Make Money While Cruising - List

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by Freddy_Vagner

(Can't sell it on Amazon as I ripped off the images from Google... LOL).

Uh... So you're saying that your "great idea" was to try to make money by committing the crime of copyright infringement. Yeah. What a great idea.

[frank_f]

Originally Posted by denverd0n

Uh... So you're saying that your "great idea" was to try to make money by committing the crime of copyright infringement. Yeah. What a great idea.

Wouldn't that depend on whether the images are actually under a copyright?

I would think that if the originator of the product ( image, music or whatever) had no expectation of being compensated for the product or if the product is actually public domain, then there would not be any copyright infringement.

A discussion for another time perhaps.

[Freddy_Vagner]

Originally Posted by denverd0n

Uh... So you're saying that your "great idea" was to try to make money by committing the crime of copyright infringement. Yeah. What a great idea.

Yeah, I did not want to commit the crime of copyright infringement which is exactly why I did not try to publish it on Amazon...

At least the text was mine and I did avoid using images that had a visible copyright. Nevertheless point taken; "poetic justice" you might say.

As JC reputedly said, "He who is without sin, cast the first stone."

[JanetGroene]

Are you sure the images were copyright protected? I understand many Google images are in the public domain. That said, I could write a book, pardon the pun, about the pitfalls of self publishing. Hand selling face to face was the most humiliating, unprofitable experience ever even though royalties for my books continue to pour in from the publishers. I haven't tried self-pub yet but many professional writers and authors are self-publishing, selling on the Internet (via your own site, not Amazon) to a worldwide audience, and keeping 100% of the lolly instead of the 10% traditional royalty. You have some great key search words to sell including environment, beach, science, nature, education, children. Don't give up. Your success story is just beginning.
PS You might hook up with an artist who will do original images for a flat fee or a commission on each sale. Just as many good authors are starving out there in the cruise kingdom, so are many very good artists.

[Vino the Dog]

This is long, but may be help for those who consider writing their own books.

I have so far written two books, both self published using createspace.com, an Amazon subsidiary. The first one was a retrospective on my art work and the second a story about an eight year trip around the world. Now working on the third, and planning a forth. I did not expect to make a whole lot of money, just to add another low cost product to offer when showing my art work or a once in a while sale for a few bucks.

Using createspace.com, you have to do ALL the formatting, editing, photo color correction, etc, yourself, because they provide NONE of these services. Advantage is that it costs not one penny until you order a "proof" of the finished work prior to releasing it. The proof comes as a fully publish ready, professionally bound book, for a fraction of the cost of the ink it takes to print it on your own printer. Proofs for my first two books cost $7 for one and $14 for the other. Once you release it for publication, you can buy any quantity from one up at about the same cost as the proof, AND they are automatically made available online through both Amazon.com and direct from the publisher in quantities of one or more. You can provide a link to order online. Createspace takes their cut, Amazon takes their cut, and you are left with a few bucks for each copy, about the same as royalties from traditional publishing, but without the thousands of dollars upfront costs.

This has been a great advantage to me in several ways;
1. I am now a "published artist" and it is easier to get fair prices on my work.
2. I have a professional looking portfolio, which helps get jobs and commissions.
3. People love receiving copies as very personalized gifts.
4. Once in a while, out of the blue with no effort on my part, someone hands me $20 or $35, and I get a nice meal or some spare cash to buy a friend a beer.
5. Now I have self publishing skills to use for other projects.
6. Slowly, very slowly, more people get to know my work and the possibility of ongoing sales over time may increase.

Now, I maintain an annual catalogue of art work I currently have available, not for public release, but as an aid to doing art shows and a way to show people my work without having to drag it all out of a locker on the boat. I update it every year and print out about 4 "proofs" at a cost of about $6 each (24-35 pages, full color LOTS of photos). VERY valuable asset for a practising artist.

The two projects in progress are the third book of a trilogy, of which the first two are the first two.
And;

A photo documentary on refitting S.V. Mystique, my CT-41 Ketch. I do not expect to sell a lot of these, but there will no doubt be two major advantages to publishing this.

1. By the time I am done with the refit, I will have a detailed "Operations Manual", recording all the work done along with equipment specs, electrical wiring schematics, installation details, etc., which will prove very valuable in upkeep of the boat, evidence for insurance, and if the need arises to have someone else work on my boat, cut time and cost of them needing to figure out things because they can just look it up in the manual.

and;

2. After I am done refitting my boat and out in the world of cruising, where I will NEED to constantly find work, I will have a nice, professional portfolio showing my skills to find work on YOUR boat.

If this interests you, my current books available online can be found at the top link on my website, attached to my signature. A very rough ongoing blog that will be refined into the book on my boat is found on the same web site under the link below called Mystique Blog

Hope some of you find this of value.

[Freddy_Vagner]

Hi Janet Groene,

Thanks for your informative post and encouragement. I'm happy for you and your success. Yes it took Harry Pothead two years to be published.

Actually I have several books I wrote myself and paid an artist to draw the pictures for. I tried hand selling face to face and as you said it was the most humiliating and unprofitable experience ever for me too. That's why I tried a Beach book to see if it was the subject of my books or the fact that books just don't sell like they used to.

Will follow your good advice and open a site on the Internet. Thanks again!

BTW, if anyone else is interested you can produce a book yourself (48 pages, plus color cover 230g couché, 15 X 21 cm) for less than 50 cents if you refill your own laser cartridges. I bought a new HP 1025 for the color covers and a used HP 4250 for the inner pages. The latter prints about 70 ppm and I can easily print and staple together 500 books in a day).

[Freddy_Vagner]

Hello again Vino,

Thanks for your post and yes it was of value.

I really love those CTs and if I manage to buy one will certainly want a copy of your books and will visit your blog after sending this reply.

Like you, the people I have given my books to were really happy to receive them and I have made some great friends this way which is better than money (but a little more money hidden in my mattress would be nice). LOL

[kcmarcet]

Well one idea I had was build a couple of homes on a piece of property I bought about 5 years ago and renting them out. Of course if I was cruising for and extended period of time I would probably have to hire someone I trust to look after them, collect rent, and take care of any maintance issues. Which could run some serious money, or another option would be to have a relative , say one of my brothers live on the property and take care of things.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by kcmarcet

Well one idea I had was build a couple of homes on a piece of property I bought about 5 years ago and renting them out.

I know this may fall into the "gotta have money to make money" category, but this is eactly how we were able to pay for our 4yr Mexican cruise. With a paid off house, the $1500/Mo rent payment basically paid our monthly cruising expenses. I had to go back to the house twice during the 4 yrs to change out renters, but once I paid a friends to handle the move out/back in process for me. The renters check went to a family friend and I was able to save the 10% management fees, but it did mean when the hot water heater died, they emailed me and then I had to deal with setting up repair from Mexico...but hey...you do what ya gotta do.

Being a budget cruiser we spent a alot of time comparing notes with other budget cruisers and cruising off savings was common. I know, I know, you are thinking "Rich you are crazy how can you cruise off savings". Well they all had saved like crazy knowing that every $500 they saved was a mounth out cruising. So out went the $5 StarBroke coffee, no more eating out, cable bill gone, cell phone bill gone. They sold the car payment cars and drove beaters. It is surprizing how you can actually save $500/Mo if you really have a goal and WANT TO.

Now here is another way.....
I'm not saying I endorse it...encourage it...but we met more than a hand full of cruisers that were cruising on their Unemployment Checks...we called them 99-Week-Cruisers! They basically were living off their unemployment checks and off they went.

I think there are lots of myths about how you can earn money out cruisising and the main one is by writing...heck everyone these days has a blog and have you seen the amount of money they pay for a multi-page spread these days? You would be better off picking up aluminium cans along the side of the road.

Yes, you can make money doing boat repairs, sewing, but I think the big oportunity these days in online.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Now here is another way.....
I'm not saying I endorse it...encourage it...but we met more than a hand full of cruisers that were cruising on their Unemployment Checks...we called them 99-Week-Cruisers! They basically were living off their unemployment checks and off they went.

Fuc*ing bastards

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by Freddy_Vagner

Yeah, I did not want to commit the crime of copyright infringement which is exactly why I did not try to publish it on Amazon...
At least the text was mine and I did avoid using images that had a visible copyright...

You would have been committing copyright infringement, though, even if you didn't publish on Amazon. And as for the "visible copyright," you (and those who asked if the photos were copyrighted) need to read up on copyright law. They don't need to have any copyright symbol on them. They are immediately protected by copyright law as soon as they are published. Just like anything that you publish would be.

[boatman61]

In the UK you have to attend and 'Sign On' every fortnight to keep getting the dole... so you can't sail very far... maybe the system needs changing

[kcmarcet]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

I know this may fall into the "gotta have money to make money" category, but this is eactly how we were able to pay for our 4yr Mexican cruise. With a paid off house, the $1500/Mo rent payment basically paid our monthly cruising expenses. I had to go back to the house twice during the 4 yrs to change out renters, but once I paid a friends to handle the move out/back in process for me. The renters check went to a family friend and I was able to save the 10% management fees, but it did mean when the hot water heater died, they emailed me and then I had to deal with setting up repair from Mexico...but hey...you do what ya gotta do.

Being a budget cruiser we spent a alot of time comparing notes with other budget cruisers and cruising off savings was common. I know, I know, you are thinking "Rich you are crazy how can you cruise off savings". Well they all had saved like crazy knowing that every $500 they saved was a mounth out cruising. So out went the $5 StarBroke coffee, no more eating out, cable bill gone, cell phone bill gone. They sold the car payment cars and drove beaters. It is surprizing how you can actually save $500/Mo if you really have a goal and WANT TO.

Now here is another way.....
I'm not saying I endorse it...encourage it...but we met more than a hand full of cruisers that were cruising on their Unemployment Checks...we called them 99-Week-Cruisers! They basically were living off their unemployment checks and off they went.

I think there are lots of myths about how you can earn money out cruisising and the main one is by writing...heck everyone these days has a blog and have you seen the amount of money they pay for a multi-page spread these days? You would be better off picking up aluminium cans along the side of the road.

Yes, you can make money doing boat repairs, sewing, but I think the big oportunity these days in online.

Well I have long been thinking of ways to subsidize a more relaxed lifestyle, I think I work too hard , I bought 120 acres east of el Paso , with thoughts I would build my retirement home there, that may still happen, but I would like to cruise for a bit before I do that, I can't think of any other good options short of becoming a serial bank robber or a high level drug dealer.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by boatman61

In the UK you have to attend and 'Sign On' every fortnight to keep getting the dole... so you can't sail very far... maybe the system needs changing

No sh*t

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by Therapy

No sh*t

I have a good idea about what comes next...