I launched InboxReads back in September of 2017 with the intention that'd it be a long process to grow the site to a point where it could possibly make some money. In most of the time since I focused on just that. I tried new tactics to grow traffic, I invested a lot of time and money to keep the site up and get it bigger. One day it'd be worthy of receiving some money.

In January, after reading a lot of content that suggested I was wrong, I said fuck it let me put up an advertising page. I'll put a super low fee, place a link on every page, and see what happens. Nothing did. Then I began receiving requests about advertising on the site. All with little effort on my part since I added the page.

Today, InboxReads got its first sponsor. And it's the first money I've made from one of my products.

It feels great, but it makes my incorrect thinking even more obvious. Why didn't I have a page like that up sooner? How much could I have made in that time? Maybe I should've charged for my other products from day 1.

Makers can be hesitant to charge for their works. Especially if it's a project you quickly put together. We tend to value our projects by the time invested rather than the value they add. So when you have to consider charging you think this can't possibly be worth that much. Or no one will pay for this just yet.

You could be right but what if you're not? There's nothing to lose in just having a paid option at launch and seeing where it takes you. Prices, your offering, and your product will change over time. Why not see what could happen?