So we’re just under the halfway mark for the year 2009. RoleplayingPro has grown to be a little over six months old. I set some pretty lofty goals for 2009 at the beginning of this year in the hopes that even if I just accomplished a few of them, I’d make massive progress. I’ve committed to making some honest assessments periodically. The last progress report I did was at the beginning of March, so I think we’re about due. Let’s check and see how RoleplayingPro has progressed towards its 2009 blogging goals!

Improved Blog Design – NO PROGRESS – As much as I tried in this area, the blog look hasn’t changed much in the last two months. Yax, from DungeonMastering.com, did give a shout-out to us in his newsletter, RPG Maestro. I appreciated the comment from him about the professional look of the blog. Aside from that, I have talked with a few companies on professionally designing a blog look for me. After finding out how much it would cost and the lack of changes I’d be able to make afterwards, I realized that I could use this base design for the blog and go from there. I’m actually getting more and more comfortable with modifying the code and art. I like the design of the backend for this theme, so I’m going to do the rest of the modifications I need myself. So maybe in a sense, deciding I’m going to be doing the future work myself is progress!

More Pictures – POSITIVE PROGRESS – Although I haven’t decided on the final setup for it, I’ve been working on using Picasa web albums to host pictures for the website. Then, using some widgets designed for WordPress so I can more seamlessly host roleplaying pictures on the site. I’m also getting pretty good with Paint.NET and a few other picture programs. I expect to have a gallery up on the website fairly soon. I also came up with a fairly unique idea that involves pictures and an intangible feature for the blog, but I don’t want to give that away just yet.

More Quality Content – NO PROGRESS – For the most part, John and I are starting to find our blogging voices. He brings a strong, veteran game presence with a huge emphasis on D&D. I bring a more intermediate level of gaming knowledge with a focus on many different types of games. The overall quantity of our posts has been slightly less this period during the last two months, but I’m actually pretty happy still. John had a pretty bad illness which knocked him out for a while, and my wife gave birth to our first child in April. Yet we were both still able to keep the content flowing each week, albeit maybe one post per week less than we normally do. Content is king though, and I really need to start ramping up in this area if I want to get this blog to where it has to be.

Self-Sustaining – POSITIVE PROGRESS – Although I haven’t made any money with the site, it continues to bring in other goodies for me. I’ve received roleplaying books, miniatures, computer games, and video games through the website. Just recently I received six sets of four (twenty-four total) Yakuza miniatures from Trevor at Dixon Miniatures. It was a brand new line for them so I was pretty stoked to be able to preview their miniatures before they were made available to the public.

Intangible Features – NO PROGRESS – I actually did come up with two intangible features that I thought would be great for the site. I figured they would give the site distinction and help them stand out from the crowd a little. Then my bubble got burst. I realized that another site had one feature that was pretty darn close to the primary one I was thinking of. But it actually turned out okay though because I modified my idea into another one that I think would still really work. The second idea will take a lot of time and effort and is something I’m really interested in. However, I’m not sure if it will garner a lot of interest. So I’m concerned about pouring tons of effort into something that may not pay off big. So I’m still deciding on whether to pursue it or not.

Improved Direction – NO PROGRESS – I consider this the most important aspect for me to focus on over the next few months. No progress is actually a move forward in the right direction from the last update, considering I really messed up the blog by testing it out both as a pen and paper roleplaying blog and a video game blog. I’ve realized the error of my ways and am in the process of building a second blog for the computer games and video games (if you are one of the guys helping me BETA test the site, no talking about it yet!). Other than that, my primary focus over the next few months is to get a definite direction on where I want to take RoleplayingPro. That way, I can start mapping a plan on how to get there.

Increased Readership – POSITIVE PROGRESS – The hardest goal that I set was to obtain 500 subscribers by the end of the year. The vast majority of roleplaying blogs do not reach this milestone. At the beginning of 2009 we were around 25-35. In March 2009 we had risen to approximately 75-80 subscribers. Right now were hovering over the 100 subscriber mark. I’m really proud that we’ve broken the three digit mark, but we’re really going to have to pick up the pace if I want to hit the goal of 500 by the end of the year.

If you have any comments on the progress of the blog, please let us know. We’d be happy to hear both what you think that we are doing well, and what we need to improve upon with the blog. Thanks for reading RoleplayingPro!