Let's make a promo!
Why make a promo?
As the website is brand new, there are challenges to overcome.
- No one has heard about it.
- Since no one has heard about it, no one is going to trust it.
- The platform also has a catch-22 problem. To be useful to a person, the platform needs community leaders to create clubs, but those leaders will only create clubs if there are people there.
Why not pay for advertising?
I am trying to solve the 'catch-22' problem first. The goal is to get a core group of leaders in the Grand Rapids and West Michigan area as it is where I live. Once that core group of people have established clubs, then I can pay for advertising in the area to get those clubs filled and get people connected in the real world.
Another reason to target Grand Rapids is if things are not working well, I can directly interact with users and make changes as needed. Cost is another consideration as this is all self-funded, I am working on a shoestring budget and am still using some free-tier services. Eventually, advertising will be used to help spread the word but I want to get 30-50 clubs established so that when users visit there is a community to interact with.
What isn't working?
I didn't realize that getting people to try out the app would be the hard part about software development. With some input from others, I decided that I would try a personal appeal on the socials. Currently, we have a small social media presence on
I've also made personal posts on LinkedIn and Reddit. These haven't seen much engagement other than support from my family and friends (which I really appreciate!).
What is working?
Most of my friends and quite a few former colleagues have created an account and checked it out, so that is cool. Some people from my tabletop gaming groups have also checked it out. I built this platform with gamers in mind so that they can find other role-playing and tabletop people close by, but it is really built for any small group where people want to gather around a common interest like coffee or photography.
Everyone that I have spoken with about the idea seems really supportive as they are sick and tired of being abused by social media and the enshittification of the internet.
The e-mail subscribers list has been stable and that has been a good way to communicate new information
I'm hoping that this blog will also enable more search engine optimization along with being an educational tool for people that are curious about the platform.
The implementation
There is quite a bit that went into making a short little video. Leveraging a little of my amateur photography skills and some basics gleaned from YouTube tutorials, I set up in my office.
Equipment
- Camera: Sony Alpha 7 mark IV with a Tamron 70-180mm lens
- Teleprompter app and reflector to mount to the camera. (It turns out that even with the text displayed, I stumble over my words)
- Samson Q2U Microphone
- Captured Audio Video input with OBS Studio
- Post-processing and video editing with Shotcut
I should get some affiliate links... this app isn't going to fund itself...
Sidequest
I had one major hiccup when recording. My initial recordings were done with the wrong microphone so the audio was captured poorly with my laptop microphone. When I plugged in the correct microphone, then something happened which I couldn't explain. The recordings no longer were outputting any of the audio. I went on a 2 hour long debugging adventure and went through many guides on setting up OBS Studio and configuring audio output and channels.
What I finally discovered, is that Windows had switched my system's audio output to the microphone, so on playback it was sending the output data to the microphone. There was nothing wrong with OBS Studio at all. It was never going to work because my microphone is not a speaker! After changing my Window's system settings back to my speakers, then everything was working correctly because it was working correctly the entire time. On the bright side, I got to get deeply familiar with audio options in OBS Studio. I just had to spend a lot of time debugging the wrong thing.
The final product
The goal was to mostly practice making a video. A lot of effort was put into problem solving instead of production, so the lighting wasn't great. The exterior light was overpowering my small LED lamp which illuminates me from a strange "under the chin" angle. The learning experience was good and I'm sure the next one will be even better.