Wanderings

Keith P. Graham is a Programmer, Harmonica player and Science Fiction Writer. This blog reflects these and many other areas of interest.
Search
atom.xml feed



Creative Commons License


21 February 2008

Star Money

After a flurry of star sales for Valentines Day, FreeNameAStar.com has settled down to practically nothing again. I don't foresee making many sales until Mother's day. Then there'll be some Father's Day and graduation presents and then a long summer and autumn and then Christmas again. If I am going to retire on my web income I have to leverage the star sales to fill in the dry periods.

Here's what I've been thinking. I want to make a separate site that allows users to register to become Star resellers. I would charge $1 per star. A girl scout troop ,or Tupperware party type person could sell the star certificates for $5 each (or $100, or whatever). It would be a good flea market thing, or Church bizarre thing. Charitable groups doing fund raisers could send them out for each donation. All you would need is a computer, a printer and an internet connection.

I've thought of this before, but the gotcha was how to collect the money. My new idea is that I could sell stars in blocks of 50 or 100. I would charge $50 for 50, $90 for 100 and $200 for 300 stars. They could get their ID and get their blocks of stars right from a web page. I would just take the money and help a little with the tech support. Every time they sold a star there would be a count down showing how many stars were left, reminding them to reorder. I would have to be liberal about refunds and some cheaters would have a high refund rate. I have to think a little about cheaters.

I also need better art. I have never liked the star certificate format. Currently, it is a frame with a blotch of stars and the logo in yellow across the blotch. I need something better. The next set of cubicles down from me is the county art department, but I have not made any friends with the artists, since I don't have any real social skills. I have to wait for an opportunity and talk with them and see if they have any ideas. Talking to actual humans is not something that I enjoy, though.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008