I got my first sponsor (well, kind of!)

So this morning, I added a few lines of code and proudly unveiled Hey Marketers as my first sponsor on my marketing site. The catch is they don't pay me anything!.

"You're a fool", I hear my fellow Indie Hackers cry. "Charge what you're worth".

Now, I don't think promoting someone for free is some kind of ingenious move, but I think it's a good example to illustrate that: things which seem irrational actually can make complete sense. Let me explain:

There is virtually no costs to me involved:

• No opportunity cost. My traffic isn't big enough for any serious sponsor.
• Getting Corey (from Hey Marketers) onboard took a 2 second twitter message
• Any reduced user experience is negligible

Now look at the upsides:

• Following this, Corey offered to promote this site on his own site :)
• It signals to any potential marketing company, that I'm open for business. It seeds the idea of in their head - "Maybe we should sponsor this ..."
• It also anchors the sites perceived value higher to potential future sponsors. They might think: Well, if someone else is sponsoring this, then it must be good

#fyi