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RipLab Marketing
- Thread starter Jason Waddell
- Start date
I had talked with another cube writer a while back, and his vision was to create a front page as well, with user submitted articles and other things (blog entries, etc.). I know Wordpress is out there as a pretty easy way to set up such a page. Is this something other people are interested in?
In practice, what would happen is that you guys would create mini-article type of things, and we would host them on the front page. I will probably just keep on doing full articles at CFB, so this would be something you all could really take ownership of. Once we have things in a blog/article structure, we can start to link and advertise things elsewhere. We've been getting a lot of foot traffic via Reddit, and this would be another avenue. Also it gives users an opportunity to flex their writing skills and create something that will be more lasting than a forum post.
I prototyped a front page in Wordpress. I've never used Wordpress before, but here's what I whipped up to show the potential:
http://moxmoxbalancego.wordpress.com/
A nice little minimalist site that links clearly to our forums, allows for beautiful card images, and can be a great home to user-generated content.
http://moxmoxbalancego.wordpress.com/
A nice little minimalist site that links clearly to our forums, allows for beautiful card images, and can be a great home to user-generated content.
Hey guys. Was playing around in photoshop today and decided to try my hand at some banners for the forum/website.
I had no idea what would be the ideal resolution for the banner image for the forum, so I just used the same resolution as the banner for the main page. I made a black and a white version, along with some transparent ones (one with dark text and the other one with a lighter text color for using with darker backgrounds).
If you guys enjoyed them and want to change something, just give me a call and I can either make the adjustments or upload the psd file.
I had no idea what would be the ideal resolution for the banner image for the forum, so I just used the same resolution as the banner for the main page. I made a black and a white version, along with some transparent ones (one with dark text and the other one with a lighter text color for using with darker backgrounds).
If you guys enjoyed them and want to change something, just give me a call and I can either make the adjustments or upload the psd file.
Hi Vince! Thanks for making these. These look great and I like the colors that you've used! Very clean and professional!
Eric and I are currently trying to figure out the whole marketing and branding thing, and this looks far far better than anything we've come up with.
If you (or anyone else) are so inclined, one thing that I personally think would be really neat is a minimalist "logo" style depiction of the Riptide Lab card art (just the main building). Something iconic. I have no graphic design skills to speak of, but the adjectives that come to mind are "clean, colorful, and pop".
Eric and I are currently trying to figure out the whole marketing and branding thing, and this looks far far better than anything we've come up with.
If you (or anyone else) are so inclined, one thing that I personally think would be really neat is a minimalist "logo" style depiction of the Riptide Lab card art (just the main building). Something iconic. I have no graphic design skills to speak of, but the adjectives that come to mind are "clean, colorful, and pop".
Geeeez. Vince, you are a champ. That is some beautiful work, right there.
Jason and I are really grateful that you and others in the community have been so willing to step up and fill the gaps that we currently, frankly, suck at. You guys are a real asset to the community!
Jason and I are really grateful that you and others in the community have been so willing to step up and fill the gaps that we currently, frankly, suck at. You guys are a real asset to the community!
Thanks for the replies, guys! I told Jason yesterday over PM that I would see if I could work on the logo as well. I'll mull over the idea for a while and get back to you guys as soon as I have something interesting to show.
Also, dude, change that background color to black or try using the transparent one. That blue on black thing is really annoying me
(Also try using the transparent one on the main page so it keeps the background texture as well; the transparent ones are the two bottom ones)
Also, dude, change that background color to black or try using the transparent one. That blue on black thing is really annoying me
(Also try using the transparent one on the main page so it keeps the background texture as well; the transparent ones are the two bottom ones)
Haha I recommended it today on salvation to a guy looking for help with his ideas for a multicolor cube before I had seen this. I had no idea salvation was seeming like the enemy, but from the look of the garbage you get sometimes in the Facebook comments on CFB articles I can see how the dismissive attitude on Salvation might be frustrating.
RE: The PR problem discussed on the first page. As stated, this doesn't have to be a big issue, this is just a place where cubes that might be a little harder to relate to are discussed, but make it easy on posters and readers, give them lots of access to material that explains reasoning and will help them get their toes in the water. We want this stuff to be muchos available.
My other thought was you can really soften that image if you can find a friendly voice with reasonable credentials to start posting here and putting up content for the more traditional end. Maybe make some kinda colum where the sides interact. You could split parts of the forum I two if it became a big deal. Lots of great cuber's out there and not all of them are bubbling with vitriol over people who evaluate cards and constraints differently I'm discussion.
Creating a relationship with podcast streamers etc would also be really helpful.
I always thought banner signatures were kinda tacky but I'm all for drumming up conversation.
How can I, the participant help besides that?
I think I already mentioned to Eric about doing promo events or regular media content or contests to give away sweet altered cards.
RE: The PR problem discussed on the first page. As stated, this doesn't have to be a big issue, this is just a place where cubes that might be a little harder to relate to are discussed, but make it easy on posters and readers, give them lots of access to material that explains reasoning and will help them get their toes in the water. We want this stuff to be muchos available.
My other thought was you can really soften that image if you can find a friendly voice with reasonable credentials to start posting here and putting up content for the more traditional end. Maybe make some kinda colum where the sides interact. You could split parts of the forum I two if it became a big deal. Lots of great cuber's out there and not all of them are bubbling with vitriol over people who evaluate cards and constraints differently I'm discussion.
Creating a relationship with podcast streamers etc would also be really helpful.
I always thought banner signatures were kinda tacky but I'm all for drumming up conversation.
How can I, the participant help besides that?
I think I already mentioned to Eric about doing promo events or regular media content or contests to give away sweet altered cards.
These are both very good ideas, and all I can say is to keep your eyes open. We've got something in the works.
Rob Dennis
Developer
These are both very good ideas, and all I can say is to keep your eyes open. We've got something in the works.
I think we know where that landed. Heh.
So my friend/co-worker is one of the founders of magfest.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAGFest) and since he's my main cube playgroup-compatriot, he's suggested that I chair a panel about cube. Something aimed at folks who draft a lot, maybe play some commander, and they might be interested in drafting an experience that they've designed themselves.
I'm unsure about how I feel about that given that I'm literally "some guy with a list he cobbled from forum posts and google docs and don't get to play that much" but I love cube and want it to be more common in the Washington DC area, so I'm considering it.
My longshot best case scenario is to convince Kranny to come out and attend 3 days of video game music concerts in early January and have the dozens of cube community folks in MD/VA/NC that I know of (Parnell/Kenny Mayer/Styborski/Klug/dozens more) and make a weekend out of it.
Yes, I suppose now my previously cryptic message makes sense.
Lucre, as far as contributing goes, I would just say keep doing what you are doing. You've been a great member of our forums in your short time here. As always, your ideas and suggestions are always welcome. Your suggestion to reach out to a mainstream podcaster was brilliant, even if we were already on that beneath the surface.
Ideas for promotions are also welcome. With Kranny on board we now have more manpower and experience to pull things off, so any suggestions will certainly be taken into serious consideration.
VibeBox
Contributor
imagine this:
i'm in a thread where someone is talking about Blink and i've never seen Goblin Settler before. i hover on it and a box comes up with not only the card image, but a box alongside where i can see the % of cubes that run it, its archetype tags, and options to "add to my cube bullpen".
pipe dreams, perhaps, but it'd be the best thing to ever happen to cube brewing.
i'm in a thread where someone is talking about Blink and i've never seen Goblin Settler before. i hover on it and a box comes up with not only the card image, but a box alongside where i can see the % of cubes that run it, its archetype tags, and options to "add to my cube bullpen".
pipe dreams, perhaps, but it'd be the best thing to ever happen to cube brewing.
I always thought something like this would be good to run at GenCon. If you had enough notice, you might even be able to rent a small space. As for a trip to MD, I've been wanting to visit the MD guys for a while, so it's definitely not out of the question. Jan might be a little rough, but maybe next fall or spring if I have some extra vacation days
Wow, this is a seriously cool idea. It might be a monumental undertaking, but definitely one for the backlog!
Chris Taylor
Contributor
As a dev myself, Just getting pricing info is hard enough
But My god would that be sweet
But My god would that be sweet
Rob Dennis
Developer
Getting the % of cubes and tags would be simple if something like cube tutor took on exposing an API and doing the tags.
Around this time last year, a number of us were dangling the tantalizing idea of a Cube Summit of sorts, that would take place at GenCon, as Kranny mention above. Due to a number of people in the initial conversation ultimately being unable to attend, myself included, the idea never came to fruition. I think GenCon was chosen since it had the most cross-appeal for people attending the cube meet-up and do other shit too, so what you're suggesting makes a lot of sense. I would be 1000% on board to revisit this idea at sometime in the future, and make it an annual thing really. I don't think the rest of the VA/MD guys are on this forum yet, but I can say with about 95% certainty that they would be interested in such an event if it were in the DC area.
Regarding the initial marketing discussion, I think the various social media outlets make the most sense for reach and general plugging. I do operate the MTG Cube Drafting Facebook site, and want to make it into the source for all cube-related content on the web, but am unable to devote the time alone to do so. Maybe we partner this site and that page together? Since it's been largely innactive for the time I was unable to publish articles, this might be the perfect time for a relaunch of sorts, alongside this site as well as my vision for cube-content hub. Any ideas?
And even though I haven't been super active in the week since I was directed towards here, I do hope to be in the future, and as such, I don't mind plugging the forums at the end of each of my biweekly SCG articles.
Thanks for listening guys, I hope I can help push this along!
Hey Justin, thanks for your enthusiasm!
I'm not terribly active on Facebook, at least not in a Magic sense, so I'm not really aware of the various groups that exist. I will say that anything that pushes the cube community in a more positive direction is a good thing in my book. I'll be sure to point Kranny and Eric in this direction!
I'm not terribly active on Facebook, at least not in a Magic sense, so I'm not really aware of the various groups that exist. I will say that anything that pushes the cube community in a more positive direction is a good thing in my book. I'll be sure to point Kranny and Eric in this direction!