Publishers Should Start Building Events... & Fast
One of the main projects that I will be working on in 2025 and 2026 (after I launch our first product) is to build a yearly event for Retro Dodo's community, and I believe it will become one of the most important parts of our business moving forward.
When we had 95% of our traffic removed thanks to Google's Sept 2023 HCU update, I had to lean heavily on other avenues, and what kept us alive was actually our community.
Our community would seek our content out every day, search for our brand name in Google, follow our social posts, share our news content and support us on Patreon for extra access. These small gestures added up to keep the lights on, and a roof above our head.
Because of that, we have become somewhat "algoproof", albeit we won't be thriving but we can survive without Google, just about. So I am going to go all in on community over the next couple of years, and an event is in my opinion the most personal, intimate form of community give-back a publisher can do.
Not only that, it's something AI cannot build, and we all know AI is coming for every content publisher on the web! Typically larger media companies who we all directly compete with just don't have the time to focus on a "small event" either, nor do they have a comparable relationship to us when it comes to being personal and transparent with our readers.
So small independent publishers actually have an advantage here in my opinion. The events don't have to be big either, making them smaller and more exclusive may even be better in some niches.
An event could be as small as a coffee meet up to chat, or as big as renting a space for a weekend, selling tickets and inviting vendors to come sell/promote products. Whatever the size, it comes with many benefits:
- Brings you closer to your community in a more personal manner which builds trust and relationships.
- Helps you understand your community more, what they like about your brand and where areas need work etc.
- Meet brands and potential partners face to face.
Once scaled it could even provide an extra revenue stream in the form of:
- Tickets
- Vendor space
- Sponsorships
- Merchandise
- Content Created At The Event
As they years go by, your event should slowly and surely get bigger as your community grows, working in unison to create a brand that not only offers superb content but physical experiences about the subjects you cover for the audience that your brand targets.
Undoubtedly it will require a lot of work, but I believe if done right it can become an entirely separate business in itself that isn't subject to algorithm changes, or heck, your website being alive.
The event I want to build.
As an example, the event I want to build for Retro Dodo will start as a exclusive expo, with only 100 - 250 tickets to be sold, an event on one single day.
This event will be an expo. At this expo there will be a wide number of vendors selling all types of retro video games, collectibles and nostalgic toys. This will allow attendees to explore products that they might want to add to their collections.
Alongside that, we will also invite exhibitors. Brands and companies that we have partnered with in the past who release products. These products will be on show for attendees to explore and to meet the faces behind their favourite brands. This will also be a great way for exhibitors to mingle, and meet other people in their industry that they can talk business with.
We will also have an area that attendess can play on old retro consoles, opening up an experience for adults and kids to play the games they loved back in the day.
We will also have a mini-stage where will be holding live events, a podcast episode and discussions with our community that can be converted into long-form content. It's also an opportunity to sell sponsorships too, for brands to be apart of the event, on marketing material, show off their products at the show and on-stage alongside featuring in content that we will publish on our socials.
That's what I envision our event being, but it will start small, and over the years build up to hopefully become the best retro gaming expo in the UK.
I hope this gives you an idea in regards to how events can help your content website in more ways than one. Bringing your community and industry folk under one roof and getting paid for is a strategy i believe we all need to implement.
Media companies, and other independent publishers in your space will eventually do this, so it's time to get planning and build the go to event in your niche, in your city before competition does. If you manage to pull it off and cement yourself as the "go to" event for your subject, I bet it will be a very rewarding revenue stream and an experience your community deserves.