Small-Biz Buzz: How to Feed the Gamer's Fix

What makes you purchase its products over competitors'?

IPR is better organized, more comprehensive and better staffed than its competition. While other companies in the field look at what they do as a hobby, IPR is a serious business that supports a hobby.

What is IPR's greatest strength?

IPR has a monthly podcast, the "Voice of the Revolution," that is a thoroughly entertaining discussion about the state of independently published nonelectronic games today.

Sure, it's advertising, but no one ever tells you "go buy that" -- only "you would probably like that." It's a distinction that's very comforting to a customer.

What do you value in the small businesses you patronize?

Honesty. I want to know that if something isn't worth my time no one is going to shill it to me anyway. I want an upfront explanation of what I'm purchasing, and I want to be able to ask questions about it.

Outside of a brick-and-mortar store, this is usually impossible.

What really turns you off in small-business advertising?

Low production quality. Just because you have a tight budget and you aren't one of the big boys doesn't mean you can't look or act professional. The public got savvy; it's time mom and pop did, too.

I rang up founder Brennan Taylor to pick his entrepreneurial brain. A Web content manager by day, Taylor started IPR in New Jersey in August 2005 as a side project with $1,700 in start-up costs. Profits from last year averaged around $12,000, and Taylor expects a 50% growth increase next year. The only downside? He's had to hire employees long before he predicted he'd need them.

TheStreet.com: With growth like that, what's your secret?

Brennan Taylor: I had a market that was not being served at all. I was the first one to get in on a good deal.

IPR avoids the distribution market, raising the amount of money each [game creator] gets per sale. We're the first one that started to do this in this industry.