Avoid The Algorithm, And Follow Me Directly! (Troubleshooting Current Social Media Setbacks)

Folks who have been watching my saga recently (detailed in my post Another Social Media Struggle (Reddit Has Decided To Kick Me In The Teeth, And I Could Use Some Help)) have likely noticed that one of the major challenges that every creator in the world is dealing with is that we simply cannot reach our potential audience. And the reason we can't seem to reach people is because the social media sites and groups that used to help us connect are now throttling our signals, restricting our ability to post, and trusting to bots to determine what kind of posts are allowed, and when an account needs to be shut off... even when it's wrong.

And while I'm taking several steps at present (seeking out new Discords that might appreciate my work, coming up with a fresh Reddit strategy, trying to figure out why the hell Facebook stops me from making posts anywhere but my own personal pages, etc.), there is one thing that I would like all of you reading this to do for me. I would like you to please go to my Patreon and my Ko-Fi pages, and subscribe/follow me there.

 

If you want to tip me or support me for what I'm doing, I appreciate that. But mostly I'm going to be using those accounts a LOT more, because they seem to be some of the only places that I can actually let people who enjoy my work see what the hell it is I'm making.

Because a lot of what I'm putting out is getting lost in the screaming void, and I'd like you to see it.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

You Get A Direct Feed (And It's Technically Free)!

The entire point of social media, from a creator's perspective, is to connect you with your audience, and your potential audience. As someone whose hair is more gray than not these days, I remember when it basically did this, too. I've quoted the numbers before, but a decade or so ago I could get hundreds of impressions from Facebook, thousands from Reddit, and tens of thousands on a good day from Digg or Stumbleupon (both of which have gone down into the dark depths of websites murdered by AI slop). These days, though, it feels like the same 17 people see all my posts on whatever social media I'm part of, and when I do manage to fly through the storm of algorithm interference it's like trying to get an emergency message to someone through a time machine.

Dearest Allies, I request your aid in this time of dire need...

Which is why I wanted to take this week's post to ask everyone who made it this far to follow me on Patreon and Ko-Fi. Because while both of those are crowdfunding websites, you can follow me for free on both of them, and get notified when I share things on them (it's usually once or twice a day in the evenings, so not a huge inbox stuffer). And I'm asking this because, just like my newsletter that I mentioned above, it's one of the only ways for you to actually see and hear what I'm doing without the algorithm getting in the way, waiting for moderators to approve a post (which can take hours, days, or weeks), or depending on your For You Page to decide that you get to see stuff that I've made, as opposed to your 19th advertisement of the day.

 

My hope is that if I can get enough folks onboard with this request that I can get direct feedback from people who want to be in my audience the way that I used to on the sites that have slammed all their doors, and which are burying creators under restrictions and inertia. Because I post dozens of things (sometimes as much as a hundred posts or more) every day... and there are a lot of people who have tried to follow me who just don't hear about it because the algorithm won't slide it into their feeds.

 

So get a direct line, and let me know what you think of my work today!

 

Lastly, speaking of Reddit, there are two subreddits that I moderate that I would like to invite folks to. I am the moderator of Tabletop Homebrew! So if you have things you'd like to share, or if you want to see the sort of things creators are making and sharing, stop in, get comfortable, and take a look around. We'd be happy to have you.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Another Social Media Struggle (Reddit Has Decided To Kick Me In The Teeth, And I Could Use Some Help)

We've all heard that philosophical argument about how if a tree falls in the forest, but there's no one around to see it or hear it, did it actually fall? Well, that's kind of what being a creator is like. Because it doesn't matter how amazing your art is, how engaging your book might be, or how deep and thoughtful your video essays are, because if no one knows they exist, they can't actually become fans of your work. And since most creators don't have money to spend on advertisements, or doing dozens upon dozens of conventions where they take a loss every time as they try to build an audience, we rely on social media to get the word out about what we do.

And while social media enshittification has been hitting hard, I've been managing to tread water... until recently. Because the last piece of driftwood I was clinging to seems to have snapped underneath me, and now I'm back to trying not to drown.

And this, of course, involves the hive of scum and villainy that goes by the name Reddit.

A hand up would be deeply appreciated right now...

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

The Social Media Saga (And Why This Is Such A Problem)

The official term for what we're all struggling with these days is Platform Decay, but most of us refer to it as Enshittification. Essentially social media started off as a free, functional way for us to keep in touch with our friends, family, and creators, celebrities, etc. that we liked to follow, and it mostly worked. But over the past several years it's been deliberately sabotaged, twisted, and made impossible to use as a creator (and nearly impossible to use for regular people, too). I talked about this more in-depth in The Reason Social Media Sucks For Everyone These Days (Not Just Creators) a while back, for those who missed it.

For those who like numbers, I have a couple of Before and After averages to share, from about 10 years ago, and today. Keep in mind that my subscriber count has only gone up between these two time periods, so if anything I should have held steady, instead of decreasing to a fraction of engagement.

 

- Average Facebook spread used to net between 400 and 1,000 impressions. Now it's barely 25.

- Average Twitter blast used to net between 100 and 250 impressions. Now it's less than 20.

- StumbleUpon netted me between 50 and 500 impressions. The site is unusable anymore.

- Digg would net between 25 and 1,000 impressions. AI slop broke the site entirely, and it's closed.

 

For sites that aren't listed, Tumblr and LinkedIn both have significantly lowered engagement. Pinterest is a ghost town that's jam-packed with AI slop. Google+ is gone, of course, and sites like MeWe have never been worth more than a few dozen views. Blue Sky has never been great for creators (though it's quite a nice platform for journalists and news creators), and places like Discord and Mastadon have no discoverability because all the servers are separate, with no way to cross-pollinate.

And in the midst of all of that, Reddit was a website that has been chugging along. You could even keep using the old version of the site, which made it easy to see and understand at a glance what was happening. My current Reddit account has over a quarter million karma (not bragging, just pointing out the amount of positive interaction I've had on the site), and it's been active for 11 years.

Then I was shadowbanned last week. No warning, no explanation, just POOF, your account is gone. I appealed, and got it back, but the issue I was facing was that even though the decision was made by a random bot (and was immediately overturned by a human), being shadowbanned immediately hid all of my submissions to the website.

So while my karma count was still intact, over a decade of posts were just swept under the rug, and unable to be seen by users. And while I don't usually use language quite this strong around here, this incident has fucked me as a creator... and to make it worse, at time of writing, I was randomly shadowbanned again, likely because a bot just decided that I'd crossed an unspoken line and had to be removed, even though nothing about my behavior has changed in a decade on the site, and it's never been a problem before today.

Why This Is Such A Big Damn Problem

The reason this is a massive problem for me is two fold. The first is fairly obvious; if I'm shadowbanned on Reddit (or if I keep getting shadowbanned by AI-driven bots) then I cannot share links to either my work, or anyone else's work. I try to maintain the balance and not just talk about my stuff all the time, and I mix it up with videos, RPGs, etc. by other creators that I enjoy, and think more people should hear about.

However, I want to circle back around to how it has hidden a decade of my submissions, essentially making them unusable. Put another way, that's somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 posts just poofed out of existence like a Thanos snap. That's also a low-balled guess as to just how many posts I've made over the past 11 years.

If you want to know what that's worth, most days when I check my DTRPG earnings, I had between $10 and $25. That's not an amazing income, but it adds up at the end of the month, and it paid most of my half of my rent. Ever since I was shadowbanned, and all those posts were removed? I'm making somewhere between $3 and $8 a day. This past weekend I had the first day in 4 years where I didn't sell a single thing on DTRPG at all, and it's directly correlated with this decision.

This shadowbanning didn't remove any of the blog entries I'd written, of course. It didn't delete articles or videos. It just made all those things less visible, effectively slamming the door on people randomly stumbling across my work while running searches or browsing the site. And again, if people don't see this blog, my videos, my supplements, etc., then they can't interact with them, which means I can't pay my bills.

 

EDIT: Apparently it's just regular banned, as my account was basically shuttered up. There's no "shadow" about the whole process. 

And since no other sites are working either... you see where this is going...

The bigger kick in the nuts here is that while Reddit can absolutely erase over a decade of submissions to the site on the word of a bot, it can't restore them. You basically have to ask the subreddit mods to pretty please go through the removed posts and reapprove them, or resubmit those posts. Mods are not willing to do this, and certainly not to the extent that would be required for some of the subs I regularly post in where there are hundreds (potentially thousands) of posts going back for years (since some I posted in weekly, and others I posted in daily). And while there's nothing stopping me from resubmitting my posts (except the site's bots deciding that me submitting things is suspicious), I built up that 11 year archive organically. I didn't just show up all day, every day blasting my own signal for hours at a time. I shared my own stuff, yes. And then I shared actual plays that I'd seen. Or I commented on a topic. Or I told everybody about this other game, supplement, etc. that I'd seen. Or I shared bundles, such as the Owen Stephens Summer Survival Spectacular to help Owen Stephens pay the bills for his fight against cancer. You get the idea.

You can't just replace all those posts in a few months, or even a year. It took me 11 years to submit them in the first place, it would take me a decade to get back to that point. And even after that decade of posting, assuming everything went perfectly and I wasn't randomly shadowbanned, I still wouldn't have my archive restored. Because you see there were a lot of subreddits that I was no longer allowed to post in, but they still had all my previous posts acting as one more place someone might stumble across me... those are gone, and cannot be replaced.

So... yeah. I was already trying to crawl out of the muck, and now because an overzealous collection of 1s and 0s decided I wasn't up to their secret standards, I've now been kicked in the teeth, and thrown back down into some fairly desperate circumstances as a result.

What I'm Going To Do (And How You Can Help)

Wallowing isn't going to help me, especially since I need to get back on my feet before yet more bills come due. Unfortunately, there's only a few things I can do. First and foremost, I'm trying to appeal the shadowbans, to get some statements from the site about what's happening, and to stop this cycle from happening again. I'm also looking for alternative sites, Discord servers, and communities where I can make up at least some of the lost audience potential. And, lastly, I'm going to keep making stuff for people to enjoy, and hope that I can overwhelm the algorithms with the sheer volume of projects I'm churning out.

I don't really have any other options.

However, I'm basically at the mercy of you all. I'm in the Colosseum fighting for my life, and I need the crowd to roar in my favor so that I can be allowed to live and fight another day. So if you made it this far, I have a list of things you can do to help me for free, and a list of things you can do to help that will cost a bit of money... not much, though. As art goblins go, I'm a fairly cheap pet.

So, without further ado...

How You Can Help For Free

- Follow My Facebook

- Follow My Blue Sky

- Check Out My LinkTree

- Subscribe To My Weekly Newsletter

- Subscribe To The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- Subscribe To The A.L.I.C.E. Files (an audio drama channel I launched with Alice Liddell)

- Read my articles on Vocal.Media (every read puts a penny in my pocket)

- Share my articles, videos, RPG supplements, and anything else I make on your own social media pages (and if you're a Reddit user, tell your favorite subs about stuff I make out of spite)!

How You Can Help If You Have A Budget

- Become A Patreon Patron

- Give Me A Tip On Ko-Fi

- Buy Some of My TTRPG Supplements (link goes to a pin board, but you could also search "Neal Litherland" on DTRPG to get the full 200+ list of things I've made)

- Buy A Book From My Amazon Author Page

- Buy Yourself A Tub of Dubby (use the code LITERARYMERCENARY for 10% off this powdered energy drink)

The reason I put all of this out there is that I literally do not care how my bills get paid. If 50,000 people decide to buy copies of my hardboiled cat novels Marked Territory and Painted Cats, then I'm going to pause a lot of projects to write a third installment in that series. If a bunch of people decide to support me on Patreon, then I'm going to make sure my blogs are polished up, and that everyone is getting their money's worth. If a couple thousand people decide they want to get my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, then I'd focus on expanding that game, or if folks picked up supplements like The Blade Itself: Corrupt Equipment For Hunter: The Vigil, Like A Good Neighbor - Portraying True Fae in Your Chronicle, or Night Horrors: Primordial Peerage, I'd put a lot more time and energy into extra content for Hunter, Changeling, Beast, or other spheres of the Chronicles of Darkness.

And, of course, if folks want to see more of The A.L.I.C.E. Files, I'd be making bigger, longer, and more complicated soundscapes to tell some of my rather... involved stories.

This whole situation has put me in something of a bind, but I'm not just sitting here twiddling my thumbs hoping things get solved. If you can help, please do so, because I need every hand up I can get. Even if you just follow my Patreon as a free supporter to stay up-to-date, or you just subscribe to the YouTube channels, or share my supplements online when you see them, it makes a difference. And if a few hundred individuals who think their efforts won't matter all pitch in, then you're going to be a damn potent force.

As always, stay tuned for more updates, and thank you in advance to everyone who helps me stop this slide toward the cliff's edge before I go over.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

To Ragnarok! (A Big Thank You To Several of My Patrons)

When I made the changeover to a monthly charge instead of a per-item basis over on Patreon, I had to come up with new tiers to try to get folks invested and involved. And like most folks who've been on the platform for a while, I made the first tier the $1 level (essentially just a way for folks to leave me a tip as a thank you). The second was the $5 tier, and that's where you actually get some kind of reward (free copies of my latest supplements when I get giveaway links). At $10 you get a shout out (thanks very much to Phillip Litherland and Tracy), and at $15 I'll put out a monthly query asking your opinion on future posts. There's a few more above that, but most folks have ignored those so far.

I put the $50 a month tier in mostly as a joke, because I didn't expect anyone to go that hard. But for both Joy Von Holle and Brenton Ayres, I salute you! When I find myself upon the field of Ragnarok, know that my battle charge shall be in dedication to your aid!

I will see you there, at the end of the cycle.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Any Other Takers?

I really cannot overemphasize how surprised I was when someone stepped up to the Ragnarok tier... but I figured I'd at least ask... do we have anyone else interested in that einherjar-level support?

Because I know I emphasize this fairly often, but my Patreon really has been a huge boon to me for the past decade or so I've been on the platform. And though there have been ups and downs, over the past several years I've come to depend on it for food and expenses during the month. I've never been well-funded enough that it was rent money... but hey, I can dream can't I?

It would be nice, not gonna lie.

I just wanted to take a moment to remind folks that the changeover has been rough, but I feel like I'm finally getting back on my feet a little bit thanks to the generosity of some of my patrons. If you're a regular reader who wants to help, though, consider tossing me an extra $1 a month or so... or if you want some free swag, $5 is my recommended amount. Heck, if everyone currently on my free subscription converted to that level, I really would be making rent money...

As always, don't go into debt to support me as a creator. I know money is tighter than ever for a lot of folks out there. But if you do have a bit spare, I can promise you that I'll be paying bills and buying tacos with it. No funny business over here... just fuel for the brain so I can keep the lights on and the wheels turning!

Also, If You Enjoy Free Stuff, Check Out This Channel

Regular readers already know this, but if you enjoy all the free stuff I'm putting out (and you're looking for more gaming and gaming-related entertainment on a budget) I'd highly recommend checking out the YouTube channel The A.L.I.C.E. Files! An ongoing fiction channel I launched with Alice Liddell a little while back, it tells the story of a young woman given a job by the mysterious Carroll Institute... but in between installments of that story, we get tales of alternate dimensions where you hear about weird west card sharps, literal avenging angels, deals with devils, and more!

And if you're wondering how those two plot lines merge, check out the first episode below... and if you want to help me keep this project going, please subscribe to The A.L.I.C.E. Files, and watch the videos we're putting up. We need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 view hours, but at time of writing we've got 271 people, and about 205 hours.

It's a long way to go, but you could help us get there!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Changes Are Coming To My Patreon In August!

Improved Initiative has been running for something like 12 years now, but what a lot of folks may not know is that I started this blog at basically around the same time that I got on Patreon. The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page has been a literal lifesaver for me, and it is one of the major reasons I'm able to stay afloat as a professional writer. There's no ads on this blog, or on my sister blog The Literary Mercenary; all the money I earn from these platforms is either from patrons who help pay my bills, or people who buy things through my affiliate links in my articles.

That's it.

However, there's going to be a change in my Patreon starting this August. So if you're one of my patrons, you'll definitely see this post shortly. And if you're not, but you've been considering it, well, this might be good news for you!

Especially if you only have a little bit of cash to spare.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Finally Swapping To A Per-Month Structure

So, when Patreon first started, creators on the platform had the option to charge patrons either a flat fee per month (basically a subscription), or a fee per item they created. I opted for a per-item cost, so I charged my patrons for 2 blog entries a week, and I made my Monday posts free of charge. I chose this structure because it generally kept me on-task, and I feel like it kept me accountable to my patrons because if I didn't write a blog entry in a given week, then I didn't get paid for that week... pure and simple.

However, all good things have to come to an end. It seems like this Fall Patreon is giving creators a choice. You can stick with a per-item payment structure if you want to, but if you do that then you won't be able to get new patrons until you shift to a monthly payment structure.

And while I love every single one of my patrons... I don't have enough of them to make that kind of decision. So to get ahead of the curve, this August I'm going to shift my Patreon over to the monthly subscription model.

Needs be when the devil drives, sadly.

At time of writing, this is the only thing that should be changing. I fully intend to keep my regular posting schedule, and to include extra content for my paying patrons when I have it (particularly free copies of my latest TTRPG supplements when they drop). However, I want to ask a favor from anyone who is currently a patron, or who is considering becoming a patron.

I'd appreciate any and all help you can give.

I know times are tough, and budgets are tight. But a big reason I didn't make this change sooner is that I only have 30 or so paying patrons, and I only bring in about $200 a month or so. I didn't want that to drop to under 100 because folks didn't notice the change, and I suddenly had an even harder time making ends meet for bills.

So if you enjoy my work, and you want to help support me, then please consider dropping in and becoming a Patreon patron. My plan is to make this change in August 2025 as soon as the July patronage clears, and my balance returns to zero.

And, of course, if there are other things you would like to see me add to my Patreon, feel free to let me know that down in the comments below!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Improved Initiative Is Undergoing An Update (And I Could REALLY Use Your Support)!

It's been one hell of a year so far, and it feels like every day brings us a new four-alarm fire that requires yet another response. Even narrowing things to just my little corner of the world of TTRPGs, we've had an uphill battle getting folks interested in the stuff I'm putting out, Drive Thru RPG's roll out has slashed organic discovery on the site to nearly nothing, social media continues to decay, and of course there are a slew of challenges as major companies in the hobby make changes that send shockwaves through the landscape that smaller creators have to try to weather.

However, despite all those challenges, I am still trying to push forward, and to keep making cool stuff for all of you to consume! And I try to keep the costs as low as I can because I know that a lot of my regular readers are on threadbare budgets as it is, and you all may not be able to afford just one more cost.

With that said, though, I'm currently dealing with a 2-on-1 assasult, and I could really use your help to get to the other side of this fight.

We're adjusting... your patience, and help, would be appreciated.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

The Two-Front Financial Assault

For folks who are regular viewers of my show Tabletop Mercenary over on the Azukail Games Youtube channel (which you should subscribe to if you haven't yet), you already heard about the most immediate challenge I'm currently facing. The short version is that, thanks to finally getting my portion of the earnings from the Kickstarter for Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, I got kicked up into a new income bracket. So instead of cutting a check for $300-$400, which is my usual, this year I owe roughly $1,700... which is more than half of what I actually earned from the Kickstarted in the first place.

More details can be found in the latest episode, Talking About Taxes For TTRPG Creators, embedded below.

That is, of course, a hell of a punch to the gut. I spent the year getting as many receipts for business expenses and charitable donations as I could, but in the end it just didn't matter. This isn't going to leave me penniless, but it is basically knocking me down the ladder to where I was at the start of last year, wiping out any progress I made, and just at a time when earnings are going into a serious downturn all around.

And that is... well, that's bad enough. But if that was the only problem I was dealing with, I wouldn't dedicate this Monday's update to the situation.

There is, of course, a second issue I'm dealing with. Since late 2024 I've been working on getting the details together for my audio fiction podcast Windy City Shadows. This show will be set in the world of the Chronicles of Darkness, and season 1's scripts are slowly coming together. However, since I already updated my video editing software in late Fall of 2024, I figured that this would be a good time to update my audio equipment as well. What I have is perfectly functional, but I was thinking on moving out of the realm of standard USB microphones, and getting something that would capture a slightly richer sound before I started recording for this podcast. After all, I don't want to be 3 episodes in, and then have the style and quality of the sound I'm producing radically shift.

Again, if this was the only challenge I was dealing with, I'd just handle it behind the scenes. But these two things happening at the same time is... less than ideal, to say the least.

How You Can Help

I'm not going to lie, I could use a hand to clamber up a few rungs. I also know that everyone is struggling right now. So if you're someone who'd like to help me dig my way out of this hole, but you're not sure you have the ability to do so, I've arranged the options in descending order. If you have spare dosh you'd like to throw my way, that's a great help! If you've got no spare money, but you have time and eyeballs, that can also be a major boon!

Let me explain.

If You Just Want To Give

If hearing about this situation makes you just want to throw money in my tip jar, that would be greatly appreciated. If you just want to do a one-time tip, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or if you want to become a regular contributor consider Becoming A Patreon Supporter.

This is the most direct way to help, and the most efficient in terms of funds going directly to me as a creator, which is why I put it first. The others on the list are equally good, though, so feel free to take advantage of them as well!

If You Want To Make A Purchase

If you're the sort of person who wants to support me by buying stuff I've made (and there's a lot of it for sale) there are two major categories you should check out.

The first is my rather large archive of tabletop RPG games and supplements. I've made a TTRPG pinboard for all of them for ease of browsing, but if you prefer to avoid going to Pinterest as a website you can also find everything I have on Drive Thru RPG through this link.

Secondly, for folks who don't know, I also write novels and short stories. You can find a majority of my books on my Amazon author page, and several of my titles are also available at other bookstores if you see something you like, but you're trying to avoid buying from Amazon. Defunct super soldiers, mystery-solving cats, a sword-and-sorcery novel that reads like Conan if he was from Tennessee... all these and more await you!

If You Want To Help Without Spending Money

I get it, funds are in short supply these days. Or maybe you already did one (or both) of the previous options, but you'd like to put a cherry on top of your efforts to support me as a creator. Well, there are several things you can do that won't cost you any money whatsoever, but they still go a long way toward helping me pay my bills, recoup my losses, and get the new equipment I'm looking at for my upcoming projects.

These are listed starting with the most impactful.

- Read Articles From My Vocal Archive: This archive has 326 articles at time of writing, and they're all free for you to read! However, for every 1,000 reads, I earn about $6. So if a couple hundred people all read 1 article a day, that's going to be a noted difference in my income every month. For extra points, share the articles you like on your social media platform of choice to get more eyes on them!

- Watch My YouTube Videos: I contribute a lot of content to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and when last I looked I think I've got nearly 200 videos on there. As with the above option, folks who watch just 1 video a day consistently can make a big difference (and an even bigger one if you upvote, leave comments of at least 7 words, and subscribe to the channel while hitting the bell icon to get updates)! Thanks to platform decay, it's hard as hell to get eyes on these, but whether you want to hear me talk about my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, my Army Men RPG, advice for the World of Darkness, audio dramas, or dozens of other things, adding views to these videos makes a difference.

- Subscribe To Me: Whether it's on social media platforms, the YouTube channel I just mentioned, or becoming a free member on my Patreon page, anything that puts more bodies in my queue helps tell the algorithm to pay more attention to me. Interacting with my posts, leaving comments, sharing stuff, all of that helps as well, but even just clicking to follow me as a bare minimum makes a difference. Social media sites can be found below, for folks who want to take this option!

My Thanks In Advance

In an era where it's getting harder and harder to tell stories for any kind of living, you are the folks who help keep me afloat so I can keep doing this. Because without you, I don't know where I'd be... and that's pretty scary.

So thank you. Thank you to those who've been with me since the beginning, and thank you to folks who are just coming across me. All of you help keep me going, and it's my hope that the things I make enrich your lives just a little bit.

Here's hoping we reach the other side of this challenge together!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Questions About Crowdfunding? Tabletop Mercenary Will Be Tackling That Topic Soon!

As regular readers know, in addition to running this blog, I make videos for the Azukail Games YouTube channel. And while I've talked about my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, offered insight and advice for the World of Darkness, and I've got the unboxing for my new RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic debuting this Friday, one of the series that I've been hard at work on recently is Tabletop Mercenary. And, as the name implies, this show is all about how to make a living working in tabletop RPGs for a living.

And so far the most commonly-requested topic for the series has been people asking me about Kickstarter. So I wanted you all to know that I'm listening, and I've got a clever plan to deliver on this topic.

And hopefully it will help other folks out, too!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

You Have Questions, I Have Someone That Has The Answers!

While there have been a lot of questions for a lot of different topics, the most common one thus far has been how to fund your RPG (or related project) through Kickstarter. And since my most recent release was successfully Kickstarted over a year ago, folks would naturally assume that this is a topic I know something about. However, I'll be the first to admit that I partnered with High Level Games specifically because I wanted the professionals to help me with that aspect of things. I could write the game myself, no sweat, but getting it funded was outside of my experience.

But fortunately for folks out there, Josh Heath has agreed to be a guest on the episode where we find answers to all your Kickstarter (and more general crowdfunding) questions!

Shut up and take my money!

So here's what I need from all of you!

- Leave Your Questions in The Comments: Here or on social media, both are acceptable.

- Share This Article: The more people who see this, the more questions we'll have to answer!

- Subscribe to Azukail Games, And Watch The Show: The more numbers we get, the better off we'll be!

If we can manage all of that, I dare say that we'll be able to collate, catalog, and ensure that we have the proper answers for the most commonly asked questions. However, if you have questions about stuff that isn't Kickstarter related (whether it's BackerKit, Patreon, or any of the other funding services and platforms out there) make sure you put those in your comments as well! If you're wondering about it, I promise you there are some other folks out there who are wondering as well.

Also, if you have a moment, consider checking out our most recent episode of the show where I discussed affiliate marketing, what it is, and why it should be a part of your strategy as a TTRPG designer.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

A Year-Long Experiment With Vocal Media (And Why I Need Your Help)

For all the readers out there who go all the way to the end of my blog posts, you may have noticed a change over the past year. If you scroll down the page, the only section you really see represented is Moon Pope Monday, which are the catch-all Monday posts I put up on Improved Initiative. There may be an occasional entry from Table Talk, or Crunch, but for the most part folks who just come by this blog haven't seen any posts for Fluff or Unusual Character Concepts in over a year.

I didn't stop writing them... they've just been appearing over on my Vocal.Media archive for the past year or so. It's been an ongoing experiment, but it hasn't been going as well as I'd like. As such, I figured this week I'd deliver the preliminary results, and give folks the behind-the-scenes rundown of what I've been doing, the problems I've run into, and how you can help.

It's been... less successful than I'd hoped it would be.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Vocal, Improved Initiative, and What I Was Trying To Do

I've been writing blogs for Improved Initiative for a decade or so, now, and my format has been pretty standard for years. I would write a Monday post, and then a second post that would go Crunch, Fluff, Unusual Character Concept, and Table Talk, before starting over again. This helped ensure variety in my articles, and it meant there was something different every week for folks who didn't just want more of the same content over and over again.

However, what some of my readers may not know, is that I don't make any money from the traffic on this blog. Even when my ads did function (which was a while ago), so many people have some form of ad blocker that it just wasn't worth the effort. My Patreon and my Ko-Fi are the primary way that my blog gets support, but I know that not everyone out there has money to just throw at me every month to help me keep the lights on while I write.

But it would help, if you wanted to go that route. Just saying.

For all the gentle reminders I put in my blogs about crowdfunding, and for all the links to the TTRPG supplements I write, though, I really don't like asking people to just give me money. I'd much rather have the traffic I earn translate into cash, because that allows a direct transfer of the amount of attention my work receives into how much money I earn. There's also a certain kind of frustration that comes with seeing an article get thousands (or sometimes tens of thousands) of reads, and knowing that none of that activity is going to put money in my pocket.

Enter Vocal.Media.

For those who've never been to this site, it's a place that lets writers create and publish their own work. It's where all of my Character Conversion Guides are published, and it's where I've written a lot of articles about miscellaneous history, geek things, weird etymology, etc. Hell, my article It's Okay To Admit There Are Problems in Your Hobby once blew up so big that someone turned me into a meme because they were so tired of seeing it. And generating traffic on that site does actually pay me money. It's $6 per every 1,000 reads (not just views, actual reads), which means that if something explodes it will actually put cash in my hand.

For the first few years I wrote articles for Vocal, I got some pretty good views. I was generally managing between 14,000 and 20,000 reads a month, which comes out to between $70 and $120, give or take. Not life changing, but it was enough to literally keep my lights on, and fill in the gaps when other projects fell through, or didn't sell enough copies, or when some of my patrons had to stop supporting me because they could no longer afford to. Reading articles was free, after all, so it was something everyone could do.

Then the social media landscape changed, and that oasis dried up.

You see, a majority of the reads I was getting were from my Character Conversions. However, as Pathfinder's first edition wound down, they were becoming less and less popular. That was always going to happen, which was why I tried to pivot and write other articles, like 5 Tips For Playing Better Evil Characters, or my more recent Find a Reason For Your Character To Get Involved. However, while I was diversifying my content, the algorithm underwent an abrupt shift over the space of a few weeks. This meant that Reddit, which I'd been using for years to boost the signal on these articles, now automatically removed any links to Vocal.Media. This wiped out years of my submissions across dozens of subreddits, and set me back in a big way. Then as the follow-up to that heavy punch, Facebook altered their algorithm so that if you included a link in your post it got shoved all the way to the bottom, and nobody saw it.

In real terms, I went from getting 400-500 reads a day, to barely cracking 70... and I wanted to try to fix that.

When in doubt, create more content!

This brings us up to about a year and change ago. I figured that if I could create more Vocal content, then maybe the sheer amount of it would help overcome the resistance of the algorithm. And if I could get my existing audience to help me boost those numbers, maybe I could turn Vocal back into a viable source of income... but I couldn't do that while also writing 2 blogs a week here on Improved Initiative.

So I kept my Monday posts right where they were, but I moved the second post of the week over to Vocal, hoping that it would drive the folks who enjoyed my content to check those articles out over there instead.

It Didn't Work... But Could It?

As of time of writing, I have 285 articles in my Vocal archive. Additionally, my daily reads haven't been above 100 for at least 2 months now. Which is, as the kids say these days, not great. Because if you've read my other post, If 90,000 People Read This Article, I Can Pay My Bills This Month, you know that it takes a colossal amount of attention for writers depending on per-read pay to stay one step ahead of the rent.

The question, of course, is what do I do about this?

It's big brain time!

Now, on the one hand, it's true that articles here on Improved Initiative are easier to market. My blog is perfectly shareable on Reddit (for the most part), and it does no worse on Facebook than Vocal does in terms of attention. However, as I mentioned above, even if 10,000, 50,000, or 100,000 people all read an article on this blog, it isn't going to pay my bills. I won't see a single, red cent from any of that traffic.

Popularity isn't something you can eat, sadly, or the choice would be pretty easy.

What I need to help me keep the lights on and the content flowing is for people to support my work. While direct support through my Patreon or my Ko-Fi is always going to be preferred (immediate support yields immediate results), helping my Vocal articles get traction is something folks can do for free right now!

Consider the following actions:

- If you have a Vocal account, subscribe to me! Also, throw a like onto my articles, and leave some comments. The algorithm likes those things, and it helps me stand out. If you don't have a Vocal account, it's free to make one, and it makes organizing your subscriptions easier.

- Bookmark my page, and check back. I typically have at least 1 update a week on Vocal, so there's usually new stuff waiting for you to take a look at.

- Read through my Vocal archive. You don't have to do it all at once. If 100 people each read an article a day for a month, that would be 30,000 reads, and it would put me 1/3 of the way toward paying my rent... which is nothing to sneeze at!

- Share my articles so other people can see them. This is probably the most important, and if it was paired with the above request, it might actually get me the 90,000 reads I would need to cover a full month of bills. Because 30,000 reads is great ($180 and change). But 30,000 shares, whether it's on Facebook, Twitter, Blue Sky, your gaming Discord, or anywhere else... that makes a massive difference!

Little things really do add up if enough people participate... the problem is getting a lot of people to all pitch in, and to pitch in consistently, so that the numbers stay high. So please, if you haven't seen any of my Vocal articles before (or if you have, but didn't know there were quite that many of them) go take a look around! Every read helps me stay one step ahead of my landlord, and that lets me keep making more content for all the gamers out there.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my dystopian sci fi thriller Old Soldiers, or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Help Us Take The Hill! Stretch Goals For "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic"

As I'm sure regular readers are aware, the Kickstarter for my first full RPG "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" is still ongoing! There's 9 days left at time of writing, so please consider backing it if you haven't yet.

EDIT: We reached out goal, and Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic is now on DTRPG!

The good news is that we have reached the minimum funding we need for the game to be released. However, before we all start high-fiving and pouring champagne, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the stretch goals for the game, and why it's important for projects like this to get more than just the minimum amount of funding they ask for.

We've got them on the run... take that hill!

Don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

The Difference Between Funded and "Funded" on KS

Crowdfunding has been a viable way of getting games made for a while now, but there's still a lot of us who don't know what goes on behind the scenes. Academically we know that the more money and pledges a project gets, the more money the creator makes, but it can be tough to really grasp what that means when it comes to specific terms. So I wanted to pull back the curtain a bit on my project, and give my readers an unvarnished look at what goes on behind the scenes.

Watch the shell casings. There's been a lot of test runs around here.

Typically when a creator asks for a minimum funding amount, that's the price tag it takes to get all of the initial bills paid so that a thing can exist. In the case of this RPG, that's the amount of money it takes to pay the other writers (I did the bulk of the work, but this was not a one-man show), the artists, to print and distribute the books, to pay for layout, and all of the other necessities.

So while getting over the minimum goal is definitely a good thing, it's by no means a full "Mission Accomplished" kind of situation.

If I were making a movie, or writing a novel, then this might be a one-and-done sort of setup. Backers give me the funds I need to finish the product, I deliver it to them, and everyone walks away happy. However, while Army Men is a stand-alone RPG you can play in its entirety with just the base book, I have additional supplements and follow-ups that I'd like to write for it. I mentioned some of them a while back in What's Next For "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" After The Kickstarter?, but from expanding the rules to include vehicles, mounts, and animal companions, to writing out mission packs, making new monsters, adding new factions, and generally expanding the setting, my hope was that this book would be the first stepping stone in a series that would grow over time.

And while that's still very possible, the best way to ensure that happens is if Army Men manages to hit its stretch goals so that this extra funding can be used to make those additional installments happen.

I can certainly write supplements and expansions for Army Men; that's not even a question. However, it would be a lot easier to write them if there was a little nest egg of extra funding that came from the initial Kickstarter that would allow me to keep the lights on and the rent paid for a little while, allowing me to dedicate my full time and energy to the project. If there's extra money in the pot, then I won't have to take on additional freelance work for other systems to pay my bills. I won't have to pitch fresh projects to other companies, and find time for Army Men in between paying gigs. I could just focus on these expansions, giving them the attention and polish they need to put our best foot forward!

If the audience makes it clear they want more content, then more content is what I'll provide... I'll just be able to do so a lot faster if I'm not juggling a dozen other assignments, and I can focus entirely on building up and expanding this game.

Which Brings Us To Those Stretch Goals!

The main way that you persuade your audience to help you expand a project, and to fund it past the base level (aside from just making something that a lot of people want to see become a reality) is to offer stretch goals. For those who aren't familiar, these are options that unlock once a campaign has reached a certain level, and they're usually fun, extra things to go along with the base product.

So what does Army Men have to offer?

Glad you asked!

The first stretch goal we have unlocks at $10K, and it's a "standard-issue" set of army green dice. While it may not have the floating skulls, light up numbers, or irreverent phrases some specialty dice have, that's almost kind of the point. Just like how bags of the little plastic toys were always the same, these dice are meant to give you that feeling. Instead of being issued a pair of combat boots, a set of BDUs, and a rifle, these dice are meant to be the weapons you take out into the world with you to help you achieve your missions in this RPG.

The second stretch goal is something I absolutely love, because it was partially (though not completely) my idea. Some folks might remember how, in decades past, you could sometimes get a foot locker of little plastic army toys. Well, to sort of recreate that feeling, we wanted to offer an ammo can that will hold your book, minis, dice, and other accessories that will unlock at $15K.

At time of writing we've slipped down just under $7K... so while both of these stretch goals are a goodly ways off, there's no telling what the Internet may do with a little bit of prodding.

So if you'd like to help us reach those goals, and help myself and other members of the team get the resources we need to work on everything from rules expansions, to mission packs, to future installments of game books, please back Army Men on Kickstarter, and share the link in your social media for folks to see. We're in an uphill battle against the algorithm, and even against gamer apathy, and we need all the help we can to plant our flag so folks can see it from miles around!

Thanks in advance for all of your help... we really can't do this without you!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Daily Motion channel!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!