The Art of Money Making With a Song in Your Heart and a Blog on the Web

Check out this article. It's about a "shaggy" looking 36 year old computer programmer who somehow convinced his wife to bless the idea of him quitting his job and becoming a full time singer and song-writer. Not an easy feat for her when you consider bills, the economy and the price of fuel. He made a rule for himself that he would write and record a song each week and then post it to his blog. He stuck to his goal through all the writer's block and difficulty. He had always had a dream of being a full-time musician and figured this huge challenge would be the way to do it. Those of you who are thinking "big deal" so the guy is a full time musician consider the fact that in order to be a full time anything you have to spend all of your time doing it. This means you can't spend any of your time with some other job which makes you any sort of money or compensation. Not because it's against the rules but simply because there isn't any time. So has he become successful? Who knows? I guess that would be based on what your definition of success is. He has however made a "reasonable middle class living" at it. He pulls in between $3000 and $5000 with the CD's and digital downloads of his music on iTunes. I don't know how that compares to being an average computer programmer but I do know how it compares to what I make. I make between $1500 and $3000 a month doing what I do and only parts of it are fun and none of it is what I have ever dreamed of doing. To me if you can make the minimum it takes you to just live while doing something you've dreamed of doing most of your life then you are successful. I plan to move to LA one day and become an actress or singer. Does that mean I will be famous and have paparazzi chasing me around on the streets? Likely no. It does mean however that little children all over the country will recognize my voice when I speak because I'm the voice of their favorite cartoon character. As long as I make between $3000 and $5000 a month then I'll be happy. So kudos to this guy (Jonathan Coulton) for doing his thing and more kudos for getting published in the New York Times and being the 3rd most linked article on blogs for just today. This means that he has in one day increased his blog traffic from more than 3,000 people daily on average to who knows how many. I have to say I'm a bit jealous that I haven't spent some of the money I blow on eating out every day on some recording equipment and a few guitar lessons. I had the voice lessons in middle school.

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