Why 'o why?
When I was a kid, we lived near a pharmacy called The Tek. The store is long gone, I have no idea why it was called that, but it was great little shop with all kinds of books, medicine and tchotchkes for sale.
Like every normal parent on planet Earth, my parents didn't have enough for every wish and desire. But they did their damned best.
One day, my dad took me to The Tek for something and told me flat out, "I don't have any extra money to get you anything." When he picked up his script or whatever he was buying, he found me looking at a book called:
What is Dungeons and Dragons by John Butterfield, Philip Parker and David Honigmann.
As I put it back on the shelf to leave, my dad said, "Oh, a book. I have money for a book. As long as you read it."
Fast forward 20, 30 maybe even 35 years, I remember that lesson. Knowledge is worth more than money. I spend time making sure my kids read, just as my parents did for me. When they couldn't read, I read for them. When they don't have time or money to read, I make sure I close those gaps so they can.
But reading isn't the point of this post. It's about THE TECH. Sometimes, I wonder where I stand in the whole scheme of things. I have no idea. Do I sell a lot of books? Don't know. Do a lot of people read my blog? What is "a lot"? No idea.
To that end, I have decided to post my web stats and copies download from DriveThruRPG stats. Why? Because information is power and perhaps you too are wonder where you are at. This isn't a bid for transparency, I love the fact that someone reads my stuff, simply for the joy of it.
So, here are the year to to date states for my site and books.
July 2019:
AD&D Character Sheet For Use with Unearthed Arcana - 10
Compass Rose Inn Minisetting - 90
Kobold Folly Minisetting - 43
Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 9
Webstats July 2019 - 2294
June 2019:
AD&D Character Sheet For Use with Unearthed Arcana - 48
Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 8
Webstats June 2019 - 1380
May 2019:
Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 6
Webstats May 2019 - 1965
April 2019:
Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 2
Webstats May 2019 - 3011
March 2019:
Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 12
Webstats May 2019 - 1838
Febuary 2019:
Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 4
Webstats May 2019 - 1423
January 2019:
Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 12
Webstats May 2019 - 2792
Keep in mind, these are raw stats from the reports I have available. While the DriveThruRPG stats are rock solid, the webstats are coming from the report that Blogger provides. I am sure there is some crap in there that shouldn't be. I am working to refine these numbers by using Google Analytics going forward.
Books are not sales, they are downloads only. My sales rate for the lifetime of all products is an averaged 6.5% (as of today, 7.8%) of all downloads. This is owing to the fact that I offer PWYW and specifically told people not to pay for the character sheet or the Compass Rose Inn maps in the product description. It hurts sales, but I am 100% certain that the downloader got what they needed.
In the future, I plan to move away from the PWYW model for a lot of titles, but only once I feel confident that the production quality is high enough to support it. You can click the link in the upper left (THE TEK) for the latest update.