Dub FX 'Step on my Trip' (video remix) from Ben Dowden on Vimeo.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Hot Artist of the Week - David Grier
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Splinter Cell: Conviction video linked!
It is not the full version but it is still very badd ass! Talk to you later...
Friday, May 29, 2009
Should the Obsidian Twilight RPG be 100% OGL/D20 Open Content?
Haven: COV graphic novel is one of 50 pieces for the Illustrators Australia 20 Years of Illustration...
"I just thought you'd like to know that the graphic novel from the Haven:COV core rulebook has been selected as one of 50 pieces for the Illustrators Australia 20 Years of Illustration exhibition in Melbourne."
Bad Ass! What a great way to start the day! Talk to you later...
Thursday, May 28, 2009
iPhone Application Developer Needed!!!
I put this on Twitter, but I need as many people as possible to see this one. If you know any one who fits the prifle, send them to the link. Thanks!
iPhone Application Developer Needed!!! @ http://bit.ly/LS8GF.
Introducing the LPJ Design Subscription Drive…
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Buying Smaller companies and add their products to yours…
- Determine the average monthly income created by the company over the previous 12 month. You can have the company you are attempting to purchase to give you this information then verify this by a second source. If the company is hosted at RPGNow, for example, you can confirm the info the small company told you by asking them.
- Then I would offer them a payment equal to nine months worth of the average monthly income as a lump sum. So if a company made an average monthly income of $500 a month, I would offer them $4,500 for the company. Many are asking why only nine months and not a year? Because realistically sales over time decrease as more of the customer base purchases the products, which also mean less sales. This is a fair and realistic view of what you will generate over the 1st year having these products for sale under your new banner.
- You break the payment of the business over an allotted amount of time that is no more than 6 months to pay it off completely. If you have the money readily available, then pay if off when you make the deal. Breaking the payments into smaller ones make it easier for you to come up with the money (especially if you are having a cashflow issue) plus it gives the seller that their business is still making them money (even though you now own it).
Now selling through Amazon.com by way of Lulu.com...
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Increasing sales and spreading out the percentages...
With the Paizo Publishing, LLC Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game Compatibility License, I believe there is a potential money generating opportunity is equal to to what Green Ronin's M&M Superlink (before they had to release a 2nd version of Mutants & Masterminds because Osseum ran off with all the money, over $100K, from the first print run and they had to pay the bill quickly or go under. Bet you didn't know about that, did you?) was. If Paizo Publishing, LLC Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game Compatibility License does just half as well as the M&M Superlink license did for me (I sold 189 copies of Power Corrupts in 3 days, not like now where most does sell 100 copies in a lifetime of the product) it could be a nice source of income for me (In addition to the money I am already making from it). Personally I am looking to change my percentage to 35% RPGNow / 35% Paizo / 30% other various sites, with an increase of cashflow of 50%. It is going to be like 2004 alo over again (My sales in 2004 jumped over 400% from the previous year, in 2003 sales were only up 350% from the previous year). So it looks like time will tell in August. Talk to you later...
Monday, May 25, 2009
Leadership Music Digital Summit 2009 - Mike Masnick keynote address, 3/25/09
Gareth placed this up at the private forum for RPGNow.com and I though some of you might be interested to see this for ideas for business. Enjoy! Talk to you later...
Home from vacation and back to work...
Over the vacation I read and finished The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferris. For those in the field of creating content like we are in, YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!!! The amount of ideas that you get reading this book will be massive. Using this book I have finally decided how I can get LPJ Digital off the ground and make sure it is an amazing sucess. Plus the tons of great sources of online materials that will help you save money are AMAZING! so do yourself a favor and go get this book now. The massive amount of sales you make will thank you for it. Talk to you later...
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Hot Artist of the Week - Stanley Lau
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Seth Godin on the tribes we lead...
This video is something that I though you might enjoy, since I am going to be gone until May 24th. During this vacation, I will be writing up buisness plans for LPJ Digital (iPhone apps I am developing with people on eLance.com) LPJ Games (Finishing up the last cards for Grammar: The Sentence Creation Card game) and a Independent film & production company for web based content (No name for it yet). So I will see you in when I get back. Talk to you later...
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Image Porfolio Platinum Edition 1...Coming Soon
Monday, May 11, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Updating the website
Friday, May 8, 2009
$100 a day at RPGNow.com…
Thursday, May 7, 2009
New Orleans then Trinidad…
PS: Any one in New Orleans who can suggest a good place to eat downtown (The French Quarter) Let me know.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
The Mercury Men and LPJ Design…
Garth happened to mention this in an update he did at his site and I was so interested in I decided to look up the writer / director Chris Preksta. After speaking to a few contacts I know, I got in touch with him directly as we spoke over the phone about his series, what it took to product it (not as expensive as I thought) and would they be interested in doing other material in various genres (which they are). What made this call even better was I found out most of the people who worked on this project are also RPG gamers. So I told him a little be about Haven: City of Violence and NeoExodus: A House Divided. It looks like we will be meeting up with each other mostly during San Diego Comic Con to meet face to face and see what happens. It is always good to meet with nice creative people who want to do cool things. I can’t wait to talk to him again.
PS: I almost forgot, Chris is also a great cartographer and we might even do a side project of e-tile for sale at RPGNow.com. Keep your fingers crossed. Talk to you later…
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
RPG Publishing Gauntlet…in video!!!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Tell us why you love Paizo!!!
Books You Need to Read – How to Make Webcomics
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Hot Artist of the Week - Jeff Wamester
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Really want to get into the RPG Publishing business? Then take this little test to see if your qualified…
Project Manager Position
For those interested in this position, we would like to give you a real work project to work on and see if you can accomplish it in the stated time frame and on budget. This will determine who we think is best working with Louis Porter Jr. Design and our imprints.
- D20 Modern (Generic): New Class, New Equipment, New Rule set
- D20 Future (Generic): New Class, New Equipment, New Starship, New Planet, New Rules set
- D20 Fantasy (Generic): New Class, New Magic Item or Equipment, New Spells, New Rule set
RULES OF THE PROJECT
- The total budget for this project is $50 US. With this money you will acquire at least one (1) original piece of artwork for this project (Any and all clip art or stock artwork is excluded) and a writer for this project and they will be paid from this amount.
- No individual who have worked for Louis Porter Jr. Design or any of its imprints at any time are eligible to be used on this project. Also, the project manager on this test is not eligible to be the writer or the artist on this project.
- These following questions must be answered about the product, in 50 words or less:
- 1) Why would someone purchase this product versus our opposition?
- 2) How does this project fit in with Louis Porter Jr. Design overall business strategy?
- 3) How does this product compare to what Louis Porter Jr. Design’s competitor similar products?
- The project will blind CC Louis Porter Jr. on all the e-mail on recruiting of artist and writers.
- Also the project manager cannot say what company (Louis Porter Jr, Design and imprints) they are working for, to the writers and artists they are looking to recruit. All that can be said or referred to is that “they are a well known respected PDF publisher”.
- The project must be completed with seven (7) days of receiving this e-mail.
- Louis Porter Jr. will personally look over all work submitted then it will be accepted, sent back for revision, reject pieces of the project or reject the product in full. The project manager, artist and writer will be paid on completion of the project by Louis Porter Jr. directly.
PAYMENT
Louis Porter Jr. will pay the project manager 20% of the total budget for this project. All payment of writers will be handled by directly by Louis Porter Jr. Thank you again for your interest in this position and good luck.
Now after reading this, if you became worried and though to yourself, that doing this test is impossible, then you WILL NOT make a good RPG publisher. I am being 100% serious here. You will not be a good RPG publisher and you should do something else. Don’t waste your time or money. For everybody else, get to it. You have work to do. Talk to you later…
Friday, May 1, 2009
Better marketing of Living Arcanis / Pathfinder Society /Massive Multiplayer RPGs to RPG Fans...
The guys at Paradigm Concepts are friends of mine and I have had the pleasure to ask a lot of behind the scene questions about Living Arcanis. The one thing that always kind of got me “confused” (This really isn’t the right word, but it is the only one I can think of at the time) is how things are broken up game-wise. Paradigm Concepts has two big events at Gen Con and Origins which they run called a “Battle Interactive”. The Battle Interactive events have done very well for them. During the year they have adventure that people can download and play at their home games and have a great time. The guys at Paradigm Concepts are following the same game plan that every other company has been using when creating their own Living Campaign, including Paizo with the Pathfinder Society. The system works well and people are happy with the status quo.
But what if you tried something slightly different? What if you changed it up a little? What if you shook up the status quo? What if:
- You had a one year long adventure storyline that ran from August through July. The year-long adventure / storyline would start at Gen Con with a big event and have its climatic end in Origins with a big event. The reason for doing this is it gives you roughly six weeks between Origins and Gen Con where you can build interest in the new year’s campaign by using what happened in the year ending event as the “spring board”. This basic market strategy has worked well for comic book companies for years (The Darkness Night and the Secret Invasion are prime examples of this.)
- Instead of giving away the adventures for free like many Living Campaign game companies do, sell your adventures and a low and reasonable price. When you place a value on a product they are considered to be valuable. Paizo has done this with its Pathfinder Society materials.
- During the six week period between Origins and Gen Con you release a free adventure / sourcebook that connects the previous year’s adventures and this upcoming year’s adventures. An even better to joint , you can connect the two conventions by the ending event being the lynchpin that starts the new year’s campaign at Gen Con. Paizo has done very well with this with their Pathfinder Companion and Player’s Guides lines.
- You create a mid-point event that is held at a very special convention. This event is the “Empire Strike Back Moment” in the year long event. You would like to create a convention like Winter Fantasy or the D&D Experience where all the hard core support and fans of your adventure games series and company come out to play, then go back home to talk up it up to more people. If you want to take this one step farther and cause some business disruption and attack the position of the leader in this field (WOTC), I would have my event in the same hotel/location on the same day that the Winter Fantasy/D&D Experience is having their event. This is guerilla marketing and Business Judo at its finest.
- When the previous year is over complete, you collect all the adventure into a HUGE book that you do as a Print-On-Demand Book and sell. Why POD instead of traditional printing? Because you save on having to put down upfront money for the printing cost. Lulu.com is a great choice for this.
- In addition to the year long story line at Gen Con and Origins, at both conventions I would have “Contest of Champions” event. At this event, groups of four PCs/Players are put up against other groups of four PCs/Players in dangerous location (a la Tomb of Horrors) where they fight it out to gain points and the people with the highest point value go into the “Elite Grand Round” where they face off with some kind of super thingamabob for cash and game product reward. Everyone who plays gets a cool copy of an exclusive product that you can only get from playing in the con. Douglas Atkin’s The Culting of Brands was great for understanding this.