Opportunity to Join Our Puzzle Business

Jeff and I are looking for one or two people to give our business a much needed kick up the backside. For too long we've drifted on what we achieved more than ten years ago. We remain a cottage industry when we could be so much better and do so much more. Partly this is a conflict of goals:

• a) Provide a certain number great puzzles for free to causal puzzle solvers. This keeps the puzzles sharp and helps me improve them
• b) minimize advertising which I find ugly
• c) still make money from commercial outlets

But it is also a lack of ommph that working with fresh faces could provide.

As an old school internet guy I've always been on the utopian side of free content. However, one has to make a living and we need to new ideas to monetize without choking off interest. Currenly I am exploring Patreon as a service, so anyone with experience integrating this I would be keen to talk too. But it might not be the only way.

These are the two roles we need help with

This is the most important role we lack. Partly sales, partly account management. We have a long list of clients we let drift away due to a lack of follow-up. Repeat business is essential and the clients we do retain have been with us for many years. While it is an extremely competitive business clients do remain loyal as continuity and reliability is very highly valued. But a proper account manager would keep track of when stocks are estimated to be running low and prompt the client to re-order. Normally we keep things rolling on an annual basis so it shouldn't be hard, but somehow is.

We'd also need some kind of reach out to newspapers and magazines especially in the UK but also in English speaking countries where we've had more success. For some reason the UK has remained especially difficult to crack. If you have special knowledge of the newspaper or publishing industry that would be a plus.

If you joined us we would offer a revenue sharing scheme of up to 50% since that matches our external distributor deal we make in specific countries.

With a new start comes a new look. Treading on my own toes here, I feel I shouldn't be entrusted with designing a new and modern look. We need a theme that varies across SudokuWiki.org, Str8ts.com and Letterlicious.com but joins them as sister sites. Syndicated Puzzles main site I'm not too unhappy with but could be improved if united under a common theme.

I may be able to use or develop the content management system I've written to advance a new design, and I'd be keen to contribute my share to the backend part of our websites (if only to keep the cost down), but I think a fresh look will do us wonders.

If you think you have the skills to create a great website for us then get in touch. I won't be able to entertain corporate-level spending since we're not in that league, but anything reasonable I will be happy to discuss. Limited budget but could be enlarged with a share of future subscriptions.

The main reason we haven't gone fully Responsive Design and mobile friendly is because, in the past, I've felt few people would want to play the puzzles on a cell device since there was so little space. However, with larger mobile phone and other portable devices this is not true anymore.

If you only have graphical design and not full web I still want to hear from you, as I'll be able to take a design and apply it. Those with web skills can deliver a template that work on different resolutions.

In a couple more years we'll be reaching the 20 year mark!

I really hope we can be bigger, better and more fun by then

Write to me at andrew@str8ts.com

All the best

Andrew Stuart