So the Crossword Butler domain expires in a month, and I’m not sure if I should re-up. It hasn’t really been used the way I thought it might. The idea was that puzzlemakers would just make the puzzles and I would handle all the hard parts — distribution, collecting payment, managing usernames and password, etc. Turns out that most puzzlemakers who have gone the independent route recently have opted to handle all that themselves. I still think it’s a good idea to have a central repository for all those things, but it hasn’t worked out quite yet.

If I do keep it around, there are a few things I need to do:

• Make an HTML5 solver so that users could access Crossword Butler from their mobile devices. I’ve contacted some people about that but nothing has panned out.
• Get integration with Kickstarter. Independent puzzlemakers want to know that they will have a base of support before launching. Crossword Butler as currently built doesn’t have that safety valve where if there’s not enough support for a puzzle, the constructor doesn’t have to launch. I need to figure out how I can work with Kickstarter to do that.
• Advertise more, maybe? Boy, this certainly isn’t my strong point (despite the fact that I actually do work in the marketing industry). I thought I had some potential clients lined up at first, but they fell through, and I’ve had nothing since.

Even if I do these things, there’s no guarantee this will work. But at least I’d stand a chance of surviving. I don’t know. Thoughts?