Firstly, I have a link to my Paypal account on the top of the sidebar to the right, and so far, absolutely nobody has donated even a penny to it. So since Paypal is clearly not working out yet, I'm thinking that maybe I should explore alternate possibilities of revenue, like Patreon. The problem is that if I did join Patreon, I wouldn't know where to begin! What would I say in my reason for being on Patreon? What kind of goals and rewards should I include? (Outside of none at all; I don't want to name names, but there are fairly successful Patreons out there that don't reward their backers or produce anything of note, and those tend to be... well, let's just say they know about the "Wounded Gazelle Gambit" and leave it at that) I know that Grant Fikes has a Patreon, but I probably shouldn't copy his rewards outright; I know this blog was heavily influenced by his, but that would be a little too on-the-nose, so to speak. If I do decide to join Patreon or somewhere similar, I think I'll leave my Paypal button there in case someone wants to pay me for a one-off commission or something.
My second quandary is about having people stay on this site: I've had more than a few people solve my puzzles, but also more than a few people who haven't solved any of my puzzles in a while. (Case in point, only six people have solved my latest puzzle so far, half of whom I know in person and was present when they solved it) Are the puzzles too hard for them? Are the clues too esoteric? Are they too busy with other things? Did they just plain forget? I was thinking of having a survey or something like that, but once again, I don't know what I should ask on it or who I should give it to.
Another question I have is this: How do I promote this blog? I don't belong to any social networking sites (Deviantart doesn't count, and even if it did, I haven't updated my profile in years), mostly because I don't want to risk coming in contact with unreasonable, short-tempered, "Everything Is Offensive"-type people. I've had a couple meta-crosswords promoted through Matt Gaffney's site, but I don't think that's going to happen anymore. I was thinking of making a TVTropes page for this site, but somehow, I fear that it'll be ignored and/or die out quickly. Are there any other possibilities that I'm not thinking of?
I want as many people as possible to respond to these questions plaguing me, so let me know what you think either through email or commenting on this blog. And because I want as many readers as possible to look at and reply to this post (and because my puzzle buffer is completely empty as I write this), I'm taking the week off, meaning that there will be no new puzzle tomorrow. I'll most likely have one next week, so look forward to that!
Oh yeah, that "Patchwords" puzzle! Here's all the people that solved it:
- Eric Maddy ****
- Grant Fikes ****
- YYW ****
- Alex & Eric Milton ****
- Sam Levitin ****
- Lynn Sweeney ****
- Mom ****
- Debbie Benford ****
- Adam Weaver ****
Now head below the break for the answers, as well as something involving this puzzle you might have missed!
OPERATION, TURBO, RESCUE, OLIVER, MONSTERS, DINOSAUR, ALPHA, OVERDRIVE, SAMURAI, FINSTER, THUNDER, SUPERHERO, COMBINING, NINJA, PHANTOM, YELLOW, FORCE, TOMMY, GALAXY, JUNGLE, CHARGE, NICKELODEON, ALIEN
The two unclued patches, highlighted above, spell out POWER RANGERS
I'm not sure if any of the solvers noticed, but all of the answers had to do with Power Rangers in some shape or form; some of the seasons were called SAMURAI, OPERATION OVERDRIVE, NINJA Storm, and Lost GALAXY, TOMMY OLIVER is the name of a major recurring Power Ranger, NICKELODEON is the network it currently airs on, FINSTER created the MONSTERS during the Mighty Morphin' seasons, and so on and so forth. When I told Alex and Eric Milton this after they solved it, Eric had a feeling it involved Power Rangers after solving several of the clues and Alex said [paraphrased] "This adds a whole new level to this puzzle!"
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| The PHANTOM Ranger from Power Rangers TURBO |
Solver Adam Weaver said that "I liked the pentwords feel to it."
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I won't be too offended if you copy my Patreon. Also look for the Patreon pages of Nathan Curtis and Pavel Curtis for inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't know where to begin to get a signal boost and an enduring readership. For now, just interact with the puzzle community a lot and keep posting content.
Ryan, you are an amazing puzzle maker and person! I personally do not use online forms of payment if I can avoid them and this is for security reasons. So it would be nice for me to donate or pay another way. As you know, I would like t o hire you to make an educational puzzle for my neuroanatomy class. I am sure we will figure this out. I am afraid I dont know enough about the other tech options to advise you. I do think it is good to explore your goals and get input from others. I do want to work more of your puzzles and can donate something from time to time. Maybe if you could have free puzzles and more complex puzzles that people buy a subscription for so many months?? Lynn
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