Ever since I met Ian we’ve been writing Pullen Plans. I am sure one day we will look back and laugh at the crazy ideas we didn’t pursue – as well as those that we did. Actually I think our ideas are becoming remarkably less crazy and our Pullen Plan for 2011 makes relatively sensible reading:
Pullen Plan 2011
- BestCraftPages
- BuyandSellStockPhotos
- Niche Stock Photo Site
- Broad Stock Photo Site
- Miojo
- Review all our other sites
- Continue writing for About (both)
- Continue giving classes
New Sites
We’ve got some quite ambitious targets, we’re planning BestCraftPages, a ‘FreeNeedle’ type site but for general crafts. This will be a biggy, but should be worth the time investment. We’ll aim to get that launched in the first quarter. We’re then working on another set of sites that are related to stock photography. The aim here will also be to derive income from advertising, but also from acting as referrers to some stock photography sites. This is going to take a bit of research, however this is quite important to get away from our core crafty sites – not having all our eggs in one crafty basket. And all our existing sites need reviewing too.
One thing that we’re both good at is working to routines and are disciplined workers. This has incredibly useful given that we have so many different things that we work on. It is quite easy to get distracted or just work on the nice stuff. With our most recent website, which we are constantly working on and have just had our first few cents in advertising, Ian has set up a system whereby every morning we get an email that tells us what page we’ve got to write. This has been brilliant, as there is nothing worse than sitting there with a blank page wondering what to write.
Other
Ian’s starting the year with quite a big project that will be interesting. We’ll both continue writing for About. We’ve got this pretty much in a good routine now. Ian’s planning on developing his photography business Miojo. I’ll continue giving classes with a view to taking on another one or two. I’m considering selling digital images for crafts, similar to the digital stamps I do for About, but coloured versions. I’ll also continue my other writing assignments as they arise and keep reviewing audiobooks for Audiofile magazine.
Phew!
So in 2011 we’ll have another interesting year with lots of different things going on. It’s quite a nice way of working – and although there’s always lots to do – it certainly beats having to go out to work (I remember that horrible time when Ian started the job in Malaga – how grateful I am that he didn’t have to continue this) and an improvement on some of the other things we may have had to do, such as bed and breakfast or running courses. And of course, we still have the option of doing these in the future if we need to.
I’d never have guessed five years ago that we’d have such interesting twists in our careers. I’m pleased with the way it has turned it so far….