When I posted my New Year's message, I told you I had things planned for this year, and I wasn't kidding. And, I am a man of my word! I was planning on getting all of this done in the background and keeping you updated sporadically. A brief post here or there. But why not take you all along for the ride? I'm not going to sugar coat anything. I'll cover everything that goes right as well as everything that goes tragically wrong. No doubt they will. And you will be the first to hear about it. If you're interested of course, if not, move along, nothing to see here. It could be quite good for me also, having somewhere to rant when the shit hits the fan. I'm not too far into my journey to grow the BHO, but let's at least cover what I've done so far...
Let us start with this blog. Four-ish months ago I created this blog, yep, the very one you're reading now. I did so primarily to keep my fellow members appraised of all the results of all the various matches we played. Then, as is my character, I couldn't help but write other various ramblings about all things Yahtzee related. At first I did all this just to entertain the friends and family that played Yahtzee with me. For a good while, that's how it stayed. I managed to get a chuckle or two from my fellow cohorts, and I was happy. In fact, if that's how it stays from here on out, I'd still be happy. I'm not a super ambitious human being, but I did think that maybe others might be interested in my waffle, so I began sharing it. I set up a Facebook Group and used that to share my posts to other groups that shared an interest in board games. Lo and behold, my blog started to get views. Since then, the blog's viewership has grown far beyond that of our own faction. We are getting views from all over the world. To me that is mind boggling. Unfortunately, these views have not resulted in engagement. I want to see comments on my posts, whether positive or negative. Couldn't care less. Just engagement will do for me. I want new members, new Factions, and a whole community of people playing competitive Yahtzee. Clearly there is much more to do.
So recently, I thought I'd do it, even though I'm not quite sure how. The best way I could think to do it, is to go live. Not in the social media sense (although that is an option), but take Yahtzee to real people. Take it out there in to the big wide world, away from the living room, dining room and the internet. I want to hold live events, or evenings, with perfect strangers in a public place. Create a stir. Is it something that will get the average Joe excited? I really don't know. But there is only one way to find out. This is actually quite a big thing for me personally. I struggle being around strangers, let alone being the fella that is leading the project. But I've gotta get over it at some point haven't I, so why not now? Why not go balls to the wall with all I have?
Obviously it's best to start small, so that's exactly what I've done. I'm concentrating on my local area and I'm concerning myself primarily with pubs. Why? Because I'm gonna be there and I bloody love a beer. So I made a list of all the boozers nearby that might be willing to let a group of people borrow an "area" to let them get their Yahtzee on. I contacted five venues, there are a few more I could contact, but again, I thought I'd start off small. I am one man after all. Regrettably, only two of the five venues replied. I could have got cynical and depressed about this, but I didn't, I was happy to get the responses I did. So I have a couple of venues I can bring my fellow reprobates, and new faces, and blast out some Yahtzee AND hopefully gain some new recruits. It's a small thing, but to me, pretty exciting.
But what is a venue without people to fill it? After all, if you want to fill a venue, you have to advertise. So I thought about it for a while. I concluded that the simplest way to advertise (apart from social media) was to create some posters and put them up locally. I will be using social media too, of course, but I do prefer physical media in these situations. I used to create posters another life ago for the Shipley Glen Tramway. I used to volunteer quite a lot and I even drove the trams. Toot toot. If you'll allow me to blow my own trumpet for a second, I did a pretty bloody good job. But, alas, I no longer have the means to do it myself anymore, nor the inclination if I'm honest. So I reached out to a very highly regarded local printer, who is prepared to design and print some posters at a very reasonable rate. As soon as they are printed, we can crack on and get them out there. That's when the real growth begins. At the moment we are still in the discussion phase of the process, but hopefully it won't be long. Once I have them in my greasy palms you can bet I'll be slapping them everywhere I can thing of.
Let us start with this blog. Four-ish months ago I created this blog, yep, the very one you're reading now. I did so primarily to keep my fellow members appraised of all the results of all the various matches we played. Then, as is my character, I couldn't help but write other various ramblings about all things Yahtzee related. At first I did all this just to entertain the friends and family that played Yahtzee with me. For a good while, that's how it stayed. I managed to get a chuckle or two from my fellow cohorts, and I was happy. In fact, if that's how it stays from here on out, I'd still be happy. I'm not a super ambitious human being, but I did think that maybe others might be interested in my waffle, so I began sharing it. I set up a Facebook Group and used that to share my posts to other groups that shared an interest in board games. Lo and behold, my blog started to get views. Since then, the blog's viewership has grown far beyond that of our own faction. We are getting views from all over the world. To me that is mind boggling. Unfortunately, these views have not resulted in engagement. I want to see comments on my posts, whether positive or negative. Couldn't care less. Just engagement will do for me. I want new members, new Factions, and a whole community of people playing competitive Yahtzee. Clearly there is much more to do.
So recently, I thought I'd do it, even though I'm not quite sure how. The best way I could think to do it, is to go live. Not in the social media sense (although that is an option), but take Yahtzee to real people. Take it out there in to the big wide world, away from the living room, dining room and the internet. I want to hold live events, or evenings, with perfect strangers in a public place. Create a stir. Is it something that will get the average Joe excited? I really don't know. But there is only one way to find out. This is actually quite a big thing for me personally. I struggle being around strangers, let alone being the fella that is leading the project. But I've gotta get over it at some point haven't I, so why not now? Why not go balls to the wall with all I have?
Obviously it's best to start small, so that's exactly what I've done. I'm concentrating on my local area and I'm concerning myself primarily with pubs. Why? Because I'm gonna be there and I bloody love a beer. So I made a list of all the boozers nearby that might be willing to let a group of people borrow an "area" to let them get their Yahtzee on. I contacted five venues, there are a few more I could contact, but again, I thought I'd start off small. I am one man after all. Regrettably, only two of the five venues replied. I could have got cynical and depressed about this, but I didn't, I was happy to get the responses I did. So I have a couple of venues I can bring my fellow reprobates, and new faces, and blast out some Yahtzee AND hopefully gain some new recruits. It's a small thing, but to me, pretty exciting.
But what is a venue without people to fill it? After all, if you want to fill a venue, you have to advertise. So I thought about it for a while. I concluded that the simplest way to advertise (apart from social media) was to create some posters and put them up locally. I will be using social media too, of course, but I do prefer physical media in these situations. I used to create posters another life ago for the Shipley Glen Tramway. I used to volunteer quite a lot and I even drove the trams. Toot toot. If you'll allow me to blow my own trumpet for a second, I did a pretty bloody good job. But, alas, I no longer have the means to do it myself anymore, nor the inclination if I'm honest. So I reached out to a very highly regarded local printer, who is prepared to design and print some posters at a very reasonable rate. As soon as they are printed, we can crack on and get them out there. That's when the real growth begins. At the moment we are still in the discussion phase of the process, but hopefully it won't be long. Once I have them in my greasy palms you can bet I'll be slapping them everywhere I can thing of.
And that's about it, so far. As I've stated many times before, these things take time, and I'm fully prepared. I will continue to keep you updated whenever something of note happens, so keep your eyes peeled my friends, there's a long way to go. We might get a TV deal yet!!
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