Unofficial Goals for 2015

For a number of reasons, I'm not making an official goals list for 2015. Many of you know that there is one thing that I've really wanted during my time in Milwaukee, and making goals about other things has been one way to put my focus elsewhere. Sometimes these efforts feel like a lot of bs, and I'm trying to avoid that in 2015. However, official or not, I still find myself setting goals. And after a lot of debating, I'm sharing them here. I can't promise that I'm going to make periodic updates throughout the year about them. But here they are.

• Increase my passive income earnings. Remember how this was my big goal in 2014? As in, the one thing that I wanted to accomplish more than anything? The main reason that I quit writing goal updates in 2014 is because this was a big fat fail. The short of it is that I had no idea how to accomplish this while continuing to scale my freelance work and without giving up something else. I also had about half a dozen ideas for increasing passive income without a definitive plan. This is still really new territory for me, but I have a better idea what I'm going to do now. Even a minor increase would be huge at this point so I'm hopeful.
• Finish editing as many 2014 pictures as possible by spring 2015. Last year I got into a pattern of editing a handful of pictures for Instagram, editing another dozen to put together a blog post...and then letting the rest sit. For months. Consequently I have literally thousands of photos in unfinished sets in Lightroom. The first part of this goal is to get through as many sets as possible while the weather is cold and I'm not shooting as much. The second part of this goal is to not let pictures sit so long in the future. I like having a little buffer between shooting and editing because it makes me more critical about picking the best shots, but I need to maintain a healthy buffer and not let my Lightroom library get out of control.
• Not drink alcohol unless I feel like it. I'm sure that this sounds like a ridiculous goal, but the truth is that I've never really liked drinking alcohol. I drink infrequently. It's extremely rare that I ever really want a drink. Consequently I have a low tolerance so it doesn't take much alcohol for me to feel buzzed, and frankly I hate that feeling. Most of the time I drink because I don't want to answer questions about why I'm not drinking or have people pressuring me to drink. And I'm done with it. People can think and say whatever they want.
• Not wear makeup unless I feel like it. I truly resent how women judge other women for not wearing makeup. I also resent how women are judged in general for being less professional or less put together if they don't wear makeup. Nothing should exude more confidence than not wearing makeup. Thankfully I've spent the last three and a half years among people who don't think anything of showing up to a backyard barbecue or book group with little or no makeup. However, I still feel that pressure sometimes, and I'm not going to give into it anymore.
• Spend more time off of the computer. Since I started freelance writing, my number one priority during computer time has been work. My second priority has become editing photos. Over the past few years, I've cut way back on other things that I do online. The more that I cut back, the more that I don't miss it. There is a lot more that I could say about this topic. Suffice it to say, there are a lot of things that I want to spend more time doing that don't involve the computer, like reading and playing the keyboard that I got for Christmas. I'm hoping that the drive to do these things will keep me motivated to get my work done and then get off the computer most days.

If you've been setting goals for 2015, feel free to link up your posts in the comments. I always enjoy reading about goal setting, and I know that others do, too.

2014 First Quarter Goal Check In

Can you believe that it's time to check in on 2014 goals already?

Building Passive Income

I've been dragging my feet about writing this post because I wish that I had a better report for passive income. I have to remind myself that it's an ongoing process, and I may not see significant gains for at least a few more months.

• HubPages. I did really well publishing new HubPages content on a regular basis through January, and then I let it slip as I got crunched to meet client deadlines before the Vegas trip. Now that we're more than a week into March, I'm getting back into a regular HubPages writing routine. It's been tough getting the earnings to increase, but with time and continued new content, they will.
• Jewelry patterns. I did set up a Craftsy account and uploaded my first PDF pattern. It's something, right? I would like to get more patterns uploaded there, write a couple more patterns, and promote all of my patterns more than I currently do before the end of the year.
• Other endeavors? I've decided that I would rather put my time into writing an ebook than pursuing any other passive income options at this point. As I previously mentioned, I have narrowed down my first idea. I even wrote a rough outline. Now I need to find the time to keep pushing forward with it.

Maintaining Personal / Home Goals and Client Writing

• Personal / home. Going to Vegas and finally having some warmer days (read: above freezing) has allowed me to get outside and talk walks again, which has been great. I am still using the exercise bike, but it's nice to be able to mix up the exercise routine a bit. Cleaning has been hit or miss. I find it tough to stay motivated with it when the weather is terrible. I know that it'll get easier again in the spring.
• Client writing. My client load has remained steady for the first few months of 2014, which has allowed me to meet my client writing goal most days. When the load is slow, I more than meet my writing total on HubPages or elsewhere (i.e. Bubblews).

Maintaining My Etsy Jewelry Shop

Sales keep coming online, and I'm slowly building my 2014 craft fair schedule. I had my first show last week, have one holiday acceptance, and have one spring app pending. I was happy with my show list last year and am trying for all of them again this year. I'm conflicted about whether or not I want to try for some summer shows. For a number of reasons, I haven't much in the past, but there are a few great ones that seem worth a shot. We'll see how that goes over the next couple months. I would like to plan better for Christmas in July and holiday sales online this year than I did last year. It seems ridiculous to be thinking about that already, but it's not.

Challenging Myself Artistically

Again, with the lousy weather, it's been tough to stay motivated to stretch myself and try out new artistic ventures during my down time. I have been getting outside as much as I possibly can to take pictures. I never thought that 35 degrees and sunny could feel so good, but it really does this year. I've got a couple ideas for new crafts that I could eventually turn into ebooks if I get enough ideas together, projects completed, and high quality photos taken. I'd potentially have new items to sell at shows as well.

How are your 2014 goals going so far?

Goals for 2014

I've wrapped up my 2013 goals and have been looking forward to getting some new goals in place for 2014.

Building Passive Income

I could write an entire post about the thoughts that I've been having the past few months about my freelance writing career. I'm not writing that post. The short of it is that if I'm going to keep doing this type of work, I have to be making more passive income. Building passive earnings has been an ongoing process for the past three years, but I want to take it to a new level this year. I'm hesitant to put a projected number of my earnings for this year, but I do have a long-term passive income goal. We'll see how much process I can make with it this year.

• HubPages. HubPages has been my primary source of passive income thus far, and I don't expect that to change any time soon. As I've scaled my freelance client base, I've let my regular HubPages writing and promotion routine slip. I'm bringing it back and doing everything that I can to maintain it and significantly increase my earnings there. All year.
• Jewelry patterns. I have a handful of PDF patterns available on Etsy. I haven't written a new pattern in about two years and have done very little to promote my existing patterns during that time. I'd like to get at least two new patterns out this year, list all of my patterns on at least one other site, and do more to promote them.
• Other outlets? I don't want to put all of my passive income earnings potential in one basket, but I don't want to stretch myself too thin either. I've contemplated publishing on Teachers Pay Teachers for quite a while. I have a solid ten year's worth of lesson plans that I wrote while in school and teaching. I constantly research education topics and lesson plan ideas for passive income and client articles. I would like to do more with all of that material. I've also thought about publishing an ebook or even a full book, which would almost definitely be about education or crafting. I'm not sure that I'm ready to take that on this year, but it's sitting in the back of my mind.

Maintaining Personal / Home Goals and Client Writing

• Personal / home. This past year I set goals for cleaning at home and working out. I don't want to let those new routines slip just because it's a new year and I don't have official goals for these areas of my life anymore. I'm pretty happy with the levels that I reached for cleaning and working out and want to keep them going this year.
• Client writing. I haven't had to hunt for new client work since the summer of 2013, which has been amazing. Of course I may lose a client at any time and be searching again because that's the nature of this type of work, but I've found a pretty comfortable level and am not looking to scale it significantly any time soon.

Maintaining my Etsy Jewelry Shop

After I ran my 2013 craft fair numbers for my sales tax filing this month, I went back and looked at my 2012 craft fair earnings and also looked at my 2012 and 2013 Etsy earnings. My 2012 and 2013 numbers for both shows and online sales were almost the same. I think that anyone who runs an Etsy shop has this hope that someday sales will just explode, and it will turn into a huge business. The truth is that this happens for very few people. Most people who scale Etsy to full-time work put in so much effort to make that happen. The bottom line is that I don't actually want to be making jewelry full-time. If I can maintain these numbers for 2014, that's fine.

Challenging Myself Artistically

Challenging myself artistically applies to both jewelry making and photography. I want to maintain my best selling jewelry lines, but I also want to keep trying new ideas. I want to keep getting out and taking pictures every week. I want to keep learning more about both taking and editing pictures and put it into practice. I want to learn as much as I can about my camera body and lenses and not rely on auto modes as frequently as I do now.

What are your goals for 2014?

I've read so many great goal posts the past couple weeks. If you've written one, please feel free to leave a link in the comments!

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How to Increase Passive Writing Income Earnings: Tips and Advice

2013 Goal Wrap Up

2013 was my second year of setting long-term goals for myself, and I'm excited to share how things have gone this past year.

1. Work out twice a week. I met this goal for all but a few months of the year. Many of you already know that I had to let a lot of things slide this fall to keep up with a demanding freelance writing load, wedding happenings, and craft fairs. Working out was one of those things that just didn't happen sometimes. However, overall, I'm still pretty happy about my progress with this area of my life. Also, Jake and I finally got an exercise bike in December, which is something that we've been talking about doing ever since we bought a house (two and a half years ago). It is already completely revolutionizing indoor workouts around here.

2. Create a weekly cleaning schedule and stick with it. I have done a good job sticking to a weekly schedule for cat chores and daily tasks. I've followed more of an every other week schedule for the other cleaning that has to get done around the house at least a few times per month. While it would be amazing to fit everything into a weekly schedule, I'm not sure that it's feasible for a house of this size with three cats and me and Jake both working full-time. That's okay. I've still made a lot of progress in this area of my life.

3. Double my December 2012 HubPages earnings. This just doesn't happen this year. It was a letdown after making so much growth in my earnings during 2012, but it's simply the nature of passive income earning. I also didn't have the time to devote to building and maintaining passive earnings in 2013 that I did in 2012 due to expanding my freelance client load so much and the time that I had to spend elsewhere (again, wedding). I think I could have had higher numbers in the fall if I'd been able to write new seasonal articles and do more promotion...but I didn't. My numbers were still solid, and I'm confident that I can maintain, if not continue to increase, my earnings in 2014.

4. Maintain a minimum of 2,000-3,000 words per day on weekdays. I've already discussed at some length this year that I solidly met this goal, which was a huge accomplishment. No matter what type of writing you do, if you're serious about doing it full-time, this should be your minimum. The bottom line is that you simply won't pull substantial earnings and won't improve your craft if you aren't maintaining this level. No, it certainly wasn't always easy, and there have been times this year that I seriously burned out. But I kept with it and am stronger for it.

5. Participate in 10 craft fairs. I ended up with 9 craft fairs for 2013. I'm glad that I stuck with 9 solid shows and didn't take a chance on a new one just to hit that number. I recently figured out my total for the year so I could file my state sales tax and was shocked to learn that I earned more at shows in 2013 than 2012. It didn't always feel like I was achieving that. There are still changes that I want to make for 2014, but I have a lot more confidence going into the next year of shows than I did when I wrapped up my 2013 shows a month ago.

6. Learn one new Photoshop Elements skill per week. If you've been keeping up with my goal updates, you already know that I changed the focus of this goal during the summer when I purchased Lightroom. Shooting in RAW and using Lightroom almost exclusively for my photo editing has taken my photography to a whole new level. I do still continue to learn new Elements skills as needed, and I continue to open Picasa (my old default) to do simple editing (largely adding borders and text to photos for articles, taking screen captures, and making collages) pretty regularly as well. I've found a mix that works for my photo editing and am excited to keep learning new Elements and Lightroom skills as I further my photography.

7. Start to monetize my photography. I have Zazzle, deviantART, and SmugMug accounts going, and I launched my Etsy photography shop in September. Getting all of these accounts / shops going was something of an accomplishment in and of itself. I have had a couple sales. It would have been nice to push new products and do more holiday promotions in the fall, but again, that just didn't happen this year. As I have so much in place now, it won't be hard to further it in 2014.

8. Participate in 6 BBA challenges. I had reached 4 challenges by my third quarter check in during September. Not long after that, our team decided to drop the challenge requirement to 4 challenges per year. With everything else going on this fall, I was happy to keep my total of 4 and not push a couple more of them. I found plenty of other ways to challenge myself in 2013 and don't feel like I'm lacking in any way.

9. Maintain focus on expanding my best selling lines/items. This concept remains something of a struggle for me. I am so happy to have items and lines that do well, but I also want to keep trying new ideas. It's tough to find a balance to keep my creative side happy and still keep my shop going. I know that many of you face similar challenges. While it's nice not to get crazy stressed out during these holiday rushes, it's also nice not to stress about creating loads of inventory all year long. Overall I did a good job meeting this goal, particularly during the times that it mattered the most, namely the fall / holiday show season and the height of holiday sales on Etsy. There were times that I had to keep items off of Etsy so I could have them in stock for shows, but that's okay.

10. Maintain focus on ensuring consistency for my craft fair booth and my business in general. I am very happy with the new branding that I created for 2013 and am sticking with it for 2014. I have a very good idea what is and isn't working about my business and am ready to make some changes for 2014 that will hopefully be for the better and that will build on my branding and the other good things that I do have in place for my business.

How did your 2013 goals go? I have been reading a lot of great goal wrap up posts the past couple weeks. If you wrote one, feel free to leave a link the comments!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my 2014 goals!

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2013 Third Quarter Goal Check In

Part of me can't believe that the year is 2013 and not something like 2005, and part of me is already planning my 2014 goals. Nonetheless, I'm excited to share how my 2013 goals have been going the past few months. If you want to follow my progress, check out the original goal post and my first quarter and second quarter check in posts.

1. Work out twice a week. I've done really well with this goal since the last check in. This isn't too surprising because if there's one time of the year I'm good about working out, it's the summer. Getting out for a half an hour to an hour when it's warm out hardly seems like a chore. We'll see how it goes this fall. I stocked up on workout clothing and got a new pair of sneakers this month. That may seem like a ridiculous girly motivation to work out more, but I was way overdo for new workout gear (as in hadn't bought new workout shorts since undergrad...), and honestly it will be motivating. Also, Jake and I have been talking about getting an exercise bike this fall, which is also exciting and would definitely keep me motivated, too.

2. Create a weekly cleaning schedule and stick with it. As I've discussed in previous goal updates, my biggest reason for finally getting serious with this goal was to keep up with the extra chores that come with having three cats instead of one cat. That aspect of this goal has been successful. I have not maintained as many weekly cleaning tasks as I'd hoped, but I am maintaining considerably more than I was at the end of 2012.

3. Double my December 2012 HubPages earnings. As some of you know, this past month, my HubPages earnings (as well as many other writers' earnings) took a huge drop, thanks to significant decreases in the CPCs that advertisers are paying right now. It is natural that these rates will fluctuate. As we get into the 2013 holiday season, it's likely that rates will increase again. It's still scary that this is the biggest drop I've ever seen in my 2+ years of writing for HubPages. August 2013 was my lowest paying month since January 2012. At this point, I would be really excited to get back to my December 2012 earnings. The good news is that my views haven't dropped and are still considerably higher than they were this time last year. If the rates do increase again, so will my earnings.

4. Maintain a 2,000-3,000 word per day minimum on weekdays. I've continued to do really well with this goal, and as such, it continues to be one of the accomplishments that I am most proud of for 2013. It's extremely rare that I've fell below the goal and haven't made it up for it on another weekday or over a weekend. Writing 2,000 words per day comes really easily for me now, which is such a great feeling.

5. Participate in 10 craft fairs. I participated in 3 shows this spring and have 4 more scheduled for the fall. There are 2 shows that I was planning to apply for that conflict with already scheduled shows this year. I'm really bummed about this fact. Currently I have 1 app in (which is one of those shows that would be a really long shot), and I'm waiting to hear on dates and apps for 2 more. It would be great if I can get a couple more shows on my lineup. However, I would rather keep the current fall lineup, which consists entirely of repeat shows and highly recommended shows, than waste my time applying to completely unknown shows that may or may not be a total wash. Between my brother's wedding and launching my photography Etsy shop, I've already got plenty on my plate this fall.

6. Learn one new Photoshop Elements skill per week. I still haven't been learning a new Photoshop skill per week. However, I took a big unexpected leap this summer and purchased Lightroom when I decided to start shooting in RAW. Learning Lightroom and using it with RAW files has taken my photography to a whole new level. Lightroom lends itself naturally to combined use with other photo editing programs. I find myself opening Elements more than ever and still using Picasa as much as ever to do final edits on photos, which has been really great. With all of the editing skills I've learned this year, I still consider this goal a success, even though it wasn't how I originally intended to accomplish it.

7. Start to monetize my photography. I have Zazzle, deviantART, and SmugMug accounts going and just launched my Etsy photography shop. At the beginning of 2013, I didn't think that I'd be at this point. It would be nice if I had a bunch of sales already, but I'm still hopeful that the sales are going to start coming in for the holiday season.

8. Participate in 6 BBA challenges. I've participated in 4 BBA challenges so far this year and am doing my best to stay on top of the upcoming challenge themes so I can plan accordingly.

9. Maintain focus on expanding my best selling lines/items. I took a little time off from making jewelry this summer, but I'm back in the swing of re-stocking best selling items before the holiday season. I've also continued to add new items to existing lines. Recently I decided to bring back triangle earrings for the 2013 holiday season. Watch for more of these listings in my shop over the next couple months.

10. Maintain focus on ensuring consistency with my craft fair booth and my business in general. I haven't done any craft fairs since my last goal check in so I don't have a lot to add to this goal. I am not a big fan of many of the new changes on Etsy. That's a completely different post for a different day. BUT I feel like I should mention here that their new listing layout with the item photos at the top and right side of the listing has helped me really appreciate how far I've come with creating a cohesive photography aesthetic for my shop. It's very encouraging and reinforces how well I've done with this goal this year.

How are your 2013 goals going?

 * Don't forget to enter my huge photography giveaway! *

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2013 Second Quarter Goal Check In

We are almost halfway through 2013 already! Crazy. Here's how my 2013 goals have been going the past few months. You can also review my first quarter progress if you're interested.

1. Work out twice a week. Since my first quarter check in, my goal has been to either work out or clean on weekday mornings when I don't have a commitment outside of the house. Through the colder months, cleaning almost always won. Now that it's warmer, I'd rather be outside than doing just about anything else, even if it means exercising. I haven't kept up with a steady twice a week routine, but the new goal has kept me working on both of these first two 2013 goals more than it would have otherwise.

2. Create a weekly cleaning schedule and stick with it. Since we added two kitties to our house, my biggest goal has been to keep up with the extra cat chores, which has been successful. We're far enough into the year that I've gotten a pretty good idea how much I can realistically accomplish each week. It isn't as much as I'd originally envisioned, but it's a huge step from where I was this time last year. Also, I need to get a picture of Ares "helping" me sweep to include in one of these goal updates. It's become one of his favorite activities.

3. Double my December 2012 HubPages earnings. This isn't the best time of year to assess my HubPages earnings, as the late spring and summer months are notoriously my lowest earning months of the year. I did surpass my December earnings in both February and March. I'm not anywhere close to doubling yet, but it's a start. I still expect to see most of this growth happen from September through December.

4. Maintain a minimum 2,000-3,000 words per day minimum on weekdays. During my last quarterly check in, I wrote that this is the goal that I'm the most proud of thus far, which is still probably true. There have been very few days that I did not meet this goal or make up for it on another day. I have built up a solid stamina for this level of daily writing and hope to keep up with it.

5. Participate in 10 craft fairs. I participated in three shows this spring. I have three scheduled for the fall and have applied for one more as well. I have a few more on my list that don't have apps open yet. I'm confident that I'll be able to add a couple more to that list.

6. Learn one new Photoshop Elements skill per week. I have not been learning one new Photoshop skill per week. However, I have been pushing myself to keep opening the software and testing new features on a regular basis. Personally I'd rather be out taking more photos than doing a lot of editing on a smaller handful of photos, but I keep editing as I feel called to do so.

7. Start to monetize my photography. I opened Zazzle and deviantART accounts early in the year and have done a pretty good job adding new items to them on a regular basis. I still don't have any sales, but I'm still not doing a lot of promotion for them yet either. This spring I put together a larger plan for opening a SmugMug shop and eventually a separate Etsy shop with the goal of opening the SmugMug shop in June and the Etsy shop in September. There are a lot of components to this plan that I may discuss in more detail here at some point, but for now, I did get the SmugMug account going and am serious about getting some sales this summer. If you haven't already been over there, go check it out (and spread the word).

8. Participate in 6 BBA challenges. I've participated in 3 BBA challenges so far this year and am doing my best to stay on top of the challenge themes so I can plan ahead for future challenges.

9. Maintain focus on expanding my best selling lines/items. I have pushed myself to re-stock popular items as they sell and keep building on some of my existing best sellers to further those lines, which has gone pretty well. I've consistently sold these newer items both on Etsy and at shows.

10. Maintain focus on ensuring consistency with my craft fair booth and my business in general. I had a lot of clear ideas at the beginning of this year about how I wanted to refine my craft fair booth land how I wanted to pair down the items that I offer on Etsy. A number of my craft fair booth ideas have been successful, and I am slowly getting where I want to be with my Etsy shop. I have a hard time pulling a whole lot of items at once, but I've been able to let some smaller things go. I've also sold enough random higher end items that I'm confident that I'll eventually move a significant number of those pieces.

How are your 2013 goals going?

turning 30

The final year of this decade started with a few really rough months, but it's ended well. Overall this has been a pretty amazing decade.

I completed my undergraduate and graduate degrees, got married, lived in four states, taught special education for four years, started a freelance writing career, bought and sold a condo, bought a house, and adopted three cats.

There have been a lot of hard times along the way. I am really grateful that I am done with having a long distance relationship, that Jake is done with med school and intern year, and that we live in a place that feels like home again where we have a lot of family and friends. There are plenty of things that still aren't easy, but I'm happier and less stressed than I've been in quite a long time.

When I turned 20, I didn't know what I thought about much of anything. I certainly don't have everything figured out, but I have a lot of confidence about my beliefs and opinions now.

I have a lot more confidence about myself in general, too.

I have furthered my writing, jewelry making, and photography skills more than I ever thought possible. I'm sure that if you showed my 20 year old self the pieces that I've produced during the past couple years, I would not have believed that I did any of that work.

Whether or not I ever go back to teaching, I am not sorry that I got the degrees that I did. My academic career and experience teaching played a huge role in shaping who I am today. A large part of why I feel confident putting myself out there as a professional writer and artist is because of that background and expertise.

A couple months ago, I put together a five year plan of sorts with goals for each year. I highly recommend this exercise to anyone. During the past couple years, I've avoided this topic with many people and made a lot of excuses about why I haven't done something like that because things in my life haven't always gone the way I planned. It's nice to be at a point in my life where I can start moving past some of that and finding a balance between living for today and making my own long-term goals a priority.

Turning 30 feels a lot better than turning 20. I'm excited about what this next decade in my life holds.

2013 First Quarter Goal Check In

Yes, we are already into the third month of 2013! When did that happen? It still kind of seems like I was just finalizing my 2013 goals a couple weeks ago. Apparently not. Here's how things have been going the past few months.

1. Work out twice a week. Right now I'm on more of the once a week plan. It's a start, right? I've also been doing a lot of snow shoveling the past month, much of which has been more than twice a week and which I am counting as exercise. I have a harder time exercising during the cold months than any other time of year and hope that spring will lift my spirits a little with this effort.

2. Create a weekly cleaning schedule and stick with it. I did create a weekly cleaning schedule. Again, it's a start, right? Now that we have two more cats in our house, there are a lot of tasks that I have to do every week, and I am doing a good job managing that. I'm slowly figuring out how I can make everything else fit with my current schedule.

3. Double my December 2012 HubPages earnings. My February 2013 earnings were my highest monthly earnings on HubPages to date. It wasn't a huge increase from December's earnings, but the numbers keep increasing. Last year my slowest traffic period was mid-April through September with the exception of a short Fourth of July peak. I'm hoping to maintain earnings through Easter, build my article base through the slow season, and then really ramp up traffic and earnings for the 2013 holidays.

4. Maintain a minimum 2,000-3,000 words per day minimum on weekdays. To date, I am most proud of my success with this 2013 goal. I have met this goal all but a small handful of days thus far. Most of the days that I did not meet the goal, I either made up for it on a weekend day that Jake was on call or I doubled my writing the day before or after it.

5. Participate in 10 craft fairs. Currently I have 3 shows on my schedule for 2013, and I've applied to one more. A lot of holiday shows don't have information up yet, let alone applications, but that will start to change over the next couple of months.

 

6. Learn one new Photoshop Elements skill per week. I have been playing around with Elements a little bit, but I certainly haven't been learning one new skill per week. The good news is that I am taking just as many photos as ever, if not more so, have been experimenting with new Picasa edits, and have been taking on new photo projects. Ultimately the point of this goal is to keep challenging myself with photography, and I am. I'm not going to force the Photoshop skills, especially on a weekly basis, when it just isn't coming together but so many other photo projects are still happening.

7. Start to monetize my photography. I have created accounts with Zazzle and deviantART and have started to get my work up on both sites. I haven't seen sales yet, but I have done very little to promote either site thus far, as I've been focusing more on getting my products uploaded. I'm really torn about where I want to go next. Creating a larger, paid portfolio on a photo-specific site such as SmugMug seems like the next step. It would be significantly cheaper than selling on Etsy and would allow me to keep the freedom of not printing and shipping my own work. I've done a significant amount of research about selling photography on Etsy and feel like it could be a good fit for my work. I'm not quite ready to open that door, but it's something I'm considering for the future. For now, check out what I have up on Zazzle and deviant and let me know what you think about the SmugMug option.

8. Participate in 6 BBA challenges. I completed the February challenge and am doing my best to stay on top of the challenge themes so I can keep up with this goal.

9. Maintain focus on expanding my best selling items/lines. I have put almost all of my jewelry making energy these past few months into remaking best selling pieces and expanding my existing lines. I will continue to make new pieces throughout 2013, but I will keep focusing on this goal as well.

10. Maintain focus on ensuring consistency for my craft fair booth and my business in general. I have ordered a number of new materials for my shop and have a handful of other ideas for my business that I'll be slowly implementing throughout 2013. There are a few projects like getting new photos for my booth banner that will take a while to come together, and I don't want to rush them, especially for my spring shows. I'll keep working on projects like that throughout the year. I'm pleased with what I've gotten done so far and am excited about the changes that I've made for shipping Etsy packages as well as what I'll be able to present at my initial 2013 shows.

How are your 2013 goals going?

Goals for 2013

I've wrapped up my 2012 goals and am excited to share my long term goals for 2013 today.

1. Work out twice a week. I'm sure that this sounds like something of a pathetic goal, but I have never maintained a regular workout routine in my entire life. At this point in my life, there are no more excuses for it. Ideally I would like to build to a more rigorous workout schedule, but this seems like a realistic place to start.

2. Create a weekly cleaning schedule and stick with it. I swore up and down that I would do this when we moved to Milwaukee. A year and a half later, it's never happened. I have gotten much better about keeping up with clutter on a daily basis, which is a significant improvement. On a very similar note to my first goal, I have no more excuses for not finally making this happen. Now that we have three cats, it's more important than ever.

3. Double my December 2012 HubPages earnings. I am still kind of in shock that I was able to not only double but triple my December 2011 earnings by December 2012. I am optimistic that I'll be able to double again within the next year.

4. Maintain a minimum 2,000-3,000 words per day minimum on weekdays. When Jake was an intern, I kept a pretty crazy work schedule. Now that he's mostly working weekdays, I'm trying to keep to the same schedule for writing so I don't burn out and can enjoy time away from the computer. I am really proud of the fact that 2,000 words per weekday doesn't feel like a huge undertaking anymore and am hopeful that I'll be able to maintain this pace for the duration of the year.

5. Participate in 10 craft fairs. I would like to return to 4 of the craft fairs that I participated in during 2012. I already have a list of 5 more that I'd like to check out for 2013. I'm confident that I'll be able to add one more to that potential list and can fill in others as needed if any of these shows don't pan out.

6. Learn one new Photoshop Elements skill per week. I'm sure that I've discussed this here at various times over the past few years, but most of you probably don't know that I have always been completely overwhelmed at the idea of learning Photoshop. I am pretty fearless when it comes to learning new technology, but for some reason, Photoshop makes me want to run the other way. Now that I own an SLR, I feel like I don't have any more excuses. If I'm serious about furthering my photography, I need to learn real editing skills.

I bought Elements and am determined to start easing into it. As I literally don't know how to do anything with the software, I'm using the term "skill" very loosely. The tasks can be extremely simple, especially during the first few months of the year.

7. Start to monetize my photography. I took something in the range of 10,000 photographs during 2012. While I have been able to use many of them for endeavors online (selling on Etsy, blogging, writing for HubPages, etc.), there is so much more than I can do with them.

At this point, I'm not interested in investing in a lot of inventory and selling my work in person. I've already invested a lot in my randomcreative beading, button, and music image and am not ready to take a whole new direction with it. I also feel like I need to put it out there that I'm not interested in doing session work (engagement shoots, family photography, etc.). I know that I'm going to get approached about that now that I own an SLR, and for a lot of reasons, it's not something that I want to pursue at this point.

With that being said, I would like to start by exploring options like Cafepress that handle the printing side for you. If anyone has experience with this type of work, I'd greatly appreciate your input.

8. Participate in 6 BBA challenges. All of the drama with the EBW team burned me out on challenges a bit in 2012, but I'm excited to be more free for 2013 with just the BBA. Our challenges have a very broad range and do not have to involve creating items that we sell for Etsy, which is really nice.

9. Maintain focus on expanding my best selling items/lines. This may seem ridiculously obvious, but sometimes I get caught up in experimenting with new ideas and neglect to restock, let alone expand, my lines that are doing well. After doing so many craft shows this year, I have a pretty solid idea what is and is not doing well in my shop. I'm never going to stop experimenting with new crafty ideas, but expanding existing successful lines is going to be a high priority.

10. Maintain focus on ensuring consistency for my craft fair booth and my business in general. While the jewelry selling world is extremely competitive, I have a pretty solid niche for my business in the Milwaukee area. I get a lot of comments about how unique my work is, and people never have trouble picking me out from one show to the next. I want to continue to play up the button and music aspects of my products and display and maximize the unique potential of my business.

I have read a lot of great 2012 goal wrap up posts this week. If you write 2013 goals, share the link in the comments!

2012 Goal Wrap Up

Happy New Year!

I hope that 2013 is getting off to a great for everyone.

2012 is the first year that I ever set long term goals for myself. There are a number of reasons why it seemed like a good time in my life to take on the challenge, and it went well. I'm wrapping up my 2012 goals today and will roll out my 2013 goals later this week.

1.  Have 140 sales on Etsy in my randomcreative shop.
I set this goal with the expectation that having 100 sales for the year would still be considered a success, as I was striving to have 2+ sales per week. As of December 30, I had 94 sales for the year, which works out to approximately 1.8 sales per week. This is a significant increase from 2011. Also, I had quite a few more sales during the latter half of the year, which is exciting.

2. Introduce and continue to develop my new herringbone line and its charm/pendant components.
I did successfully introduce and continue to develop my herringbone designs and charm/pendant components. I have sold a handful of charms and pendants this year. I did sell one herringbone piece at one of my fall craft shows. This is the third year that I've introduced a brand new line for my shop that included a lot of build up and promo, and it's the third year that it's gone nowhere. As I'll discuss more later this week, I'm going to put more of a focus on expanding my existing successful lines. Of course I will not stop experimenting with new ideas, but I'm not going to another big build up for a new line like I have the past few years.

3.  Double my current long term earnings on HubPages.
I reached this goal very early on in 2012, which was really amazing. I did not hit it every month this year, but I reached it for the majority of the months this year. Back in January, I said that ideally I'd like to triple my earnings by the end of the year. Amazingly enough, I did this in both November and  December.

4.  Make at least one new greeting card design per week.
I'm pretty positive that I didn't make one new design per week, but this is largely because my music note design did well at shows during the fall. I put most of my focus the final few months of the year on keeping this design stocked. I still explored a lot of new paper techniques this year, which was fun and a good way to mix up my creative routine, and am glad that I hit on a winner that fits so well with my shop.

5.  Expand my craft show lines.
I'm still kind of in shock how much I was able to expand my craft show lines this year. For my 2011 fall shows, my only new item was button tacks. While some of my lines have been more successful than others, I have a lot of great success to build on in this area for 2013.

6.  Complete a minimum of 6 EBW challenges and 6 BBA challenges.
I met this goal before my October goal check in and backed off for the final few months of the year, largely due to my focus on client writing, the HubPages AP program, and craft shows. As many of you already know, I was also completely through with the EBW team well before October and quit in early December. I'm looking forward to participating in the BBA challenges again in 2013.

7.  Participate in 4-6 craft shows.
During 2012, I participated in two open houses and seven craft fairs. Some shows were much better than others, but overall, I consider it to be a successful year for shows and am looking forward to upping this goal for 2013.

8.  Starting making this blog more profitable.
I'm going to reiterate my comments about this goal from my last check in: I commented during summer check in that I'm making regular earnings from my blog ads and by regular earnings, I mean consistent, not large, amounts of money. Some people thought that this was snarky. Believe me, there are so many snarky things that I could say about this topic that I did not say. That wasn't my intent. I simply don't want a lot of comments asking me how to get rich with this type of blog because I'm not. I put a lot of time into my blog and am happy that it does pay off financially just a little bit.

9.  Better list making organization.
My goal probably should have been to not only better organize my lists but also put them digital form. The truth is that I find writing by hand very satisfying and am not planning to give it up in this aspect of my life any time soon. Regardless, I still did an excellent job organizing my list and keeping up with the new system all year. I even made adaptations to the system as needed.

Thanks for all of the support and encouragement with all of my endeavors during 2012! I look forward to sharing my 2013 goals in a couple days. 

How did your 2012 goals go?

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2012 Third Quarter Goal Check In

I completely forgot about my quarterly goal check in until pretty late last month. So this is a little late for the third quarter, but better late than never, right? I don't know how many of you remember this, but I set goals for 2012 back in January and have been doing my best to check in with them on a regular basis. You can go back and visit my First Quarter and Second Quarter check ins. Here's how things have been going the past few months.

1.  Have 140 sales on Etsy in my randomcreative shop.
To date, I've had 58 sales in my Etsy shop for 2012. I have still increased my sales frequency slightly since my last check in and am averaging 1.6 sales per week. With the holiday season still ahead, I'm hopeful that I'll hit 100 sales for the year.

2. Introduce and continue to develop my new herringbone line and its charm/pendant components.
I did successfully introduce and continue to develop my herringbone designs and charm/pendant components. I have sold a handful of charms and pendants this year. To date, I have sold zero wrap herringbone pieces, which includes show sales. This is the third year that I've introduced a brand new line for my shop that included a lot of build up and promo, and it's the third year that it's gone nowhere. I will continue to introduce new products in 2013, but I will not do another build up like this. It simply has not paid off for me.

3.  Double my current long term earnings on HubPages.
I did double my earnings in both February and March. Then my earnings and views dropped off after Easter, and it took me a few months to build them back up again. The past couple months I have reached this goal again. Back in January, I said that ideally I'd like to triple my earnings by the end of the year. Now that I have doubled again and am going into the holiday season with seasonal articles already taking off, I'm still hoping that this may happen.

4.  Make at least one new greeting card design per week.
I slowed down with my greeting card production over the summer, but now that I have shows coming up again, this is back in full force. I will meet this goal this year.

5.  Expand my craft show lines.
I have done so much with my new craft show lines this year that it's hard to believe that my only non-jewelry items during my 2011 holiday shows were button magnets and tacks. I have added glass magnets, glass and metal charms, button hair pins, and greeting cards. I love getting to break up my jewelry making routine with other craft projects, which makes it easy to keep these in production as needed throughout the year.

6.  Complete a minimum of 6 EBW challenges and 6 BBA challenges.
I have met this goal for both teams already. I went kind of crazy with the EBW challenges in 2011, which was amazing, but I'm glad that I was able to diversify a little more in 2012. I think that 6 goals for each team was perfect this year. I will most likely complete at least one more challenge for each time before the end of the year, but if it doesn't happen, that's okay, too.

7.  Participate in 4-6 craft shows.
I've already participated in one craft show and two open houses in 2012. I have six craft shows scheduled for the holiday season, so I'm on track to exceed this goal.

8.  Starting making this blog more profitable.
I commented during my last goal check in that I'm making regular earnings from my blog ads and by regular earnings, I mean consistent, not large, amounts of money. Some people thought that this was snarky. Believe me, there are so many snarky things that I could say about this topic that I did not say. That wasn't my intent. I simply don't want a lot of comments asking me how to get rich with this type of blog because I'm not. I put a lot of time into my blog and am happy that it does pay off financially just a little bit.

9.  Better list making organization.
I am so happy about how well my list organization has gone this year. I have separate notebooks for "to do" lists, Etsy listings, and HubPages brainstorming and keyword research as well as a less frequently used notebook for non-jewelry Etsy listings. I have kept up with all of them all year. I have also reworked my "to do" format list a couple times as Jake's schedule has changed and as my freelance writing load has changed. It is so easy to keep doing what you always do because that's what you do and not change what doesn't work anymore. These changes have been for the best, and I'll continue to make revisions as needed in the future.

We're into the final stretch! I'll write a wrap up of my 2012 goals at the end of the year.

How are your 2012 goals going?