Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Creating Income Out Of Nothing At All
When it became apparent I would be needed on a 24/7 basis to care for my parents, I determined I needed to find a way to make a living online. In the pursuit of this end I have joined an affiliate program, created a website and been putting together content which search engines prize when ranking pages.
I found a way to open a shop for free that sells my designs on shirts, mugs, coasters, handbags and mousepads. (they also do ball caps but since they do not yet recognize xara files as vector graphics I have not been able to include these in my line of products. ) The upside is they do the order taking and fulfillment, they do the shipping and pay me a commission which I dictate when setting up each article in the shop. The down side is I do not have a lot of say in the price of each item other than my commission. This allowed me to add a gift shop to my website for zero cost.
I added a Graphics page to my site that has a 3-D sampler where you can create your own 3-D header, read about the Xara software programs that make creating vector graphics easy for anyone. There are also links to try the software for free or purchase it, as well as some of the graphics I produced in under an hour playing with the Xara program for the first time.
I added an Adventure and Travel page where you can search for the best deals on air fare, hotels, tours and more. There are links to my own photography, online published stories, and a link to free screensavers or wallpaper photographs.
The calendar page I added is for purchasing 2006 calendars that I have created using my own photography, the favorite seems to be "Grandpa's Cats". This is all automated to use paypal.
One of the affiliates with the same program happened upon my pages and suggested to me that on my links page I should not include other hosting programs for websites... I wrote back and suggested having a look at what they offered since they did not beat the deal we had, and by including them I was not only giving my visitors other choices, but showing by comparison that we indeed had the best package deal for domain name and hosting. (there are cheaper hosting options but when you add in the domain names they are no longer cheaper.)
I guess it is not out of Nothing at all, it is out of my creativity, and determination to make it all work... not just for my current need to be here for my parents, but also so that when I am not needed here anymore, I will be free to travel and probably relocate to Europe.
I found a way to open a shop for free that sells my designs on shirts, mugs, coasters, handbags and mousepads. (they also do ball caps but since they do not yet recognize xara files as vector graphics I have not been able to include these in my line of products. ) The upside is they do the order taking and fulfillment, they do the shipping and pay me a commission which I dictate when setting up each article in the shop. The down side is I do not have a lot of say in the price of each item other than my commission. This allowed me to add a gift shop to my website for zero cost.
I added a Graphics page to my site that has a 3-D sampler where you can create your own 3-D header, read about the Xara software programs that make creating vector graphics easy for anyone. There are also links to try the software for free or purchase it, as well as some of the graphics I produced in under an hour playing with the Xara program for the first time.
I added an Adventure and Travel page where you can search for the best deals on air fare, hotels, tours and more. There are links to my own photography, online published stories, and a link to free screensavers or wallpaper photographs.
The calendar page I added is for purchasing 2006 calendars that I have created using my own photography, the favorite seems to be "Grandpa's Cats". This is all automated to use paypal.
One of the affiliates with the same program happened upon my pages and suggested to me that on my links page I should not include other hosting programs for websites... I wrote back and suggested having a look at what they offered since they did not beat the deal we had, and by including them I was not only giving my visitors other choices, but showing by comparison that we indeed had the best package deal for domain name and hosting. (there are cheaper hosting options but when you add in the domain names they are no longer cheaper.)
I guess it is not out of Nothing at all, it is out of my creativity, and determination to make it all work... not just for my current need to be here for my parents, but also so that when I am not needed here anymore, I will be free to travel and probably relocate to Europe.
