Gaming Website or no Website?

[Deleted User]

First of all: Please, excuse if this is in the wrong forum. But I can't quite "get" where to put this question.

Ok... so... I've been wanting to do digital content for some extra cash. With technology growing each day, and getting available to everyone faster than before, I believe it's a good time to start working on this matter.
So... I learned today that Youtube keeps 45% of all the revenues that you make per 1000 ad views. Uh... that's a lot! This is not a direct place to start. Perhaps, only for exposure.
Then... I found a site called Uscreen, which grants you with 100% of any money made by your content. This sounds good to me. This is a potential site on my list.

After this, I remembered I've done some stuff for 2D videogames before, and I was thinking about making and selling assets through the Unity Assets Store.
Unity keeps 30% out of all the money you've made... and the remaining 70% goes to the Provider (content creator) minus a random percentage from IVA and other stuff.

Now... I think that the best way to keep 100% of my revenue is by setting up an Paypal account and making my own Website.
Perhaps a combination of all of the services could work in the long term.

My question here to you is:
- Is it easier / better to have a personal website linked to a Paypal account?
- Has anyone of you has made any of this to get extra money? How effective has been for you?
- What are the costs to maintain a personal website with a personal domain?

I'm new in all of this.

 

[FAST6191]

"100% of my revenue is by setting up an Paypal account"
?
https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees

Your monthly sales Transaction fee
Up to £1,500 3.4% + 20p
£1,500.01 - £6,000.00 2.9% + 20p
£6,000.01 - £15,000.00 2.4% + 20p
£15,000.01 - £55,000.00 1.9% + 20p

If you think places which take paypal don't know that (by the way that is far far higher than credit card machines) then you are mistaken.

Technically you could get people to donate/gift you but... yeah. Nobody will do that for a business transaction (it inherently comes with no refund potential).

Similarly "I found a site called Uscreen, which grants you with 100% of any money made by your content"
So they will be gone in 6 months, possibly before your 2 views return enough to make it worth their time paying out.

" - What are the costs to maintain a personal website with a personal domain?"
Depends upon many things.
You need a domain, always buy this standalone and not with a bundle with hosting. Varies depending upon the type you have. $10 a year for a normal one is about right though.

You need hosting. What you want to host though will vary the costs. A few pages and a photo of your local restaurant is easy and can be done for very little (I usually go with about £200 every three years for toy hosting like that). Videos though take a lot more space, plus a player, plus the bandwidth to serve (all of which youtube will give you for free, plus sort advertising, plus market your stuff to other people that like to click on related videos a lot). [insert similar line for unity store]. That is considerably more.

" - Has anyone of you has made any of this to get extra money? How effective has been for you?"
Being a creative sort on the internet is either one of those things you have to be some kind of world class talent to do, or started doing 9 years ago. If you think it is going to be a small stream of passive income, or semi passive income you can add things to when you have a few hours spare in an evening then as the kids might say ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
You can be a creative sort with an internet presence, that is a different matter entirely. However it is not going to be your own thing as much as making videos of said local restaurant, office complex, slaughterhouse, company picnic... or, worst of all, weddings. Also http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

 

[Pleng]

If you sell stuff via your own website how are you going to drive traffic there? As they say it's better to have a small peice of a large pie than a large piece of nothing.

You're just going to need to accept that there's always going to be somebody taking a slice of your earnings, in whatever you do.