As many of you are sick of hearing or as pathetic as it may sound, this is how I make my living. But seriously your verbal and written support is just as important as your financial support to help me keep this thing going. If you like what you see please tell a friend and PLEASE leave a comment on the RPGNow store regarding your purchase. It doesn’t have to be all sunshine, just an honest opinion of what you thought about the product. These comments help to drive sales and keep me in business. Your comments on the store really do help a great deal and it only takes a couple minutes.

Sales of the latest release "Castles & Keeps" were strong the first two days but have slowed down quite a bit. This is mainly because the release is losing its top spot on the front advertising page at RPGNow to other products. To help counterbalance this advertising issue your comments keep the product relevant and fresh in everyone’s minds. Thank you all in advance for your previous and future support. It is you that keeps WorldWorks alive and for that I am eternally grateful.

Denny.

Asking for help is not pathetic and I already added my comments for both Pubs & Inns and Castle & Keeps. I am mentioning your sets to some friends and am creating simple "flyers" and will be putting them up in the local Hobby shops soon, for you as well. Anything to make sure you are able to continue making the freakin' awesome sets you make. Worldworks games is like crack to me. Gotta keep the supply coming or I'll have withdrawl symptoms.  I'll start drawing on cardstock and then cutting it out and you don't want that. Have you seen my drawings....uuh yeah right....  ;)

Laterz

Mr. Grimm  

I added my comments today, I make the excuse I only just got my files a couple days ago. Also, I've been showing off the gameboard I made on several forums, touting the images from WWorks that makes the board look so cool.

Thanks you guys. Really appreciated! I will do my best to remain your cardstock pusher for as long as financially possible (Hopefully a few more years!).

Hey!  I'm a new user (recently bought DungeonWorks) and I just wanted to comment on your business as I see it.

You have a great product at a great price.  I think your problem now is advertising.  I just don't think enough of your potential customers know you exist.  I'de focus your attention for a bit on getting the word out as opposed to crafting more product.

You're blessed to have such a dedicated core group of users as word of mouth advertising is the most powerful form.  It seams your other main avenue for advertising is rpgnow, I would recommend some other forms.  Have you considered setting up a booth at a few larger conventions?  You might think of promotional giveaways.  I don't know, maybe "Be part of WorldWorks!", you give a free product (or the whole line) to the user who creates the best original paper model to be included in a future set.  That would also get you seen in the larger "paper modeling world" (if there is such a thing, <chuckle>).  Anyway, you get the idea.

I'de also build a >clear< picture of the market you're trying to attack.  It seams your focus changes product to product.  Castleworks being mainly a general paper model product, Dungeonworks and Caveworks being aimed at 25mm D&D players, Villageworks being aimed at Wargammers.  You upcoming Clix stuff at the WizKids set.

I'm not saying there is a problem with this, but it seams to me it'll be hard to choose the best use of your ad dollar without a clear market focus.  If Clix is the future of WorldWorks a banner add on the right MK community website speaking directly to them could do wonders.

Hey, I've only been thinking about this in the time it took me to write it, you've been thinking about this for the last 6 months.  <laugh>  I'm a user of your products who wants to see you succeed in a big way and this was written from that standpoint.

BEST OF LUCK!

*pulls ink stained fingers off keyboard and notices some superglue still on them*

I suppose the other thing that might help is that everyone that likes the products make a post about it on whatever RPG messageboards they frequent. This may draw a few more people who don't regularly stop by here or RPGNow. I am not talking about spamming message boards just a simple 'hey have you seen this?'.

All fantastic ideas and greatly appreciated. Let me just first say that I had two very BIG opportunities with two of the largest RPG companies on the planet (you know the ones) and they decided against WorldWorks at the last minute. Will "they" release their own line of paper models following a similar business model instead? More than likely but that’s the way big business and fair (cough) competition works.

My biggest problem is not always thinking of ways to advertise but finding the time to get that end of things done. I do have some kind souls promoting WorldWorks at a couple of Cons and many reviewers looking at my product but I haven’t had much time to invest in anything deeper. Then there’s the financial aspect of advertising and how it relates to budget. Currently I have no budget...lol.

My current rut involves working on new models and making just enough capitol to scrape by to the next month. Not a very solid game plan but it will have to do until I can find time for a solid advertising plan. If at some point I’m making more money than I need to pay the bills I will enter into that domain.

In the realm of what market Im trying to target, well...everything RPG! Im starting to offer "Clicks" versions of my product because the demand is so high but I will always target the 1-inch crowd as a primary. Im going for every genre here because the product lends itself to that kind of flexibility.

I am all ears when it comes to alternative suggestions from you guys and everyone knows I can use all the help I can get (Pathetic isnt it...lol) So keep em coming!

Denny

What you could do, Denny, is whip up a flyer-style advertisement that interested people could download (or that you could email to a select few) and post at their local gaming stores and public gaming sites.

Most game shop owners I know have no problem letting people post notices - even advertising - so long as it doesn't directly interfere with their profit margin. Most of them realise that in the gaming industry, Company X's new product can often bolster sales of Company A's older stuff.

 Devon

Actually the flyer idea is not such a bad one - I know that if one were available I'd put it up in a few stores around my area (Sydney, Australia).

I'd offer to design one for you - but being a designer, you're probably much better than I (being a software developer) *shrug*

Flyers are a great idea. I cant tell you how fortunate I feel to have fans go to that length for me. I'll get on that with the redesign of the site. Any more suggestions?

Maybe on the flyer put something small as a free sampler to show the quality.. like maybe a chest or chair or maybe a pool of water or chasm.  Just so they see the quality.  


Just an idea......

Actually the chair isn't a bad idea. It's small, pretty simple, but the detail and scale look really good.

You want more ideas?  Well, I think you could use some partners.  The main partnership idea I can forsee would be to release worldworks model sheets specific to a d20 adventure.

As you may or may not be aware there is a huge d20 secondary market out there.  (conventions would be another way to make these connections)

I stongly believe you have a great product and your photographs of built sets do all the selling for you, you just need more people (both customers and industry insiders) to see them.

There are a couple different ways this could work..

You choose print adventures only, in this kind of scenario you could look at this as free advertising and give a sweet-heart deal to the module publisher...  If people want more of the "set" they have to come to your site and buy it.  ;)

Or if you're going electronic you could just make a couple pages of items specific to the adventure, for people to get the most use out of them, they'de want to come buy dungeon works, etc.

There is a hidden side benefit to this as well, working with module designers and building the props they imagine will help you stay on track as far as "what do my customers actually need" goes.

I hope you're getting settled in here in the rainy northwest.  Best wishes from Seattle.

Haven’t actually moved yet but the boxes and the "to-do" lists are piling up around my desk. We're making the journey to our new home by months end. We thought it would be nice to live closer to a volcano that’s ready to pop and a fault line that is due to cause a 9ner on the Richter scale

All great suggestions and I'm way ahead of you on the "models for modules" issue. I actually have a deal worked out with a publisher and another one in the pipe. I agree that these odd side jobs for adventures will draw a more diverse crowd back to WorldWorks.

Keep em coming and thank you for helping me to write "The Idiots Guide to the RPG Business".

Hey I resent that. I'm no Idiot! I'm a dufus!  Get it right!  hehe...

Personally, I'm all for the "models for modules" concept.  One of the things I have tried to do is compile miniature lists for modules so a DM knows what they need to get their hands on ahead of time.  Having a Worldworks "build sheet" with a list of the corridors, rooms, halls, chairs, stairs, and whatever else you need pre-assembled for a module you'd like to play through...that would be great.  

Perhaps you could even add a custom bit or two for specific parts of a module.  

I can see a 3rd party D20 publisher putting out an adventure in PDF format...and the last four pages are WW foldups for the BBEG's lair, which can be used by themselves, yes...OR you can follow the instructions at the bottom of the page for how to find and buy Dungeonworks, which will let you print out the REST of the dungeon that matches the BBEG's final room.



Another thought...one I wanted very badly to do (and if I had the time and resources, would have...and will...but we're talking Lotto here).  If you're going to attact attention, you'll need to do it with a bang...and yes, that costs money.

Don't get a booth at one of these cons...get a large section of floorspace.  Then, create a HUGE layout.  Not a village, a city...not a small tomb but level 1 of Undermountain!  

By the way, the project I wanted so badly to do?

Worldworks-scale model of the Crater Ridge Mines.  Those who know the name know what I'm talking about.  My best guess?  It would be over 40' in diameter!  

Expensive, impossible to transport, permanently injuring the folding team....but you have to admit, it WOULD attract attention at the Con.