Welcome to Nitro’s August edition of our monthly Publisher Showcase; uncovering valuable insights and stories from the incredible website owners on our platform.
This month, we spoke to Harry Finocchiaro, one of the masterminds behind the awesome Magic: the Gathering deck-building website Moxfield. In the interview below, Harry reveals how recognizing a gap in the market for a high-quality, enterprise-level Magic website led to the creation of a dominant community favorite platform for a vibrant niche.
Read on to discover the journey and insights of this Magic deck building mastermind 👇
First up, can you tell us a bit about your career/life background that led you to start Moxfield?
I started playing Magic in 1994 and continued throughout my entire life (with a few years exception here and there). As soon as I got into computer programming, I was trying to figure out a way to merge my two favorite things, but I lacked the deep experience to make anything real. I eventually had enough experience in my career and enough personal time to put them together and actually make something.
What drove you to create Moxfield ? Did you see a specific gap in the market? Was there a particular insight that motivated you to launch it?
Moxfield was created because I wasn't happy with any of the products on the market. I noticed that most Magic websites were built as hobby websites and weren't treated like the enterprise-level websites that co-founder, John Tull, and I were working on in our careers. Our naive approach was to bring a higher level of quality to Moxfield to set it apart from the other Magic sites.
How long have you been running your website and how long did it take from development until it was live?
Moxfield was originally created in August of 2017, but we didn't go live until July of 2019.
How did you decide on the specific features and tools available on Moxfield?
In the beginning, we were building Moxfield based on what I wanted in a deck builder. But after we released it publicly, we immediately started listening to our users and building what they needed.
How were you able to build a strong online presence for your deck-building website? (e.g. SEO, forums, PPC, influencers etc)
We were lucky enough to have a niche community that adopted us. We fostered that community by giving them everything we could. This established Moxfield as a brand worth talking about, and we grew by word of mouth. It wasn't until much later that we started using influencer marketing to branch out of our niche.
What are you most proud of regarding the success of Moxfield so far? Any major highlights?
We wake up every morning amazed that people use Moxfield and continue to love it. That is a gift that keeps on giving, as our biggest accomplishment continues to be scaling.
What advice do you have for new and existing website owners that you wish you knew before you started?
Read the book Play Bigger by Al Ramadan, Christopher Lochhead, Dave Peterson, and Kevin Maney. This book is great for opening your mind to entering a new or existing market.
What do you like best about being a part of Nitro’s network of premium gaming/entertainment websites?
Nitro doesn't brush us off. They make us feel like we matter to them. They spend a lot of time answering our questions and addressing our concerns. We don't feel like we're constantly in a sales meeting... it feels like we're working with friends.
What’s next for Moxfield?
We're working on building a better way for people to communicate about Magic: The Gathering.
A big thank you to Harry and Moxfield. Keep your eyes peeled for more insightful interviews like this in next month's edition of our Publisher Showcase, where we’ll continue to spotlight one of the 500+ stand out websites on Nitro, diving deep into their unique success!
Nitro is dedicated to reinventing website monetization for the gaming industry. Our ad tech platform combines uncompromised user experience and nitro-speed revenue and service with Net 7 Payouts, same-day support and the industry’s fastest ad loading.