Hello all,

This is my summary of Week Two of Month One.

First, a little summary:

• I have posted four new videos in the last five days. Today the second video in my “video-each-day-of-November” will go up. I have adjusted this plan, slightly, but I’ll go into more detail below.
• I have now started with Etsy ads and a sale after I got some interest in my items on Etsy. So I’ll also be documenting where that goes from here.
• No new work has been made on Upwork
• I have adjusted my Content Plan for this website in regards to NaNoWriMo and my findings through the various avenues of trying to make ends meet.

I’ll discuss all of these in more detail below, let’s get to it!

Youtube Update Week Two:

As I mentioned above, I have added four new videos in the last five days. And my video for November 2nd will be going up shortly.

My plan has adjusted slightly, after having done more research on what it takes to gain traction. I still intend to post a video for each day of November. However, I have learned that posting every day/consistently is less of a boon in Youtube than it used to be, and that the algorithim currently rewards those that come back after an absence more so than those who post every day.

However, that fact is almost entirely unimportant in comparison to the second thing I’ve discovered.

The Importance of Thumbnails.

Now, I’m currently still working and have University exams to attend for the month of November. Due to this, focusing on too many things at once would be extraordinarily detrimental to my studies. So, for November I will do what I had originally planned. I will post my weekly updates here and then a summary at the beginning of each month. I will post a new video for each day of November.

But I will not touch the thumbnails. I will leave them as the bleak and boring things they currently are, for now.

My plan is to retroactively update the thumbnails after I’ve learned Photoshop. If I have this small backlog of videos with enticing thumbnails and then am able to drive further views with properly-thumbnailed videos after that, then I should be able to make use of the videos I’ve already created.

That is the current plan for my Youtube channel over the course of November.

Views: 5
Last 48 Hours: 0
Subscribers: 0

Surely it can only go up from here?

Etsy:

Now, Etsy is an interesting one. At first I didn’t think it’d do as well as Youtube or this website. However, it has outshone both. Marginally better than the website, but far, far better than Youtube.

This is interesting because of the three ventures, Etsy is the simplest one to use. Designing the product – which has now reached eight listings of both socks and masks – and putting them on Etsy is incredibly easy.

It’s not free, but it’s also less expensive than either Youtube or this website. I paid $4,25 for the privilege of my listings being on Etsy. And given that multiple products have been favourited and I seem to be getting an alright amount of traction each day, I decided to dive deeper into Etsy.

From Friday the 4th of November to Friday the 11th of November, I am having an Etsy sale of 20% off. Whilst this is occurring I am also beginning ad-spend in Etsy. US$1 a day to start out.

I’m not sure how it will all go or if anything will even come of it – except potential bankruptcy if Etsy ignores my ad-spend limit and goes far over it. But we’ll see.

But I’ll document the attempt and the findings.

Speaking of findings; despite my love of darker socks, the most favourited items I have are both bright and vibrant. While this means I’m likely a somber old man in soul, if not in body, it does give me an idea of the products I may want to create and focus on.

So, before this sale, I’m going to create three new listings of socks, bringing the entire catalogue up to eleven listings. I have three different designs in mind, one involving the colours of sunset, another autumn leaves, and the third a splash of the summer beach frenzy. (As, in New Zealand, summer has just begun!)

Current views: 26
Current Visits: 7
Current Sales: 0
Money Earned: -$4.25

This Website

This website has had multiple views, most of them from the States. (Overall I’m currently sitting at 24).

This is a labour of love, and I’m really grateful that I have a place to document and journal the beginnings of this journey.

I love being able to see my own progress and know that it is progress for myself, not for someone else. Whether I succeed or fail is on me and my ability to learn and adapt.

And that is refreshing. I’m not beholden to someone else in these ventures, only myself.

Now, as this currently has no way of earning me money, this is where NaNoWriMo comes into play.

Given that over the last few weeks I’ve made sure to do something regarding these ventures five days a week, it’s helping me get into the rhythm of discipline to get things done.

And whilst this website can’t make me money currently, there is no reason why it cannot be geared up in such a way that it can become an income source. This website, after all, was initially meant to be a website regarding my writing.

National Novel Writing Month:

I decided I’d join National Novel Writing Month. I also have several ideas for what to do with National Novel Writing Month.

First, I’ll introduce you to the three things I’ll be writing throughout NaNoWriMo:

• The Humanity Treatise: A political ideological text on where the world needs to go to progress. Frankly I’ve waned to write this since I was seventeen. It won’t be too long, and I intend for it to act as a foundation more so than anything else. I have plans that it’ll be useful for.
• Sethkari: The fictional tale detailing the Sethkari Rebellion and their later Genocide. This will be a short story set within the A Conquest of the Stars universe – which for anyone reading is the universe I created for the ACotS series I wanted to write. It will be a series of short stories and flash fiction pieces detailing various perspectives throughout the war and giving a look at the players involved and the cost of war on those not involved.
• Aristodamus: The story of the Sethkari slave whom – in the present day ACotS universe rose to power as a Principaic Knights, the personal bodyguards and generals of the Emperors and Empresses of the Malcarn Imperium.
• Kaldratos: the first proper novel in the quartet of A Conquest of the Stars series. I’m not certain I’ll start writing this now, or whether I’ll wait to complete the others first.

My current plan regarding writing is to release each full-novel with multiple accompanying short stories. Some will be set in the current period of the ACotS series, while others – such as Sethkari – will take place far before the story begins. Not only is this so that I can build a better catalogue, but also because I just love writing and I have all these little story ideas in my head.

There you go, an update regarding my current ventures and ideas. In two weeks I have very little to show for my attempts, which is almost disheartening. It would be considerably more disheartening if I had a heart to begin with.

Alas, I do not.

To be quite honest, I’m more excited than anything else. Sure, I haven’t found a thimble of success in two weeks. But, so what? During this process I have learned more about Youtube and Etsy, I have content plans for both that will attempt to make new discoveries on how to gain reach, and eventual wealth.

Everything I am attempting takes a great deal of time. Either to set up – such as the ideas concerning writing and making money from the books – or takes time getting rolling and establishing yourself.

I’m quite content to continue learning. Success isn’t going to find me, I’m going to find it. It may take a damn long time, but I will find it.