# Best Practices

Strategies for getting the most out of Makenot.work.

## Setting Up for Success

### Start with Your Project

- **Single-creator projects**: your name, your work, your earnings.
- **Collaborative projects** need upfront agreement on splits and who can publish what.
- **Multiple projects** make sense if you have distinct bodies of work (a music project and a writing project, for instance).

### Choose Your Pricing Model

Consider:

**Free works when:**
- You're building an audience
- The content is promotional
- You want maximum reach

**Fixed price works when:**
- You're selling a complete work (album, book, course)
- You want simple, predictable transactions
- The value is clear upfront

**Pay-what-you-want works when:**
- You want to lower the barrier but capture willing supporters
- Your audience has mixed ability to pay
- You're comfortable with variability

**Memberships work when:**
- You release regularly
- You want predictable monthly income
- You're building ongoing relationships with fans

See [Pricing Models](../about/pricing.md) for setup details.

## Pricing Strategy

### Don't Undervalue Your Work

Since we don't take a cut, you keep more per sale. You can price lower while earning the same, price the same while earning more, or experiment freely without losing margin to the platform.

### Use Free Strategically

Free items can showcase your work, build your audience before monetizing, or complement paid offerings (free singles, paid albums). But don't default to free. Your work has value.

## Building Your Audience

### How Fans Find Your Work

Makenot.work uses [Discovery Through Exploration](./discovery.md#discovery-through-exploration) -- fans find you through search, tags, follows, and direct sharing. See [Discovery](./discovery.md) for the full list of channels and how they work.

Invest in good tagging: accurate genres, descriptive tags, complete metadata. This is how fans browsing for "ambient electronic" or "short fiction" will find your work.

### Your Existing Audience Still Matters

Search and tags mean new fans can find you, but don't rely on discovery as your primary growth channel. Bring your people with you.

### Follows

Fans can follow your account, individual projects, or tags. Follows power their personal feed. Following is free and doesn't require a purchase -- encourage your audience to follow you.

### Broadcast Email

Send a plain-text email update to all your followers (one per 24 hours, with signed unsubscribe URL). Compose from your creator dashboard.

Use broadcasts sparingly -- genuine announcements, not routine updates.

### Contact Sharing

When fans purchase from you and opt in to share their email, you get a direct line to them outside the platform -- the most durable audience you can build. See [Contact Sharing](./contact-sharing.md) for details.

### Direct Purchase Links

Every item gets a dedicated purchase link at `/buy/{item_id}` -- a clean page with just the cover, title, price, and a buy button. Use these for link-in-bio, newsletter CTAs, social media posts, and QR codes on physical media. Fans can purchase without an account via [guest checkout](./03-selling.md#guest-checkout).

## Practical Tips

### Set Expectations

Tell fans what they're getting: how often you release, what membership includes, what's free vs. paid. Clear expectations reduce refunds and build trust.

### Have a Refund Policy

You control refund decisions. Consider adding a brief refund policy to your profile or project description. Examples of refund policies for digital goods:

- **No refunds after download** (standard for digital content)
- **Refunds within 24-48 hours if not downloaded** (generous, builds trust)
- **Case-by-case** (flexible, but takes more time)

Whatever you choose, state it clearly before purchase. A visible refund policy reduces chargebacks ($15 fee per dispute) and sets expectations. See [Payouts](./payouts.md#refunds) for the mechanics of how refunds work.

### Export Regularly

Export everything periodically: content, metadata, fan contacts, transaction history.

### Watch Your Stats

Your dashboard shows revenue trends, per-project breakdowns, and per-item performance. See [Analytics](./analytics.md).

### Respond to Fans

Direct relationships mean direct responsibility. When fans reach out, respond. This is the tradeoff for owning the relationship.

## See Also

- [Pricing Models](../about/pricing.md): Fixed price, PWYW, and memberships
- [Audio Hosting](./audio.md): File formats and quality
- [Tagging](./tags.md): Organizing your catalog
- [Analytics & Dashboard](./analytics.md): Understanding your stats
- [Contact Sharing](./contact-sharing.md): Building direct fan relationships
- [Roadmap](../about/roadmap.md): What's coming next