Friday Check-in #4 - Putting a price on it!

Last time, I mentioned all that I’ve been doing to prepare for FreeRPG day. Let’s break down what happened after that, what I learned, and what I’ve been doing with my week!

Results are in

Let’s get down to the numbers. After FreeRPG day:

• I distributed 100 vouchers across 5 stores.
• 6 people signed up using one of those vouchers. 4 were claimed in the biggest store, and 1 each in two other stores.
• Out of those, only two people actually imported sounds into Bardic Tools.
• I received no feedback or emails whatsoever, so I have no way to tell whether people liked it.
• All store owners and workers were extremely nice.

Overall, I’m happy with the results. Of course, the ROI wasn’t positive in terms of money, but I got to meet very cool people in the London RPG scene, and those relationships are honestly worth it.

What about the rest of the week?

If I haven’t been answering to all the feedback, what have I been doing? Well, I’m glad you asked! I’ve been doing three main things:

• Fixing bugs: There were a lot of small bugs in both frontend and backend, and I’ve fixed as many as I could find! A summary can be found in the Bardic Tools Blog.
• Speaking of, I’ve started a blog! I think one of the biggest channels for marketing is going to be organic SEO through articles, so I need a platform to publish those. I chose Ghost, because it’s self-hosted and has newsletter capabilities.
• In that blog, I wrote a guide on how to use Bardic Tools. Maybe the reason people didn’t use it is because they didn’t know how. Well, now there is no excuse.
• I started re-writing the soundboard part of the app in Svelte. I got to a point where:
  • I know how complex the project will be,
  • I have a barely functional version working, and
  • I know it will be great for implementing features on the long run. There’s only so much HTMX can do for an application where the UX is the product.
• Then, I dropped it for now. I won’t do it until either:
  • I have 10 paying customers, or
  • I’m sure that adding features is the way to get 10 paying customers.
• I tried out several avenues for marketing:
  • Talking to streamers: Honestly, this felt really awkward. I’d find streamers that were just talking about D&D, introduce myself, and lurk on their streams for a couple of hours, posting now and then, in the hopes that there would be a gap in the conversation where I could ask about D&D soundboards. I did get a bunch of references for possible competition (looking at you, Pocket Bard), but other than that, nothing came out of it.
  • Joining Discord servers: Nothing to report here yet, except that they all are welcoming, they all have self-promotion channels, and nobody reads them. Maybe if I stay in the communities for longer I’ll feel less awkward hawking my wares, but for now I’ll de-prioritize them as well.
• And, the big one…

I got ready to accept payments!

That’s right! Bardic Tools is now officially a product you can buy!

I connected Stripe, went through all the hoops, figured out how to create an account when you pay, changed the landing page, and bada-bim bada-bum, Bob’s yer uncle, now you can buy it!

I’m offering it at an extreme discount for now, until I get 10 sales. Once I get 10 customers, I’ll raise the prices to $10, and so on until I reach $30 and then I’ll just go full hog-enchilada.

So, what’s for next week?

Well, now that you can buy it, I have to figure out how to sell it! At the recommendation of a very nice store owner, I’ve joined the UK Tabletop Industry Network Discord group (guess what it’s for). I’ve chatted with wonderful people who have given me great ideas, and I will be mixing them with some ideas of my own to try to get to 10 buyers.

What ideas are those?

• Re-design the color scheme. I’m not very happy with the color scheme and fonts. For now, it looks too sci-fi. I want it to look more fantasy.
• Write 10 actual, meaty articles for the blog. I’ll write in 2 categories:
  • Guides: How to prepare a session with Bardic tools, how to use Bardic Tools with VTTs…
  • D&D Content: Some of the D&D fights I designed for CoS, maybe with music suggested.
  • I might consider writing “alternatives to” articles.
• Consider adding an FAQ and an comparison table to the landing page.
• Bolstering my Twitter and blueski presence. A few folks in the UK TIN Discord have offered to lend guidance with that.
• Read the 1-page marketing plan, also with the suggestion from the UK TIN Discord.

That’s it! Cheers!