This is kind of an early "Call to Arms" message from WorldWorks but I really do need your help...

Recently the market has become oversaturated with 2-D map tiles and competing 3-D products. The thing people tend to misjudge is just how incredibly small this industry is. WorldWorks for example (Considered by many a leader in the cardstock scenery industry) sells very few models every day. On average I make just enough money to pay the bills each month to justify the continued creation of new model sets. WorldWorks is always on the edge of loosing its foothold in this industry.

I am working behind the scenes forging new relationships in the industry to help WorldWorks gain better exposure but your help is needed.  If you have purchased a WorldWorks product and you want to show your support please consider helping us out by doing one of the following:

1. Pop on one of your favorite RPG message boards and let other players know about WorldWorks or your latest purchase. These boards can generate a ton of really positive traffic for WorldWorks and it’s the best way to "get the word out" in the communities that matter most.

2. (Cant stress how important this next point is) Please leave a comment on the RPGNow store regarding your WorldWorks purchase. These customer comments help us in more ways than we can count! We're not looking for "the perfect review" but just your honest opinion on what you feel we’ve done right.

3. Word of mouth advertising. If you find yourself at a convention or at your local gaming store please drop a positive word or two about WorldWorks to fellow players.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the past support you've all given me. Your dedication and enthusiasm gives me the drive and inspiration to keep this thing going for as long as is possible. In a time when the market is so full of competitive products your help is more appreciated than ever before. Please help keep WorldWorks at the top of the heap so we can continue do what we love to do!

Denny Unger
Owner/Creator WorldWorks Games

I sent you a PM about this.

G-

I was helping a buddy move his comic shop today and he is letting me bring some of my completed models in. He will display these with his Mage Knight singles and we are putting a link to your website with them.

I also mentioned Chunky Dungeons on Wizkids Mage Knight Dungeon Bulletin Board

Where do we leave comments at RPG Now? I can't find the link...

Just bought Chunky!!!! I'm so excited!

Hmmm, I've already done all those things... I'll ask the folks that I talked into purchases to leave comments on RPGNow as well.

I have also cheated and shown World Works models next to models by one of your competitors. Both are village sets, but yours wins out hands down.

The Auld Grump

To leave a comment on RPGNow log in to your account.  The next page it brings up has a list of all the products you haven't comment on.  Just click it and it brings up a text box.
I'll be throwing comments up when I build a bit.  So far it looks killer.  I have some dungeon crawls coming up and I think the group is gonna dig this.  :)

Denny, why don't you give press releases to "The Miniatures Page" (http://theminiaturespage.com/)?  :-/  His site is one of the hottest miniatures web sites in the world!  He doesn't charge for press releases, and his site has an active,  dedicated Fantasy RPG section, on his free forum.

I have used his site to publicize press releases about my rules for gaming with plastic army men figures, an intro. set for beginners to the mini's gaming hobby -- if it is mini's related, he will publish it!  Advertising is advertising -- and this is FREE!!!  The editor's name is Bill Armintrout.  Visit his site, join if you like (it's free...), and send him a press release, with images.  You are missing out if you don't...  :'(  Send him press releases for every change in your product line:  he limits frequent releases by the same company, to a maximum of one per week if they flood him with too many (GW hits him with many, many releases, and they don't pay him a dime...).  You can't go wrong with this.  Cheers!

I'll second the recommendation for the miniatures page, I go there at least once a day and have often waxed lyrical on the meaty goodness of your work on the message boards.

In fact I'm sure this has come up before in a previous 'call to arms'; is there any reason you aren't already using TMP to advertise that we don't know about?

Made my comments on RPGnow. I've used friends accounts there and bought them (with my credit card) WWG files in the past as gifts/trades (not piracy type of trades) etc and have encouraged them to make comments as well.

I usually end up getting multiple copies of WW stuff for me and a friend or two.

This may be something you've thought of already, Denny, so apologies in adavce.

Obviously you're a small company struggling to get by in a small market. One thing you could do to improve sales is set up the ability to buy your sets from your own site.

I'm well aware that this may cost a little, and also cause much hassle but surely the first thing you see when you go to RPGnow is competitors stuff?

I stumbled across WorldWorksGames before I'd found RPGnow. I'm sure it happens for lots of people that way.

I'm understand that you'll get a lot of custom from people fidning your products on RPGnow and I'm not suggesting you sever the ties, but surely you'll be able to make a lot of sales direct, and not pass potential customers to another site filled with your competitors stuff too...especially if they are selling slightly inferior looking sets at a marked down price.

Just a thought, and good luck with the struggle!

PS. Should be buying at least Chunky tonight (hope this helps!)

WorldWorks having its own "store" is a fantastic idea. I would rather buy on site than go off site anyway.

I've got a few other ideas that would help grow this business:

1. Advertising is important to get the word out, rather than relying solely on word-of-mouth. Link exchanges with complementary sites (like mini sites) also help. Are there web rings to get into? And when will flyers and business cards be ready? Forging relationships like WWG says it is doing is a great idea.

2. eBay. Auction some CDs or pre-printed sets or even downloads. Lots of companies use eBay to drive traffic to their site. And - this is a killer idea - use eBay and an announcement on WWG to auction off the actual models WWG has built for its photos! I bet some gamers and model builders would kill for the chance to buy a prototype / final test model built by WorldWorks.

3. As far as additional anti-piracy measures would go, how about password protecting the PDFs?

4. In today's business market, one word is key: speed.

5. Simplify the web site; there are almost no text links and those would help people with slow connections.

6. More payment options: on-site credit card sales, Paypal - you take money orders already, but how about checks too? Give people more options, make it painfully easy to give money to you! LOL

7. Go to local schools and do demos. Give each kid in the class a pre-printed model (say of one village house or a castle component) to build, and make sure he or she has a flyer advertising the site. Work with other local businesses (bookstores? hobby shops? RPG specialty stores? etc.) and do the same thing. Provide workshops.

8. Promote products on Amazon.com, which does provide some downloadable products. Pre-printed sets could be sold here too.

9. Did I say advertise? It needs to be said again.

This is getting longer than I intended, but here's a final idea to chew on.

10. Role-playing games is a niche and paper models for it a smaller niche. Is there a way to break out of being a "games" site ("WorldWorks" instead of "WorldWorks Games") to reach a larger audience? Get into other hobby sites or stores - the coming pre-printed material would be great here. Why wouldn't Toys R Us carry WWG models? Or other outfits like Learning Centers and educational stores. Bookstores have hobby sections too.

Alas, some of this takes money, and that can be scarce. But other ideas are free or very low cost. Some are probably already in the works - like the flyers and business cards that are "coming soon," and others could be implemented quickly, like eBay.

Food for thought!

These are all great suggestions except for one, the passwords for pdf's.  I usually cut and paste the items I need when printing in Photoshop 7.  Kind of like when there is only 1 thing to print off, but you could save paper and and print off 2-3 more.  Maybe this is just one flaw to the process, and I would hate to see this option taken away, but it would be good for piracy.  

Personally I don't share my stuff with anyone else.  If anyone wants to see they can, but as far as having their own copy I say support the company cheapskate!  But then again, this is just me and I cant speak for all of WWG buyers.  

When you look at the overall picture, these sets (as cheap as they already are) are great for the fact you can print them off as many times as you want.  If I want 30 Kiosk's from the AW set, then I could print them off, I just hate to waste paper doing it

Also, what is going to keep individuals from sharing the entire pdf instead of individual parts?

Password protecting PDFs is worthless and only annoys customers. There was a poll on RPGNow that said the biggest pet peeve for customers was locked PDFs.

There are also applications that can crack protected PDFs in less than 30 seconds. So adding a password to a PDF is essentially the same as locking a jewelry store by tying some string around the door handles.

-The Masked Designer

All really terrific suggestions as usual guys. Thank you.

Denny, I am new here but I have been watching this site for a very long time. I just discovered this part of RPGing and I have to tell you that World Works is the best I have seen. I will be sure to tell everybody I know about this site and these products.

In the spirit of helping out, let me just say this. I run a role playing website (primarily it is just a messageboard) at http://www.DungeonKeepersDomain.com (it is also at http://www.dkdrpg.com). This is primarily for web-based roleplaying. I will be adding links you this site from there (as well as banners soon).

However, the real offer comes to the users here. I have an awesome gallery software running there which allows registered users of DKDRPG to upload pictures for free. If your users here do not have a place to upload their pictures, I can store them for you there. That way we can show a slideshow of the awesome assembled villages, etc in one place.

The only thing I get out of this is a place for me to see what has already been done. I am asking for nothing in return. The server is given to me so I have no overhead and I already purchased all the software for the photo gallery as well as the messagbeboard.

Let me know what you think.

P.S. To give you an idea what this might look like, I have setup a gallery for WW on my site. I made a custom header and footer for the gallery so it looks like it is part of your site. Let me know what you think?

http://dkdrpg.com/pp/showgallery.php?cat=509

I setup a gallery for you already to show you what it would look like. I created a custom header and footer so it would look like it is a part of your site (except for url itself).

If you wish to use the gallery I am giving you, there is no charge to you at all. You can use the header and footer I have created or provide me one of your choosing. I will also create as many sub-galleries as you desire (one for user uploads, village images, dungeon, etc).

If you choose not to take me up on this, I appologize for any hassle this causes you. I will take down the gallery immediately. I was just trying to help out a company that has a product I enjoy.

If you would rather host the gallery on your own server, you can get the link for it at the bottom of the page on my site. The cost is only $129. I would be more than happy to help you set it up.

WOW!!!

DKD, the photo gallery you’ve set up is truly amazing! Thank you for creating such a wonderful showcase for WorldWorks model sets. I would love link to it directly from the WorldWorks menu.

I will post a special note on the Pictures section so that everyone is aware of this alternative means of posting.

I’m really blown away by your generosity here! THANK YOU for your support!

Denny, I am so glad to hear that you want to use my gallery. If you would like, I can make as many sub-galleries as you like. You can contact me via email at cscott@dkdrpg.com or you can chat me direct at the following IMs.

Yahoo: OGreatTikiGod (I am not on this very often)
AIM: OGreatTikiGod
MSN: OGreatTikiGod@hotmail.com
ICQ: 3167274

If you register for an account, I can even make that account an admin account so you can get into the system and directly prune unwanted images or create galleries of your own. This will give you some control of what is there. You will also be able to change the colors of pretty much anything there (providing you know stylesheets, I had to guess at most of it).

Also, if you want a more specific look. Just send me a new header and footer file (basically a web page for what you want at the top and what you want at the bottom of the gallery and I will connect it to the gallery.

Glad to see you taking advantage of the Press Release publicity option on TMP!  I would like to suggest you add more verbage about your products, though.  Try reviewing previous press releases from other vendors on TMP, to gauge what is acceptable.

I would also recommend you send him a follow-up press release on the free upgrade to Chunky Dungeons...  People love freebies, and this may push them over the edge of the fence, to actually buy this, and other products.  Remember, there is no such thing as bad press!  Cheers!