Shiny Objects

Shiny Objects

I have decided to embrace my shiny object syndrome: the tendency to get overly excited about a new skill, become an expert at it, and then drop it for a new unrelated skill. Some may call it ADD mixed in with serial OCD, but I prefer to call a side effect of a multi-faceted life. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset, and almost all the things I’ve learned to do have ended up making money.

At my “day job” I’m a mostly freelance classical double bass player and private teacher. It’s possible to make a good full time living as a freelance classical musician in a city the size of Phoenix, but I’ve spent too many hot summers here. I would love to travel before I have to retire, and especially get out of town between May and October, but I will need to make money while traveling to make up for the work I’d leave behind.

In 2005, an orchestra I played with went out of business, and things were not looking great for the classical music scene, but I had lots of private students and still played a solo show at schools and concert series. I made a website for myself in 2006 to help increase my visibility. I started a web design business in 2008, and have been building web sites with Drupal and WordPress ever since. I also bought a DSLR camera so that I could take pictures of my clients and their work.

My husband and I tried to make a go at a portrait photography business in 2008, but he lost interest in it when he discovered that the business would be about 80% doing business-related work and 20% taking pictures. I continue to make the pictures I like to make, and sell some of my landscape and tabletop photos at stock photography sites.

I have been knitting, crocheting, and sewing since I was a child, and have gone gung-ho over several crafting mediums through my life. I made a lot of jewelry and sold it at craft fairs and online. In 2007 I looked around my crowded house–full of stashes of craft supplies, fabric and yarn–and started selling it on eBay. Now I have almost 1,700 positive feedbacks and have become a bit of an expert on how to get back the money you spent on stuff you don’t need anymore.

In 2013 I bought a stack of vintage magazines, and have been editing patterns and publishing them as books in paperback and digital formats. I also started making fill-in-the-blank books for musicians and crafters. Without much marketing, I’ve been making a small but steady monthly income that goes up every time I publish a new pattern or journal.

Somewhere between there and here I started learning about internet marketing, and have done several things to try to make enough money to pay off non-mortgage debt and have enough left over to buy an RV to travel in.
I’ll use this blog to state my goals and keep myself on task. I will track and report my progress here. I will tell you about any internet marketing products or courses that I buy and let you know what works for me. And I’ll try to help you decide if the shiny objects that I buy are right for you.

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