August Goals Update

I wrote a blog post a week or so ago about my goals for August – you can find that post here:

August Goals – Crafting and Work

I’m not going through all of them here, but I’ve managed a bit in this last week. Even though the last week has had lots of things like hospital appointments and other errands that need a bit of driving or planning.

And it’s been miserable weather! Dark and gloomy and rainy…I can’t even get motivated to go out for a walk when it’s like this!

Crafts

I’ve been writing the last week, in fact I managed almost 5000 words last Monday, as well as editing and proofreading and scribbling ideas for things. So, not a lot of crafting is what I’m getting at.

But, I have been looking at websites and reading and dreaming. And that is just as fun sometimes. Looking at knitting patterns and flicking through my craft books.

I have a book about top down sweaters that I’m desperate to try a pattern from, as well as lots that I’ve seen on Ravelry and other places.

Actual crafting this week? I did some more cross-stitch, not enough to show and I did bake a loaf of bread and do some more on my orange jumper…but not enough progress made to justify photos and making a big deal – just a few rows really.

Funny, I actually got out my orange jumper to knit a bit last night and then I put it away without doing anything at all as I wanted to write and scribble instead of knit!

The EXACT same amount of progress since the last picture I showed you…because this IS the last picture I showed you!

---

Writing

As I said above I’ve been writing a lot. I don’t feel in the mood to write much right this moment and yet here I am, writing this blog post. That’s the real secret – write even when you don’t feel like it!

I wrote and published 3 posts on Medium last week, one was a whopper from a few days before that I just let and sat for a bit before editing it yesterday. The others I wrote from scratch yesterday.

And I published 3 more today.

I did set myself a goal to upload every day on Medium in August (the same on this blog) but it hasn’t happened on Medium yet. The articles over there are more like actual articles and here I can be quicker with my writing!

I’m getting to grips with Medium a bit more, actually following people and publications and still figuring out how to format my own publication!

I’m enjoying it so far, but I’m finding that if I do a day of solid writing, I don’t feel like doing that the next day!

Here is the link to the massive post about using affiliate links:

https://woollyorbit.medium.com/affiliate-links-and-some-practical-ways-to-use-them-2f72cbd45789

And here is a weekly roundup. I’m doing over there, where I try to track my progress of the week. Hint, last week there wasn’t much!

https://woollyorbit.medium.com/progress-report-3-69cb0e7eac88

I bought a magazine called Writing Magazine to read. There are 2 main writing magazines in the UK…Writer’s Forum is thinner and has fewer articles about writing and more stuff written by readers (like the winners of each monthly writing competition get their story published) but I like the layout better. It’s easy to read and the flow of the magazine works for me.

Writing Magazine is full of good articles, there’s a useful section at the back with info about competitions, who is hiring etc. But it’s so crammed in with words I find it difficult to know where to look. It’s too overwhelming with their layout for me! Also, it feels like every page has a different font and style…I don’t think that’s the case in reality, but it’s how it feels to me and it’s really off-putting!

Anyway…I’m reading that later!

---

Passive Income

I’ve joined several affiliate schemes and I even published my own Amazon KDP notebook (it came on Saturday…I’ve redone the cover, but I just wanted to see the process of self-publishing a book on Amazon, which is really easy by the way!). I need to wait for the cover to re-upload which can take a few days and I’ve added a couple more (text based cover designs) to Amazon, so we’ll see how they look once they’re finished uploading.

Here is a work in progress author copy of the book. I’m glad I ordered it, even though I’m making changes to the cover. Just ignore the rubbish photography!

I haven’t signed up to Substack yet, but I looked through everything I could on the website the other day, so I think I’ve done all the research I can. The same with Fiverr.

I made my first sale from RedBubble last week too – yay! 3 x stickers if you’re interested. I’ve been adding more to RedBubble for the past couple of weeks so I think I’ll continue with that! Up to 172 designs now I think off the top of my head.

I’ve done nothing with the other places like Spoonflower etc…I just need to figure out the formatting because each place wants files in different sizes and some like CMYK and others like RGB colour systems. So, it’s figuring it all out beforehand before getting really stuck in.

This week the goal is my Etsy shop. I want 10 listings ready to go…I’ve lost all motivation with that, so I need to get it back! I need to re-read Deep Work by Cal Newport!

I’ve been pinning loads to Pinterest – that takes time and it looks like I’ve done nothing!

---

Latest Posts:

• October Goals
• Acquisitions and Ideas
• Green Tunic Progress
• A Pastel Crochet Shawl
• Organising My Crafty Life

Advertisement

June Goals

May was quite productive, in fact, I think I managed to meet a fair amount of my goals for May.

I joined the Medium Partner Program and although I haven’t published a story over there in a week or so, I’m ready to get back to writing over there.

I carried on creating printables for my new Etsy shop/ book and although I haven’t technically opened the shop yet (which I really wanted to do by the end of May) I’m almost there. It just takes a LOT longer than I expected to sort everything!

I reached almost 130 designs on RedBubble, I wanted 200 by end of May, but to get over 100 is pretty good so I’m still happy. That’s not a huge priority right now, so I’ll work on that as and when I get the chance.

I also managed to get a lot of knitting done yesterday. I don’t know what it is about hot, sunny summer days, but they make me want to knit like a maniac!

I’m going to try to finish that tonight or this week at the latest and sew it all together (my Neon Fair Isle bag I mean) and that will finally be a finished object which I haven’t had on here for so long! It’s starting to drag a bit this project, I only meant it to be a quick 10 minute job but the colour work takes twice as long to do!

JUNE GOALS

1. Open Etsy store and have 10 listings live in it!
2. Reach 200 designs on RedBubble
3. Publish 20 stories on Medium (good quality ones with good pictures and keywords – ‘proper’ posts!)
4. Have some designs published on my Society 6 and Spoonflower stores
5. Sign up to Substack (maybe)
6. Sign up to Fiverr – create profile, have 1 Gig live
7. Launch my own website…get the back end security and meta boring stuff sorted and have 10 posts listed
8. Sell a Procreate brush on Etsy

I think that will do for the ‘job’ goals…and the crafty ones?

1. Finish the Neon Fair Isle Bag – sewn up and everything – DONE! 🙂
2. Make a lot of progress with my orange jumper (half done, need to finish ribbing at the bottom of the second half and get onto the main pattern)
3. Do some more on my sock yarn shawl
4. Start a crochet baby blanket for a friend
5. Cast on a pair of socks to use up my socks yarn stash
6. Do a lot more on my cross-stitch piece (not sure if I like the colours I chose…I might see what the finished piece looks like and if I don’t like it I can always start again with a better colour palette) STOPPED AND USING THE THREADS FOR ANOTHER PROJECT!!
7. Sew up a linen top I have mostly cut out
8. Denim rucksack -I cut out the denim the other day, need to cut out the lining and sew it together
9. Do some more work on my leather work (started to sew it up last year and haven’t touched it since)

I also haven’t baked any bread in ages so I want to have a go at that too, got some brown seedy flour to use up!

I have loads of stuff in the boot of my car to take to the charity shop, I need to have another rummage and see if I can add anything else!

And Yoga. I haven’t made a lot of time for that lately. I want to get back into it…it’s like a mini heat wave where I am, not technically a heat wave, but it’s so hot outside I don’t feel like getting hot and sweaty on purpose right now!

• 

• 

• 

I finished the back, now I’m about 8cm into a 15cm rib on the bottom of the front…got most of the front to do, then sew it all up!

Medium First Story Posted

My first post is written and published on Medium. Yay!

It says it’s a 7 min read…well, all I can say is that it didn’t take 7 minutes to write!!!

And I managed to sign up for their Partner Program too. 1 story (it’s a blog post really, they just call it a story) down and only about a hundred more to go.

I didn’t even think about having a nice picture to go with it, so it’s currently image-less. And it’s more of a stream of consciousness kind of post of where I’m up to with things.

I’ve decided to keep this blog as a more crafty space, which is more about knitting, sewing, crochet, baking, maybe a bit about reading and writing, and everyday life. Maybe some design elements will creep in here and there, but for the most part this will be more of a diary, old style type blog.

What I write on Medium will be more of my Passive Income financial journey…what new sites I’ve signed up for, what I’m learning about whether technology or money based. And be more of a curated and sort of professional-is space. Although I realise the irony of saying I’m going to be more professional and not having a picture to add to the post, but you get my meaning.

Here is the link if you want to have a read. You get a few free stories to read a month before you have to pay $5 a month for a subscription.

If you like writing here on WordPress, it might be an option to sign up to their Partner Program, I’m sure there are lots of ways you could re-purpose your content!

Read my first post on Medium here

Below is a random picture of a sassy looking pigeon because I’m obviously prepared for writing this blog post…see I have a picture ready to go and everything!

Medium – for writers and bloggers

Last week I came across a site called Medium. I had never heard of it before then but now I’m intrigued.

At first glance I thought it was a bit of an upmarket writing platform, like ACTUAL articles by ACTUAL professionals, and in some ways it kind of is. But after looking into it a bit more, it seems to be another platform for bloggers, but with one catch which makes it a little bit more exclusive.

If you land on the site as a guest you only get to read a few articles every month before you’re asked to sign up. It’s a whopping, massive $5 per month to read as many articles as you want, which isn’t that bad compared to some subscriptions out there.

But, you can also make money as a writer on there. It’s a little confusing to explain here, but you get a percentage of the monthly read time of the reader’s $5…I think. So, if a reader spends a long time reading your article and only reads 5 articles that month, then you will get a bigger percentage of that reader’s $5 monthly subscription fee than someone who reads 200 articles that month. Does that make sense? You can check out the website for a better way to explain that!

Basically, you need a large and engaged audience to make any real money and you need to be writing quality content. Which is the same with any writing or blogging platform, really.

You also have the chance on Medium to get Curated or Published. Curated means a member of the Medium team highlights your article and so it could end up featured somewhere like on the Homepage, which means more people are likely to see your article than just writing it and hoping people see it.

You can also apply to publications through Medium to have your article featured in them, they have a bigger audience and have specific rules and submission guidelines. I’m not sure if these publications are only in Medium itself or what, I am slightly confused with it, but then, I’ve only just discovered it and need to poke around the site a bit more!

I like the idea of a blogging platform that is specifically for writing (so you won’t get people posting a lot of spam or lots of shop links, although I think you can link out to other sites in your articles if you want) and the one thing that makes it seem a little more ‘professional’ is…THE PAYWALL!

If people are spending even just a little bit of money a month just to read articles then the quality of the writing is generally going to be a bit better than on your average blog, at least, one would hope!

It’s not a get rich quick scheme by any means, I’ve seen some people making $10,000 a month and then some only 37 cents!

But it’s something I would want to look into further, to practice my writing more than making money!

The way I see it, it’s somewhere between here on WordPress and getting published in a magazine somewhere. I don’t know if that’s a good analogy or what, but it looks to be a good stepping stone to greater writing projects or even another stream of income.

Search for Zulie Rane or Ayo The Writer on Youtube if you want a writer’s take on making money with Medium.

What do you guys think, have you used Medium before, have you even heard of it? $5 well spent or wasted?