Question: I had a website tying messages-with gifts online around 2006. I notice that there are several patents dealing with this topic and I believe that I have written evidence that I considered the same processes that are now patented. I am wondering if I have something to sell to the patent holders?

Answer: 
There are inventors who do a reasonable job of drafting a provisional application that has some value. If they understand the limits of the value they are getting and do not get a false sense of security from it, they will probably be better off than if they had done nothing. Although I do **not** recommend writing your own patent application, I **do** highly recommend reading *Patent it Yourself* by David Pressman. It is updated every year and he has a web site covering errata and changes in the law. If you study the book, do not skip the complex parts or the boring parts and feel confident you could write a regular patent application then you might be able to write a provisional application without shooting yourself in the foot. 

The more abstract and complex your invention is the lower the likelihood is that you, or anyone, will get it right. But there are prolific inventors who follow courts cases, attend the annual USPTO independent inventor conferences in D.C. and faithfully read the PatentlyO blog every day. If you consistently have 10 good ideas a year and are willing to learn enough so you could almost pass the patent bar exam (you can find old ones on-line) and to play the percentages of winning and loosing, getting better at it as you go, then have at it.

I am a relative newbie, having passed the patent bar five years ago in order to get into a second career as a patent agent after being an engineer, technical manager and entrepreneur for 20+ years. I was always the person interfacing between the outside patent attorneys and the engineer/inventors and I thought I had a pretty good handle on the topic. I didn't. 

The first step in becoming a registered patent practitioner is filling out a form and sending it with your college transcript to the USPTO. I got the form back with a letter: "Please fill out and submit the form again. You included your name on line 1a, thank you, but you neglected to fill in your name as it appears on your government issued ID in line 1b." Just the tip of the iceberg of nits to get right or your patent goes abandoned.

*After* studying for and passing the patent bar (it has a 50% pass rate), I decided to take one of my own (lame) ideas and do a patentability search and then write an application before I hung up a shingle to take on anyone else's project. Every week for three months I announced to my wife that "Last week I thought I knew what I was doing but I was wrong, now I really do know what I am doing."
I agree completely with Ken S (the above poster), and couldn't put it better. I have also drafted my own patent application, and my lawyer has had to change very little. 

Writing the claims is something else. It seems to require a different, more strategic approach, than the descriptions. Those are truly just technical documents detailing your invention and illustrating the novel aspects.

Still, going it alone might not always be a bad choice. The claims I had written, but not shown, to my lawyer were nearly identical to her wording and substance as well. Either she is a bad lawyer or I've grasped something about the process. 

Studying approved patents, and also what happened to those products, is great practice whether you lawyer-up or not.