#PastebinMonday 12/18/2023 Monetizing the Thing I Love Edition

'Sup, doods!

Can we talk about monetization for a second?

I probably come off as self-centered with how much I am willing to support people that entertain me. I don't generally give financial support that doesn't give me a benefit. I will buy merch that I will actually use before I give a tip. I don't even follow X feeds or subscribe to YouTube channels unless I want to know when they're going to be doing something. I don't respond well to the common YouTube pleas to like, comment, and subscribe because those things don't usually do anything for me.

This has informed how I try to promote myself. I tell you doods to follow me on X & Twitch and join my Discord if you want to know when I'm doing something next, not because you like what I'm doing. By the way, I will definitely want to stream Tetris Attack runs on Friday, February 2. I hope I will be able to give good news on things I will be doing before that, but that's the drop dead date for my live streaming return, ready or not. I've tried to give unique benefits to the different ways I have offered to support me. Subscribing to the Twitch channel gives you the opportunity to join me in a call during the streams. Joining the YouTube membership lets you see exclusive content I am never going to publish. Giving me direct tips lets you request of me to play any game I can stream. I try to go out of my way to inform you why you should want to do any of the supporting things that content creators normally ask for.

What more can I do for you?

I want to open up more options for financial support. People who do content creation full time tend to have merch stores, Patreon, Ko-Fi, Throne, (anyone remember TreatStream?) and basically any other way under the sun to spend money on your entertainment. And yes, I could give out all of those options—I may already have one prepared to launch ;) —but why would I offer multiple means to carry out the same basic transaction, especially when several of those types of services have to take their own cut and take a different cut than the others? Because of how my personal habits have informed how I want to do these things, I am inclined to offer these options if I can give unique benefits to each one. I have heard that Patreon takes bigger cuts than Ko-Fi. Just to spitball for a bit, perhaps I could open up Ko-Fi if you just feel like supporting me and Patreon if you wanted a say in the direction of my content, i.e. what kinds of speedruns or challenges I do. That could be a plan worth exploring.

Perhaps if I was better at this promotion thing, maybe I would set up a time and place for me and you doods to talk shop about these things in a more private setting. Once I have more people invested, then I could have enough voices to consider some real change. I need to start regular streaming in order to raise the chances of that, huh? One day, I will stop talking about monetizing the thing I love to do most, play video games, and just do. Wait, let me get into character...

…

JUST! DO IT!

Today's (permanent) extra streaming goals (actual priority is in constant flux):

Goal #5: script and record footage for my Puzzle League tutorial series. I have some scripts left to touch up before feeling comfortable with moving on to recording gameplay. Then I will need to record my talking points and edit it all together. This is the big thing I hope to get done before the next tournament.
Goal #6: clean up my own stream layout. I am brainstorming how I want the final theming to be. I probably want to give people multiple options, maybe allow spending bits to change the look. I don't have anything written down yet. I don't expect to get to this anytime soon.
Goal #7: maybe make a universal LPS broadcast layout. I have been working on a base, but perhaps I should stylize one for the LPS brand. Let's just say I have plans. Hopefully I wouldn't over-homogenize it like SpeedGaming did. I think I actually need to focus on this ahead of next month's Super Puzzle Fighter tournament.
Goal #8: release the Puzzle League tutorial series YouTube shorts once a day until they're all done. I really do think I need to time the release of the series with a ramping up of my streaming schedule so that I can take advantage of whatever there is to gain from releasing the shorts.

Streams are on hold until I accomplish these goals. Anything I decide to do will be of the guerilla variety and have very little notice. There would probably have to be community races of some sort in order to get this to happen.

In case you missed the video schedule I posted before:

(all releases at 7pm EST unless otherwise indicated)
12/18 (TODAY) - From One Lottery to Another (Or: From One Prison to Another) [Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom]
12/21 - I'm Not Allowed to Chain - V-Hard Edition (Or: PPL V-Hard With Combos Only) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
12/25 @ 1pm EST - I'm Not Allowed to Chain - S-Hard Edition (Or: PPL S-Hard With Combos Only) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
12/28 - Uncharted 3D Waters (Or: Cards Cleanup Crew Returns for Free World Records!) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
1/1 @ 1pm EST - An Easy Button (Or: I Expected This to Take Longer) [Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom]
1/4 - I Beat Easy Mode 5x Without Stopping (Or: I Played More and Only Got Worse) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
1/8 - That Was Easy (Or: That Was Normal?) [Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom]
1/11 - I Beat Normal Mode 5x Without Stopping (Or: A Normal 1P Stadium Experience) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
1/15 - Speedrunning Speed Golf is Really Hard (Or: Why I Can't Handle the Kong) [Mario Golf: Advance Tour]
1/18 - I Beat Hard Mode 5x Without Stopping (Or: A Good First and Last Impression) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
1/22 - A Peachy Improvement (Or: Why I Can't Handle This Game Anymore) [Mario Golf: Advance Tour]
1/25 - I Beat V-Hard Mode 5x Without Stopping (Or: Very Hard? More Like Very Mid) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
1/29 - Kaiba's Sub-5 Lottery (Or: Why This Side Might Be More Random) [Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom]
2/1 - A Proper 100% Speedrun of the Game I Love Most (Or: A Birthday Gift to Me) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
2/5 - The Marathon Sprint for 50K! (Or: You Can Finish This Speedrun with 2Chains) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
2/8 - A Time Barrier Defeated (Or: Why Speedrun Leaderboards Are NOT The End All) [Pokémon Puzzle League]


That’s my life story for the week. Later, doods!

--Cards