Filed under: Close and personal | Tags: dollar.euro, exchange rates, house, land, money, property
od news! According to x-rates today I need only $442,380 (300,000 Euros)! That’s more than a year ago but still less then month ago!!!
I feel a lilttle bit better now 
We are looking to buy a nice piece of land for our future house. Here is the shortlist for next Saturday:
Cheers,
S
Filed under: Close and personal | Tags: bsuiness ideas, dollar, earn, earnings, inflation, make money, money, start a business
So, I still don’t have $404 039, and the bad news is that, due to the inflation, I need even more in $$$ (read more about it in my last post).
I thought about it for a while and some crazy ideas popped-up. Since I do not belong to Buffet, or Gates, or Rockefeller, or Morgan, or Walton, or any other rich family I have to think about some crazy and maybe little extreme ways to earn some money. And I’m not talking about million and billions and zillions of dollars or euros. I’m talking about $404 039. OK, right now it’s $472 319 (compare to two days before rate it’s $2 729 MORE!!!)
1. I’ll start my own country!
This idea isn’t so new, and innovative. But it looks so meaningful right now because I have a plan :). And the plan is: selling the domain names in my virtual country! WooHoo! That’s the one. Would you like to buy a domain name in my country? (this idea comes from Sealand) Now I have to figure out the domain extension
2. I’ll start a hand compiled directory for weddings!
How about that? I’ll collect wedding celebrations from around the world in one big directory: with albums, songs, videos…! But I’ll hand pick everything, so do not send x-rated scenes please. I can do it like: the best wedding of the month, the bride of the year, the groom of the week… etc.
The only problem is that I do not like weddings. I like to avoid weddings, I almost avoided my own.
That’s all for now, I have to think harder to achieve more and here is the proof that crazy ideas work: 10 totally stupid online business ideas that made someone rich!
S*
PS: and here’s the main reason why I need 404 039…
Filed under: Close and personal | Tags: dollars, euros, inflation, loss, money
Oh, guys… I was extremely busy last two months! Going through stress about improving graphics-illustrations shop, working on my real-life-brick and mortar gallery in Rovinj (which failed and that’s one thing I don’t want to talk about), having my wisdom tooth pulled out, having one small surgery… well it’s been a hard and rough time but, it’s all over!
I’m happy to announce that I’m doing well on my way to $404 039, but now according the x-rates calculator 300 000 Euros are now $469 590. It looks like I have to change the name of my blog to 469 590 is the number
You see, in less than 12 months thanks to the inflation I need $65 551 more! That’s just not right. It’s almost like I lost that money… no matter how hard I’m trying to achieve this goal, the goal is getting further away…
Filed under: Close and personal | Tags: age, alive, blog, blogging, google, ranking
Yes, I’m still alive. And kicking. Celebrating 37 today, feeling old, fat and tired. But still working.
Here, I’m writing to express my surprise by this blog is being rated 5/10 - totally unexpected. And my graphics-illustrations.com is still 3/10 
Filed under: The beginning | Tags: adobe, blogging, create, creative, decoration, photoshop, photoshop brushes, shop, vector illustrations
I know I neglected this blog for a while, but I was suffering from loss of time, self-esteem, being captured by WP from posting paid articles and other things that lowered my eagerness for blogging here. I was out of town for a few days and after catching a flu I’ve spend last few days laying in bed watching TV and doing almost… nothing.
So, what’s new?
I started off with my own shop on graphics-illustrations! Oh, yeah! And first 10 days of it’s life went on just fine. I’m pretty satisfied. I think I’m offering a good value for the money, but almost each of the items is offered in Lite (free) version.
For now I’m selling some Photoshop brushes, graphic images, photos and vector illustrations. Latest item in shop is my vector illustration package on “working woman / shopping woman” theme, set of four illustrations in various formats (jpg, ai, eps…). This is just the beginning, I’ll draw more and more in the future until I have killion of them!
I took some steps in order to settle our gallery (physically, not over the Internet) and now I’ll lose my mind with workers here in Croatia. They are impossible to handle!!!
I managed to contact Craft magazine, and they will prepare a small article where they will include my brushes and I’ve just replied on theirs interview questions! WooHoo! I’m totally cool now
My AdSense and AdBrite are going pretty well for now, but I will not include LinkWorth because they constantly offer casino related stuff; which I do not like and don’t know anything about (because I do not use them)
In last 6 months, I didn’t achieve even half of my goal… even half of half of half of… well almost neither 1% of my goal to be honest. But, I achieve my other goal: I can now show to myself that I can live from my own work over the Internet only.
Filed under: The beginning | Tags: blog, blogging, buy, money, photoshop brushes, selling, shop, success, working
Well, I’ve set few really high goals for myself. Not so easy to achieve, many of them.
Time is running faster and faster every day, and I’m not sure is it a) because I’m getting old, b) because I’m lazy these days, c) because I’m still stressed out since we sold our apartment and now we are suffering form the loss on stock market, d) because I’m really lazy.
I hope, tomorrow, I will set up at least two Photoshop brushes package on graphics-illustrations.com for sale. Package should contain: 25 Plants PS brushes, 5 natural wood textures, 5 background patterns, 5 aqua web „seals”, 5 photos - details form nature. This first package should be named: “Green - Nature lover package” and optionally it can be bought on CD. With a CD purchase I will send 2 PS smart objects, hand made bookmark and 3 post cards with my images… Sure, I have to create a CD cover and a CD sticker too!
Right now, I’m working on the other one, because it’s a bit silly to sell only one package…
I’m getting late on my client’s blog design, but that’s because I have no idea on how to design it! I did the application design for my friend-client (www.utilis.hr) and I’m now waiting for response…
Selling on microstocks are steaming up again, and AdBrite together with AdSense are collecting some $$$.
All in all not bad at all. But, as always, I’ve seen better days and I hope for more!
Filed under: Close and personal | Tags: archive, blog, blogging, contest, design, memories, photoshop brushes, success, writing
Despite the chronic lack of time managed to open two lenses on Squidoo (graphics-illustrations and Photoshop brushes list) and one “bsilvia Journal” on LiveJournal. So. what else is there? Next stop - myspace.
How about that?
Few days ago I found something really interesting: Internet archive named “Way Back Machine”. And, of course I searched for my company and web (yes I was the owner and webmaster and webeditor and all that at that time). And actually – I found it! Well, I had web page since 1996. but in archive I found the one from 1999.! Take a look what these looked like these days
Not bad for 1999., huh? It’s almost 10 years since.
If you scroll down a page you will find the link for the Commission Junction and many others…
I had a little competition on my graphics-illustrations blog, which didn’t finished quite as expected. Why is that, I don’t know. I’m offering people free design services for Entrecards and they aren’t so happy about it. I had only 11 contestants!
So, I’m now waiting for my Photoshop brushes to appear in the next issue of Advanced Photoshop Magazine, and then maybe I can get more visitors.
Also, my subscribers on graphics-illustrations blog went down from 263 to 136. And I have no idea why?!
Well, no more wailing anymore so, that’s it for today.
Filed under: Close and personal | Tags: blog, camera, donation, funny, Hasselblad, images, photographer, photography, photos
Guys! You would not BELIEVE what post did I run into just a few minutes ago.
There is this gay, called Darren, he likes photography offers nothing useful on his blog and he’s is pleading for donation for - no more, no less, but probably the most expensive camera in the world - Hasselblad H3D-22.
Here is what he claims:
“Owning a Hasselblad H3D-22 would not only open doors of opportunity for me, but change my life for the better!”
Geeee man!!! You need a 40 000€ camera to start as a photo professional???
I mean, I’m totally stunned by this guy. He really has some nerve.
To make one thing clear, I have nothing against donations. No, by all means, no. BUT, there has to be good reason for that. Asking for donation is perfectly OK in 3 cases:
- You are starving, sick or similar, ask for money, no probs (always donate to charity organization)
- You are offering useful content, software, graphics, useful stuff that people can download from your site for free - ask for a donation, that’s fine
- You are talking to your grandma’ - ask for a donation no problem there
But this guy, offering nothing, asking for donation to buy the most expensive camera in the world claiming that it’s necessary for him to become a photo professional???
C’mon!
One other reason why I needed to react to this post was ’cause some 6 months ago, I wanted buy Nikon D3 camera (that is kinda at almost ten times cheaper that that Hass that guy is asking for) and I was trying to figure out a way to collect some money for it. What I did? I created a T-Shirt and a mug and a whole loads of other merchandise on Caffee Press asking people to buy it and explaining that I’m collecting money for Nikon D3. I created a dedicated blog that apart from selling T-Shirts had a function to entertain people and guess how much it earned? Some 23 bucks! After all that effort 23 bucks! And now this guy … pfuuu! I just can’t digest that…
Guys, if you make a donation, give to someone who’s working hard to offer you free stuff that you use (like me yes, or all of the guys who work under GNU or other free licences), or someone who’s sick or starving or donate to you nephew.
Filed under: The beginning | Tags: photography, stock photo web sites, stock photography
The weather was ugly and my husband was ill so we stayed at home this weekend. I didn’t do anything important; draw a little bit and uploaded the drawings, did some new brushes, wrote few posts…
Since sales in January are regularly slow I decided to join new stock photo web sites: Image catalog, Stockvault and Picolib. I didn’t upload anything on the Alamy so maybe now’s the time to do that…
Since I registered with Archangel images, I didn’t send back signed agreement and I don’t know what to do about them. I have to create unique images for Alamy, and now I should prepare unique images for Archangel images too! I don’t have time for all that. Or, should I consider not to work with any of my clients at all? Not to mention the “gallery project” for which one I still didn’t do almost anything.
Again, I worked late at night until early morning. I find it easier to work during the night than by day when I have to do a lot of other things (wash the dishes, cook some food, answer the phones….).
