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# Best Practices |
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Strategies for getting the most out of Makenot.work. |
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## Setting Up for Success |
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### Start with Your Project |
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- **Single-creator projects**: your name, your work, your earnings. |
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- **Collaborative projects** need upfront agreement on splits and who can publish what. |
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- **Multiple projects** make sense if you have distinct bodies of work (a music project and a writing project, for instance). |
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### Choose Your Pricing Model |
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Consider: |
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**Free works when:** |
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- You're building an audience |
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- The content is promotional |
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- You want maximum reach |
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**Fixed price works when:** |
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- You're selling a complete work (album, book, course) |
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- You want simple, predictable transactions |
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- The value is clear upfront |
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**Pay-what-you-want works when:** |
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- You want to lower the barrier but capture willing supporters |
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- Your audience has mixed ability to pay |
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- You're comfortable with variability |
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**Memberships work when:** |
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- You release regularly |
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- You want predictable monthly income |
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- You're building ongoing relationships with fans |
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See [Pricing Models](../about/pricing.md) for setup details. |
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## Pricing Strategy |
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### Don't Undervalue Your Work |
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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. |
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### Use Free Strategically |
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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. |
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## Building Your Audience |
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### How Fans Find Your Work |
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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. |
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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. |
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### Your Existing Audience Still Matters |
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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. |
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### Follows |
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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. |
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### Broadcast Email |
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Send a plain-text email update to all your followers (one per 24 hours, with signed unsubscribe URL). Compose from your creator dashboard. |
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Use broadcasts sparingly -- genuine announcements, not routine updates. |
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### Contact Sharing |
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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. |
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### Direct Purchase Links |
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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). |
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## Practical Tips |
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### Set Expectations |
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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. |
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### Have a Refund Policy |
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You control refund decisions. Consider adding a brief refund policy to your profile or project description. Examples of refund policies for digital goods: |
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- **No refunds after download** (standard for digital content) |
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- **Refunds within 24-48 hours if not downloaded** (generous, builds trust) |
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- **Case-by-case** (flexible, but takes more time) |
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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. |
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### Export Regularly |
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Export everything periodically: content, metadata, fan contacts, transaction history. |
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### Watch Your Stats |
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Your dashboard shows revenue trends, per-project breakdowns, and per-item performance. See [Analytics](./analytics.md). |
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### Respond to Fans |
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Direct relationships mean direct responsibility. When fans reach out, respond. This is the tradeoff for owning the relationship. |
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## See Also |
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- [Pricing Models](../about/pricing.md): Fixed price, PWYW, and memberships |
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- [Audio Hosting](./audio.md): File formats and quality |
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- [Tagging](./tags.md): Organizing your catalog |
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- [Analytics & Dashboard](./analytics.md): Understanding your stats |
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- [Contact Sharing](./contact-sharing.md): Building direct fan relationships |
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- [Roadmap](../about/roadmap.md): What's coming next |
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