Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've been considering starting a hobby blog with the primary purpose of generating supplemental income to support my addic, excuse me, HOBBY.

I plan to accomplish this by creating entertaining content including but not limited to: battle reports, fan fiction, hobby tutorials, army biographies/history and pictures. If it takes off, I might add video content and more. The main focus will be on my Catachans and the tone will be humorous but grimdark.

Keeping this in mind, do any of you have tips for what to do and what to avoid? Do you have a successful hobby blog? (If so, please share)
What is the best hosting site?
What is the best way to generate ad revenue?
Any other considerations?

I have 18yrs of hobbying under my belt, but please keep in mind that I am a TOTAL NOOB when it comes to starting a website. Any advice is much appreciated. Cheers!

CplPunishment

I don't think you're going to be successful, simply put.

Offering commission painting services is a far easier way to make a bit of supplemental income on the side for hobbying, IMO. If you can paint to a good standard quickly, its easy to make about 15$ for an hour of work on painting stuff, which for me has been more than enough to fund my hobby.

the_scotsman wrote:
I don't think you're going to be successful, simply put.

Offering commission painting services is a far easier way to make a bit of supplemental income on the side for hobbying, IMO. If you can paint to a good standard quickly, its easy to make about 15$ for an hour of work on painting stuff, which for me has been more than enough to fund my hobby.

I appreciate your honest opinion. While my painting skills will never win me an award, I feel like I can paint at a respectable and aesthetically pleasing table-worthy level. Most people can't afford more than that anyhow. I really need to post some of my best pieces. Those will come soon.

Very interested in this subject.

I know a few people who do generate a minuscule amount of money through painting tutorials on their blogs. It doesn't begin to cover the actual expenses involved and serves more as a signpost to other people who play 40k.

Best advice I have is to start with one thing, do it well, and monetize over time.

I don't think a blog will be able to pay out very much; the volume of people reading things online in general for hobbies such as videogames and wargaming is going down for the most part, and blog sites are very much a dying entity.

Unless you plan on starting painting streams on Twitch or going full on into a YouTube channel, I would just use the blog idea to perhaps open a door for commission painting, or for the enjoyment of doing one.

 techsoldaten wrote:
Very interested in this subject.

I know a few people who do generate a minuscule amount of money through painting tutorials on their blogs. It doesn't begin to cover the actual expenses involved and serves more as a signpost to other people who play 40k.

Best advice I have is to start with one thing, do it well, and monetize over time.

Appreciate the advice. My initial focus is battle reports narrated by a grizzled Catachan veteran. I'm looking for the best platform to do this from.

If you did a Twitch channel and shoutcasted (though probably not as excitedly) some matches people might watch. If you're good at the game, you could do a deeper analysis style like Day9 does for StarCraft. Extra points if you can travel to tournaments, record high level players and then explain what they do for the plebs to see. You could intersperse these with painting tutorial episodes.

Audustum wrote:
If you did a Twitch channel and shoutcasted (though probably not as excitedly) some matches people might watch. If you're good at the game, you could do a deeper analysis style like Day9 does for StarCraft. Extra points if you can travel to tournaments, record high level players and then explain what they do for the plebs to see. You could intersperse these with painting tutorial episodes.

I would hope any tournie would tell people like that to shove off. Last thing people need in a tournament game is some groupie screeching next to the table about tactics and decisions being made as they happen.

Voss wrote:

Audustum wrote:
If you did a Twitch channel and shoutcasted (though probably not as excitedly) some matches people might watch. If you're good at the game, you could do a deeper analysis style like Day9 does for StarCraft. Extra points if you can travel to tournaments, record high level players and then explain what they do for the plebs to see. You could intersperse these with painting tutorial episodes.

I would hope any tournie would tell people like that to shove off. Last thing people need in a tournament game is some groupie screeching next to the table about tactics and decisions being made as they happen.

Presumably they would just be streaming from far enough away not to bother the players. Most tournaments nowadays have a few streamed games so it isn't too far out of the norm.

jcd386 wrote:

Voss wrote:

Audustum wrote:
If you did a Twitch channel and shoutcasted (though probably not as excitedly) some matches people might watch. If you're good at the game, you could do a deeper analysis style like Day9 does for StarCraft. Extra points if you can travel to tournaments, record high level players and then explain what they do for the plebs to see. You could intersperse these with painting tutorial episodes.

I would hope any tournie would tell people like that to shove off. Last thing people need in a tournament game is some groupie screeching next to the table about tactics and decisions being made as they happen.

Presumably they would just be streaming from far enough away not to bother the players. Most tournaments nowadays have a few streamed games so it isn't too far out of the norm.

I've seen people cast them this way and it works good too!

My original idea though was to just silently record them live and then record an audio commentary over it later from your studio/desk. Gives you time to up the quality and analyze it.

I'll approch the subject very bluntly and honestly.

The idea could work. But ask yourself this. Why. Why would someone want to follow your battle reports? Do you do massive games that are interesting to follow? Are you an ITC leader and or influential player? What would make someone want to pay for your battle reports?

Why would someone want to read your fanfic? Do you have a long standing writing history? Do people know you as a writer? What makes your fan fiction better then someone else's? Have you written for GW which gives you more credibility? What separates your work for 1d4chan content or a wiki site?