Question about moneymaking idea.

[xmas74]

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.

[Chan790]

1. Answers as I see them.

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.

[xmas74]

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!

[begin_within]

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.

[xmas74]

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?

[begin_within]

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.

[xmas74]

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.

[begin_within]

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.

[badhair77]

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.

[xmas74]

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.

[pitohui]

10. there's no acceptable price

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

[Chan790]

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.

[xmas74]

13. Thanks.

I'm just trying to find another source of income for the holidays.

[pitohui]

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?

[xmas74]

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.

[blogslut]

15. Here's my advice

Get a GMail account

Get a PayPal account

Get a Twitter account

Get a Facebook account

Then, go to www.fiverr.com and sign up. Create your Letter to Santa gig.

Post regularly on Facebook about it.

Post regularly to Twitter about.

[Obamanaut]

16. I googled 'personalized letters from santa' and got several results:

actually, "...About 296,000 results (0.18 seconds)..."

Why not contact some/one of them and ask for suggestions.

Because it isn't a new idea, discover what others are doing with that same idea, and you do it too.

[BrendaBrick]

17. Here's some examples (3 pages) on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Personalized-Letter-Santa-Claus-/370108332925

I heard a little blurb about a company called: "Task Rabbit" but it may not be in your area...yet?

http://abcnewsradioonline.com/business-news/taskrabbit-putting-americans-back-to-work-one-odd-job-at-a-t.html

Maybe you could get ideas from there about some of the more popular errands/tasks to do locally? Good luck to you!

[BrendaBrick]

19. On the Santa Claus letter idea...

Is there maybe a local "Toys R Us" and/or "Babies R Us" store(s) nearby? If so, maybe you could ask to post something about this idea there? Craigs List? Local pediatrics offices?

[Obamanaut]

23. Helpful hint, but the OP is asking, not me. nt

[elleng]

18. Dunno, but its been done; daughters (now 23 + 26) wrote to and received such.

[Shagbark Hickory]

20. $0 because the post office already does that for free.

When some dingbat sends a letter addressed to santa in the north pole the organization that seems to be insistent upon never making a dime of profit, sends out replies to those letters.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2009-11-21/entertainment/17938875_1_north-pole-santa-claus-house-postal-service

[Kali]

21. you need to do a little research on the USPS

suggest you google Democracy Now! and look in recent archives for a story they did recently. I'm sure there is plenty of other info out there, but that is where I learned the reason the Post Office is in such "bad shape" - they are the only agency in the whole govt mandated to PRE-fund retirement. Look it up. They don't take any tax money - they would be in the black if it weren't for the mandate.

[Shagbark Hickory]

24. Yeah yeah yeah.

That is neither here nor there.
The post is about Santa letters which they do for free even though it obviously takes a great deal of resources to do it. I'm guessing Fedex lobbied for them to continue doing it.

[grasswire]

22. the problem I see is your return address

How are you going to conceal the fact that you don't live at the North Pole?

I hear what you are saying about needing some extra money, and I applaud your initiative.

If you do something like this, you might donate a portion of the proceeds to Toys for Tots or some other charitable entity -- perhaps the non-profit that feeds children. That's always a good selling point, when a portion of proceeds go to a good purpose.

[Shagbark Hickory]

25. That's easy.

You can write any return address you want on an envelope.
As far as the postmark, which won't say north pole, they could either mail the letters from a Christmassy-sounding place like Christmas, FL which is an actual place or they could use a postmark that doesn't list a specific name. Or they could used pre-canceled envelopes or stamps.