Over the River

I do a little writing on the side. I’m not going to say what kind of writing it is but trust me, it isn’t like this blog and it’s about the farthest thing from my work as you can imagine (so no conflict if anyone from work reads this . . .). My work has become increasingly popular and my wife has been encouraging me to make some money with it.

The thing is, I am not really tuned into business and all that jazz so the idea of dealing with it hasn’t really captured my imagination. But at the same time, I’d love to make a little extra loot. I’ve got the product piece down – and the marketing – but the business end? Not so much.

Now though things are starting to come together. Let me tell you about the ingredients that will lead to my eventual anonymous stardom:

Wordpress.com – as the initial point for publication. Why? Because it’s easy. I have a number of WordPress blogs – some that I host myself and some that I host on Wordpress. Hosting them myself lets me put ads on them but hosting them on Wordpress help grow traffic faster.

Craig’s List – as the initial point of promotion. Why? Because it’s free easy and I can set it up in less time than it will take me to write this post.

PayPal – as my method for payment. Why? Because, well, because it’s simple and when I asked my wife to look into payment systems this is what she came up with.

FreshBooks – as my billing/invoice system. Why? Well, they’re one of my clients and I really like the product (not that I don’t like all my client’s products but there’s not many of them that I can use). It looks good, is simple to use and helps me keep track of things I’m not very good at keeping track of.

A friend who shall remain nameless – as my marketing chum. Why? Sure, I could do it myself but I’m a little too close to the product to promote it objectively. She is not.

As soon as I get some paying customers I’ll be psyched - and with my new systems in place it will only be a matter of time until I am the master of my domain . . .

I’ve asked it before and I’m still interested in hearing from people – how do you handle the business end of your thing (what ever that thing might be)?