2 months in; Starting a creative business

I can’t believe it is already the end of the second month. Time goes by so fast.

My feelings for this month are very mixed. At one hand I;m so glad I have been blogging and keeping up now for two months already. At the other end I;m feeling kind of stressed by the time going so fast.

I had set the goal to have something to show for within the year. Until now, however, I have still made no money (which is 100%- understandable and realistic but still kind of stressing).

So I hope making this post will not only show you my process but also put it in perspective for me.

Blogging

I think that this has been my major focus in the end. The graphics are still not what I want them to be and neither is the layout! However, now that I look at last month stats I think that my effort did pay off.

Last month I hit 50 likes just as I was writing that post and this time I hit 200 likes and that feels absolutely insane! I also had 12 subscribers which felt like a lot, but now there are 63 followers! I can’t thank everyone enough for the support, the likes and the amazing comments.

I can also definitely say that my average views have gained. I still feel a little bit obsessed with my stats sometimes, though, and I really want to get rid of that.

After reading a piece by an opinionated man about self-hosting and how it makes it harder to have a viewing I reconsidered wanting to start self-hosting right away. I think I should give myself another month to really build that community and reach out on other platforms. I think a major thing for this is that my main referral is still the WordPress reader. I think that if I can change that to social media it will make my moving less damaging.

So just a little recap and my new goals

• keep my blogging schedule (Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday) Done, but need to keep doing this
• find out which content is most wanted (You can vote one the poll at the end!) most votes for all of them! So we’ll just keep going!
• make a review (I think this is the sort of post that I want to be able to write so I want to practice it) Didn’t have anything to review really… Let me know if you have something
• grow my audience Definitely done as well but not stopping

My new goals are

• getting social media as the main referrer for my blog
• Making illustrations for my blog
• Make a brand guide Because I need to be more organized overall
• Make better photo’s

Social media

Last month I finally made a twitter and I think that went pretty great overall! I even got the chance to join a twitter chat and to write a post about it! 

My Tumblr is doing reasonable as well although I forgot to update the queue for almost a week now.

My new social media project will probably be making an Instagram since that one seems to be the most popular one for artists at the moment. It feels absolutely crazy to add another platform but luckily I can schedule my posts for both twitter and Tumblr so those cost less time.

So overall;

• commenting more   I feel like I did this and that it paid off. I’m trying to continue of course!
• figuring out twitter (and adding a header and a profile picture of course)  Done!
• connecting them all nope I have zero ideas yet about how to do this but I’ll figure it out!
• making one universal profile picture not done either. It is not my forte, but I’m sure we’ll find something.

For next month, I want to;

• connecting them all 
• making one universal profile picture
• make an Instagram

Artwise

I have definitely been drawing and creating a lot more this month and that feels good. For some reason though I don’t have much to show for it. I keep making projects but sharing them or finishing them didn’t really seem to happen this month. So that will be my main goal this month! Getting it done and out there!

For my Etsy store, I did get more views. I did that mostly by treating it like social media and going out to follow and favorite peoples work. What I did not do is update the descriptions and photo’s which is really bad.

So last month I said that I wanted to;

• Completing the Etsy store No, but really should have!
• Paint, draw and create more (at least once a day)  Yes, and I loved it, definitely keeping this up
• Post more about art Maybe? I think I need some solid ideas for this topic so if you know anything let me know!

I’m obviously not the best at finishing to do lists. I’ll still keep making them for the overview, but maybe I should also write them down for on my desk!

For next month, I’ll try to;

• Finish at least my two digital works and upload a traditional work
• Complete my Etsy store and make a more obvious link to it!
• Find post ideas for more art related posts

It was a very busy month and I think that overall I did do a lot even if I did not do everything I wanted to do. I feel like writing it all out does really show me that I did something and all the small successes.

I think that celebrating the small successes might really benefit me since I can get so focussed on the results. Maybe that way I would not only see it at the end of the month in these blog posts. Let me know if you have any ideas for fun ways to celebrate and if you do this!

Again; If you are an artist in the same situation, we can always help and support each other!

I’m incredibly grateful to everybody who has taken the time to read, like and comment on my work. I can’t thank you enough for all the support.

I hope I’ll see you next month!