Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms

howtomarketagame.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 125 posts

Re: Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms

#61

Post by domador »

999900000999 wrote: post #54

My counter argument is it can be nearly impossible to build an audience outside of a kingdom. Many popular YouTubers will try and splinter off and create websites where they can monetize better. I'm even subscribed to one of these websites because I really do want to support the Creator, but I still consume almost all of their content on YouTube. YouTube makes it very easy to upload something and for people to consum…

Additionally, often there is only a single kingdom for a given type of audience. One can't simply migrate to another kingdom, and it's very difficult to create a new, viable kingdom.

One of the ways these kinds of problems could be addressed could be through laws that limit the speed and the degree to which monopolistic platforms can unilaterally change their terms and conditions. Other kinds of laws could help protect creators that earn a living through these platforms, such as laws mandating a certain rudimentary level of customer service for money-making creators. Hopefully these kinds of laws would reduce the number of horror stories where a platform simply decided to ignore a creator's customer service request to the point where they lost their source of income, oftentimes due to a technical problem caused by the platform itself, and which the platform was unwilling to have an actual human look into.

Re: Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms

#62

Post by esjeon »

999900000999 wrote: post #54

My counter argument is it can be nearly impossible to build an audience outside of a kingdom. Many popular YouTubers will try and splinter off and create websites where they can monetize better. I'm even subscribed to one of these websites because I really do want to support the Creator, but I still consume almost all of their content on YouTube. YouTube makes it very easy to upload something and for people to consum…

Just bait and switch. You don't have to be loyal to the platform that helped you grow, because it has been using you from the beginning. It has always been a mutual relationship, but people somehow realized it late.

YouTube being the most profitable platform only means that people will consider it as /a/ primary target, but nothing prevents them from using other platforms. As long as the cost is justifiable, multi-platform approach is always better. Luckily, operating on multiple platform is extremely cheap.

Re: Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms

#63

Post by mdoms »

schnevets wrote: post #47

Nice article, but some of the writer's earliest examples are "rug pulls" that happened 10+ years ago... surely the "new" generation of creators have ingrained these lessons already? As a follow-up, I'd want to hear the writer's opinion on how to filter the corrupt kings from the "safe products". MailChimp and Squarespace are easy examples, but are name brand ecosystems like Steam and Spotify necessary evils, or would…

> MailChimp and Squarespace are easy examples, but are name brand ecosystems like Steam and Spotify necessary evils, or would the writer encourage sticking with indie alternatives like itch.io and Bandcamp?

The author does not say you shouldn't use other kingdoms. To the contrary he says you should use the heck out of them. Just don't set up your whole castle there.

Re: Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms

#64

Post by zeteo »

999900000999 wrote: post #54

My counter argument is it can be nearly impossible to build an audience outside of a kingdom. Many popular YouTubers will try and splinter off and create websites where they can monetize better. I'm even subscribed to one of these websites because I really do want to support the Creator, but I still consume almost all of their content on YouTube. YouTube makes it very easy to upload something and for people to consum…

Historically almost everyone built their castles in someone else's kingdom. The barons may have complained a lot, but in practice they were much more likely to build another palace in the capital than in some remote swampy place where the king's writ ran less.

Re: Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms

#65

Post by frosted-flakes »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #22
nightfly wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if you have an exotic/fancy tld, have a backup .com/.net domain ready and maybe live at all times

I'd argue that on today's Internet, if you don't have a .com domain, you do have an exotic/fancy TLD and therefore need to have the .com domain live and redirecting to your exotic TLD.

Your local ccTLD is the exception.

Re: Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms

#66

Post by namlem »

Easier said than done. Mailing lists suck because email sucks. Running things off an independent website sucks because getting traffick to an independent website sucks. Platforms make things way easier because the returns to scale are enormous.

I hope that someday we have platforms that are more democratic, so that those who use them aren't at the mercy of petty dictators. Perhaps something like the Ethereum blockchain could help with that, who knows?

Re: Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms

#68

Post by Kye »

lapinot wrote: post #32
jonny_eh wrote: post #28

Don't open your store in a mall. What if the mall closes or raises your rent?! (sarcasm!)

The power relationship between a mall and a store has nothing to do with the one between you and some multi-billion dollar evil corp.

Simon Property Group isn't any more moral than Google or Amazon.

Re: Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms

#70

Post by foogazi »

ipsin wrote: post #16

Here I am reading, following this reasonable argument and... boom pop-up "call to action" interrupts the hell out of it. I realize the conversion rate could be lower, but why not put this CTA in a non-pop-up form at the end of the article? If I really enjoyed it, that seems like the point where I'd be on board with signing up.

The subscribe to newsletter button ? It seemed unobtrusive enough on mobile
Post reply on HN