

Gave up a day job Now what? - Income report #1 - kreci
http://www.kreci.net/reports/gave-up-a-day-job-now-what-income-report-1/

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weego
I gave up my job as software "architect" (really I was tech lead and in charge
of production) for an education company and decided to spend some time "not
working". The goal was to see how I could get by in life while just doing a
bit of work building sites here and there for contacts but generally falling
out of the job market.

My goal was just to be able to cool off for a few months having worked too
hard imo for 8 years or so, and spending the time researching and building my
own prospects. I left my job with £5k in the bank and a few people who
respected my dev skills.

In the end I went with it for 3 years. Each year, all in, I probably worked
(don't have my old time records to hand) 4 months out of the year total never
working more than 4 days in a week and never working for more than 2 weeks in
a row.

Only once did I need help covering my rent (even then that was only to stop me
dropping into my overdraft and not actually to stop me being completely
broke).

The structure of how I lived killed my motivation to work on anything to
benefit myself, and any project I started always ended up being canned 50%
through when I lost the starting up movitation. Lack of other people to bounce
off and perpetuate the interest and excitement with really showed after the
first few months.

In the end the total killer to the scheme was the isolation from people every
day. Starting with £5k in the bank I came out with £10k in the bank. I would
say the only real casualty of all of it was my career path, I've basically
been forced back down to developer, but perhaps that in itself isn't such a
bad thing for now.

The lessons I took out of it were that I'm the kind of person that needs
people to bounce ideas and enthusiasm off, so next time I go out to start
something up I know I need to find a suitable partner to team with. I also
found that I felt a lot less inclined to spend money when I knew how it was
earned. In realised that I was spending my salary money basically to prove to
myself that it was worth sitting in an office every day; when it was my money
I earned it felt good just to know it was there and not turned into an LCD TV
or PS3.

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DenisM
_he lessons I took out of it were that I'm the kind of person that needs
people to bounce ideas and enthusiasm off,_

Try customers. Seriously.

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swombat
_Amazon affiliate program – $12.00 – just a few dollars to buy a two good
coffees – but I need coffee everyday :(_

You seriously need to find a cheaper source of coffee, at least until your
income ramps up!

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kreci
Ok... it was just a little joke :) I have been drinking such expensive coffee
once or maybe twice. Usually I get a big jar for around $10. So two jars from
amazon earnings is enough for a month of drinking a lot of coffee... =D

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byoung2
Another possible source of passive income is selling website templates on
ThemeForest.net. Similar to iStockPhoto, you can build something once, like an
HTML or Wordpress template and sell it forever.

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kreci
I will check it - thanks :)

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nekopa
I am a big believer in cross pollination of ideas. Are you applying any of
your tech skills to your stock photography revenue stream? Data analysis, A/B
testing etc...

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kreci
I think that my English is to weak to answer your question :) I use technical
knowledge on web development - and of course I am learning a lot of things
about professional photography. Moreover I invest in studio equipment - check
my older posts I link to in this one.

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nekopa
Sorry for using slang. What I mean is have you tried using your knowledge from
one field (say web-dev) and try to see if you can use it for your other field
(photos)? For example, you could maybe use the information from your photo
sales, take the numbers and put them into some tracking software and use the
information to help you decide the next pictures you should take. (Just like
you probably look at your web analytics to see what type of site to build and
how best to promote and sell it)

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kreci
I do something kinda like that. Just looking what kind of photos really sales
and make more in this niche :)

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nekopa
Congratulations on the first month! I was interested at one time in selling
stock photos. I used to be quite involved in photography in general, devving
and printing my own pics. I looked at the istock site and pretty much
concluded that the best way to make money there is to take pics of people. I
live in Prague, Czech Republic and I was hoping to take pictures of
architecture, as they have great examples of all the major movements. How much
time to you devote to taking pics?

Good luck in your endeavors!

~~~
kreci
It is not about a time for making photos - as you build your base and it is
getting bigger and bigger each month. As a stock photographer you must think
what may sell for ads and popular articles. Then you might be successful.
Architecture photos are not too popular on stock photography sites.

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nekopa
I've noticed about the architecture pics. How long has it taken you to build
the photo base you now have? And is most of the base still providing income,
or do you see it tailing off? Your $500 for the month would more than cover
all my expenses out here, so I wonder how long it would take to get to the
size base you have now.

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kreci
I have been making photos for a few months. But it depends how much time you
will give to it. I am not doing it all days.

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dabent
Is there a specific business you're trying to build, or are you just seeing
how well you can do online?

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kreci
I want to build steady online income. Mostly with stock photography - as I
really like it. And with web development. I build website - make some money on
it and then usually sell (until I will hit a real money killer).

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holdenc
Congrats to you. The sweetness of each self-earned dollar can outweigh the
multiple dollars earned working for someone else. And in many ways, those
first few dollars that validate one's ideas can be the sweetest of all.

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tyohn
I'm sure this will be sort of frowned upon but what about selling stuff on
eBay? I know people who buy stuff at yard sales or suchlike and resell it on
eBay...

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kreci
I believe it may be profitable but I am not able to do all of this stuff at
once :) And I would like to stay rather with online and virtual goods only (it
is to much to go and buy things, then pack it and go to postoffice...). I want
to build steady 100% online income.

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deanj
Do you have a good link for your work on iStockPhoto? The "View Portfolio"
link the iStockPhoto page you link to returns nothing.

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tuacker
I found this via DDG, should be the right one
<http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=503237>

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kreci
the right is <http://www.istockphoto.com/kreci> (without the backslash at the
end - end then view portfolio). Just fixed it in my post.

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kreci
Any comments welcome and very desired ;)

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fookyong
what was the day job and why did you give it up?

I think it would be good to clarify.

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kreci
I have been working as a computer helpdesk assistant and web developer when
had no requests from users.

