My Unemployed Life.

I was removed from my factory job of almost seven years recently, ending an almost continual fifteen year run of shitty factory work. I never really liked any job I had, although I would spend short stints tolerating them. Roughly half this time was spent in plastics factories, and with the other half spent working for a horrible multinational corporation. While the work kept money in my pockets and my bills paid, most of the time, I paid a heavy price. I missed countless time spent with family and friends. Social relationships have been strained. Opportunities have been missed. I've also done permanent harm to my body. This kind of work is fine for some people, some people even thrive on it. I, however, have never managed to really make it work for me.
On to my unemployment, or alternate employment. Either between this job and the next, or instead of the next, I am doing quite a few things to try to pay bills. All of them are things I am interested in doing, including this blog. Doing things I want to do regardless of the income generated feels great. None of these things make me feel like I am selling my time or sacrificing part of my life the way that factory work always has.

Blogging.
I have several  blogs. These potentially generate income in a few ways. One is paid advertisements. If you see an ad in the side bar or as a banner, I am potentially paid for the ad placement. Another income source is affiliate links. This is where I include a link to something I am talking about or reviewing, and if someone clicks on the link and purchases something, I get a kickback. Blogging can also be used to promote some of my other endeavors. I really love to write, be it rambling on about some political subject or reviewing some music, or whatever else, and  blogging gives me an excuse to write a lot.

Zazzle.
Zazzle is a online print-on-demand merchandise store. Here a person can design a shirt, sticker, mouse pad, or over a hundred other items for free, then post them for sale. I actually studied graphic design in school, and have always loved doing it. I didn't follow an educational career path into commercial art, and I am sure my talents are mediocre at best, but I still have fun. I have five Zazzle stores so far, and plan to open more in the future. This is one of the endeavors I blog about, sometimes pairing a Zazzle store with a blog to increase web presence of my brand.

Youtube.
Another thing I do is Youtube. I mainly post videos to share rare music, but I also post videos to promote my music or my Zazzle store products, or whatever other cross-promotion idea I can come up with. Most of my videos are monetized, so I get a small advertising payback.

Music.
This is the big one for me. The one I HAVE to do. I am a musician, an artist, and I feel driven to create. My interest in music is so widespread, that there is literally too much that I want to do for me to do it all. I have my band, which is also my main songwriting outlet. We are primarily a recording project right now, but we have not ruled out playing live. I also have my avant-garde, experimental music. This is mainly stuff I put out on my record label, Cities of Agartha Records. This would include my solo material, as well as several side project bands like Johnny Has His Hand and Thequestionmarkis. I would also like to put out other lo-fi/experimental type music that I am not involved in.

Writing.
As I said earlier, I love to write. I have wanting to get into writing books for quite a while now, and there are quite a few things going for a self-published potential author right now. There are several good print-on-demand publishers now that will print your book only when it is ordered, so printing costs are almost eliminated. Many of these include access to good, free distribution. The popularity of e-books has also greatly expanded the market for self-published authors. There is also Kickstarter, which can help fund a great number of projects, including books.

I haven't actually started making much money yet, which is getting a little scary, but I am still going to give it my best. You can check out my many endeavors below. If you think you know people that would be interested in a particular project of mine, please feel free to share the link!

Blogs:
Sky Turns Mad
You are here right now. This is basically a place for me to ramble on about anything I like.
 Olaf Jansen
This is primarily for reviewing and recommending music. A lot of my reviews include affiliate links.
Kitchen Provisions
This is a new one. Basically, I review kitchen supplies that I use. This is another affiliate link based site.
Vid-So-Funny
This is an ad supported site where I just share funny Youtube videos.
Dear Willie Nelson
Besides being a prolific songwriter, Willie Nelson is great at making other peoples songs his own. Here I post about songs I would like to hear Willie sing.
Music Nerd Library
A joint venture with a friend of mine, Music Nerd Library is a kind of Facebook radio show. The idea is we collaborate on a playlist in a different genre every week. It's been a while since we've done an episode.

Zazzle:
Nice Try Lao Che
My first Zazzle store. Also a blog/Zazzle tie in. There is no overall theme to this store, just a wide variety of products.
Lao Che Skate
This is what first drew my attention to Zazzle. My skateboard company, Lao Che Skate is set up as a department of my main store, Nice Try Lao Che. Again, a blog tie in.
RastaPhones.com
This is a newer website I started. I really like rasta colored (green, yellow, and red) stuff, and therefore made a lot of rasta colored designs in my first Zazzle store. As it turns out, rasta colored items sell very good, so I started a store specializing in rasta colored phone cases.
Waiting at Sea Merch
Cities of Agartha Records Merch
Two stores I made to sell band merch. Nothing beats a good merch table at a live show, but print-on-demand options allow a cost effective alternative.

Youtube:
SoberFrank
My main Youtube channel. Like I said, mainly for rare music, but I also do some cross promotions.
Waiting at Sea Youtube
This one is all videos for my band, Waiting at Sea. We started this long before we started our recording project, as a way for people to hear us and get an idea what we were doing.

Music:
Waiting at Sea
My primary band. An acoustic duo and songwriting partnership. We are currently recording. Doing it ourselves, our recording seems to be taking forever. From our website you can find our Facebook, Youtube, Soundcloud, and Zazzle pages.
Cities of Agartha Records
My other musical outlet. Here I can release all my noisy, experimental ideas. I also hope to release projects I don't play in someday.

Writing:
Triond
I occasionally write articles and publish them online through a place called Triond. My articles get published one of their many websites and I get a small cut of the advertising revenue. I also get a referral fee if someone else signs up and earns anything.

Affiliate Links:
Amazon.com
Anything someone buys through this link, or any of my other many links, I get a kick back. I'm not encouraging you to shop there, but if you do, you might as well buy through me.