George is not sleeping again… he was crying from four this morning, so I’m not in a very well rested state… still…

What have I lost with the loss of digital video magazine?
Well, I did their help desk and usually one or two tutorials every month – that probably amounts to 3-500 per month. ImagineFX was 3-400 – so the loss of the magazines is quite a serious amount of my income gone… but writing for them also meant getting sent review copies of all the latest software – which I’d otherwise have to buy. And it’s not cheap – probably a couple of thousand pounds a year to keep up with products I need in my work.

Additional to that is the fact that magazine work is what makes me an “expert”… it’s a small pond and I’m a big fish in it. Not a lot of other people doing it. I don’t want to loose that. Maybe I should be looking around for online publications to work for, but I’m not sure. The magazines I’m still working for are pretty stable and do create a good basis – it’s just a pity there aren’t the specialist ones so much right now.

In addition, Lisa goes back to work in 2 weeks and I’ll be spending a day per week looking after George.

Right now, my plan is to look for more illustration/graphic design and animation work to take up the slack left by the magazines.

Looking for more work can’t be done by going out and trying to get work. I just don’t have time, so I’m relying on my advertising on google.

Basically, with google advertising, you pay for your site to be at the top of the list when people enter certain keywords. But you only pay when they click on them. You can decide on a daily budget so you decide how many clicks you get.

Up to now, I’ve found that I get someone offering me work every 1200 clicks (which works out to about £175)…. It’s not a great return, but it helps build up business. I’ve only been putting very little into it so far (about £1 per day) but I’m putting it up to £30 per day for a few days to see what happens – see if I can get a significant amount of work…