3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

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Yearly Goals and Accomplishments

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I feel it’s important to set goals in life, no matter if they are personal or business goals. During the past year I finished a private online experiment to see if making money or a residual income on the internet is feasible. Was it successful? I would say yes. Did I get rich? No, but I by the end of the  year to pay for my monthly gas bill to drive to my regular full time job at Hamilton Color Lab.

It was successful enough that I have decided to take it to the next level and set a more ambitious goal for this year.

CafePress is my most successful income stream in the past year. Since both my sons are US Marines I started designing Marine Corps items in Photoshop I created to sell my Marine and military themed apparel and gifts. (click on the image below to go to my store)

CafePress Marine and Military Store

My YouTube account is still generating a change (ok a few dollars, two months of gas) not as much as 2012 but then again I don’t have any new Marine Corps videos. The demographics are males between the age of 18-27, you can imagine who is watching. I also  started writing for Squidoo, which is another blogging site. Squidoo shares the click through Adwords income with their successful writers and any Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Zazzle or CafePress purchases generates a commission. (You can sign up for Squidoo here)

Yearly Goals to Making money on the internet

My biggest social media accomplishment was growing my @3Quarters2Day Twitter account from about 1,800 followers in the spring to 20,000 in less than nine month. Yes, I have 20,000 30,000 people who follow me at @3Quarters2day and it’s been a lot of work to get it there.

Many hours spent on my Twitter phone app following people, responding to tweets and being real. It has paid off though, Twitter is responsible for over 60% of my referral on my internet platforms. (Pinterest is a close second.) 

I have learned a lot about Twitter, how to write tweets that get responses, how to use #hashtags successfully, and how to free up my time for responding to followers by using paid social media tools such as SocialOomph and JustUnfollow

In addition I have learned more about Photoshop, shortcuts, design, layout and multiple other tips and tricks that have helped with creating templates and military designs for CafePress.

This year I also started doing some free-lance graphic design and marketing for a few clients. One of which is for a  jazz musician, Steve Raybine and 2014 holds a lot of promise on a new venture of Music Motivational posters. We are currently looking for nationwide distributorship in the music industry. Currently the designs are for sale on Fine Art America where I also have a small presence selling my photography. (I didn’t do much with my own photography this past year, however that will soon change.)

Music Teacher posters

As with anything marketing and developing an audience and following takes time and although my income curve is definitely on an upward trend I spend many hours a week nurturing the various channels. In fifteen years I would like to retire, travel around the country (or world) in an RV and generate enough online income to live comfortable and enjoy life sitting on a beach chair with my laptop.

2014 Yearly Goals

(I refuse to call them resolutions)

  1. Increase @3QuartersImages Twitter followers to 5,000
  2. Increase @PetsNCritters Twitter followers 10,000
  3. Create a Military Pride store on Zazzle (mirror CafePress to a point)
  4. Write an average of one Squidoo lens (article) per week
  5. Increase backlinks from WordPress to Squidoo
  6. Increase Twitter feed on SocialOomph to reflect WordPress content
  7. Move to WordPress.org and add affiliate partners (DONE)
  8. Use the WordPress scheduler to post on a regular basis (at least twice a month)
  9. Increase monthly revenue stream an 50% by the end of the year

Are these goals achievable? I tried to make them S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, attainable, reachable, and trackable) and although I haven’t written out how they will be achieved I know where I’m heading.

Have you created goals for your personal or business life? It helps to become accountable by either writing them down or  telling them to someone. My co-worker was my accountability partner this past year and my pocket book, the empty one with dust bunnies, reminded me to stay on track.

Part of the WordPress journey will be providing updates on the goals, how the social media platforms function, and continued photography posts with more Photoshop tips and tricks. I may even learn how to video the steps and create a YouTube channel. Notice I didn’t put that on my goal. I’m staying realistic. Who knows what the year will bring!

Squidoo Monthly Payouts

CafePress income for the year
CafePress monthly revenue.

Above are monthly revuneu graphs of income streams from two of my internet platforms. As you can see, I’m not getting rich. The number of hours to maintain this growth I can’t even begin to count. For example just today (Saturday) I’ve been on the computer for ten hours photo editing, creating reoccuring tweets, creating new Squidoo backlinks, creating the graphic for this article, writing this blog and gathering the links.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask, I’ve received a lot of advice and it’s my turn to pay it back.

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My First Award, The Sunshine Award

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sunshine-award

When I first started blogging it was purely for a learning experience for a new business venture. I never thought I would grow to love blogging and find such a supportive  community. I’m two shy of 100 followers and I have to admit I love watching my stats as I get on average of 50-60 views per day. May not seem like a lot, but I have a sad face when it’s only 20 views in one day.

Thank you to Seasons Girl for nominating me for my first of what I hope are many more badges to place on my site. I’m honored and a little behind on recognizing you but as I’ve said before “Life Happens”

In accepting this award, I need to complete the following:

1. Link the award to the person who gave it to me.

Here again, I get an opportunity to be grateful for this nomination. I love to travel, so the nominating Sunshine blog lets me travel to Virginia  tantalizing life of Season’s Girl

2. Answer the questions about myself. (See below)

3. Nominate 10 bloggers for the award.

4. Link my nominees to the post and comment on their blog, letting them know about the award.

The Questions:

Favourite Number: 7, probably because God rested on the 7th day, I love a day of rest, to have  a guilt free day where I don’t have to do any work.

Favourite Non-Alcoholic Drink: Milk. Yup, still love milk, nothing beats a cold glass of milk and Chips A Hoy cookies.

Favourite animal: Dog, I’ve always had dogs and now have two Brody, a Jack Russell and Leah our Boxer puppy.

Facebook or Twitter: Facebook hands down, have been on since summer of 2007 I can say, I’m addicted. Since I grew up in Connecticut Facebook has reconnected me to so many high school friends.  I have created deep friendships with classmates I never got to really know in high school.

My Passion: Besides my family,…it’s easy photography and photo editing, oh and eating, and taking pictures of food, and bragging about my family.

Favourite Day of the Week: Saturday! I can sleep in and wake without an alarm clock.

Favourite Flower: Tulips, they are just so graceful

My 10 Nominees: I am thrilled to nominate the following for hours of interesting reading, and for taking me on voyages of the mind over the last two years. I have been honored to share your world.

  1. Whitney Photography: who I thank in being the first person to comment on my blog and still finds her way over to visit almost two years later. http://whitneytphoto.com/
  2. A Girl, A Camera, A Challenge, Although her 365 project is finished, we have become friends on Facebook and continue our love of photography there. She has a great eye and also a love of poetry. Her second site is Appearing Closer, where object REALLY are closer than they appear, very very cool site. (this counts as one link, not eleven)
  3. Nebraska Wheatie, Tracie is a local Nebraska blogger, Mom four beautiful girls (one is my daughters friend), president of the Wheat Harvestors Association
  4. All I’ve Got is a Photograph: Bonnie is one of my original 365 Bloggers and one of my top commenters, Thanks Bonnie for all the kind words, you always put a smile on my face.
  5. Brett Erickson Photography: Ready for some amazing eye candy photography? Head over to Brett’s site, he never fails me when I go on my WordPress Reader.
  6. Russel Ray Photography: Are you noticing a trend here, more photography and a great blogger and participant in the WordPress world. Another perk, he resides in San Diego which is familiar territory with me having two Marines and visiting that area a few times.
  7. Donald Reese Photography: If you love country, rural life, farming and a smattering of the Amish living you will love Donald Reese’s treasure trove. Be warned, you will be lost for hours.
  8. Notsofancynancy Nancy touches on many every life subjects but is passionate about documenting her Dad’s WW II experience from letters she has found.  This is poignant to me as I have recently found my Dad’s pictures from the 82nd Airborne and am now on a mission to document and learn more from his WW II days.
  9. A Cord of Three Strands: A military wife on her way to be a Proverbs 31 woman and a wife of noble character. Her husband is a Marine and I’m enjoying her journey.
  10. Martini’s and Mini Vans : Although this is #10, it’s not last, this hip Mom is fighting the battle to stay hip, even with a mini van and kids in tow. A literary collection of extremely well written essays. One other perk, she’s from the Omaha area. I always love reading about local people. I feel more connected. You rock Danielle!
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