I have been traveling full time for over 4 months now. Luckily had I had a great paying job before and I managed to save up enough of money to last me a long time in South East Asia. My focus is on my travel photography and blogging. I'm learning every day. I can feel myself getting better and everything is slowly growing. But making an income is something totally different.
I don't have that much experience with marketing and just like my photography and writing I wasn't a born talent. It's a skill that is growing and growing over time. My first pictures were total sh*t. My first blogposts were too. I don't think I even posted any of them. They were just bad.
But I still need an income and starting my own business is on my todo list. I'm not just going to travel, I'm making a business out of this. I need something to do.
Making our own t-shirts
Shirts available at: shop.beforeyoupack.net
Mystery girl is one of our specialties. It's something we do and it is marketable. Mystery girl is a personality that shows up at random occasions on my Instagram and blog. But there's always something blocking her face. Many people want to know more and are curious. It's creating a fanbase.
Since this is getting a fanbase, we decided to create our own t-shirts. It's a limited edition t-shirt that will only be on sale until April 24, 2019! It will never be sold again after.
We launched a campaign on teespring and started marketing the shirts in my Instagram stories.
The sales
In my head, it all sounded amazing. But in reality, the sales are really bad. I don't have the fanbase that I though I had and it made me feel really sad. 3 days in, I only had 1 sale. I expected more, specially from my family who support me in what I do. The one sale I had was from my best friend, who deeply supports me.
I talked about it with Mystery girl, who also supports me and is really amazing. It made me realize that I shouldn't focus on why I wasn't getting any sales, but why I got that one sale. And it's obvious, she's my best friend, knows me and supports me. My audience on Instagram, doesn't know me and that is the problem. I haven't been open to them! They only see the outcome of my travels, an amazing picture! But no story, no emotion, they don't know all the work and what I do. Because I don't show them!
Time for change
I learned a lot by this one mistake and failure. But I'm not giving up. I am learning every day and I hope that everyone of you is still learning every day! This means that you are growing. So I will change the way I communicate with my followers. I expected too much from them and I'm just an online stranger. Who would support just a random stranger who only posts pretty pictures and seems to have the best life in the world? I wouldn't.
By now, my family caught up and I made a fair amount of sales. Mystery girl has a great friend circle here in Bangkok and we will make more sales here. Our shirts are still on sale online. There are now less than 4 days remaining! For the interested they can be bought at shop.beforeyoupack.net.