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I'd love to turn my passions into a revenue. But I can't choose.

Hello Internet People 👋🏻

I'm in love with ideas (especially if they're new). I have a website where I share my thoughts and the challenges I face in life (both in english and italian, depending on the flow).
Every time I read what's inside this website I think to myself "What's this s**t, how will you ever make a profit out of it".

But that's the only thing I can do. I am not a marketing guy or sales person or a business man. I'm the guy that is highly skilled with the craft (usually a creative one, and usually more than one, for example: photography, filmmaking, music production, writing, graphic design and acting).

Do you have any advice on how I can turn my skills into an "independent business", where I do not have to rely on a boss or a company or someone else rather than me and my "fans"?

I'd love to hear from you soon.

Thanks.

  1. 7

    First off, this is something that takes a few years.

    1. Pick one thing you want to be known for. This is critical because you want your personal brand to be easy to remember, and also because it's hard enough to build credibility in one thing, let alone six.

    2. Pick a platform where people in your niche hang out that also provides reach. Instagram for photography, YouTube for education or entertainment, TikTok for entertainment, Twitter for ideas, etc..

    3. Consistently create content for others in your niche on the platform you chose. Do it for free. Do it a lot. Your goal is to build familiarity and credibility.

    4. Learn the platform inside and out to maximize your growth.

    5. Once you have an audience, you can think about selling products, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, AdSense (if you're on YouTube), selling courses, creating a paid community, selling merch, etc..

    I hope that helps :)

    1. 4

      You've been so practical Abraham. I appreciate it a lot, thank you so much.
      Internet is full of step-by-step guide on how to reach specific goals but when someone give them directly to you as you did, everything is changes.
      Hope I'll give you something back soon.

  2. 3

    For a starter pick one creative skill and dedicate most of your time to it. I wouldn't take someone seriously if they claim they're highly skilled in 7 creative fields.

    You have 3 ways to make money with creative skills :

    • selling a service : freelancing, fiverr and co, your own productised service
    • selling creative assets : on marketplaces like envato, or by yourself with gumroad for example.
    • selling knowledge : youtube, udemy, books

    Without serious marketing effort it's going to be nearly impossible to make substantial money regardless of what route you pick.

    1. 1

      Yes, aekiro, you're right. Being "highly skilled" was too much. Let's say that I am "good" in many fields and that I love diving into them every now and then.

      Sometimes writing is not enough to express what I am feeling and I need music in that moment. At the same time music is not enough either and I have to write or talk or discuss or move but... apart from this, you're right, and @felix12777 is right too (overthinking is just a wall on the road).

      Thank you so much for your thoughts about this. I will figure it out faster.

  3. 3

    Don’t overthink.

    Every businesses should start from small, it’s okay to dream big. Perfect marketing doesn’t exist, what you need to do is to set a goal, talk to customers, match what they need, and tell people you’re offering the product / service.

    You can always learn how to sell and market, the more you talk to customer to more you know how to position your business.

  4. 2

    The two fundamental ways to create a business are:

    1. Solve a problem (that is, scratch someone's itch); or
    2. Make them happy.

    In order to have a successful business, you will have to learn how to do sales and marketing. They're both required if you don't want to work for other people. You're either going to sell someone else's products (affiliate marketing, buying product wholesale and selling it retail, making something yourself), or selling yourself as a brand (consulting, advising, acting, photography, etc).

    I do agree with the majority of the other folks responding to you: you need to pick 1 or 2 and focus on those or you won't be successful. There's simply not enough time in the day to become recognized as a go-to person in 6 different "specialties".

    For example, when someone is looking to hire a wedding photographer, they want to know that person shoots a lot of weddings. The person they look to hire needs to understand the flow and timing of a wedding and it's related capturable moments (walking down the aisle, the kiss, first dance, cutting the cake, the exit, etc, etc) and be able to capture the right moments at the right time. They're wanting to be sold that this person understands them as a couple and knows exactly what to do and win so they have the memories captured on film.

    In my example, if you've never shot a wedding or you've only done a few (but you spend all your time doing all these other things), your prospect will be able to discern that fact and you're unlikely to win their business. By continuing to focus on shooting weddings, you gain a portfolio of work that you can use to convince couples that you're the right wedding photographer.

    1. 1

      Thank you Razermuse.
      I love what you said on point 2. Making them happy or astonishing them would be for me a much greater motivation than solving a problem. It is always been like that: to create something that someone would be astonished by.

      P.S.: I'll certainly call you on my wedding, thank you a lot 🙏🏻

      1. 1

        That's certainly a good motivator. Listening to music isn't solving a problem and there are a bunch of different sides of the music industry that exists because writing, producing, engineering, listening/dancing to, or performing music makes people happy.

        Haha! Don't call me, I'm not even an aspiring amateur photographer =).

  5. 2

    "When we asked the janitor what she does, she told us: I create wonderful cars."
    // Interview with an employee in a car production factory. While doing dirty job, she knew that the higher purpose is here and she felt passionate to keep the factory clean for her colleagues despite the job was not as shiny as those cars.

    Passion ≠ skill, ideally you have both in the toolbelt for a particular project. It is much easier to make money with skills rather than passions, on other side it is much easier to be happy with your passions if you do not expect it to pay your bills.

    And if that happens, then great!

    Make money with your skills and fuel your passions with the budget and increased skills as you move forwards. Sooner or later you will find that sweet spot where your skills are in synergy with your passion and enough demand to make it a business.

    For example - I am really passionate about permaculture, and have some skills here bcs I learned a lot being a volunteer, but not enough resources to make it a living. Maybe it is not a good idea at all, when passion becomes a daily bread. From passion it becomes a routine sooner or later.

    Do you think you could find a passion in your daily used skill worth of other people money? Then do it, build up that passion, find the purpose behind. Then you will feel more free to discover your true and unique value proposition aligned with your life values. It needs time so just keep blogging :-) You made me laugh actually with your recent post and I would send you a coffee for that if there was a button for that.

    Many people nowadays are not happy,
    because they are told: Do what you are passionate about.

    But how many people, honestly, can achieve this? Find excellence in what you do now and you can build up that passion as well bcs you get appreciation and see the higher purpose in what you do now. Maslow's self-realization says it all :-)

    Give a chance to born of yours inner entrepreneur & marketer inside yourself. Spread your passion to other people who will be more likely to follow and support you.

    Read this if you have time: Metaskills by Marty Neumeier

    Hi to Roma!

    1. 1

      Hi Jakubdubec, thank you for your story, it made me reflect so deeply.

      I certainly understand what you're saying and at the same time I know that in order to be applied it would take a different time span.

      I'll read what you suggested (just googled and the summary is already fun and interesting).

      Thank you for your coffee 😋

  6. 2

    Hey Matteo,

    Unlike everyone else, I'll suggest you to focus on more than one skill and turn those two skills into business. So, I believe there are enough of freelancers who specialized in only one area, for instance in logo design etc.

    But there are few who has two separate skills. Someone who knows neuroscience and design etc.

    I think focus on 2 different craft that you're most successful, and which you believe can be combined fairly well. Then try to create business around that.

    This video explains the idea fairly well, check it out :)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCPbPMRNnvk

    1. 2

      That's an answer I was really looking for! Thank you NoFunnyMan! He explains the concept so well. I have heard about it many times but never had the chance to discuss about it online. I'll make sole steps accordingly. Thank you a lot 🙏🏻

  7. 2

    Hello Matteo,
    Myself Bishwa all the way from India. I would advice you one thing whatever the challenges you are facing, is it being faced by the other people also? If other people are also facing the same problem then that's a profitable idea. Although you show first think about serving them then slowly slowly you can charge a bit for it.I hope this advice helps you.

    1. 1

      Hi Bishwa,

      yes, it helped, thanks a lot. I will focus on that too. I will find a way to help others with my skills (which already happened in the past and I was glad about it) and as the "service" improves, I will charge a bit for it. Wish you the best.

  8. 2

    What is your website URL? Are you on Twitter? Hard to give advice without seeing some of your work.

    1. 1

      Hi FreshPrinceMayo, thanks for asking.
      This is my website: https://camarca.webflow.io/
      Still a work in progress. It lacks many things. I'm uploading them one day at a time. 90% of the posts are written in italian ('cause I am one) and I will soon upload the remaining ones.

      1. 1

        Maybe you can share your ideas on Twitter. I think to build an audience you have to give a lot before you receive anything, so it's a slow process. You need to figure out what you're offering and who your audience is.

  9. 2

    Hi,
    i have the same thinking about my side projects. Therefore, I searched for possibilities out there.

    Here are my findings:

    https://www.patreon.com/europe - Nothing new, but still useful. You can offer your art and your fanbase pays for it monthly. There are many other platforms like this: for example https://de.tipeee.com/ , https://steadyhq.com/
    https://on.substack.com/ - is a newsletter for your content. You can decide which content you want to share for free and which you want to put behind a paywall. The service is free, substack only earns money when you do.

    But you can't avoid promoting your content via social media or any other way.

    1. 1

      Hi Fred,

      thank you so much for sharing this, I appreciate it.
      I knew about Patreon but Steady is new to me!
      Hope to give you something back soon.

  10. 1

    When in doubt and you feel like all your ideas have equal chances to succeed, go for the idea that is easiest to implement.
    You will learn a lot from launching your first project and you might fail. Fail quickly, learn fast.

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