My cat’s matted coat, cat’s hair on a sofa, and my experiment with affiliate

This is a different post and an experimental one. When I started this blog I used to recommend products that were great for me or my mum. I loved them purely because they delivered what they promised. At that time there were plenty of blogs doing this and they were NOT affiliate blogs.

Times have changed and most of the pages on Google – at least the first two will have some kind of affiliate link to them. My blog is tiny to make it to any affiliate and the products I will mention are too cheap to make big bucks. But they did make a huge difference to me.

The first one is about a matted coat. Oh my god. How many tears I cried that I could not prevent matting on my darling cat. Usually, I had to cut the matted coat at the end or ask the nurse at my vet to help me. I felt so useless and inadequate when they had to help me and asked me: “Why did you choose this kind of cat? She is so demanding and will need this type of grooming for the rest of her life?”

Well, the truth is. She is a rescue. She chose us and we could not say no. So what is the magic product that helped me? It looks like a simple brush but it is not. It gets the matted clumps out so well. Use it as a normal brush, be gentle of course but this time you don’t have to stress. My cat enjoys it!

The second product is more for me but it is about the cat’s hair again. I have been getting lots of her hair on our bedding blankets. Yes, I have used the old lint roller but it did not do the job so well. Now I finally have something that helps me to scoop the hair and have the blankets clean. A photo is below. There is something I need to say though – it is more labour intensive, you do get the hair off but little by little. Also, I have tried it on my blanket covers that I bought in IKEA, these are fairly cheap and cheerful fabrics and I don’t mind them being damaged. I would not use it on an expensive fabric and the teeth are fairly aggressive when scooping and might damage more delicate material.

So here you have it. Two products that changed my life (and my cat’s), too. Enjoy them as much as I do and they just cost a few dollars.

P.S. Of course, this post is for cat/dog lovers but for my regular readers who are petless a little explanation. Yes, I do want to help cat owners but I am also testing something. I want to know if this post will get picked up and if there is something to the “affiliate” concept or not. Is it worth it for someone who has a small blog and is just promoting products from daily life? I will let you know the results or you can keep on checking this post as time goes. I do not have high hopes as I am not using any SEO strategy or anything like that. Anyway let’s see, shall we?

Have a great spring, dear friends 🙂

Two products – one has a link and one does not because I can’t remember where I got it from.

Side-Hassle Do and Don’ts

I don’t like long blog posts. So here we go.

This year I have dropped;

Small selling sites that just took my focus away i.e. Zazzle, Spoonflower, and the biggest of them all – Amazon. By dropping, I mean not creating new products and leaving it ‘as is.” And I have also dropped, and I mean completely dropped, my website. I had high hopes for that, especially after listening to numerous videos on blogging and selling on your blog. Had a nice WordPress website, pages, posts, images – for a year. That is what I gave it. Also shelved some courses that I thought I would be using but – nahh. Also done nothing on Instagram. To my surprise, I have noticed that my friends still have not grown as they expected and I have lost only 40 subscribers. So, yes I did not regret not spending any time on Instagram.

Of course, all of these above can work and work for people but they did not for me. I have limited extra time to give it and limited resources. That is why we call it a side hassle right?

What I am keeping. Again, as many years previously – Pinterest and YouTube ( I forgot Etsy, yes still keeping it). The growth is there. I have not monetized either of them but I do see value in these two.

In general, I have noticed these things:

1/ It is often recommended to spread out but this did not work for me. there was no cumulative effect. Rather focus on what works and give energy to that. Figuring out new things and platforms should be done only if you have that time on your hands.

2/ Often is said – keep on going, you are so close to winning. This I found really annoying. I would recommend choosing a realistic timeframe and then if it does not work, scrap it. For example, I website I have had on for over 2 years 🙂

3/ Buy and do courses only from people you have been watching for years. If it shows as not being useful, at least you will be left with a good feeling that you have supported someone you like.

4/ Keep a cohesive look of your shop/product – people will automatically assume you are a brand.

5/ Give things your unique spin. This one will become harder and harder because of AI but if you can figure it out, you are a winner. After AI saturation there is going to be a huge demand for authenticity. If you can tell and show your story – that is a great bonus to everything. Storytelling will be big no matter which century you are in.

6/ You will learn more from small YouTubers or creators. They are more willing to share their knowledge and they still have a real passion for things which the big ones often lose.

7/ Keep up with the latest in technology but don’t have a shiny thing syndrome – that proved to be very costly.

8/Someone who makes the tutorial ”a show” is more successful than others.

Deep and detailed tutorials and not holding anything back are a lot more appealing and trustworthy. Aim to be a micro-influencer.

9/ Focusing on one thing first is better than doing ten things simultaneously.

I think that is all for 2023. I should probably come up with 10 or 12 points – but I am not using ChatGpt to write this 🙂

As always, have a good one friends!

Summer tends to be a quiet time

Summer tends to be a quiet time, at least on the surface. I am looking at my numbers and again, as every year – I am not happy with them. I know the economy is not great but really, I don’t like to make any excuses for myself and I rather look at things as they are.

Last year, I was excited because I got some traction with several products. Although it was just a few dollars – I was sure I can 10x. Why not, right? I heard so many times that if you get a dollar, you can make it into a hundred. My optimism quickly fizzled out. It stayed at single or double digits – and that is just not sustainable for too long.

I have decided to change my strategy and 10x only those products that will prove themselves and bring me 100 USD/month. So there, new threshold and by next summer, I should know if that was a good decision or not. Of course, it can happen that I will not be able to make even that – and would mean a serious overhaul of my one-person business strategy.

So, we will see…

Have great and productive summer, dear friends 🙂

P.S. at the same time, I still working on some social media and building skills that are not easily replaced by AI 🙂

Can A.I. save me or finish me? From creating to selling

I have always been looking at all my business ventures and analysing them. Am I going to write about “how I became a millionaire” any time soon? Haha, nope.

I have tried many things and different techniques including manifesting. When I read that actually, I quote: “be prepared that some people’s dreams will happen instantly but some people’s dreams will never come true”, I thought to myself: “Maybe one person’s business is always a grind and never success…, do I really know a one person, who would achieve financial independence by himself/herself? Don’t they always have a team of people behind them?” People I know in real life have either side hassle, part-time or hobby-like activity and it brings them a side income that is up and down as the weather – but none of them retired on it.

And I really try all channels possible except one – and that is the one that seems to be everywhere now. – the mighty A. I. So yes, I am in a process of thinking about how to use it. My main problem so far is the fact that I can create products but I am not able to market them. Can A.I. help with this? I do not really need help with the creative side, that is the side I love and I do not want the A.I. to do it for me. But the marketing and selling – I hate that part and as a result, I am pretty bad at it.

If you understand this need, and you know more about A.I. than I do, you can create a new business developed purely on this. I would not mind paying for it if I can see the results. Ads so far are spaghetti on the wall and the results for most of us are intangible.

So this is what I am looking into now, I am looking at it as another chance. Of course, there will be big businesses figuring out the same thing, but I don’t want to miss this boat.

Here are some ideas for a one-person business if you are good at A.I. utilisation:

1. A.I. based – targeted market research for individual niches
2. A.I. based – ads or marketing agency, market prognostics
3. A.I. – copywriting services, admin services, selling interface services, alternative selling/shopping platforms
4. Just one rule from me please, keep the A.I. as your assistant and do not let it replace you – otherwise we, as humanity are doomed 🙂

Have a great 2023 dear friends!

Q4, the moment of truth

So we made it. This is it. The Last Quarter about which we are often told how spectacular it is.

As a tiny solo entrepreneur, I have experienced only one fairly good Q4 on Amazon and that was in 2019. I did have a lot of hope and thought, sure this is it – and it will only get better. It did not. But I am not here to moan. It is usually better if I curb my expectation, it shows me what works and it shows where I have been wasting my time. So in that sense, IT IS a very important quarter. I am always excited no matter what. I will be mainly looking at my Amazon sales, Etsy sales and maybe Zazzle sales as well.

I will not be using paid ads and I will rely on Pinterest and Instagram. Just a side note on Instagram. I have very little reach and all in all I am very tempted to drop Instagram altogether. YouTube is very slow but growing. The blog is probably the weakest point. I was very excited about using the blog as another channel but I think at the moment I am at the sandbox or something as literally there is no traffic whatsoever.

I have been thinking about social media in general. I am aware that many mention saturation and competition but I am feeling differently about it. I think if I could talk to CEOs of any social media, they would tell me: “So you think that we are a charity?” And of course, I know that they are business and they think like a business. That means that they will look at anyone who comes to the platform as a customer or a source. My mindset is different than years ago. Now I know that the platforms will look at my account and think – what do you offer, what do we get from you? Can you bring us more customers? Can you keep people on our platform longer? Can you pay for ads? And sure enough, I have noticed that where I am able to do it, I experience growth. At the moment I am trying to figure out which platform to drop and where to double down.

And I think that Q4 will shed more light on this. I need to save my energy and time to avoid another burnout. I hope that you are doing well and have a great Q4!

Hoping for a good Q4

P.S. I have noticed that my post is sent out to all my subscribers

whether they like it or not. I apologise for this as I have not figured out

how to change that. If you know, please let me know 🙂

What to focus on? Greedy platforms versus the less greedy…

I have done some research and some thinking. I have been very close to another burnout. Working a full-time job and then working on weekends on my side-hassle was a bit too much as I had only a couple of hours of rest. And that was not enough to recover.

Something had to change to stay sane. I have looked closely at all my side jobs and decided on a dramatic cut. Amazon and Etsy had to be put on the side. I have decided to do only weekly maintenance, dedicating only 2 hours weekly to both. They were not delivering, I have put so much time into Amazon and so much effort into Etsy, yet the rewards are small or none. So yes, radical change was made.

I focused on Zazzle – just starting it and then building it slowly. The idea is that if I am able to sell something in November – I will keep it going as that will be a sign to me that it is worth persuading. I am not emotionally involved in it, not as much as was with Amazon and Etsy. I am more like – whatever…lets’ see.

What I put on the side as well is Instagram. I am not growing and have not been growing for a couple of years. The accent on recency does not suit me. I am staying on it but not going crazy. Same with Tik Tok. I think Tic Tok is great for sellers who have something trendy, something viral and hot. And for sellers who don’t mind having a few good years on Tik Tok and then moving to something else. I am trying to make something that is long-term so that platform is not for me.

What I am focusing on and going to focus on even more is what I call for myself the Golden Triangle. What is it?

1. YouTube
2. Website (Google)
3. Pinterest

Why those three? Because they play very well together. This is really important. Your YouTube channel or Pin will get shown by Google and your Website will get shown by Google too. Also, your YouTube and Website connect well – there are now barriers unlike with Instagram where you have to stay on the platform and never ever leave (just joking of course). Pinterest will promote well both Website/YouTube and will not penalize for promoting those two. I can see more growth and more potential from the connection of these three elements hence the Golden Triangle. I think because they ‘work well together they help you to create greater visibility. To keep this going is time-consuming but by streamlining my focus, I think it is manageable. Also, I assume that only one of the three will lay the golden egg in future and the other two will just supplement it and act as a funnel. Time will show if I am correct or not. In the meantime, have a great summer dear friends and may you see your success soon 🙂

Make it more simple

Keeping everything in one spot

I really like the saying: Don’t keep your all eggs in one basket. It is on my mind, especially now when I see so many changes around me and in the POD world. This is something I am more aware of now than a few years ago – and making changes based on it.

I have selected platforms that I think are fairly stable – for me, it is still Amazon and Etsy (and testing Zazzle) but I have started my own albeit tiny blog, that will be only mine, not dependent on anybody else. It is growing very slowly, actually, the growth has been so slow that it highly discouraging. When I log in, I am greeted only with spam comments and bot visits. Ahh, patience, patience girl – that is all I can say to myself at this point. I was very tempted to spend some money on Jasper (Jarvis) AI to help me grow but now I am holding my horses, so to speak, after Google stated very clearly – no AI-created content in its vicinity…Personally, I think, that it will change in the future but at the moment Google is the doorkeeper – so not worth messing around with it.

On that note, I do think that the internet space that seemed years ago so vast and egalitarian, will become segmented among the biggest few and the access will be a lot harder to get for free. I have tried to utilize more visibility with some Ads but it did not deliver and I am too small to through my money at it. While we are talking about the future, yes, I do think, there will be new options for small businesses and I am sure, lots of clever people are drafting it now as we speak. But it will take time to materialise. Until then, I have to rely on my strategies and productivity.

With regards to Social Media, I am devoting my time only to Pinterest and YouTube. The other media ‘just ask’ too much in return for exposure. And I don’t have hours and hours to feed the greedy algos.

And of course, the last piece of the puzzle of my strategy is self-education. I really spent a lot of time on that. Currently going through a really good and inspiring course. It is from someone I have been following on Youtube for the longest time. That is also the reason, I finally signed up for a course. Even if I don’t make what the course promises, I am still happy for that person to get the sale. Just because of this ‘relationship’ that is based on trust. This is actually also a very valuable lesson for me. If you are able to have a small audience that resonates with you, that is actually enough. But you do have to keep certain qualities that are different from big companies:

1. You have to be authentic and really be yourself, companies are not able to do this as it is always a massive group of faceless people, they try to make up for it with an influencer/celebrity face but here you have a massive advantage – it is really you, normal human-like your customers
2. I know that everyone is advising this – brand yourself, make yourself into a brand, and yes, it works especially if you want to turn into a big company. But for me personally, it is a turn-off. I do not like people turning into a brand as they sooner or later lose that personal touch. I really prefer ordinary people making their craft or doing what they do best, and I do not need the hear their ‘value proposition.’ So yes, be yourself and tell your own story as it is.
3. Big companies will drop anything that does not bring big bucks but the small guy can thrive here and is very specialised and focused.

So that is all, I have been thinking and working on this summer. I have included a little schema as some of you prefer visuals 🙂

Have a great summer dear friends and keep on going!

My simple plan for Q3

Creating something from scratch again

I have done it again. I have decided to try something new. But this time I told myself that this is really, really the last time, I am trying a POD site. The reason for that is that I have not experienced any success with the POD style business. And I have been trying since 2018. So yes, this is the last try and it is rather symbolic that its name starts with the letter ‘Z’.

Yes, you guessed it. It IS ZAZZLE. I kept on hearing about it for many years but I have never tried it. Mainly because that from what I have heard the rewards were slow and small. Not what I wanted. But now, after all my experiences, I am thinking that there is nothing to loose. I am going to try to build it over the summer and test it for Q4 which should be (at least in theory) the best one. Based on the results, I will decide what to do next.

As for my other ventures. I am enjoying You Tube but I can see, how lots can people burn out. It is growing very slowly and I will definitely not get monetised this year. It is snail paced at best, but I am doing it mainly for the experience and hopefully later on connecting it to my blog. And yes, still working on my blog. My feeling about it so far – what is very liberating, is the fact that I don’t have to conform to ‘any platform’ and create/organise things exactly the way, I want. At this moment, I can’t see, how I will be reaching a wide audience. The traffic is painfully slow. But, I am committed and will let you know my progress as I go.

Just a reminder to you all, my dear friends. This is the slowest period for any online business. Very little is happening at the moment – unless you are a big fish 🙂

So keep on going and don’t jump to any conclusions based on this slow season.

Accepting the lows

To blog or not to blog

I have tried lots of part-time avenues. And most of them were online and most of them were exhaustive and brought very little return. No matter what the influencer said and no matter what the gurus told.

At the beginning of 2022, I even thought to myself that I am lucky to have a full-time job and maybe that is how it is going to be for me. Just maybe the passive income way was working a few years ago. Maybe I started too late and chose very saturated niches. J was just not getting the proof of concept, I wanted to see.

But you know me by now, I do want to explore all options before I give up. Don’t get me wrong, I still have my Etsy shop (even made a backup website shop), and I am still active on Amazon (even though the sales are meagre). I am not cancelling everything, I have built over the years but it is not just my main focus. I am taking one last shot at the passive income and that is the one I have mentioned recently – blogging.

My aim is to build it to 50 posts and then assess it. Then write more posts but more targeted ones. Let it all seep for a year and then make my last decision about the passive income journey. The main hurdle was to start, the next hurdle was to get through a course (which is very good but very extensive), then choose the NICHE. Yes, there are so many strategies how to choose the right one and the most profitable one. I made a big compromise there – chose a niche related to my work, so I am kind of an expert in it, I do have some unique ideas about it, it is easy for me to write about it…is it the most exciting thing for me? Certainly not. I do not love it but I like it enough. And it has that helping community element which I really like.

So yes, that is what I am testing and concentrating on this year. I am not giving any links as I want purely organic traffic and I want it to be unaffected by anything, including social media.

Currently, I have about 5 pages, 15 posts and a handful of links. Very little traffic after 3 months of its existence. We are talking tens or ones. But, as I said, I have committed for at least a year. So we will see 🙂

I hope you are having more success with your passive income, dear friends!

Tired of passive income hype

Upgrade or not

This one is a short one. I had WordPress.com for several years now. I went from an unpaid plan to a paid one, back to unpaid and again to a paid one.

Since I have upgraded, I have noticed that I do get more exposure, I have got more subscribers and I do have an access to the Help Desk (which I’ve not used). But is it really such a big difference from the unpaid one – I have to say that there is not a big visible difference whatsoever. Maybe if I upgrade then I will see a bigger difference? But frankly, I do not have the extra funds or the patience. When the times come, I will go back to the unpaid plan and this blog will stay the same – a tiny little blog with some of my list and ideas.

There is one more thing I don’t like, and I have to apologise for this. Every time I publish, there is a notification in your Inbox, whether I like it or not. I myself don’t like full Inbox, so I know how it feels. I did try to cancel the notification and let the subscribers decide, unfortunately, it is not possible. This just adds to my overall feeling. that WordPress.com is just too expensive and too controlling.

My new blog is in on a different platform, and I will let you know, how it went. I do need it to age a bit before I make any conclusions.

So that is all for today, have a lovely spring, dear friends 🙂

The truth is, that blogging is hard