http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9805231Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas! Or, should I say,
Xmas. Primitive xmas74 wants to write letters as if they were Santa, to scratch up some tax-free dough:
xmas74 (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 09:53 PM
Original message
Question about moneymaking idea.
I've thought about selling handwritten letters from Santa this year as a way to make some Christmas money. Times are still very lean in my house so I need yet another way to augment the income.
What I'm wondering is this:
1) How much would someone pay for a personalized, handwritten letter from Santa mailed to the child's home?
2) Should postage be included or should I request each order sent with a SASE? (I've thought about this as an easy way to be sure that the address is the correct address.)
3) Is one page plenty for something of this nature? I'm thinking a couple of paragraphs should be more than sufficient.
4) Should I include some sort of little treat, such as a cheap lollypop, a candy cane, or even a holiday pencil in the package?
5) Should I stick with a couple of local papers and bulletin boards for advertising or would I get more business if I actually posted on message boards online, maybe even running status messages from family members accounts on Facebook, etc?
5) I'd prefer to handle all business in either cash or money order but should I offer check as an option? Or should I set up a new Paypal account? (My old one had a problem and they closed it down after my bank was sold.)
Please give any suggestions. This is something I can do while watching tv at night, while on break at work, etc. It takes very little equipment and is portable, so I can do it anywhere. And I'm thinking the idea of the letter being handwritten would be a better selling point instead of the normal computer-printed letters you see being sold during the holidays.
I suggest you pay your taxes, and not try to avoid them with cash or money orders. I'm sure a few of the members here have a few suggestions for you, too. Actually, I have another one for you, and since you're in the Christmas spirit, I'll oblige and it'll be to the tune of Little Drummer Boy:
Get a Job
You Bum
Bum Bum Bum Bum
Money don't grow on trees
You Bum
Bum Bum Bum BumChan790 (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 10:22 PM
Response to Original message
1. Answers as I see them.
Edited on Mon Oct-17-11 10:22 PM by Chan790
1.) I have no idea.
2.) I'd include postage, I'd also find a way to confirm the addresses. You might try taking orders primarily by email and emailing the people to confirm the addresses. That's a nice touch and people will appreciate it, possibly enough to recommend your service to others.
3.) I think it depends on how much you charge...also a longer note that is more personalized and contains more details is worth more.
4.) Again, doing this increases the value-proposition and the price you can charge. Further, if you intend to do this more that one year...you can buy nicer holiday themed things after the holidays on clearance. For example, the year I worked at Sears we were selling off holiday stuffed animals marked down from $25 to $5 because we didn't want to store them until Dec. If you have the ability to store such a thing for 11 months...a note and a stuffed animal with a $25 retail value (that cost you $5) might fetch $40.
5.) Facebook, Twitter, Craigslist, and on and on. It's a nationwide cottage business-model...it's going to cost you exactly as much to cover 48 states as your town, you might as well have the widest client-audience possible.
6.) I'd say Paypal or a Google Merchant Account is key. It allows you to accept credit cards and that's the way many people will prefer to pay you. It's quick and easy to set up and the rate is fairly reasonable per transaction. I'd avoid cash actually as much as possible. for every advantage it offers, there's a hassle. People will over or under pay you by mail. People will send you empty envelopes and insist they had money in them. If it gets out that people are mailing you cash, you'll find your mail getting rummaged and money stolen. Checks are better and Money Orders work fine.
If you read past the bold line, you wasted your time. Chan790 really doesn't have an idea. Any idea.
xmas74 (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 10:28 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. thank you.
I also plan on setting up a PO Box for the mail. I don't want any of it actually arriving at my house, for security reasons.
If I do any kind of decent work the first year I'd love to shop clearance and offer bigger packages the next year. I also know of a friend who would probably assist, if there was enough business.
I thought about the advertising and how much it might cost. I think that this could be something that, if it gets off the ground, could make some decent money in a short amount of time. As a single parent I always need extra irons in the fire and this might be a good way to accomplish that goal.
I'm thinking that one page is enough to satisfy both the parent and the child.
Thanks for your suggestions! I now need to contact Paypal about setting up a new account!
I need to contact the IRS about a new tax evader.
begin_within (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 10:48 PM
Response to Original message
3. It's a cute idea. My suggestions:
Make the price all-inclusive including your postage costs.
Make the letter personalized to the child, mention good things he/she did during the year.
I'd just advertise online somehow.
Instead of including an object, which may get mangled in the mail machinery, I'd include a coupon customized to the child, that they give to their parent, saying, "Present this coupon to Mom or Dad and they will buy you a _____ " (Ice cream cone, or whatever.) You can design a little Santa Coupon and customize each one with the child's name.
It doesn't matter what the object happens to look like coming out of the mail machinery. Like most DUmmies, xmas74 will probably mangle anything grammatically before it even makes its way to the grubby fingers of your friendly union post office employee. I could be wrong, but statistics are on my side.
xmas74 (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 10:59 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. The letter will be personalized.
That's always been the plan. I wanted to include the good things, such as how good Billy was when he cleaned his room without being asked, etc.
The coupon is a good idea too. I like that idea.
The question is: how much should something like this run? I've noticed that the computer printed ones are around $5.00 each. If this is handwritten how much should it cost?
You should have a progressive pay scale. The more they make, the more they pay.
begin_within (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 11:05 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. No, there's a lot of work on your part in writing, it, preparing it and mailing it.
Figure out what your time spent on one is worth, and price it based on that and your costs and what you think the market will accept.
I would pay upwards of having the xmas74 primitive pay me $5 to mail me a letter.
xmas74 (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 11:11 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. I might post this over at wahm.com also
and see what they think for a price. It's a work from home board and I hope someone has an idea on what it's worth.
I'm afraid of pricing too low or pricing myself out of the market.
Pardon me, but your
greed is showing. Why are you trying to profit on the backs of others and join the 1%?.
begin_within (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 11:38 PM
Response to Reply #9
14. Also look around to see if anyone else is doing this and ask what they charge.
I think the type of people who will pay for this are (unfortunately they are people I despise), the "our little princess" type of parents who spoil their kids with all kinds of perks. Those people tend to have money to throw around and may not be as concerned with price as you think they will be. If you can include the kid's photo on the letter or coupon that might make it even more appealing.
Be sure to tell your customer you not-so-secretly loathe their precious snowflake. That causes the dough to roll in like there's no tomorrow.
badhair77 (124 posts) Mon Oct-17-11 10:58 PM
Response to Original message
4. I think you have a great idea.
If you want to include something small with the note there are some really nice bookmarks out there. Of if you're artistic maybe you can make one also. That would mail easily.
If it's such a great idea, badhair77 primitive, sign up for a letter then. We're waiting.
xmas74 (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 10:59 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. But how much should I charge?
That's the main problem. I'm not really sure what would be an acceptable price for something like this.]
GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED. But wait, what's that I hear? A smack from the 2x4 of reality? Yes! Duck, xmas74, here it comes!!!
pitohui (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 11:13 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. there's no acceptable price
Edited on Mon Oct-17-11 11:15 PM by pitohui
the idea has no value in my humble opinion, as a former writer
this stuff is just...the world has moved on, you know?
to rent a post office box is going to cost you $78 a year (or maybe more now), if you can't afford to lose the money, don't do it
if you really can afford the risk do it just to see that i'm not being a shithead -- the world where people can hustle money for nothing (and writing letters from santa is pretty close to a hustle of money for nothing) is over, there are too many literate people in the world, the sooner you learn that you have to work for money the better probably both for you and your kids
WHAP!!!!
Chan790 (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 11:17 PM
Response to Reply #6
12. Give me some time and I'll crowdsource an answer for you.
I'm just going to post it as an inquiry on facebook and get feedback from my peeps.
Chan790 will get back with you in 24 business hours with an answer from all the people at the welfare office on how much they'd pay for a grammatically mangled letter from Santa.
xmas74 (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 11:19 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. Thanks.
I'm just trying to find another source of income for the holidays.
ahem....
Get a Job
You Bum
Bum Bum Bum Bum
Money don't grow on trees
You Bum
Bum Bum Bum Bumpitohui (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 11:11 PM
Response to Original message
8. i'm pretty sure you won't make any money doing this
don't get me wrong, you'll actually get 3 or 4 orders but it won't be enough to cover your advertising costs
i did stuff like this for years and anything that "anyone" could do like a letter from santa was worthless
where i made money was from specialized how to instructions, let's say as an example, how to build a nestbox for a downy woodpecker (specific species) and get it to stay in your yard
if it's something "anyone" can do, the literate moms will copy your idea and send their kid their own letter from santa, which will be more meaningful anyway as it came from their mom instead of from a hired gun, if it's something specialized, unfortunately, the internet has taken away the value of specialized information because someone is already out there blabbing it on youtube for nothing
it is not a good time for being a writer, i have retired and i do not encourage young people who need money to get involved in the writing game, because you are competing with assholes willing to create content for no money at all
you can't compete w. slave labor
think about what you can do that noone else can easily do, EVERYONE in the age of the text message and the email has learned how to write (why johnny can't write is a forgotten worry and a relic of the 1970s...we didn't know how well off we were when writing was something special you'd pay people to do)
it's 2011, anyone can write a letter to santa, why would they pay you for it?
First off, I thought you guys were all gung-ho about stealing intellectual property from others. What's the deal? Secondly, Johnny can't write because he had proud2blibkansan or demtenjeep for a teacher. Thirdly, exactly. Moving on...
xmas74 (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-17-11 11:15 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. I still see the ads for it
and I still hear parents talk about it every year. I don't know-if nothing else, I tried.
Times are very tough around here. I have to find something to make a buck or two. I already work two jobs and it still doesn't cover all the bills. (Well, two regular jobs and I work on call for a few other places.) Living in a college town means my hours actually slow down and in some cases dry up during the holidays. For a month I have no paycheck from my full time job during the holiday season.
I need something.
Cut back on the bills (you have internet, which isn't necessary, so you have other things that aren't necessary, either)
Learn a skill set that is in demand (hint: underwater basket weaving and womyn's studies is NOT in demand)
???
Profit.
