November so far

I'm well on my way to hitting my 100 dollar goal this month. I've sold 15 dollars on ebay. 6 dollars on kindle, for a total of 20 dollars. And the month is far from over. I've hit 1,000 followers on Twitter, and am working on some indie gogo campaigns to see If I can do that. Nothing horribly hard to produce. I want to have idiegogo campaigns that are small to start. Things I know I can produce, at a reasonable price limit. (like around 5,000 goal) If those succeed I'll try and design some more complicated ones. The ones I have in mind right now are: a cats vs dogs card deck. a fashion music accessory. a printed book with colored illustrations for Japanese learners, or collectors. I've gotten the first version of the fashion music accessory, but it needs a lot of work. I've only got one more card to design for the card deck, (plus back) then I have to order the prototype. I'm also planning on having a digital version of the deck to bring in more money/promotion. I've also got to finish writing up and designing graphics and videos for the campaign. I'm nearly finished with 3 books for this month. Two of them are slightly changed, to try and diversify my nitche offerings.

Goal met and exceeded

So today I've exceeded my goal of doubling money income from last month.

Today I hit 50+ dollars for the month, and the month is not over. I'm going to set a new goal of 70 dollars.

I'm also upping my goals for the coming months to reflect this change.

Nov = 100 dollars (up from 80)

Dec = 200 dollars ( up from 160)

Jan = 400 dollars ( up from 320)

Feb = 800 dollars ( up from 640)

Mar = 1600 dollars ( up from 1280)

April = 3200 dollars ( up from 2560) * at this point I'll have enough

-ebay - 12 (this was 1/2 of my investment for latest shippment, so I've almost turned a profit now.)

Kindle = 42 dollars (ish) I made some money in foreign currency. Amazon still pays me in dollars, but it might change depending on the currency rate.

shapeways - zilch

etsy = zilch.


There are alot of complaints about Etsy sales going down this month, Enough so that I am worried about continuing to sell there.

As a result, I'm taking my store to Amazon Made which is a new store on amazon. I've also updated my listings

I am not going to concentrate any more on avenues that are not making me any money. As Ebay and amazon are the ones making the most money I'm going to focus on making products there. I will revisit this when and if the other stores make a sale. I'm still going to advertise them (a little) but I will not make another product for them.

Kindle is more profitable than I thought. I'm writing a new book this weekend and going to start a Japanese learning Youtube channel to advertise my books.

As for the etsy store, I've found craft supply stores sell more than craft stores. I'm opening a bead store there and we'll see how that goes.

buisness picking up, but slow to start

Buisness is picking up. YAY!

Sold 5 things today for a total profit of 12 dollars. I know that doesn't seem like much, but the way buisnesses work is the more sales you make, the more profit you make. So I sold double this month (already) than I sold last month. If it doubles every month. (40 last month. 80 this month 160 nov 240 dec 500 jan 1000 feb 2000 march 4000 april 8000 may 16,000 june (unlikely, but possible))

At this rate I'll make my goal of 10,000 dollars by next july for a downpayment on a house. (easy)

Update on buisnesses

So so far business have started to pick up slightly and I'm adjusting my business plans and focusing on those ideas making money now, eventually I'll go back and work on the ideas that are not making any money to try and make those work. But for now the main goal is to make enough money right now to start making a profit.


My Japanese readers sold about 6 copies this weekend which is about 12 dollars in 2 days. So that seems to be doing the best.


I'm working on 3 more to publish in that vein and I've identified several other ideas of books to publish and I'll be focusing on that. What seems to happen, is the more books you publish, the more chances people have to find you, so the profits seem to snowball.


My ebay store has also started to make money. Less than the books, but still something.


What I notice is that very cheap auctions raise awareness of the store, so I've gone and bought some lots of jewelry from my supplier at about 60 cents a necklace.


I'll then have auctions at 99 cents. Even if they sell at 99 cents I still make 39 cents a sale. (not a great profit margin, but hopefully some will sell for much more) Also ebay doesn't charge a fee for auction listings unless the item sells. (bonus)


The etsy store is not doing well, so I'm backing off of that idea for now and trying a shapeways store in the same vein for now. working on building up inventory. I need at least 10-20 items by November. I have 4 right now.


This weeks battle plan.


1-2 more books.
3-5 more items.
update ebay listings to optimize sales.

So This is a blog where I will document my tries at creating online businesses.

 The first one I tried was an Ebay business, and I haven't given up on it yet. It may need some more time to adjust.

-inventory cost: 300 dollars
- total sales 20 dollars.
profit - 280 dollars so far.

Time Invested = 50 hours.

Second one I'm trying is to publish e-books on Kindle. I know Japanese and have been studying it for years. I decided as a part of studying for my next placement test I would write down my notes and publish them. I've broken even on this one so far, Which isn't bad. It may just need more time to gain readers. I also started a blog to give some sample materials.

- marketing cost: 8.00
- sales =8.00

Time invested = 100 hours.

so break even there. I'm going to be able to publish about 10 books before December in this vein. I'm already nearly done with my third.

Third one 
Is an Etsy business. I started off with sculpy and some paint, but looking around the stores at what is selling, I think it will need to be less "kitchy" and more "sleek" and "sexy" so I'm going to move my efforts from sculpy to resin, which will give a more polished look.

marketing: 15.00
supplies: 100 dollars
total profits - 115.00 so far.

Time Invested 120 hours.

In this department I think I'm going to have to redo my stock and re-do the brand to give a more polished and less homemade look.

Fourth one is a video game, I have two in the works. One is nearly done. It will be a puzzle game based on gear movement. Should be able to publish sometime next month.

Time Invested: 20 hours.

this one so far is break even. And I expect it to remain so until it turns a profit.

Fifth is Kickstarter. Not something amazing, just a simple redesign of a card deck based on pets.

prototype: 13.00
total profits - 13.00

Time Invested: 25 hours.

Nearly finished writing up the indie gogo site, after I've received the prototype I'll start marketing on this.

Sixth is a fiction book. based on greek mythology. I'm planning a goal of 1000 words a night. Final goal book should be 50,000 words so this will take 50 days give or take.

Time Invested: 2 hours.

break even on this one.

Seventh is a Coloring book. (why not.) I'm going to base it on copyright free fairy tale story images.

Time Invested: 10 hours.

break even.