Tag: success

Posted in brain games, spot the odd, Thoughts, Trying to build a business

Spot The Odd Cute And Colorful Animals and Thoughts about Being the Stubborn Frog

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

I am doing my best to consistently post videos so that I can build my You Tube audience, get monetized, and hopefully get some cross over sales in my Etsy shop. But my iron has been doing its best to make that impossible. In one month, my ferritin dropped nearly a hundred points taking my energy with it. Suddenly a task that took me 20 minutes, required 5 hours and a hundred rest breaks. Thanks to low iron levels, creating the shortest of videos feels like a 500-mile marathon.

Thanks to my ongoing battle with iron, I have found myself staring through fatigue and pain glazed eyes, asking myself why I insist on trying to accomplish anything. Questioning why this stubborn frog determinedly hits its head against the wall when it would be far more pleasant to sink into a comfy corner and let the world pass by.

But for some reason, even though that would be the easiest choice, it is not one I want to make. Even if my shop never takes off, even if no one ever watches my videos, I cannot imagine spending my life melted into the sofa with nothing but a flickering TV screen to show for my life. Sure, there are days, weeks, and even at times, months when the pain gets so strong that I have no choice but to limp along like a half-drowned snail. Unfortunately, there are days and weeks where the weakness and pain become so intense that the only thing I can do is open my computer and stare at the sales page for a few minutes wishing for a sale or watching the subscriber count hoping that the needle will move even one space higher, before closing the lid and comforting myself with the hopes that tomorrow will be a better day.

I am not sure why, when budget and health issues have seemingly conspired so perfectly that for every step forward it seems like I fall 10 steps backward, something inside of me refuses to give up. There are times, when I see how a You tube channel that was started only a few days before or even a couple of months after mine have thousands of subscribers and over a million views, or I watch a video talking about an Etsy shop that is only a couple of months old and already making hundreds of sales that I become so disappointed that a few times I have come close to throwing in the towel. But a day or two later, thanks to an unexpected like on one of listings or a new subscriber, and I am right back in the ring trying to fight that invisible Spector of chronic illness.

Even though it makes no sense, there is something inside those refuses to give up. Something inside that hopes that someday, somehow, something will change. And to my complete surprise, at last my determined effort to be as consistent as my never-ending battle with the giant anemia, the monsters pain and fatigue, will at last become a distant memory as I finally grasp my humble reward of earning my own bread.

Posted in Finding a Drream, Fun Puzzles, life, Thoughts, Uncategorized

Update on New You Tube Channel: Fighting Self-Pity: Spot the Difference Teddy Bear Romance Edition

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

It has now been 3 months since I started my You Tube game channel with the hopes of building an audience that would not only allow me to become monetized on You Tube but might also cross over and purchase some items from my Etsy shop. I wish I could say that at the 3 month mark I have thousands of followers and hundreds of thousands of views. Having come across a course about creating a You Tube brain game channel where the person gained 1,600 subscribers and 200,000 views in only a month, I would love to be able to say that I at least got the 500 subs and 3000 watch hours required to start monetizing my channel.

Sadly, I am still a far away from that goal. But amazingly, in spite of having a severe flare up of my autoimmune that I am still recovering from and that put at least a 3 week pause on my iron infusions, I somehow managed to get 120 subscribers. This might not be a big deal for a healthy person, but when I consider that my poetry channel which I have had for a good 8 years only has 270 subscribers, getting 120 subs in 3 months suddenly feels like a really big deal. So finally, in spite of enduring a major setback, I actually managed to take a small step forward.

Hopefully, by the grace of God who has blessed me with a much-needed extra large portion of determination, I will reach not only the first level of monetization, but push through and not only get fully monetized, but maybe even earn a You Tube plaque.

Today my dream of making my You Tube channel and Etsy shop a success seems impossible, but for the longest time the idea of getting 120 subs in 3 months seemed like an impossible dream too. At least now I have a little bit of hope that if I keep trying, I might be able to make something of my dream finally come true.

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Posted in brain games, spot the difference

Spot the Difference Royal Colors Edition: Exercise Your Brain

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

I thought I would give a little update on my new brain game channel. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found an inexpensive tutorial on creating a You Tube game channel, and I thought that it might be a fun and easy way to advertise my activity book as well as my Etsy shop.

Instead of only seeing a plain add with some pictures taken from a book or activity pack, viewers could have the fun of playing a brain game like this spot the difference puzzle in real time. And I would highlight my books and etsy shop by mentioning in the opening that these fun quizzes were made by De Graw Publishing, and in the closing of most videos I let them know that they can find more games and puzzles in my Etsy shop.

I was able to set up an automatic insert that allows me to add the link to my Etsy shop in all of my video descriptions. This is great because if I am having a bad day, which has been the rule rather than the exception lately, I can generate an AI video description, copy and paste it into the box, and at minimum have a link to my Etsy shop. If the video happens to be related to a topic for which I have already published a coloring or activity book or created an activity pack on, and I have a bit of energy to spare, I can just copy and paste the title and a link.

It is too early to tell if it will be successful. But hey, you never know if someone will enjoy a video so much that they decide to click on one the links and find something that they like. Even a couple of sales a year would be a small victory.

With 16 subscribers my channel could hardly be called a success. It certainly is not the great start imagined when hearing talk about how some of these game channels have thousands and even hundreds of thousands subscribers. Looking at channels where videos have thousands of views and twenty thousand, fifty thousand, even a hundred thousand subs, and comparing it to my little start is a rather discouraging.

I try not to, as I know it is highly unlikely that my channel will ever take off, but it is hard not imagine what it would be like if my channel took off. It is hard, after being shown channel after channel with millions of views making You Tube Ad money, not to dream of how different my life would be if I managed to make even the first layer of monetization for You Tube which requires 3000 hours of watch time and 500 subscribers where you can link a shop to your channel. Never mind full monetization where you can get paid commercial views, potentially have a link to your shop or book, etc. At that point the chances of making a sale in my shop or someone buying my activity books would increase tremendously.

While I worry about the risk of falling in the center of the donut hole, where my income is too low to cover medical cost and allow me to be a help to my family, the dream is if I could just bounce out of that hole to the other side where I could earn enough to help us afford our own home, pay my medical bills, and have enough for a few wants and needs like a small garden and some chickens, that would be so great.

Read more: Spot the Difference Royal Colors Edition: Exercise Your Brain

I try hard not to let myself even imagine that, because I have so many days like today, when I have to prop myself up a bit with some pillows and pull the laptop desk under the sofa because I do not have the strength to sit up. And I know that my poor health is putting a big dent in the chances of my ever reaching my dream. In a thousand ways it impacts the likelihood of it ever becoming a reality as it impacts consistency, quality, and so much more.

Still, even though I know my hopes are most likely futile, I cannot put in words the joy and bit of hopefully healthy pride that fills my heart whenever I manage to upload a book, activity pack, or video. That little victory, pale as it might be in comparison to the grand accomplishments of someone fortunate enough to be selling $2000 plus worth of books, making $19000 a month in profit from one of their Etsy shops, or getting thousands of views a month from their video, is for me a bit like winning Olympic gold.

Because I know that had to overcome the looming hurdles of intense pain where at times, I could not find a comfortable spot or could barely tolerate to look at my screen, or energy so low that it seemed like it took every ounce of strength just to breathe. That book, pack, or video might represent the journey of a week, month, or even a year where like the turtle vs the hare I plodded along. Taking a few good steps to do one task, pausing for a time as I battled the great dragon of pain, recovered, licked my wounds, and completed the next task before monster fatigue blew its blinding haze upon me.

While it is heart breaking to me that my little channel, my books, my Etsy shop might not rise up in a blaze of glory, allowing me to fulfil my desire to take care of my mother and sister, there is a satisfaction in knowing that I tried. There is a something satisfying in knowing that when sickness knocked down my door, I did not lay down and give up and give in to pain. But with every ounce of strength that I had I fought to have some sort of life.

While it is true that my Etsy shop, my activity books, and You Tube channel are not a success by the world’s standard, in their own small way they are successful. Because each video, each book, each activity pack, each t-shirt or mug, or each pack that I manage to list represents a small victory in my determined war against the life altering battle with the misery that is fibromyalgia, migraines, anemia, and as yet unknown autoimmune disease.

Posted in life, Thoughts, Trying to build a business, Uncategorized

Beware of Emotionally Counting Your Chickens Before They Hatch When it Comes to Your Etsy Shop

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

At this moment I am not sure if I consider the old adage of never count your chickens before they hatch to be wiser than I thought or more frustrating than I can ever imagine. Because since I started my journey on KDP and Etsy, I have found it to be both. On the one hand it has repeatedly proven itself to be true, which has become a source of intense frustration.

Month after month it has felt like there is some unseen rule that stated that with only a couple of exceptions, my shop could only get 1 sale a month. For my first year, except for 1 month where I got no sales, 1 month where I got 3, and another where I got 6 the rule did not deviate. So far for my second year that number has been bumped up to a mind boggling 3 sales.

And like last year, there was a thrilling month where the numbers suddenly spiked and I got 8 budget saving sales. I remember how excited I was that month as for a short time I got a sale every 3 1/2 days. For a few weeks I was able to open my laptop with a sense of eager expectation. Every time I got a sale I would pull out my calculator and crunched the numbers to determine how many visits I would need before I would get a sale with that new conversion rate and how much I might earn after Etsy fees if I got x amount of visitors a month divided by the number of visits needed to translate into a sale with my current conversion rate.

Yes, it was a bad thing to do, it went against every rule I had set for myself. But after the first 3 or 4 sales, I began to dream what I would do with so many sales. I let myself imagine how this sudden boost in sales would slowly but steadily snowball from making enough sales to cover Etsy listing fees, then adds, then an etsy Seo aid like Everbee and Erank, to a program that let me sell custom products like Hello Custom, then the paid version of Canva, etc until I not only could pay for my business expenses, but all my other expenses and a few wants as well.

Oh how hard it was when the next month came and I got more views than I had ever gotten, yet my sales plummeted back to the seemingly newly set in stone 3 sales a month. What a bitter pill it was to realize, that even though I had told myself that I would never allow myself to do so, I had counted my eggs before they hatched, and as usual, it was a big fat zero.

That month I promised myself I would not let it happen again. But then came all the videos talking about Q4 and all the holiday sales that come with it. Last year, had not been very amazing. I only had a handful of digital download puzzles. I think that at the peak of Q4 or quarter 4 I had a total of 40 or 50 listings so it was not a big surprise that q4 went by with only a small bump of 2 extra sales.

But after watching all those videos, and realizing that this year I had added a variety of POD items such as puzzles, t-shirts, and mugs, I began to feel very excited. While my digital download puzzles and coloring pages had appealed to those who were traveling or looking for some project to keep their young holiday guest busy, there had been nothing that would appeal to someone looking for the perfect gift to give a loved one or a friend.

But this year was different. Thanks to the addition of POD items like puzzles and mugs, I now had a growing collection of gift-able items. And after watching hours of videos of people talking about how they would make more in Q4 than any other time of the year, sometimes making in those 3 months as much as they had made all year long, I was overflowing with excitement. Because I had worked slowly and steadily throughout the year, my collection of 40 or 50 items had more than doubled.

Continue reading “Beware of Emotionally Counting Your Chickens Before They Hatch When it Comes to Your Etsy Shop” →
Posted in life, Medical, My Etsy journedy, Thoughts, Trying to build a business, Uncategorized

Enduring the Hidden Drop of the Etsy Roller Coaster

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

I have been trying all morning to create a post about the struggle of trying to build an Etsy shop while dealing with poor health and a slumping economy. There is so much I could say now that I have passed the 1st year mark with my shop about the importance of listening to old adage of if it is not broke don’t fix it, the importance of listening your body and knowing when to give your body the rest it needs, accepting that not everyone will be an overnight success, and more.

But today my brain is just to tired to focus. As much as I would love to write an article saying that if you just think positive there is delay or disaster that will stress you. But that is not true.

Like it or not there are days that you will wake up and say to yourself, what am I doing? Why am I even trying when nothing I do work? And you will be tempted to give up. And strangely enough, some of those days might come the day after you make a sale.

Sure there are going to be many great days when your mind will be full of hopes and dreams. Dreams that are bolstered by the remission of your symptoms and encouraged by a few sales. Like a well designed roller-coaster, there will be a period of steady climb with only a few mild dips that are perfect for lulling you into a false sense of confidence before a blind turn reveals a stomach shattering dip.

With a new high of 8 sales, July was one of those months. Finally after months of getting only with 1 sale and only 3 months where I got 2 or 3 sales, my slow but steady work was starting to paying off. With a few sales now behind me, and more than a hundred and fifty listings, my business was on the cusp of taking off as each new listing, sale, and the occasional review only adding to the growing momentum. With each sale I was calculating the conversion ratio to estimate what my sales would look like if I got x amount of visits and how may visits it would take to pass the next mile marker of 10 sales per month.

After such an exciting month I was eager to see the progress that August would bring. Now that I had close to 160 listings, 30 sales, and 2 reviews, surely I was set to see my biggest month ever with 9, 10, or even 11 plus sales. And from the amount of traffic, which was 4 times the amount of my normal traffic, it seemed like that hope was going to become a reality. Day by day I eagerly looked at my inbox hoping to receive a message from Etsy letting me know that this massive (at least for me), influx of traffic had converted into sales. Morning after morning I woke up filled with hope, eager to see how much money I had made overnight, only to be met with disappointment.

Continue reading “Enduring the Hidden Drop of the Etsy Roller Coaster” →
Posted in life, Thoughts, Uncategorized

Another Important Lesson for Trying to Start Your Own Business: One Hundred Percent Effort Does Not Always Equal Success

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

How many times have we been told that effort is the secret to success. Your grades are slipping all you need to do is study harder. You want a promotion at work just work harder. You need to take off a few pounds, diet better and workout harder. No matter the problem, the answer to all your problems is to give your 110% effort and like magic, all your problems will be solved.

Well this might be true if the reason for your few extra pounds was that extra slice of cake or two that you liked to indulge in after a hard day, and not a hormone problem. If your grades were slipping because you were not completing your homework and forgoing that needed hour of study in favor of hanging out with friends or binge watching your favorite You Tube channel and not because you had an undiagnosed learning disability like dyslexia that made it hard for you to understand what you were reading. As much as we want to believe that effort always means success, there are areas of life where we can work our fingers to the bone, only to fall short of the mark. But what about things that you have absolutely no control over, like how many people buy your books or from your Etsy shop?

We can spend hours creating the perfect shop banner and creating professional looking designs, take pictures that look like they belong in magazine, and have all the right keywords and yet the success we seek may remain a step our two out of our reach. Our little shop might seem like it is about to take off when changes to the algorithm brings our rising graph crashing downward for days and even weeks. Sickness could put such a damper upon our effort that a car without gas being pushed uphill by the father of knew born with colic and a bad case of the flu looks like a blaze of glory compared to our empty tank of energy.

Or after spending months preparing products, creating photos, and trying to brainstorm tags, and mere days after celebrating the opening of our shop, we can wake up to the fearful news that interest rates are rising, stores are closing, banks are failing, and the economy is on the brink of a financial disaster not seen since the great depression. Bringing the traffic in your shop to a slow drip instead of a quiet but steady stream.

Yet for all of that, there is something satisfying knowing that even though your dreams of financial greatness did not come to pass, or have been put on an extra long hold, that you have given it your all. That you have done all in your power to learn, grow, and work towards your dream. Because

So if you have a dream that you believe is worth giving your all, what are you waiting for? Who knows what you can do or where you will go if once you pick up your feet and begin the journey of a thousand miles. There are no guarantees that you will become the millionaire of your dreams, a doctor, a best selling doctor, etc. But one thing is for certain, a hope never pursued will forever remain a dream.

Click here to check out these fun designs about how 100 percent effort does not always equal success.

Posted in life, Thoughts, Uncategorized

My First 3 Sales

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

It is so exciting, the other day I made my 3rd sale on Etsy. That is a one sale a month average. Hardly an exciting start, as 1 sale a month is far from a living wage or even enough to buy a pizza. Depending on any discounts and cost of ads, it might barely be enough to buy a small pint of on sale ice cream, yet for me it is a huge deal as it gives me a minute taste of success and gives me hope that someday I might be able to make my dream a reality.

How long it will take for my shop to become a success, if it ever does, is uncertain. Like the Etsy and self-publishing experts warn, if you want to build a business that will last, you have to be in it for the long haul. You have to go in with the mind set that this is going to be a long term investment of your time. Otherwise you will be tempted to take short cuts that will hurt your reputation or even shut down your business.

You have to go in with the understanding that, especially if like me, you do not have a large media presence and a host of family and friends ready and waiting to buy your books or your latest Etsy creation, it is highly unlikely that your shop is going to start with a bang.

Like the tortoise in the story of the tortoise and the hare, if you want to have any hope of winning the race, you have to ignore the fact that you are not blessed to be one of the lucky few who can race out of the gate and within a few days be selling hundreds of dollars worth of goods. Like the tortoise you just have to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other, knowing that it will be days, weeks, months, and even years before you have a flourishing shop.

Instead of focusing on how far you have to go, you have to take aim at the first goal, then the second, the third, and so on. Knowing that even though it does not appear like much today, like a puzzle, you are creating the frame work that will one day fill into a beautiful picture that you can be proud of.

Sure there are going to be a lot of days where you feel discouraged because it seems like nothing you do moves the cart in the direction that you want to go. That no matter how much time and effort you make, success refuses to acknowledge you. Sadly, while you dream of making a thousand sales in a month, you might for a time have to celebrate that solitary monthly sale.

But hopefully with a lot of prayerful work and persistence, the day will come when one sale turns into two, then three, four, a dozen, and eventually one glorious day enough to pay your bills and enjoy the life of your dream.

If you would like to check out this fun collection of word games, mazes, and more, click here.