00:00
00:00
Back-From-Purgatory

Sinner

Purgatory

Joined on 12/11/04

Level:
33
Exp Points:
12,030 / 12,090
Exp Rank:
2,414
Vote Power:
7.48 votes
Rank:
Scout
Global Rank:
33,150
Blams:
173
Saves:
113
B/P Bonus:
4%
Whistle:
Bronze
Medals:
246
Supporter:
1y 11m 29d

My Calling.. Perhaps?

Posted by Back-From-Purgatory - June 26th, 2011


TL;DR Version:
I'm thinking of starting up a review/blog site that would make me some coin by sales referrals for sites such as Amazon and/or Direct2Drive.

Read on for full details.

--------------------------------------

So, I'm sure it comes as no surprise, but musicians are generally poor folk, some having to choose between this months rent and food for a week. I'm no different, while I've been enjoying a boost in popularity (Which I'm eternally grateful for BTW), I've yet to make much, if any, money off of album sales (Mostly because I haven't put one out in AGES), and paying commission work is few and far between... Not to mention I'm still slowly treading my way up the Newgrounds revenue sharing system hoping to one day get a single paycheck out of it.

In any case, music being one of the very few things I enjoy in life, it's been difficult for me to find a job that I find even remotely interesting, as generally anything to do with music is ridiculously difficult to get into, because everyone that's ever touched an instrument wants a job in music. So I've been in and out of "safe" jobs for years now, security, maintenance, customer service, chef... From normal 8 hour days, to 12 hour nights... And nothing really stuck, while the shift work was pretty good money, it not only destroyed my social life (Har har, I'm implying I had one to begin with), but it was extremely exhausting constantly switching from days to nights and vice versa, and left me little time to work on my music.

So recently, I've been looking into alternatives, and I've stumbled upon something everyone has heard of and knows well... But I neglected to ever really think of it as a career. Affiliate Marketing.
Now, before you go all freaking out saying, "You mean those guys that just spam the internet with links to surveys and porn?!"
I'm talking about legit business, not the 12 year olds that have bots spam the internet with their survey links. I'm talking about running a website featuring reviews and articles on stuff (In my case) like games, movies, music, TV Shows, etc. You do a review of a product, and leave a link directing you to a site where you can buy it, should the person reading buy the product, the person reviewing it gets a cut of the profits.
In my searching around, I've found people (Quite a few people actually) that make a living doing this, and some make a killing, I read one case where someone claims to make upwards of $10,000/month (Granted, he also said it took him years to get to that point).

It's not a pyramid scheme, it's not something you need a ridiculous amount of schooling for (Granted you do need a little knowledge in how to design a website, which I have friends that can help me with that), and you make your own hours, and you are your own boss. It's not a get rich quick scheme, but it's definitely a career option that, if you work enough at it, you can make a living simply doing the things you love, and telling other people about it.

So, long story short... I've come to the conclusion that I'd like to give this a try. I could review Anime, Music, Games, Movies... I mean, that's practically all I do anyways. I could even review things on request (Within reason, obviously). And if I were to get good enough at it, I could very well get free stuff to review like many Youtube reviewers do.

And I'm hoping that once I get a site up and running, and start putting out reviews, some of my fans will be my first readers. It'll likely start out more like a blog than a real review site, as I'll have to learn as I go... But I see it as something I could do that not only makes me some extra coin, it'd afford me a way to share things I enjoy with others, and hopefully, eventually, help get my music out to more of the world.

Thoughts?


Comments

I'm in a somewhat similar position.
Being a 3D animator (haven't submitted yet ¬¬) isn't easy for me because the education prices are overhead deep and availability is limited in colleges to teach me, but most importantly there is no freelance area other than newgrounds where i could make money, it's mostly big corporations and they only hire pros. Also, yes i've had many jobs working at restaurants and getting laid off multiple times.

But aside from ruts and money shortage, i think that the reviews of products and such can go any way which direction good or bad, its too iffy and i'm just not sure about it...
But the review idea on youtube videos could work, you might be on to something, having a website to show listings of majority likes or dislikes of videos and post in arranged category blocks and also have comments below. it will possibly generate traffic in good time.
But the only problem i see doing that is youtube may have some legal issues with it and demand money stipens from you.

regardless i hope you do well for yourself and always remember, you are not alone.

l8s

At this point in time, I'm not looking at branching out to youtube just yet, that'd be something I would do down the line when I have the time and resources to produce video reviews/articles.

As it stands, I already have a lot of work to do just to get started, so I'm gonna work on the basics before I begin branching out... After all, without a sound foundation, anything I build on top of it could later come crashing down.

Thank you for the well wishes.

Well i hope everything works out for you just dont forget your fans and friends.

I'd never forget my fans/friends, they are part of the reason I'm doing this. And the majority of the reason I'm still writing music.

Anime / Music / Games review :Sound good : will look forward ur review and hope ur website not too dull and limited if it a Free Domains