Trying? Yes..in the near future..say next two months I HAVE to turn a
profit..otherwise its all over.
:)
Carigamer is not just the website you see..it isn't a completely Internet
based company, but through the investor it has a brick and mortar backing.
Carigamer was born out of the market in Trinidad for electronic gaming, and
its popularity.
There are no organisations really to pull people together as a group, or to
provide tournaments etc. such as what CPL and they do in the States.
This is also true throughout the Caribbean.
We had a few contacts up the islands..and decided lets start up
CGA..Caribbean Gaming Association....then an individual thought..why should
we do it all for free?
Lets make some money..lets make it into a .com business.
Hence..CGA became Carigamer.com
Our first Tournament was last year, around November.
It attracted 200+ participants to a single mall in Trinidad. (Trinidad's
population is 1.2 million).
Now that was a rather high number of people to hit a mall, to play video
games for one event.(It wa salso a logistical nightmare for me arranging all
those people into matches and..gods i dont want to remember).
But People still don't know we did that Tournament, despite the good turnout
we had.
Which leaves us thinking..how many people WOULD have shown up if we'd
advertised more??
We hooked up with Air Jamaica to fly in contestants from Barbados, the
"Drive Or Die" crew (we were playing Gran Turismo 2 on the PSX)..to compete
against Trinidad. A Trinidadian won, btw :)(YESSSSSS!)
Again in keeping with Carigamer being for the Caribbean, not just for
Trinidad.
We were also able to offer two round trip tickets to New York, PLUS a
Playstation 2 with 2 games (Jap import), And a Dreamcast system, and
money..and three trophies.
That was a hell of a lot to put together in less than a month, and myself
and this other guy managed to pull it off..and it opened the eyes of
companies like Carib (beer), the malls around Trinidad and some competitors.
So how are we going to make money?
Well we're trying not to SPEND money this time.
The televisions etc. are hopefully going to be sponsored..so we don't have
to rent them ourselves. We're going to push it as a PRESS event..so free
coverage.
We have also gotten a former Miss World contestant (Michelle Khan) to do our
PR for us.
The Finals for our Fifa 2000 tournament is going to be held in conjunction
with Power Boats Association's Great Race to Tobago..an International
boating event.We're getting a tent, space for banners etc. etc. and the
exposure of Being There at the races..
All this relates to how we are going to make money :)
We're still not going to charge our Sponsors to have their banners and
products at the first tournament..and we are going to put their ads on the
website for "free"..for a while....to warm them up to the idea.
Then The next two, and the finals..if they want to keep their banner there
and be associated...pay us x amount.
Not interested?
Fine..we'll go make the offer to your competitor..I'm sure they'll be
willing.
We ARE going to get at least two big name companies and chains in Trinidad,
and hopefully the caribbean this way.
That should have covered our running costs for the site so far, and leave us
with a little left over to pay people to provide content,and..I don't know
what else. Hire a few of CF Developers from this list to work on the site
for a month or something LOL :)
We do plan to sell Advertising on the site..but more importantly we will
sell a presence at the Tournaments themselves.
We're also going to get into E-Commerce.
Like I posted earlier, with the Telecommunications Bill, Trinidad's Internet
use is set to explode..similar things are happening up the islands.
US companies don't cater to the needs of the Caribbean of course..our market
is too "small" for them to consider. They have 300million+ in America to
worry about.
Shipping charges are ridiculous to get something shipped to your home from
the US (don't ask for London), US PO Boxes are expensive, and not everyone
has an International Credit Card.
Thats where Carigamer comes in...partnering with a local Wholesale
Distributor to sell the games off the site.
Doing that we can come in below other established retail chains in the
island that have far more overhead than some simple hosting costs a month.
And we can deliver packages directly to people's doorsteps through TTPost,
anywhere in the Caribbean.
So it becomes appealing to our members to shop for their games etc. through
us.
And we of course set our own pricepoints, rather than being bound to a
stupid 5% commission agreement by being say a Chips and Bits affiliate or
some such crap.
We'll save that for our International audience..who should see a different
price, and different links when they log into the site using their user and
password.
(How the f*** i'm doing that I haven't figured out yet..hence the fact that
the membership login still doesn't work lol lol lol!).
Alternately..and if it can be profitable..we could partner with local
retailers.
If a member living in Valsayn wants to buy a game, they log onto the site,
and click the link for the game.
If a retailer that lives near them is selling it, they see that..they can
make the purchase.
We take 10%..they go down to the retailer and pick their game up.
Or they get it delivered to their door...we reimburse the retailer X amount.
We're now a portal for local retailers who don't have the skill or the
knowledge to put up an E-Presence for themselves.
So thats another avenue to make some bucks.
By the end of the year we would have built up so much momentum in the local
market, that by the time someone does wise up and decide that it may be a
profitable arena to enter, the capital they have to put out to get to where
we are, will be significant.
In fact thats the case now. The amount of money to pay someone to get all
the content and the functionality (albeit limited) for www.carigamer.com as
it is now..isn't anything to shrug at for most people.
Plus you factor in ongoing maintenance of that site..daily updates..and for
a Businessman it adds up.
Add to that, that making money and being successful isn't a sure thing...
and I'm fairly certain that we have a pretty decent buffer zone before
anyone tries to threatens us in the market.
Plus, if you look Internationally at Foreign advertising...many of those
huge gaming sites are just loosing money.
I can't figure out why they needed so much money to begin with...but
whatever the reason they're losing now..and slowly contracting.
Many gaming sites have gone out of business...advertisers are scared to
spend their money.
Thats why I embraced this whole Macromedia Advertising Association thing.
Never went a meeting (kinda impossible seeing that I'm 3000 miles away
lol)..but I sent an email stating that I was interested and now I seem to be
on their mailing list.
The Flash ads hold the attention.
True, I may have overdone it..but its the way of the future.
Does a TV Station only get paid if someone presses their finger to a TV
screen to show interest in a product?
NOpe..
So then why should an internet site only get paid when someone clicks on
their Ad??
It isn't my fault if you're selling crap, or people find your ad cheesy.
No..what we'll do for you is we put your advertisement prominently in that
top banner spot..and we make it attractive for you.
We'll build the quick Flash presentation..we'll add sound..we may even add
some interactivity..and you pay us a flat fee to keep that ad there for a
month, based on the number of vistors that come to the site that WILL see
that advertisment.(No I haven't coded this part yet either hee hee
hee..umm..).
If they get smart and say, well we heard about payment per 1000 impressions
etc. we'll say well hey..fine.
Go somewhere else that charges per impression, that gives you our
Demographic, our membership, and all our other services...it might work out
cheaper for you.
But your results will be cheaper as well, and you sure as hell aren't going
to reach the same market, in the same way.
And the companies that we are hitting for advertising, aren't these
gaming/computing companies, or necessarily Technological companies.
No..we're approaching Coca Cola, Beer companies..night clubs..clothing
stores..things that appeal to our Demographic..rather than to the fact that
many of those people play electronic games.
Thats not important...they still gotta drink something..they still gotta
wear clothes..they go to parties..they go to the beach.
If we ever get approached by a foreign firm to advertise then hell yeah I'm
all for it..but its not necessarily what I'm looking for.I just don't think
our market would appeal to those companies, despite the fact that our site
will have a larger international than local audience.
But I think its better that we're independant..and not bloated by some mad
rush of funds from somewhere.
When we do get to the stage where we make a hell of a lot of money
(dreaming, yes I know) or something..I'd like to think that because we
started out small, and grew up so to speak, we'd be better able to reinvest
capital, and maintain our core business model, rather than piss away
millions of dollars of other people's money :) (That's what money that you
get from shares are anyways..isn't it? ;-) )
In short, I'm hoping to have a monopoly on the Caribbean Gaming market by
this time next year.
^_^
What Do YOU Want To Play Today?
*snicker*
*smirk*
;-)
Sorry for the length of this..but us Trinis are rather loquacious and
verbose.I also type really really fast
hee hee :)
-Gel
-----Original Message-----
From: Nathan Stanford [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
I have some suggestions and then you YOUNGER folk can correct me if I am
wrong...
Are you trying to make money with carigamer.com?
If So, How?
Advertising?
There are plenty of these out there but I will say you at least picked
something that is not loosing ground.
Gaming and Online Gaming is still growing online.
Nathan Stanford
President/CEO
C.F. Concepts, Inc.
www.cftipsplus.com
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