy to do some word of mouth promotional stuff for you. Another idea regarding the play diary-- maybe your friend who posts all the Romancing SaGa vids on Youtube would be up for doing a little promotion on your behalf. I know you probably feel odd asking, but try to think of it as telling a fellow fan of a very niche market about a cool resource/entertainment spot for fellow fans to congregate. I know *I* wouldn't be able to turn that down.

I completely understand the “wait vs now” argument, especially when it comes to something artistic you’re passionate about (That’s part of what took me so long to finish this damn book.) If the chance of being unable to launch the tutorial completely hinges on finance, then I’d wait. I would hate to think you’d put a bunch of effort into something like that, only for your funds to run dry and it never able to see the light of day.

[marchionessofmustache]

It depends on a lot of factors, but for cheaper hosting it's a bit under $10/month. But even with the cost calculated monthly, pretty much any hosting service requires you to purchase in at least 1-year packages, and you really don't get the good/advertised prices unless you buy in like... 5-year packages and stuff like that.

But uh, I guess even at that rate, if I could muster up just a little Patreon fanbase, I could cover hosting with that I guess.

I've actually bought ads before and it was pretty successful (for art commissions). Even though I was way worse at art then, I got tons of traffic and lots of commissions; I was making like $300/month just drawing crappy stuff. Most hosting services will offer a bit of free ads if you buy one of their bigger packages, which is something I'm considering doing anyway because usually the cheapest package is pretty lacking in features and the next level up gets you a lot more without too much more cost (like $1/mo or something)

Sorry this was just random thinking aloud really.

I have a Backloggery but I haven't touched it in soooooooo long. I'd probably just start a new one, though. How would you go about promoting there? I had difficulty even making friends or communicating with people at all on it XD

And yeah I guess I do have over 1000 subs on YT so there might still be people who see an update there despite me not having really been active in years. And actually Farel (the SaGa vid friend) was just asking to promote me today LOL but referring to my YT channel. I helped him out with a SaGa news vid he was making since he wanted to talk about Scarlet Grace but won't be playing it. I probably wouldn't ask him directly but I'll probably make a 'links' section like 90s internet and put him on there so maybe he'll return the favor XD

I already hang out on the GameFAQs forums for the games I'm writing for now and ones I want to later, and people would actually ask me to link them to my YT/Twitch when I was doing that. I haven't really mentioned the Play Diaries yet but everyone there is nice and would probably at least check them out.

Since I'm going to be doing the coloring book thing, I guess I'll be posting on art sites again more regularly? So I can promo myself there I guess. I have... kind of a lot of followers on FurAffinity I think?? XD (nvm it's only like 200 and like probably 160 of those are dead accounts XD)

But yeah I was thinking more about this and there's also the possibility that I may like... put it off for the sake of the tutorial thing and then end up launching neither LOL. I mean, I guess I'll be able to launch everything EVENTUALLY I'll just have to... get more money somehow and do it in the future lmao. But it would be probably a long time. But if I do the PDs now I'll at least have something.

The more I think about it, launching sooner seems better? There's an actual chance I can make up for the hosting costs and then later can add the tuts, if not, the only thing that happens is the tuts just get delayed even longer. Which is not terrible since I am considering even waiting until after I've finished a bigger dev project to ... make tutorials on dev lol.

Sorry that was part reply and part organizing my own thoughts lol.

[thenicochan]

No need to apologize. The best outcome to my comment was that it helped you organize your thoughts, so mission accomplished. 

As for the Backloggery, it’d be pretty slight, but you could promote that you have one on Youtube, etc. and link to the play diaries in the body of your Backloggery profile. I’m of the mindset that every little mention helps and could draw a potential viewer. Someone who clicks on a SaGa game that you’ve got in your “Currently Playing” for instance would likely come across your profile and then see the diaries. Bam! New viewer your work has reached.

I think your reasoning for launching now is very sound. Build up your fanbase with the play diaries and go from there. That’s got my vote!

[marchionessofmustache]

Heyyy late response but thanks for the support, suggestions, and helping me think through it~~~~~~~~~

[thenicochan]

<3

[kaedi]

Windows 10 just disconnected me from my fibreoptic broadband so my comment is lost.

I basically said some shit about free web hosting that wasn't very helpful and told you to host it now if you can otherwise you won't do it xD

I HATE IT WHEN COMMENTS GET LOST!!! The re-writes are always so shit.

[marchionessofmustache]

lol I haaaate lost comments too D:

I actually have a free webhost somewhere but I never use it. I'm going to be doing a bunch of FTP and database stuff with this site and in my experience (though my experience is quite limited), free hosts usually don't offer database stuff or have really terrible FTP/uploading/etc. so like... I really don't feel like I can rely on it lol.

And yeah I really need to like... get to finishing it up. Like I have the individual pages for each diary that are fully finished and almost all the entries edited and reformatted (I had about 3 or 4 to finish and they go very fast, but now I have all the new stuff that I have written since then too, but there's still not that much), so the main thing I really need to do besides editing the last few entries is like... make the overall main site LOL.

The problem is it's small but it's the most mentally strenuous part because I want to have like an updates page or section that lists the most recent entries, but in a certain way, and some other stupid stuff like that... And I'm thinking of making it so you can turn the menu bar off and on which I might need to use JavaScript but I'm not using any JS (or any client-side scripts) right now and would rather keep it that way lol. Maybe I'll just make the entire menu a pull-down kind of thing -- like just have a menu button in the corner. I was going to have a bar across the top that would have links to each section and then have the option to 'hide' it so it just becomes a little button in the corner, but... maybe just having a menu button in the corner to start with is better. Because I was also going to have cookies to remember the user preference for the menu being open or hidden or whatever and yeah it's just too much when it's essentially pointless and I don't want to mess with JS and cookies and crap for like... one tiny feature that probably isn't even that helpful.

[kaedi]

HAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

See all that shit about databases was in my original comment ffssssssssssssssssss

IDK I think you should just do what you want with it XD If it is interesting or fun for you to add a seemingly pointless feature just do it. TBF I only find that kind of thing jarring if it doesn't work LOL I was on one site and it had a hover drop down menu (I presume CSS?) but the top menu didn't stay open long enough for me to get to the sub-menu??? WTF. As soon as you moved the cursor to get to the submenu (even staying on the top menu...I made a point of doing this!!!) the whole menu just pooped back inside itself. I just left the website after that XD

[marchionessofmustache]

Ummmmm yeah I've encountered menus like that before and I hate it lol. I just leave too XD