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What It's About
A listener wants to know if a choose-what-you-pay model will work for her creative lettering hustle.
Notes from Chris
Episode 1128
Remember, I want to know about your projects! I heard about a really cool one today - you’ll hear about it too - and I very much enjoyed the first month of our Year of Interaction. We’ll be ramping things up as we go along, with more questions, the new Throwback Thursday series (we’ve done two so far), and something special I’m saving for April, when I’ll begin an all-new tour. This listener started a pen-to-paper initiative to connect people through snail mail. It’s starting well, but how can it scale—and is a Pay-What-You-Will pricing model the best option?I launched the XO Project, a pen to paper initiative to connect humans offline through snail mail. The idea was to put my interest in calligraphy to use by writing short greetings on behalf of others. It's a simple process. A person submits their message and details through an online form on my website. I calligraph the message on a card and address the envelope. Add postage and mail it up. At first I offered this for free to test the idea and refine the process. Now it's offered at a choose what you pay model to keep it accessible. The cards are branded and have a message on the back inviting the recipient to participate as well. Fifty-nine notes were mailed out the first year of the project, and sixty-seven notes were sent out last year in twenty nineteen. My question is twofold; how do I figure out who is the best audience for this and how might a service based project like this scale would also be curious what you think about the choose-what-you-pay price model?Listen to today's episode to learn more...
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Learn more about Niki's creative business The XO Project at her website.
- Instagram Calligraphy Project Earns $9,000 in Year One: A corporate employee in Texas enters the online world of calligraphy and hand-lettering, then changes along the way to suit her strengths.
- Kiwi Coder Makes Extra $50,000/Year from Virtual Paintbrushes: A New Zealand-based software developer puts her digital skills to artistic use by creating virtual lettering brushes for budding digital calligraphers.
- Event Planner Writes Her Way Into Custom Calligraphy Shop: Her friends encourage her to open her own Etsy shop, but this event planner ends up going further by quitting her job and publishing a book.
