So you have discovered eWrestling, made a wrestler, and made an impact on the eWrestling community. You have an idea of a brand new eFederation or have decided “I can do that”.
Stop.
If you have not read previous articles, here are those now.
What is eWrestling?
https://steemit.com/roleplaying/@vastrix/what-is-ewrestling-9e46ef3260825
Building a eWrestler, Tag Team, and Stable
https://steemit.com/roleplaying/@vastrix/building-a-ewrestler-tagteam-and-stable-a67d5c6c083d1
Advanced Roleplaying Techniques
https://steemit.com/roleplaying/@vastrix/advanced-roleplaying-techniques-10441cce2b26f
Do some research before you jump into opening the doors to a new eWrestling company. Does someone else use the same name? Same call letters? Do you have the time to write entire shows by yourself? Do you have a crew of Handlers at the ready to join your fed?
Answering these questions first will help you determine if you are up to the challenge that is running an eFederation or if you’re really looking to be staff in another company.
Once you have determined that you will be starting a new eFed, it might be a good idea to decide upon the where you will build it.
Are you good at building a website and can build yourself one from the bottom up? Kudos!
If not, you may want to find a place where you can get this done. I mean, you can always get a forum hosted and call it done, but will you really have support? No.
Two sites that I find work excellently to be able to build a eFed at are as follows.
This is a site that has a system called an eFed Management System. A site is automatically built for you and you can use these bones to build your eFed virtually coding free. You can recruit wrestlers, book shows, and so on with relative ease. This system does have its limitations and its quirks. If this is the place that you decide to go with, find me, and I will be all too happy to help describe what to do and what the limitations are of the site when booking shows.
Though there is a Community Forum, it more or less lies fallow with the smaller number of active eFeds on the site itself. This also means that members often go straight to the eFed in question rather than ever checking the Community Forum or what new eFeds have been made. It makes for a difficult time to get started up without having a full support web in place.
That leads us to this next website.
This is a board fed. No, that’s not really fair at all. I would not recommend a simple board fed as you become an island in the internet sea. No support for your fed at all.
The XHF Network is a Community Board of eFeds. There are many eFeds here and that number changes based upon how active the feds are. There is a full community support here for eFeds, new and old alike. This has the community that I am glad to be a part of.
Now, you have a place to be. You have a name and concept. You have a bit of interest. Now what?
Time to recruit beyond your core group of interest.
Tell everyone you think might be interested in joining.
There are sites to advertise on. Just make sure that you are discrete when doing so. Being seen as a poacher is not a good thing.
Some of this can be covered after you have your first show under your belt. Nothing impresses me more than a well written bit of results over a bunch of hype. Even if the show is small due to a small roster.
Booking. It takes some time to get this right as making every show not seem like the one before can be hard after a time. I find that booking is the most soul draining part of running an efed beyond actually writing the results.
Once the show is finished, it’s time to begin getting that show out there. There’s those who will see the show at the site you are on, but go further!
Here are the places that you will find Riot Star Wrestling’s next show.
This is the place that I will be posting a banner and a link, maybe a bit of description of the show if I can fit it in someplace.
Instagram.
I’ve done my research here and a banner and link can be posted. Also, this account can be linked to Twitter and Tumbler as well so one post hits three targets!
These are the places that I will have a little blurb about the show written and then include a banner and link.
Facebook Groups
Don’t let this one slide by. There are a lot of groups on Facebook about eWrestling, wrestling, or both. Post your shows and your recruitment pitches to these groups. It’s a pity there’s not some kind of FREE application that can handle the posting to a dozen or more groups in one go. Least, not that I know of. Guys?
Steemit
A blurb, a banner, and a link or an entire show copy/pasted. Not only does this have the potential to reach many readers, this could make a little cash depending on who upvotes your material. Spend some time getting situated here. It’ll be worth your while to reach a wider audience.
Buzz Feed
Surely you have seen the different gossip posts on this site posing as news. Why can’t we do the same? It seems that a blurb and a banner with a link can be done here. Yep, I plan on being the first eFed on BuzzFeed.
Reddit
This looks to be a well traveled road in that blurbs, banners, and links can be posted here.
Medium
This is also something new that I have found on Google Play. Looks like doing the blurb, banner, and link will be easy here though more might be an option. I think this is like articles and such.
Any other ways to get a show out to the masses? Let me know at [email protected]
Now. You have a roster, you know what to do with a finished show, and sort of how to book.
We could cover the actual writing of the show, but that may be a whole ‘nother article. It all really depends on how much detail you want in you show so long as the detail isn’t limited to “Joe Shmoe defeats Fred Krab with a leglock” as the entire match. I’m sure that it will be fine.
Look to other eFeds to their shows to see how they write their shows to determine how you would like to do things. The thing I cannot stress enough is to make it all look even. As in if you choose to write or format in a certain way, make sure that the end product all looks that way. This could mean editing everything that is sent to you by other writers or laying down examples and a how to on what you want your results to look like for ease of inclusion.
Now, who wins the match? This boils down to one of a few possibilities.
Random
Draw a name from an effing hat. Ok, don’t do this. I don’t know any feds that do this with the exception of one in the past let a simulator decide who won.
Roleplay
Decide on what kind of criteria that you want to decide to determine who has the better roleplay and that is the winner of the match. End of story.
Angle
This is where the better roleplay doesn’t determine who wins the match so much as determines where you place on the card. A great roleplayer may not always win their matches, but will find themselves moving up to the main event status. Or so I’m told anyways. I have not a terrible lot of experience in running an Angle fed.
Hybrid
This is some blend of roleplay and angle. Good feds will let you know the difference of when you will be doing one or the other in an upcoming show. I think. Otherwise, I feel like this is an excuse to let you know that if they feel like you should lose for some reason other than your roleplay sucked, this is pulled out of the hat to let you know to shut the fuck up.
This brings us to the final part of this article. Storylines.
Storylines breathe life into the efed and is what really separates an efed from being just a mindless video game.
When you watch storylines and feuds on television, you know that they often have beginnings, middles, and ends like any good story. Often I find it best that a story would run no longer than one ppv to the next. A PPV Cycle if you will. You run into the risk of someone dropping out of the story before it has the chance to run to its conclusion.
Of course if you have dedicated people who can keep a story or feud fresh over the course of years...then more power to you.
In the end, starting an eFederation and becoming a Fed Head is a thankless job that people will often complain more about what you have done wrong than what you have done right. I will bring about obsession, stress, ulcers, bring you to the edge of quitting all forms of writing, and more.
Just don’t do it.
I mean...it’s fun as fuck. Do it at least once in your life.
