The readings for Tuesday's class gave me a ray of hope for the future of my writing career. Josh Marshall's speech gave a small insight into the importance of independent media and what it was like to see Talking Points Memo grow. It was inspiring to see how he made his passion grow and turn it into something that supports him.
But politics are such a hot topic, so it makes sense that a great writer and investigator who focuses on that field would become popular and successful. Politics affect everyone and stories about corruption will almost automatically reach a huge audience. My dreams lie in something much less accessible to the general public: video games.
And yet I was still inspired. The second reading from Business Week provided a list of successful blogs and how they made their money. TPM was on that list but what stuck out to me most was the slide about Kottke. Kottke is a very niche website that generates content around things that exist on the Internet. And that's also what I do.
I run VGJReview.com, and have been adding to it at least once a week for the past six weeks. I focus on journalism surrounding the video game industry, which would attract a relatively small audience. It is aimed toward people who care about video games and how people write about them. The concept does not exactly have the widest draw but it isn't something that is out there right now, I think it needs to be.
These readings gave me hope that my website could be successful. It's independent, niche and so far only run by me. I'm passionate about the subject and have fun writing about it, and I think that is a big part of what goes into the start of a successful project. If you can't believe in what you are doing, I don't believe you will easily find other people that would believe in it.
If I Can Haz Cheezburger can exist and be incredibly successful, I think VGJ Review could at least make me a little bit of money.
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