Not Sure How this is Going to Work

Today, I am endeavoring something new on my blog, make that every one of the three of my websites (My Ambiance Life, At Home with Tricia's Baskets, and P. Lynne Designs). It is a hazard that I will take. All things considered, they are my sites, however, there are additional standards of leadership in the blogging scene. One of those principles is about copyright, and yes, and I am going to endeavor a copyright encroachment…. On myself. First off, let’s look at copyright.

What is copyright

I do not have to fully explain what copyright is, but in its simplest of forms, it is basically copying another person’s work, style, everything that is on a picture, a document, piece of music, dance routine, THAT IS PUBLISHED.  This is the key element, it has to be published.  So, when you see a court case by an unknown who files a complaint on Billy Joel because his music, Uptown Girl, sounds similar to this unknown’s music, Girl from Upstate New York, that is a case of a possible copyright infringement.  The music may have the same beginning but sounds totally different towards the end of the two songs in question.  The most recent famous case of this was Marvin Gay’s family filing a lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for Blurred Lines (2015).  I do not have to explain the verdict in this case, but the family won.

So, What does This have to do with Blogs

Everything, but what is being able to use this information that another person without letting them know that you are using it.  When this happens, and it is a written piece, it called plagiarism.  Teachers warn you about it from the moment you start writing a research paper that needs a reference point in it.  In the U.S., that is around the 2^nd grade (for me it was in the 4^th grade, kids are so much advanced now than I was, LOL). If you get information from Google, Bing, Alexa, Siri, or Safari to name a few, you better back that information up, or you will get dinged by your teacher.  The same thing for any written piece of work that you do not have an expertise in.  Even if you are an expert on the subject, you need to have documentation on where you based your theory from. 

So, What does that have to do with my Three Blogs?

Look, Google is no dummy.  It does treat my three blogs as if three Patricia L. Logans have written the blogs.  So, they would want me to cite that I got it from my own website.  Now there probably will not be too many times when two of my posts will refer to each other.  For now, it is just this post.   I am still trying to figure out what style I want to go with the other websites.  This is the part where I am copying myself.  I want you to know where you can find the information you need to do, act on, and share my information so you will not get confused. 

The Real Reason Behind this Blog Post

Before I get to that, I want to let you know that the blog links will be cited at the top of the page of each blog.  For right now, let me introduce to you where you will find all the goodies.  I know, I might be rehashing what I said in a blog post a couple posts ago, but this is in more detail:

My Ambiance Life

Page from My Ambiance
Life.

This blog will continue with writing tips, blog tip, and how to posts on how to increase traffic on social media (including the blogs), as well as inspirational messages.  What is gone for good are the current events, celebrity bad person/good person posts, and other controversial posts (I will be doing a sweep of old posts and deleting them).  Why?  The world is negative enough without me adding to it.  There are enough people who talk about the Donald Trumps and the Bill Cosbys of the world without me adding to it.  I want to promote peace within all my posts and blogs.  Does that mean that there will not be any situations that I am just dying to write about?  Sure, but I should not add to their misery.  It is no longer relevant to this blog (or any of my other blogs for that matter). If you see a post that you are not happy with, please let me know in the comments section or email me. I will address the issue and make it right.  I am here to give you a pleasant experience and to make you smile.

P. Lynne Designs

P. Lynne Designs

My main focus is for all the crafters who do papercrafting.  I am still developing what I want to bring to you, which is the crafting tutorials, how to organize your craft room, and how I do things in my crafting world.  This is actually the first blog that I started in 2009, and things have been halted for over a year due to some things in my life that happened. 

I do not need to continue to explain this.  Sometimes in your life, you need to take care of things that matter, not that my audience mattered, and I know that those who have been patient with me understand while others have moved on.  It is a fact of life.

At Home with Tricia's Baskets

Changed for this Year to At Home With
Tricia's Baskets 

Is this a new blog?  No, it is not in sorts.  It is a combination of Tricia’s Baskets, Traveling to the Mouse’s House, and Simply Organized Crafts.  So, in a nutshell, it is new.  I have explained a couple of times what happened to Traveling to the Mouse’s House and Simply Organized Crafts and what happened to me and Longaberger over a year and a couple weeks ago.  No use beating this into the ground.  It is what it is, and I have moved on.   I have deleted old posts that refer to Longaberger products, except the first post and the last post before the switch over. 

What will you find on this blog?  How to decorate and organize with anything including Longaberger products.  This will not be exclusively Longaberger products anymore, except also mentioning that if you have a similar product from ANY store, it will do very nicely.  As of Saturday, June 30, 2018, I will not be a consultant.   I am technically not due to the company shut down, but if they do come back, it is a “no” for me. (as Simon Cowell says).  Will I buy?  Of course, I still love the products and I will also report to you how I organized with a basket or pottery piece.  They just cannot be part of my income earning any more.

You will also find family and traveling posts.  So, yes, I will reference my travels often and what you find in those places.  I will be doing it from a single person’s point of view as well as when traveling with family.  No longer will the blog posts be just Disney or the Orlando, Florida area, but you may find cruising information, ports of call, and even ship information (I am overdue of what I think of my first cruise on this blog).  You will even see some reviews of things to do in the Central Ohio Area, where I live.

Finally, you will find a single person and family stuff.  I am ironing out details of that as well.  This will be a wonderful blog as well.  These will include things such as adoption, nieces and nephews, and other singlehood stuff.  For O. Gs, this may sound familiar because it was on My Ambiance Life. I simply moved it.

If you have to be a reader of any of my blogs for a while, I have removed pages that are or will not be relevant to my blogs anymore, and as I find them, I will keep on removing or revamping these pages.  I will be adding new ones that are relevant to that page.  I am still learning how to increase my blogging, vlogging, and social media views and being more consistent.  Like you, I also wonder too, sometimes, what has happened to my regularly scheduled reading (or watching) blogs and YouTube channels.  I promise you that by Fall (or Autumn if you do not live Stateside (U. S./North American Region)), you will see a change in schedule and how I process all of this.  For next series, I will continue to address how I changed this blog for the better, as well as the other blogs.  This series includes, how to know when to change your blog, how to know when to let go, deciding on your subject and what to keep and what to let go.   This is just a taste.

OK, I have overstayed my welcome, and yes this is a long post.  Probably too long.  I will address why as part of my updating your blog series.  No takeaways today, sorry, just an update.

Day 17: Making money

(c) 2015 P. Lynne Designs

Hello, and merry Blogmas 2015.

Today’s subject is a little on the “what can I do to make money on the side or a new career” type of blog post.  I used to do these all the time, and I felt like I was one of those scam artists.  Do not get me wrong, some of these methods do work, if you have the time and money to invest into it, but it was the way I presented it, and if I was uncomfortable with the posts, I knew in my heart my readers were uncomfortable reading them.

Showing people affiliate links to get started was one of the main basis of this blog when it was named My Blessed Life, and I had that type of blog post for a whole month, before I asked myself, “What the heck am I doing?” This was not me in a nutshell, and I did not want to come off that way.  I still think that you can make extra money by having affiliate links, but you have to do the research and be dedicated to finding that perfect product for the subject you are talking about in your blogs.  You cannot let yourself be suckered into every Tom, Dick, or Henrietta that comes your way.   You have to learn to say no if it does not fit you and your readers.

With that being said, I want to talk to you about You Tube for a moment.  There is an article on Fusion.com that I read last night, and in the article, the author talks about why you should not use You Tube to make videos and make money.   The article is called “Famous and broke on You Tube.”  I got angry and basically blow it off, because that was her opinion, and I do not value it.   Then, today, I tuned into one of my favorite YT Channels, The Nive Nulls, and Austin Null was talking about the same article, but because he has a working successful YT channel, his approach was very different from the author’s.  Now that the rat got loss in the cheese factory, here is my take on YT and making money there or anywhere on the Interwebs.

When I first got started on doing anything on the Internet, I was not thinking about the money aspect of it all.  I wanted people to know that I am here, in my own little corner of the world, and I have something to say.   This is how I got started with my first blog, MDN Creates (now P. Lynne Designs), and I moved on from there.   I knew about You Tube, I had been a subscriber since 2007, but I never thought about doing video at all.   I made my first video 5 years ago, showing the first mini book I made.  I never thought about hitting the monetarize button a vlogger can push to make money of their videos.  I was not even thinking about the views either.  (I still have only 85 followers).  The point was I am not on YT to make money, even though I did push the button.  I am not looking for sponsorship for the moment, at least not the way this author was putting it. 

If your goal is always money, you may not achieve that at first.  Your channel first of all has to be likable.  How do you do that?  First have something that draws a person to that channel.  A catchy title (such as The Nive Nulls, Gabe and Babe TV, and so on).  My channel just has my name for the moment, because I want people to know who is making the vlogs. Next, have a subject.  Some of the people I watch have daily vlogs where they vlog about 15 mins of their life, which is usually spread through the day.  Others have hobby vlogs, such as scrapbooking or skateboarding.  For those vlogs, the video usually contains a tutorial, anywhere from 15 mins to an hour, depending on the type of project being made, or technic.  Brands like Disney, for example, has vlogs on YT talking about parks, the movies, and almost all things Disney.  There are also the food vlogs and the stupid vlogs.  Do what make you happy on your channel.

If you want sponsorship, make the sponsors come to you, not the other way around.  Give them something that makes them say, “I want my product to be on that video, their viewers will come to us, and that will give them more brand awareness to that product.  Coming to the sponsor sounds like you are needy and desperate.  It takes time and patience before a sponsor will notice your channel in order for them to even contact you.  Same with subscribers.  Now it is ok to say, “if you want to see more, like, comment, and subscribe”.  This is how you get more readership (viewers).  It shows appreciation for the viewers who do watch you and brings in more.

Lastly, do not concentrate on numbers.  A channel has to be view so many times before you can get a million subscribers or views, and yes, YT does rewards you with plaques and invitations to workshops that help you to get even more views. One way is a Vlogger’s Fair held annually the last part of July.  If you are famous enough, you get to have meet-ups, and invited to be on a panel or two.  Gabe Flowers-Raider of Gabe and Babe TV told me once in a Google Hangout to stay consistent with your videos.  If you are going to make and upload twice a week, for example, try to make and upload videos twice a week.  Stick with the schedule for a while, then when you are ready to increase your videos, make an announcement that you are changing your schedule so your viewers can be in the loop.

Again, don’t worry about this, for the numbers will come.  Do not concentrate on the money either.  The more views, the more money, but it depends on how many clicks you get and who you attract to your channel or blog.  My top video has only 436 views.  My blogs have way more pageviews, but I will cover that at another time.  I will get more, when I make and upload more.   That is one of the goals of 2016.  The summary of all of this is, you will only get what you put forth in both your videos and your blogs.  Do not let the article steer you into thinking that you will never make on You Tube. 

The purpose of this post was not to discourage you if you are thinking about making money this way, but to encourage you to start if that is what you want to do, but be realistic if the money is not coming within the first year.  Not everyone is cut out for YT.  Remember, it does takes time and practice, but at the same time, make it only part time to start, and when the money is right, go full throttle.  Good luck.