Share Your Wares And Make Money

YOU HAVE A TALENT OR TWO, AND YOU WANT TO SHARE THEM. I think that's mostly just a part of human nature. If you write a song and can play an instrument, and can even sing a little bit, you want someone out there to be able to listen.

AND THESE DAYS IT IS EVEN EASIER THAN EVER TO DO THAT.

Back in my early days on the Internet, having a strong interest back then in the horror fiction industry I set out to start a monthly online horror fiction magazine, and to my surprise it actually became quite successful.

WELL, WHEN I SAY IT WAS SUCCESSFUL, I MEAN IT WAS POPULAR.

This was the early 90's and AOL was primarily the "go-to" when it came to anything online. Anyone could create a website and put it out there for all too see. The problem back then was monetizing the whole thing.

FrightNet Online Magazine was what it was called, and featured fiction from some great horror names like T.M. Wright, Douglas Clegg, Michael Laimo, and others. I eventually went on to publish a short story anthology called Dark Whispers. I went by the name Ivan S. Graves doing the magazine and the anthology.

Several times I have considered restarting the magazine since nowadays monetizing is quite a bit easier, and even creating subscription based content is much easier now than it was when FrightNet Online Magazine had its day. But running the site was actually quite time consuming, and while I thoroughly enjoyed what I did, I am not sure I have the time these days to do it, nor do I particularly feel up to it.

BUT I STILL WANT TO MAKE MONEY ON SIDE GIGS, AND PROBABLY SO DO YOU. It is a large part, besides enjoying writing, that I started this blog several years ago, writing about things I like to talk about like politics and money. And it is still hard to actually make money even with all of the affiliate programs and Google AdSense and all of that sort of thing.

THAT IS STILL THE CASE EVEN IF YOU GET GENERALLY GOOD TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG.

So I decided to pursue another avenue. I also like to write music and do play the guitar, and depending on who you talk to, I am not terrible at singing either. Like many things, including my style of writing, my music is my own brand—it's different. And if you were to listen to my last album, Pink Flamingoes, or my iTunes single All You Are, you will certainly see that.

Does the music effort earn enough to pay the bills? Not hardly. The truth is that the hardest part of any of these ventures is getting your wares out for people to take a look at.

You don't have the marketing backing that some bloggers can afford, or that the music industry will provide its stars, and when it comes to music in particular, it is nearly impossible to get radio airplay. Still, the point here is that there are multiple ways to get it all out there. Sharing on places like Facebook or Twitter is of course one place to do it. But for music there are also places like Bandcamp and SoundCloud. Although the latter does not pay anything, it is just a place to share and perhaps in some way introduce what you do to people who may be interested in checking a bit further and who may be interested in buying a bit of what you do.

One of the keys, I think, is to keep plugging along despite it all. You never know, one day something may click and then the sky is the limit. It's tough, but you have to keep doing it. Keep playing around with what you are writing about, and keep on changing how you format it all.

Like this blog, for example. Recently I decided to try something a bit different in the manner in which I was writing it. Using more "breaks" and boldface type and italics to set things apart and hopefully keep the reader reading. And, increasing the frequency of posts. The more you add to your blog, the more content obviously is generated, and the better the ranking your blog overall will get when it comes time to being catalogued and indexed.

I recently read an article about a 28 year-old retiree who made a little over $62,000 in the first year of blogging, and if nothing else it served to make me think that if nothing else, at least it is POSSIBLE to actually make something significant doing all of these things. Especially if you are able to do multiple things such as blogging, making music, and maybe even starting up a magazine like I did.

Going back to the thought of restarting FrightNet still intrigues me if for no other reason than based on what I know right now, it could actually be the one thing, the one online endeavor, that might actually stand a chance of making the kind of revenue that that 28-year old retiree makes. Or more even. And certainly it could serve as another platform for some of my other stuff—which would of course have to be relevant to what I was doing there. I could, for example, market a song like 102 Idle Stones, Voices, or No. 130 Melancholy in D from Pink Flamingoes which do have a bit of a horror slant, or a song like What I Want on my Bandcamp which is certainly dark and sinister in nature.

The main point of this post really comes down to one thing for me. Do what you love, share what you love, and hopefully someone will love what you do. If that happens, if people actually find that they love what you do, someone may actually one day pay you for it.

As I said before, you just have to keep on doing it. Not everything is going to be gold and one can't expect overnight success. Just like when you play the lottery, sometimes you even have to accept that no matter how often you play, you may never actually win...

BUT YOU CANNOT WIN IF YOU DO NOT PLAY!

There is a ton of content out there, and there a ton of people out there all vying for attention. It's a tough field, and its tough to get the attention. It takes time like all things ultimately do. You have to have a lot of patience, and no matter the immediate or even long term outcome, you have to believe that what you are doing is still worth doing. No matter what happens. No matter who pays attention and who does not. No matter if you make money or you do not.

What Job Loyalty Means To Me

The short answer? Only a fool will allow himself to be beholden to anyone for his livelihood. I think of a job like I think of a business. It will make decisions that are imperative to keep the business afloat, and growing, regardless of how that affects the people in the business. That's just smart business and really nothing personal.

Don't get me wrong. I will continue to stay with any company that is doing all of the things that are right for maintaining my own business. That is, having the ability to pay my bills, having the ability to enjoy upward mobility, and having enough free reign to pursue my personal interests as it applies to money and ultimately my livelihood, present and future.

My boss is a jerk is not necessarily a reason to leave a company any more than my boss is a really nice guy is a reason to stay with a company.

For me it boils down to one question. Does the company have the meat to allow me the ability to get where I want? If the answer is no, then just like a business will decide that having 500 employees is not beneficial to the bottom line and reduces their workforce to 400 at the expense of 100 people now out of a job, deciding to leave a company behind is simply the right business decision regardless of any other factors, if it is determined that the company that you work for is stifling your ability to meet your own  personal business' needs.

When YOUR business affects the health and stability of MY business, it's not about loyalty. It's about doing what's right for the health of MY business.

No business I have ever heard of longs to have its doors shuttered just because it wants to be loyal to someone or something.

I am not loyal to a company. I am only loyal to my business. And as it should be, just as much as the company I work for is not loyal to me, but to its business, I should be loyal to my business.

You cannot and should not ever consider yourself a simple employee. And moreover, you should never allow yourself to become a simple employee. In  other words, you must make it your primary goal to afford yourself the ability to become an individual business within the framework of any company you work for, and thereby afford yourself the ability to make decisions about how you proceed based on what you can do as opposed to what you must do.

Why do people stay in jobs that don't have the meat? The simplest answer is because they have put themselves into a position to need their employer to support at least the continuity of their own personal business and equate that to the idea that they are being loyal to an employer that is taking care of their needs. At that point it really isn't about loyalty. It's about simple survival. But some people will mistake that as being taken care of by their employer to maintain the status quo, and thereby will take whatever comes to them.

Most of the time, people are just getting by. Your own personal business is being sustained, but it's on a treadmill, your business is running in place, and at any moment the belt can break and you will be sent reeling onto your hindquarters with egg on your face.

In this sense, one is more like a slave to their job and to their company than an individual person able to decide for himself or herself what the best next step is in expanding their own personal business. That is a hugely dangerous and foolish position to be in.

I work for no one except for myself. Plain and simple. In reality? I have no boss other than myself so long as I understand the needs of my own personal business and the ability of the company I work for to have the meat to allow me to do what I need to in order to make my business a winner.

The moment that I decide that is not the case, I walk. Regardless of the inconvenience to the company I work for. Regardless of the consequence of the people I worked with. Regardless of the impact of my decision on the livelihood of others. It is a business decision that is made with regard to the needs of my business, and nothing else.

Nobody else, and no other business matters except my own. And that is exactly the way it SHOULD be.

Loyalty to a job means to me that a person is in need of their job. Not in control of their own future, their own destiny, and not in control of the future expansion and growth of their own personal business.

The old saying that a fool and his money will soon be parted sort of applies here. If you rely on being loyal, you are likely leaving opportunity, and potentially money as well, on the table. No successful or smart business ever worries about who gets hurt in the process, and certainly they don't worry about competitors who get taken out either. They do what is right for their business, and so should you consider your own personal business above all else.

However harsh it may seem, loyalty to anyone but yourself is simply a good way to ensure that others around you will thrive while all you get to do is survive. In essence, you will forever be beholden to someone else for your livelihood.

It may seem selfish. But at the end of the day any smart business is in business to become a powerhouse and grow and make money. If you think of yourself as a business, then it just makes sense to pursue your needs above the needs of all others, including the company you work for.

A boss it a title. A business is an entity. And where I come from? A business trumps a boss. The only time a boss trumps a business is when he is allowed to do so. I choose to be a personal business and trump my boss. And a boss only has power when his business trumps the business of the other personal businesses around him. If the businesses around him are strong and powerful, concession is the right order of business. And then the reality becomes that what is actually taking place is partnerships.

To my mind, loyalty is a fool's game, pure and simple.