This is a compilation of all of Jamey’s posts for entrepreneurs and creators. You can support this blog by becoming a Stonemaier Champion.
Marketing
Marketing
Build a Crowd
- 10 Daily Actions to Build Your Crowd
- 10 Marketing Methods Used at Stonemaier Games (2024 Edition)
- 10 Ways I Market Stonemaier Games
- Preventing a Dud
- Pull the Tooth
- Do You Really Need a Website?
- One Simple Way to Significantly Improve Your Website Today
- Start an E-Newsletter
- Segmentation and the Pitfalls of Not Knowing Your Customers’ Region
- What Motivates People to Subscribe to an E-Newsletter?
- Help Them First
- How I Run Our Facebook Groups
- How the Best Discords Are Run
- Cronuts and 100 Lovers
- Sharing the Love…of Your Competition
- An Epiphany About the Sides of Game Boxes
- The Marketing Power of Effort and Earned Rewards
- Teaser, Preorder, or Launch: Our Three Announcement Methods
- Solving the Mystery of Forecasting and Gauging Demand
Content Creation
- The First Barrier Is the Biggest
- Write a Blog
- Top 5 Things to Know About Content Marketing
- Everything I’ve Learned as a YouTuber
- I Should Have Tried StreamYard Years Ago
- How (and Why) I Blurred My Recent YouTube Video
- 5 Low-Tech Tips for YouTube Creators (2020 Edition)
- Top 5 Videos from the Past Year: Is There a Pattern?
- What’s the Most Eye-Catching Format for YouTube Thumbnail Images?
- Villains Result in Clicks (and Other Insights from Thumbnail Images)
- Top 10 Ways to Be a Likable Content Creator
- 3 Questions to Ask Before Posting Something Controversial
- The Disembodied Teacher: How to Lecture via Skype
- What Is Your Preferred Way to Consume Content?
- Seasons of Content: When Are They the Right Fit?
- Is There a Future for Written Reviews?
Social Networks
- 10 Things I’ve Learned About Social Media This Year
- Social Networks
- Proactive vs. Reactive Social Media Presence
- LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest
- Finding Your Style and Growing as an Instagram Board Game Content Creator
- 20 Instagram Strategies and My Recommendations
- Why We Share
- Click Me! Share Me! Like Me!
- How to Go Viral in Two Easy Steps
- 3 Ways to Inspire People to Post Photos of Your Product
- Word of Mouth: How Do You Inspire the Best Type of Marketing?
- Break the Internet to Make a Community
- Love Your Competitors
- Can a Good-Natured Rivalry Boost Your Business?
- 4 Social Media Tips from an Industry Leader
- A Proposal: Let’s Not Talk Business Over Facebook Messenger and Text
- First Contact with a Stranger in Your Industry
Relationship-Driven Marketing
- The 3 Secrets to Marketing
- Outward-Facing Positivity
- Your Target Audience Is Not “Everyone”
- Sell Me This Pen
- Say Yes to Every Interview
- How to Make an Introduction by Email
- The Power of a Personalized Message at First Contact
- The Marketing of Love and Partners
- How Gloomhaven and Xia Encourage Modding and Fan-Generated Content
- 10 Ways to Support Your Backlist
- Enticing, Respecting, and Retaining Early Adopters When You Make Updates
External Marketing and Advertising
- Creating a Spectacle
- A Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Ads
- Paid Advertising and How Backers Find Your Project
- Which Banner Ad Message Gets the Most Clicks?
- Everything Crowdfunders Need to Know About Advertising
- 10 Million Views: The Results of an Advertising Experiment
- Rick and Morty, Revisionist History, and Ads I’m Happy to Consume
- Bees and Seaweed: Recent Advertising Results
- The Leeroy Jenkins Approach to Marketing
- Contests
- The Danger of Free
- The Dark and Light Side of FREE
- Giveaways
- Marketing Products with Spoilers
- Spur-of-the-Moment Marketing
- The Impact of Repetition
- Repetition: More Important Than Ever Before
- The Ladder Approach to Media Coverage
Reviewers
Sales
Sales
Your Webstore
- How to Sell the Retail Version of Your Product Online
- Selling Inventory vs. Accepting Pre-Orders: A Dual Solution
- 5 Ways to Sell Your Brand Despite Social Distancing
- Gift Commerce and the Stonemaier Games Gift Guide
- You’re Already Awesome…but Do Your Customers Know Why?
- Notification Emails: How You Can Avoid My Mistake
- The Impact of “Back in Stock” Notifications
- I’d Like to Return This Product
- This Flash Sale Technique Has Amazed Me…Twice!
- An Experimental Twist on the Money-Back Guarantee
- 17 Sales Techniques Worth Exploring
- Our New 20-Day Price Guarantee
- If You’re Going to Sell T-Shirts…
- My Thoughts on the P500 Program
- Customer, Gamer, and Viewer Retention
- This or That: What Happens When We Let Customers Choose Which Products Go on Sale?
Retailers and Distributors
- Board Game Supply Chain Basics
- Amazon: How to Survive the Biggest Online Jungle
- Our 6-Month MAPP Experiment and Why It Failed
- Retailers, Filtering Feedback, and Making Sense of Your Business
- What Do Retailers Really Want?
- A Price Formula for Your Product (Direct and Retail)
- Some Recent Thoughts about FLGS from a Publisher
Conventions
- Conventions and Face Time
- The Current State of Game Conventions (2021)
- 10 Lessons Learned from Our First Essen Spiel as an Exhibitor
- The Current State of Play-and-Win (2024)
Release the Product and Move Forward
- Why We Professionally Photograph Our Games
- Why Have a Release Date?
- Release with a Boom, Not a Whimper
- Gauging Demand
Customer Service
- The 6 Core Philosophies for Great Customer Service
- 4 More Elements of Great Customer Service
- Hip Surgery, Organization, and Customer-Facing Service
- How Can I Make This Experience Better for You?
- Every Customer Is Unique: A Magical Encounter
- Surviving an Attack on Your Character
- How to Apologize Better Than United Airlines
- At Your Convenience
- Google Voice Is Exactly What I Needed
- 8 Points of Contact in Customer Service (6 Too Many)
- Holds vs Callbacks: A Customer Service Observation
- Fried Chicken and Proactive Post-Delivery Service
- The Business of Staying in Touch
- Random Acts of Freeness
- 3 Ways to Better Serve Customers and 2 Ways Customers Can Help Publishers Serve Them
- 10 Things I Learned Last Week from Best-in-Class Customer Service
- Have You Experienced Unreasonable Hospitality?
- Are You Unreasonably Hospitable?
Operations
Operations
Self-Employment
- How to Go on Vacation
- The 80-Hour Workweek
- A Work Day in the Life of Jamey Stegmaier
- Can You Commit Fully to Both a Business and a Significant Other?
- My Latest Tweak to Working from Home
- Coworking Spaces as a Complement to Home Offices
- How Not to Start Your Work Day
- One Easy Way to Be a Better Emailer
- My 2 Biggest Challenges as a Publisher
- Why I Avoid Meetings
- The Profit vs. Stonemaier Games
- Running a Business from the Road
- How to Work from Home with Your Significant Other
- Mental and Physical Health Awareness: A Creator’s Thoughts
- Cult of the You
Jobs and Employees
- Hiring in a World of Volunteers
- Flatter Your Way into a New Industry
- A Different Approach to Job Applications: A Stonemaier Experiment
- A Short Note About Wages for Labor Day
- I’m No Longer the Only Full-Time Employee at Stonemaier Games!
- Jobs and Careers in the Tabletop Game Industry
- Labor Day: Fair Wages, Paying Volunteers, and Job Application Update
- Passive Information Collection Pays Off
- What’s Your Workplace Love Language?
- Perks and Principles for My Coworkers at Stonemaier Games
- Performance Reviews: What’s Your Approach?
- One Piece to the Puzzle: Internal Impartiality
- Do You Eat Lunch as a Staff?
- Do It Yourself or Outsource: The Master List
- What Mobile Apps Do You Use for Business?
Growth
- Visioning
- Growth or Endurance: What Does Your Organization Value More?
- The Surprise Business Lesson I Learned from Top Chef
- The Impact of “Tell Us Anything”
- Replacement Parts
- Stonemaier Champion: One Year Later
- You Are Soliciting My Advice?
- Everything I Know About Rebranding (Not Much!)
- Co-Publishing: Is True Collaboration Possible?
- What Is Your Most Important Challenge?
- Getting More Done Every Day (Slowly and Happily)
- The Most Important Habit for Entrepreneurs
- To Which Famous Creative Person Is Your Daily Routine the Most Similar?
- A Matter of Scale: What Changes Between $64k and $25m?
- The Great Puzzle of Logistics, Demand, and Retail
- The Next Big Thing: How to Handle a Product’s Runaway Success
- Lessons Learned from Quitting Kickstarter as a Creator, Part 1
- Lessons Learned from Quitting Kickstarter as a Creator, Part 2
- Lessons Learned from Quitting Kickstarter as a Creator, Part 3
- Lessons Learned from Quitting Kickstarter as a Creator, Part 4
- Lessons Learned from Quitting Kickstarter as a Creator, Part 5
- Are the Reasons We Quit Kickstarter Still Valid 6 Years Later?
The End Game
Legal and Accounting
Legal and Accounting
- Your Idea Is Brilliant, Your Idea Is Worthless
- Is There Such Thing as a Dumb Idea?
- Accounting and Finances
- Bookkeeping: The Best Service Ever?
- My Big Tax Mistake of 2016
- Partnership
- Everything You Need to Know About Liability Insurance
- The Future of Online Sales Tax Is Coming Soon to a State Near (or Far) from You
- Third-Party Accessories and Stonemaier Games
- Game Designer Contracts and Stonemaier Games
- Artist Contracts and Stonemaier Games
- Scams, Fraud, and Counterfeits: What We’ve Learned So Far
- What Should You Do If Someone Won’t Pay?
- Overcoming the Sunk Cost Fallacy
- Why I Recommend Wise
Business Brilliance
Business Brilliance
This is a series that features innovative strategies from non-Kickstarter, non-tabletop game companies as they might apply to other businesses.
- Every Day Is Special
- Prove That You’re Premium
- Are You Too Popular?
- Cut the Cord
- Track the Pizza
- The Velocity of Customization
- Open Secrets
- The Chocolate Factory Tour
- The Mystery Gift
- At Your Convenience
- A Coffee Cup Just for You
- Play with Celebrities, Brand Registry, and Customer Applications
- Making Your Mark on a Barrel
- A Unique Coffee Blend for Every Restaurant
- Hobbiton and Paying the Bill in New Zealand
- Seasonal Flavors: Is There a Place for Them in the Board Game World?
- Baby Yoda and the Appeal of Cuteness
- Starbucks Rewards as Stretch Goals
- YouTube’s Silver Creator Award and Recognizing Our Top Users
- Rick and Morty, Revisionist History, and Ads I’m Happy to Consume
- Disc Golf and Kickstarter Reward Nomenclature
- Holds vs Callbacks: A Customer Service Observation
- Stitch Fix, Personal Stylists, and Board Games
- Renewals, Cancellations, and Treat Boxes
- Jackbox and the Moment of Mirth
- Specialization vs Diversification: A Farmer’s Market Observation
- Bundling, Upselling, and Selling the Wrong Feature: Farmer’s Market Observations
- Are You Motivated by Seasonal Menus?
- The Brilliance of Opening Acts at Concerts
- Whoever Wrote the Rule That…?
- “Helpful Behavior” Bonuses and Rewards
- Marketing the Eclipse