bookmark_borderNew music

I’ve been ripping some more CDs to my PC recently, and thanks to an iTunes smartlist I can confirm that today I will mostly be, randomly, listening to tracks from the following albums:

Blimey, that was a longer list than I thought it would be, should be an eclectically interesting day. I’ve listened to some of these ages (years) ago, others are brand new (why don’t ALL CDs come with that little pull tab to help get the cellophane off?), but having spent all day re-listening to “The Seahorses – Do It Yourself” I’ve been feeling a tad nostalgic.

Now, there’s a great album. Whatever happened to The Seahorses?

Editor’s note: I should really link all these through my Amazon Associate and see if I can earn more than the £1.43 I already have in the past three years… but that’s an awful lot of work. We’ll see if I get the time later… in the meantime, if you DO decide to buy one of the above, any chance you could just paypal me 30p or so? Ta. DONE. And of course you can check I’m being true to my word.

bookmark_borderTopol

I’ve often pondered if there were any way I could make money from this silly little hobby. That pondering has been doubly deepened recently given that my wife’s hobby (“occasions” card making) is now bringing in a little cash each month and that kerfuffle about Mr.Kottke quitting his job to blog has got me a-pondering like a pondering person who ponders a lot.

How could I make money here? Adverts? I don’t think my traffic is high enough for that, for example, whilst I do post Amazon Associate links on my site when I can, I’ve made precisely an amount less than £5 in the three years since I signed up. Hardly what I would call anything approaching a steady income, it’s even a bit of a stretch to call it an “income” at all.

Subscription fees? Charge people to read the blog? Well, firstly, it would be a tad hypocritical as I don’t pay any subscription fees anywhere else. Secondly, and let’s be honest here, who in their right mind would pay to read my waffling nonsense (I bet half of you stopped before you even got this far).

Ahhh maybe I’ve hit on something there. They say that content is king, so maybe I need to focus my content, pick a market niche and dominate it THEN I can pull in adverts and sponsors and the like. That’s what all the Pro Bloggers do, they start with one or two blogs then start to expand their empire. Trouble is, anything that I’m interested in is already taken and, as it happens, I quite enjoy being able to point this little hobby (horse?) of mine wherever I damn well please. I’d hate to have to constantly please devoted readers all expecting posts on the same core topic/genre, that would be awfully restricting.

And then the next question pops into my head: Should I be making money from this hobby?

Put it this way, I spend a lot of time in front of the computer in my own personal time (discounting breaks from work) and have done so for the past six or so years. The main “skills” I’ve learned, aside from improving my casual writing style, are focussed around web design. I’d love to do it full time but where would I start? Well I’ve been slowly building a portfolio of sites I’ve worked on, but the leap from doing the odd personal site for friends to handling small business sites is larger than I care to admit and would require that I spend even MORE time learning additional technologies.

Or maybe I’m just stuck in a rut?

bookmark_borderAmazon Associate

OK I’ve joined the Amazon Associates program to make LOADS of money. Or probably not. But it has set me thinking.

An example will best demonstrate my thoughts:

I’ve got a CD wishlist (which isn’t on Amazon as it really needs to be kept separately.. far too long you see) one of which is Sade’s latest album. I’ve read the reviews, and heard a track or two, and it sounds like it will be quiet good. Then I spot that Hydragenic has an ‘Associates’ link to it. Hmmm I think, just as well I spotted that, or I would’ve just bought it directly. Hmmm, I think again, wouldn’t it be good if there was an easy way to pull the ‘Associates’ links from the sites I regularly visit.

Good idea? Maybe. Just need to find a code monkey now!