Over the holiday period I had a series of meetings with my Marketing and Security specialists to discuss the way forward for PageFour. My failure to take Seth Godin’s crown as marketing man of the year, coupled with the illicit activities of a group of bored hackers with too much time of their hands, had led me to seek out professional help.

I turned to my very own dynamic duo.

Finola - a woman of thirty some years, with a pleasing disposition and a healthy appreciation for well cooked turkey - is an expert at explaining marketing to those of us all too comfortable with concepts such as: ‘the product will sell itself.‘ She has also been known to explain colour to the blind.

Playing Batman to her Robyn was Gerry, a hotshot detective from the city of Waterford. Gerry holds the criminal element at bay with the power of his chiseled chin and no nonsense attitude, earning the grudging respect of the criminal underclass along the way.

Did I mention they’re my cousins? Of course, they were still paid handsomely for their time with a pat on the back and a firm handshake.

I listened and I learned.

In deciding to attack this marketing thing head on, I began by identifying who I was trying to sell PageFour to. Before you laugh or state the obvious, I know this should have been done months ago. But like many a programmer before me I practice my own unique form of logic; a logic that makes a kind of sense only to me.

Up until recently, I thought I was selling PageFour to ‘writers.‘ Thanks to Finola, the loose term ‘writers‘ has been replaced by ten individual customer categories; each one with their own needs, their own places to hang out, and most importantly - their own wallets.

Of these ten categories of PageFour user, four have the potential for spawning spin off products. I know what you’re thinking, and you’d be wrong - the spin off concept is not unique to the CSI universe, it does have a place in the world of software development as well.

Over the next few weeks I’ve decided to concentrate on four of these ten categories:

See if you can spot the two possible spin off products in the above list. Answers on a postcard please. The first three correct answers will each receive my best wishes for the year ahead.

Most PageFour users already fall into one or more of these categories - I simply had the good fortune of attracting their attention under the much looser description of ‘writers.‘

All I have to do now is come up with a plan of action for each of these groups. Now, let me just find Finola’s phone number …