Coffee Talk #300: Observations From the RPad.TV Experience

Thanks for joining me for the 300th edition of Coffee Talk! I’m going to selfishly use today’s column to talk about my experiences with the site — both the good and the bad. As always, I’m going to stick to…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, getting drunk on an airplane, Christina Aguilera flubbing vs. Whitney Houston lip syncing, or dried pineapples, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Thanks for joining me for the 300th edition of Coffee Talk! I’m going to selfishly use today’s column to talk about my experiences with the site — both the good and the bad. As always, I’m going to stick to the trusty Steve Raghunath binary system.

Good: Your support has been phenomenal — definitely beyond my expectations. I figured a few of you would come over from G4tv, but your readership and loyalty have been tremendous. When the site first launched, it was all you guys. Some of the original crew has stopped reading (or commenting anyway), but the traffic is better and more diverse than ever. You guys got it all started and kept things active with your excellent comments.

Bad: Publisher support has been poor. I was hoping for more event invites, coverage opportunities, and all that good stuff. Instead, some PR people have stopped sending me press releases and screens. Part of it is that I need to be more aggressive with PR people. Part of it is that some flaks have just completely dropped me because I no longer work for a major outlet. It’s disappointing because I need those content opportunities to keep the site growing. Creating original content from BlizzCon, DICE, GDC, etc. is just really, really expensive. Unless I get a large, random PayPal donation, I’m going to need a lot more publisher support to keep the site growing. If the support doesn’t come then I’ll really have to scale things back.

Good: I’m amazed that the site hasn’t attracted any flamers. All the comments I’ve had to delete were of the spam variety. I don’t recall having to delete any comments due to excessive profanity. I definitely haven’t had to delete any comments from readers wanting to flame it up. I’ve been super pleased with quality discussion here. Things get heated every now and then, but it’s almost always good and fun stuff.

Bad: I’m kind of disappointed that the site hasn’t attracted a flamer. For some reason, it would make me feel more “legit”. I’d also love to see how guys would respond to one.

Good: The site has been one of the most rewarding projects I’ve ever worked on. It’s fun mixing it up with you guys, writing the stories that I want to write, and growing something from scratch. It feels awesome when a story or video gets picked up by other sites and leads to a significant traffic spike. I feel proud when the site’s Alexa ranking goes up. When things go right, I often get the feeling of, “Yeah, I did that!” Rpad.TV is just behind Yahoo!’s Reset for my favorite work experience ever (I made a lot of money and got to travel around the world with my “best best”).

Bad: The site has also been one of the most stressful projects I’ve ever worked on. I’m pretty sure I haven’t been this poor since college. I stress out when traffic is down from the previous week (and forget that it’s way up from the year before). When the site’s Alexa ranking slides, I get sad. I sometimes have micro panic attacks, mild bouts of depression, and question whether I should be putting so much time into the site instead of looking for more freelance work. The highs are fun, but the lows can be…challenging.

Good: Ultimately, I still believe that I have a chance to create a site that can be a little bit different and offer content the way I think it should be served. It’s not there yet and it will take a lot of work, but I still believe that the site can continue to grow into something special. I’m proud of how things have progressed, but think it could be so much more. With more work and some luck (and a random donation from Bill Gate and/or Mark Zuckerberg), I think it’ll get there. I hope that all of you are still reading and posting comments when it does!

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

40 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #300: Observations From the RPad.TV Experience”

  1. love ya raymond….although its like 3 am over there….your lack of sleep concerns me

    1. Ha. If I can, I try to sleep in the late afternoon. 9 to 5 Pacific time isn't the best way to maximize traffic. In my experience 4AM to 2PM is much more effective.

  2. This place is a hidden gem! I try to get my friends on here with fb posts I hope it helps. You have been in the game for years and we all benefit from it. Your just a great person that happens to be an excellent verbal entertainer with a kick ass web site.

  3. I try to use my friends pc's laptop's or smartphone's and set their web browser's home page to your site. you do such a great job on your own, your like a one man gang!

  4. "Bad: I’m kind of disappointed that the site hasn’t attracted a flamer. For some reason, it would make me feel more “legit”. I’d also love to see how guys would respond to one."

    I could turn heel again if you want.

    1. Ha, ha! I was actually thinking that I could create another screen name and use it to be the only person on this site to flame. That way, I will make Mr. Padilla feel better about the legitimacy of this site.

      I will name this alias: "Pyro"

      -M

      1. why is bleahy such a stiffly stifflerson?

        im so glad i never have to kiss his butt in an effort to not get banned…although he prolly just banned me and smartguy at another website…he does that sometimes

  5. Played Stacking last night and I must say that I enjoyed it. I'm a PS+ subscriber so it was a "free" download. I wouldn't have given it a chance otherwise because Double Fine burned me with Brutal Legend. Stacking is very unique and different. Although I hated Brutal Legend I must give the guys at Double Fine a ton of credit and respect for doing different games instead of more shooters and Stacking is no different.

  7. PS3 sucks. Damn loads and constant threat of cheaters now on PSN. 360 just destroys discs and MS encourages pubs to sell games in chunks so they can jab you in the ass with DLC.

    PCPWNSCONSOLES!

    I miss that guy

    1. Didn't we call him the One Man Gang?

      People I miss:

      Bizarro

      Down311

      Swede7769

      TurnBackThePendulum (for the life of me, I can't remember what his name was before)

      Bonerjam

      and this last Super Bowl, I would have loved to shoot it back and forth with Berghammer.

      1. Yep. He had good points most of the time as well. Mark of a good flamer but he said it in such a way that it was pure troll-bait.

        Favorite RROD quote ever: "Once you get a PS3 you can get your mommy to take you to UPS store so you can tell them I won't be seeing you anymore because my mommy bought me a PS3"

      3. Damn. I'm actually one of those people that went to the UPS store twice to ship my 360 coffin back to Microsoft.

        -M

      4. Ditto. That being said, I went through three PS2's in much the same fashion. As Ray likes to say, I'm like Magneto around consoles.

      8. …does billy consider himself too good for this site? Ill take an evasive response as a yes

        other people i miss (that i cannot believe n8r missed)

        bookshelf

        grunto

        blakseed

        ive got those guys on my psn though…been telling blakseed to get his ass over here

      9. Damn… Those are criminal omissions.

        While we're at it, we might as well throw l33t360 on the list too.

  9. It's good to be around. Overall it's a lot of fun just to come by and see which strange direction the conversation has turned. I post the occasional link to my FB page and link back from my own site when applicable as well. Hopefully it helps.

  11. I love being around here on this site! Definitely glad it has made it this far and glad that I can be a part of it all. I'm sure it can be hard when traffic dips, but even then I am glad the site is around. Here's to more traffic highs!

  12. Not too impressed with HP's WebOS presser. The Pre 3's 1.4GHz processor sound cool, but the form factor is still meh and 3.6-inch screens aren't impressive in 2011.

    Anyone else have any thoughts about the three new WebOS products HP unveiled today?

      2. I guess I should have ammended my comment to say: "You can't find that on any game-related site anywhere."

        And, no, I've never been to a Turkish prison… but I have been to a Turkish bath. That's kind of the same thing, right?

        -M

  14. I’m still reading most of what you post even though I’m not commenting as much as I used too. You can expect me to stick around a long time.

  15. In other news I am now officially addicted to Battlestar Gallactica. I always wanted to watch this show, but just started watching it since it is on Netflix instant streaming.

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