Is there a specific business you're trying to build, or are you just seeing how well you can do online?
Gave up a day job Now what? - Income report #1
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Re: Gave up a day job Now what? - Income report #1
#12Is there a specific business you're trying to build, or are you just seeing how well you can do online?
I want to build steady online income. Mostly with stock photography - as I really like it. And with web development. I build website - make some money on it and then usually sell (until I will hit a real money killer).
Re: Gave up a day job Now what? - Income report #1
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is not about a time for making photos - as you build your base and it is getting bigger and bigger each month. As a stock photographer you must think what may sell for ads and popular articles. Then you might be successful. Architecture photos are not too popular on stock photography sites.
I've noticed about the architecture pics. How long has it taken you to build the photo base you now have? And is most of the base still providing income, or do you see it tailing off? Your $500 for the month would more than cover all my expenses out here, so I wonder how long it would take to get to the size base you have now.
I have been making photos for a few months. But it depends how much time you will give to it. I am not doing it all days.
Re: Gave up a day job Now what? - Income report #1
#14I am a big believer in cross pollination of ideas. Are you applying any of your tech skills to your stock photography revenue stream? Data analysis, A/B testing etc...
I think that my English is to weak to answer your question :) I use technical knowledge on web development - and of course I am learning a lot of things about professional photography. Moreover I invest in studio equipment - check my older posts I link to in this one.
Re: Gave up a day job Now what? - Income report #1
#15I am a big believer in cross pollination of ideas. Are you applying any of your tech skills to your stock photography revenue stream? Data analysis, A/B testing etc...
I think that my English is to weak to answer your question :) I use technical knowledge on web development - and of course I am learning a lot of things about professional photography. Moreover I invest in studio equipment - check my older posts I link to in this one.
Sorry for using slang. What I mean is have you tried using your knowledge from one field (say web-dev) and try to see if you can use it for your other field (photos)? For example, you could maybe use the information from your photo sales, take the numbers and put them into some tracking software and use the information to help you decide the next pictures you should take. (Just like you probably look at your web analytics to see what type of site to build and how best to promote and sell it)
Re: Gave up a day job Now what? - Income report #1
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that my English is to weak to answer your question :) I use technical knowledge on web development - and of course I am learning a lot of things about professional photography. Moreover I invest in studio equipment - check my older posts I link to in this one.
Sorry for using slang. What I mean is have you tried using your knowledge from one field (say web-dev) and try to see if you can use it for your other field (photos)? For example, you could maybe use the information from your photo sales, take the numbers and put them into some tracking software and use the information to help you decide the next pictures you should take. (Just like you probably look at your web anal…
I do something kinda like that. Just looking what kind of photos really sales and make more in this niche :)
Re: Gave up a day job Now what? - Income report #1
#17Another possible source of passive income is selling website templates on ThemeForest.net. Similar to iStockPhoto, you can build something once, like an HTML or Wordpress template and sell it forever.
Re: Gave up a day job Now what? - Income report #1
#18Another possible source of passive income is selling website templates on ThemeForest.net. Similar to iStockPhoto, you can build something once, like an HTML or Wordpress template and sell it forever.
I will check it - thanks :)
Re: Gave up a day job Now what? - Income report #1
#19Congrats to you. The sweetness of each self-earned dollar can outweigh the multiple dollars earned working for someone else. And in many ways, those first few dollars that validate one's ideas can be the sweetest of all.
Re: Gave up a day job Now what? - Income report #1
#20I gave up my job as software "architect" (really I was tech lead and in charge of production) for an education company and decided to spend some time "not working". The goal was to see how I could get by in life while just doing a bit of work building sites here and there for contacts but generally falling out of the job market.
My goal was just to be able to cool off for a few months having worked too hard imo for 8 years or so, and spending the time researching and building my own prospects. I left my job with £5k in the bank and a few people who respected my dev skills.
In the end I went with it for 3 years. Each year, all in, I probably worked (don't have my old time records to hand) 4 months out of the year total never working more than 4 days in a week and never working for more than 2 weeks in a row.
Only once did I need help covering my rent (even then that was only to stop me dropping into my overdraft and not actually to stop me being completely broke).
The structure of how I lived killed my motivation to work on anything to benefit myself, and any project I started always ended up being canned 50% through when I lost the starting up movitation. Lack of other people to bounce off and perpetuate the interest and excitement with really showed after the first few months.
In the end the total killer to the scheme was the isolation from people every day. Starting with £5k in the bank I came out with £10k in the bank. I would say the only real casualty of all of it was my career path, I've basically been forced back down to developer, but perhaps that in itself isn't such a bad thing for now.
The lessons I took out of it were that I'm the kind of person that needs people to bounce ideas and enthusiasm off, so next time I go out to start something up I know I need to find a suitable partner to team with. I also found that I felt a lot less inclined to spend money when I knew how it was earned. In realised that I was spending my salary money basically to prove to myself that it was worth sitting in an office every day; when it was my money I earned it felt good just to know it was there and not turned into an LCD TV or PS3.