Monday, October 25, 2010
Planning on a new blog layout
I found a great place to get blog layouts, at Leelou Blogs. She does a few different things, but I think I found a perfect pre-made layout that would be nice for this blog to have. I will be excited once I buy it, since I'm quite annoyed at searching through dozen of other blog layouts and finding nothing that looks attractive. I think I'll buy it within a week. Obviously it's not on my highest priority list right now - I've been working hard to get all designs I made put up on Zazzle and organizing all the photography I'll be adding as well. But I guarantee it will be done soon!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Thinking of spreading out...
Lately I have been considering joining Cafe Press as well. They're another print on demand company, just like Zazzle. However Cafe Press you either buy a premium shop and spend $5 a month if you pay for 12 months. The breakdown of how they charge is:
$6.95 per month
$18.45 for 3 months
$34.95 for 6 months
$59.95 for 12 months
So obviously if I do join them I would go for the cheapest route. I told Aldon if I could get to $60 in a year on Zazzle then it pays for itself. Now it's obvious I'd hope to make more then $60, but it was just for the sole purpose that if I can use the money I earned with Zazzle for this then nothing has been lost. Obviously not the ideal situation.
Why would I want to join Cafe press as well? A chance for more sales!! Cafe Press and Zazzle offer different products. Cafe Press actually offer maternity and woman's plus sizes, Zazzle doesn't. I have a good amount of maternity related designs and I'd like to have them on a real maternity shirt, not one that was made from a male's size to get room. So that's my goal soon.
I think it might help sales, but we'll see. Obviously it's a lot of work to do it on both sites, but I have faith it won't be as bad since I've seen Cafe Press and putting things up there is relatively smooth. I'm excited to see if anything comes from it. I'll probably get it up and running within two weeks, maybe sooner.
$6.95 per month
$18.45 for 3 months
$34.95 for 6 months
$59.95 for 12 months
So obviously if I do join them I would go for the cheapest route. I told Aldon if I could get to $60 in a year on Zazzle then it pays for itself. Now it's obvious I'd hope to make more then $60, but it was just for the sole purpose that if I can use the money I earned with Zazzle for this then nothing has been lost. Obviously not the ideal situation.
Why would I want to join Cafe press as well? A chance for more sales!! Cafe Press and Zazzle offer different products. Cafe Press actually offer maternity and woman's plus sizes, Zazzle doesn't. I have a good amount of maternity related designs and I'd like to have them on a real maternity shirt, not one that was made from a male's size to get room. So that's my goal soon.
I think it might help sales, but we'll see. Obviously it's a lot of work to do it on both sites, but I have faith it won't be as bad since I've seen Cafe Press and putting things up there is relatively smooth. I'm excited to see if anything comes from it. I'll probably get it up and running within two weeks, maybe sooner.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Why do it?
I'm sure the question people ask those that are stay at home mothers trying to be work at home mothers is the biggest question - why do you do it? My husband has been lucky and has been able to support us without me stepping out into the business field. I know I don't *need* to do it but I want to.
A little bit of background - my husband is in the Navy, which has been a trial in itself. For 6 years out of the 8 he's been in the Navy he was on a submarine 3 months on 3 months off. It was a challenge, as you can imagine. Now he's shore duty, finally, and we're doing okay. When he went to shore duty we lost $1k in pay a month, which was a big hit. If you think Navy get paid a lot, they really don't... some times we struggle to get by.
I'm not doing this to get rich. I'm not doing it to become a millionaire. I'm doing it because in 2 years my husband becomes a civilian. We will have money stored, but in case he cannot get a job right away or needs to go back for more schooling I would like to know a little money is coming in to support our family. He's done so much for us, I'd like to return the favor and know that we'll never worry about finances.
I know I was hoping to be make $100-$200 a month by the 6 month point, which is now in 2 1/2 months... I know now it's not realistic. I have 2 more years to get to a stable point. I know if I make it a goal to hit $600 a month in 2 years it's more realistic of a challenge. I know it's not enough to support our family, but it's a start. I need to get back to researching, instead of just adding designs up. I joined a helpful group of people who work on Zazzle and they've given good tips so far. I cannot wait to use them.
A little bit of background - my husband is in the Navy, which has been a trial in itself. For 6 years out of the 8 he's been in the Navy he was on a submarine 3 months on 3 months off. It was a challenge, as you can imagine. Now he's shore duty, finally, and we're doing okay. When he went to shore duty we lost $1k in pay a month, which was a big hit. If you think Navy get paid a lot, they really don't... some times we struggle to get by.
I'm not doing this to get rich. I'm not doing it to become a millionaire. I'm doing it because in 2 years my husband becomes a civilian. We will have money stored, but in case he cannot get a job right away or needs to go back for more schooling I would like to know a little money is coming in to support our family. He's done so much for us, I'd like to return the favor and know that we'll never worry about finances.
I know I was hoping to be make $100-$200 a month by the 6 month point, which is now in 2 1/2 months... I know now it's not realistic. I have 2 more years to get to a stable point. I know if I make it a goal to hit $600 a month in 2 years it's more realistic of a challenge. I know it's not enough to support our family, but it's a start. I need to get back to researching, instead of just adding designs up. I joined a helpful group of people who work on Zazzle and they've given good tips so far. I cannot wait to use them.
Friday, October 15, 2010
No one said it'd be easy
I'm finding it a challenge to balance working on Zazzle, spending time with my son, and time with my husband. It feels like there is not enough hours in the day to do everything! It's hard work balancing life.. and as much as I was hoping by this time I'd be making more Zazzle I'm not doing as well as I thought. Not a bad thing, means I'm just not doing it right. However it doesn't mean I'm not getting sales, I'm probably averaging $10 a month. This is my breakdown (remember I started June 27th) of my store Alittlebitoffun:
My other store Tshirtsforacause has had some sales as well recently!! I had some October Breast Cancer Awareness sales this past weeks:
So these past 3 1/2 months since starting Zazzle around June 27th I've had made $40, although I have to wait 30 days for some of the money to clear (in case there is a refund requested). Not as good as I was hoping to do by this point, but a lot better then I did in 5 months of micro-stock. Technically I would have made $1.25 cents off of micro-stock had I not canceled my accounts. C'mon, if I had to cash out at at least $50 I'd been doing micro-stock two or more years for that money to accumulate! I'm happy with my change, even if I am having balance issues.
My other store Tshirtsforacause has had some sales as well recently!! I had some October Breast Cancer Awareness sales this past weeks:
So these past 3 1/2 months since starting Zazzle around June 27th I've had made $40, although I have to wait 30 days for some of the money to clear (in case there is a refund requested). Not as good as I was hoping to do by this point, but a lot better then I did in 5 months of micro-stock. Technically I would have made $1.25 cents off of micro-stock had I not canceled my accounts. C'mon, if I had to cash out at at least $50 I'd been doing micro-stock two or more years for that money to accumulate! I'm happy with my change, even if I am having balance issues.
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