By TheAxeWielder/Daniel Kayser
I don’t know about you, but as the internet evolves I’m growing more and more SICK AND FREAKIN’ TIRED of advertising! There seems to be ads on EVERYTHING, and often times the ads have NOTHING to do with the content I’m trying to check out. This happens pretty much everywhere I look, but I really notice it within the realm of gaming. Sure, I understand that McDonalds wants to sell me McMuffins…And I get it, AT&T…You sell phones and shit…Yes, Toyota- I am aware of your latest and greatest vehicle, but guess what…I JUST WANNA KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON IN GAMING!!!
Well my beloved Axe Heads, I’m here to proudly proclaim a revolutionary step in the growth of EpicBattleAxe.com. You see, this thing is growing…fast…and we have the chance to do something really, really special with what EpicBattleAxe is all about – you. We’re sparking conversations and inspiring change…We’re truly cutting through the crap, crying havoc and letting our community’s voice be heard! It’s working, and it’s time to take it to the next level…
But here is the reality – we’re at a crossroads. We have SO MUCH that we wanna do, but don’t have the time or money to do it. Everything that EBA is, right now, has been built by just a handful of contributors with a vision for what we want EpicBattleAxe to become. We’re really close to getting there, but we’ve reached the point where we simply HAVE to start paying the bills and turning this into a gig if its gonna move forward.
Now, as you might suspect, I’ve had to think long and hard about HOW we do that. The traditional route is to approach potential advertisers, tell them we have a shit-ton of traffic, and then run their ads on our site for all to see. They pimp muffins, we make money…and everybody just accepts it as normal. Well, guess what gang – EPICBATTLEAXE ISN’T FUCKIN’ NORMAL!!!! You see, I’ve decided that instead of trying to take this thing to the next level by subjecting you, our valued community, to ADS THAT YOU DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT, I’d rather attempt to eliminate said craptastic ads from our site altogether and rely on a combination of funding from OUR COMMUNITY and MEANINGFUL MARKETING that actually makes sense! I’m calling it PROJECT AWESOME and it goes a little something like this:
1) EBA WILL BE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED: That’s right, you read that correctly. Instead of laying down and going the traditional route, EBA is laying ourselves at the community’s feet. We’re cleaning up the site, removing several of the busy ads, and aiming to supplement the cash we would traditionally make from some of those ads by asking our community to donate to the EpicBattleAxe movement. Our news, our shows, our voice is YOUR voice, and we want nothing more than to impact the industry through relevant, timely discussions that WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY. By leaning on our supporters instead of relying solely on advertisers, we can put forth the content and environment that we think everybody wants. The goal? To create a destination that our community is PROUD to support and to deliver a respected, viable, influential source that will impact the industry. Simple as that.
2) OUR “ADVERTISING” WILL BE RELEVANT, INFORMATIVE, AND ENTERTAINING: Let’s be realistic…We can’t throw the entire weight of the site on our community and besides, and there are often LEGITIMATE products/services that are cool for our us to know about. So, in place of standard ads you see now, we’ll ultimately work with potential partners to create content around the things they offer and deliver features/segments framed around them. We don’t have any of these partnerships in place just yet, so traditional ads will replace them until we do, but that’s the long-term goal. Of course, you’ll KNOW that these are paid for and we’re gonna make it perfectly clear who the sponsor is so you can choose to look at that particular piece of content however you like. In other words, we’re gonna be HONEST with our users and PRODUCTIVE for our partners. It’s kinda like we give a shit about what we’re doing around here…go figure.
So, there ya go…Several of the ad units on the site are being removed altogether or replaced with a mix of regular content promotion, partnership content promotion, and “ANTI-ADS” that will basically poke fun at the crap you’re FORCED to see on other gaming sites. I’m calling it PROJECT AWESOME because, quite frankly, I think it would be AWESOME if we can all pull this thing off together. A site being run by folks that ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT GAMING on the strength of its users and integrated marketing that MAKES SENSE while producing an end user experience that EVERYONE can be proud of??? Tell me that wouldn’t be AWESOME!!!
Obviously, this is a project….which means we’re gonna do this thing and see how it goes. It can fail and we can be forced to go the traditional route…That’s just reality. We’re not gonna beg you boys and girls for donations. There are “Support The ‘Axe” buttons on the home page and throughout the site where you can simply donate a few bucks per month or whatever you wanna do. You don’t have to sign up. We’re not gonna email you reminders. There’s no subscriptions, there’s no auto-renewals, there’s none of that…We may implement a system at some point down the line, but it’s not happening right now. We’re hoping that our daily news, features, EpicBattleCry video podcast, and influx of future content is worth a few bucks a month to each of you. That’s our target. It’s like one US dollar per week or something…like a game rental or a double-cheeseburger with fries and a coke each month except you get a kick-ass gaming website that LISTENS to its users without FORCING them to view advertising that basically sucks…
Oh, and so you know, here are a few of the things we have planned to roll out over the next few months:
- More Feature Articles
- More Original Videos
- User Polls To Dictate The Content On EBA
- User Surveys That Will Be Sent Out To The Industry At Large To Let Your Voice Be Heard
- EpicBattleAxe.com Event Coverage (like E3 and shit!)
Those are just a FEW of the things we’re cookin’ up, but as pointed out already, it’s gonna take your support. So, let us know how you feel about this. We’ve set up a forum thread to discuss the matter. Seriously, we wanna hear from you! We’re at a crossroads and before we have to give in to the ad sales and other BS that might negatively impact the experience for our community, we wanna put ourselves in your hands. Whether or not what we’re doing is worth it will be determined by you, the EpicBattleAxe.com community in the end.
Now, CRY HAVOC AND LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!!!!
TheAxeWielder/Daniel Kayser
