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"Paul Jarvis\u00A0is a Web designer and bestselling author, who\u2019s obsessed with nature and hairless rats. His latest book,\u00A0Everything I Know, is a guide to freelancing as a creative professional.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPeople assume that if they\u2019ve heard of you, you must be raking it in.\r\n\r\nThe theory goes something like this: If you work for yourself and make things that other people buy, your income magically skyrockets past what an average corporate job would pay.\r\n\r\nMany times, readers or people asking for website design quotes have told me, \u201COh, but I\u2019m not rich like you.\u201D\r\n\r\nTo which I look around my normal house (outside the city, where it\u2019s cheaper) that I rent and my VW Golf that\u2019s a few years old and think, \u201CWait a minute, I\u2019m not rich like me either!\u201D\r\n\r\nI also look around at the other folks that make things on their own on the Web, and with a few exceptions, they\u2019re not rich either.\r\n\r\nOur views get skewed because our interest is also skewed. We are more keen or likely to read about the blogger who made six figures with ads or the writer who made $60,000 on their launch day. These stories are interesting because they are not the norm.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s not as exciting to read about the person who makes an extra $10,000 a year writing books on the side or the person who brings in an extra couple hundreds bucks a months with their product. That\u2019s not as sexy, even though it\u2019s the average.\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019re new to the game of blogging or online business or putting your art onto the Internet, I\u2019m doing you a solid by telling you this without the typical industry BS: there are A LOT of people out here trying to sell you the illusion of riches.\r\n\r\nPut up a website, master conversions and BAM, your bank account will turn into an ever-skyrocketing balance.\r\n\r\nRight? Except, it rarely works that way, even if you do what you do well, and build a following.\r\n\r\nAs far as income goes, I can\u2019t complain\u2014I\u2019ve worked for myself a long time and have some semblance, as much as one can, of a steady income.\r\n\r\nI also squirrel money away, like, well\u2026 a squirrel.\r\n\r\nI make enough to enjoy a comfortable life, and I don\u2019t take that for granted\u2014ever. More than half of my income comes from the Web design work I do, which is why web design work comes before anything else (like writing or making new and fun creations).\r\n\r\nI consider Web design my \u201Cday job\u201D even though I work for myself. And as much as I enjoy it, I\u2019m not 100 percent the boss of me, since I answer to my clients.\r\n\r\nWriting, making, playing with digital products online is more like a side gig. Sure, they bring in money, but not nearly enough to survive on.\r\nJust a little bit of math\r\n\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s look at the life of one book (it could be any self-produced product, though).\r\n\r\nSay you sell it for $5 (the average price of my books). If you sell 10,000 copies, the simple math is $50,000! That\u2019s good damn money for one book. But, let\u2019s say it\u2019s sold on Amazon, so that instantly becomes $35,000 if you are in the 70 percent royalty bracket (otherwise it\u2019s 35 percent or $17,500).\r\n\r\nThe mailing list to support that costs $1,200/year and hosting would be $400. Copyediting cost you $1,000. Editing was another $4,000 and artwork $500. Now, we\u2019re down to $27,900.\r\n\r\nThis assumes you don\u2019t need a professional website for the book or your brand. This also doesn\u2019t include corporate tax (upward of 15 percent in Canada, since we\u2019re socialist bastards), which brings the total to $23,715.\r\n\r\nIf it takes you about 12 months to do a decent job on a book, that\u2019s more than $6,000 below the poverty line in Canada (currently sitting around $30,000).\r\n\r\nIn the above scenario, that book is considered a best seller - and 10,000 people is nothing to shake a stick at (even if you\u2019re into shaking sticks).\r\n\r\nAnd yet, it didn\u2019t earn you enough to keep yourself afloat for a year, especially if you have dependents or live in a city where the cost of living is high (I\u2019m looking at you, Vancouver Island!).\r\n\r\nI\u2019m being overly simplistic with the numbers, but they aren\u2019t far off from real scenarios. Sure, most authors make a bit of money writing for other people, if they\u2019re lucky, but most paid articles run $200/1,000 words.\r\n\r\nEven fewer get paid speaking gigs, which thankfully, jump into the $1,000s. But again, not many authors even hit the 10,000 book sales mark. Given that there are something like 12 million books on Kindle, the percentage of them that are best sellers is no doubt less than 0.1 percent.\r\n\r\nYou also have to factor in the sheer volume of work it takes to put out and sell into the best seller range. The work before launch, the work daily to cultivate and engage with an audience, the work required to pump out the necessary \u201Ccontent marketing\u201D for your brand as often as possible too. It\u2019s almost a full-time job to make less than minimum wage while having an audience bigger than what most creators dream of.\r\n\r\nYes, there are exceptions\u2014called exceptions for a reason\u2014where some very smart folks can make five or six figures on a single launch day. The thing about exceptions though, is that they\u2019re not the rule/average/typical scenario.\r\nSounds bleak, right? So why bother?\r\nThe biggest reason, at least for me, is that it\u2019s enjoyable. I love writing books, and would do it even if only a handful of people bought them. I\u2019ve found a way to produce and promote them that fits with me and my personal style. I still have a day job to pay my rent, buy my plant-based groceries and put diesel in my little car.\r\n\r\nThe second reason is that I\u2019ve found creativity thrives on limitations. Since I refuse to use my Web design income to fund my books, I\u2019m left with a small budget to make things happen. So I get creative. I trade, beg, borrow, steal (ok, not the last one).\r\n\r\nI get off on finding new and interesting ways to promote or get things done that cost little to no money. I also get creative with my time, since I don\u2019t have a lot of it to spend on my side projects. So I create daily practices to get into the flow of writing quicker. I group similar tasks together to get them done faster and I say no to a lot of other things (like TV and a massive social life) so I can spend time creating.\r\n\r\nAnother thing to consider is that you can keep making money off of books or products as you put newer ones out. Every time I release a new book, my back catalog has a sales spike. So over time, as more art is created, more money is made.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s certainly not quick (if you\u2019re producing one book a year), but I\u2019m in this for the long game, the life game, not the quick-wins-at-all costs game.\r\n\r\nI also enjoy the diversification of both income and creativity. Money-wise, if my Web design business suddenly dried up, I\u2019d at least have some income from books and courses to keep me going. If my writing income dried up, at least I\u2019ve got Web design. If I don\u2019t pump out a book a year, I still get paid to write articles.\r\n\r\nTying this back into a conversation about money, being creative has never paid well.\r\n\r\nRecord labels keep their artists in debt to them, book publishers pay little-to-nothing in terms royalties, and so on and so on, since the dawn of time. Business people take advantage of the fact that artists care more about sharing their work than making money.\r\n\r\nA lot of people find it horrible that artists are taken advantage of like this, time and time again. But really, it doesn\u2019t matter.\r\n\r\nCreatives thrive on limitations and pain can make art better (although certainly, it\u2019s not required). Even with the gatekeepers removed from the mix, where artists can now connect directly with their audiences, there are still costs involved and not a whole lot of money to be made. Now there\u2019s faster and cheaper entry but much more noise to cut through.\r\n\r\nBeing a touring musician for years, I was under no illusion that writing books or making things for audiences to consume would net me any riches.\r\n\r\nI made enough in a band to keep touring and pay for recording new albums, but that was it. Same goes for writing\u2014 most of the money I make gets funneled back into writing more. Not because it has to, but because that\u2019s where I want it to go. It\u2019s not a lot, but it\u2019s enough for me to keep going with it.\r\n\r\nThere are so many people out there offering to teach you how to be \u201Crich like me.\u201D They might mean well, and even if they\u2019re being honest about their riches, they\u2019re an exception to the rule.\r\n\r\nI would absolutely love to live in a world where art is valued and paid for at the level of Fortune 500 executives, but we don\u2019t live in that world - at least, not yet. And that\u2019s ok, for the most part, because we can make a decent enough living (even if our art is a side project) and support ourselves and our art, and then (not to sound trite or overly motivational...) we\u2019ll become rich in lots of other ways.\r\n\r\nI\u2019m not saying I don\u2019t like money or even that artists should be so noble that money doesn\u2019t matter, because that\u2019s not true.\r\n\r\nGet paid for your art, and the more you can get paid for it, the more power to you. As long as the way money is coming in lines up with your values then by all means \u201Csell out,\u201D as often as possible. Making money from your art is awesome and rewarding.\r\n\r\nArt rarely makes artists lots of money. Yet we do it anyway. Most of us have little to no choice in the matter, because we feel we\u2019re called to create, regardless of the outcome or income. And even if you \u201Cmake it,\u201D it\u2019s still a long and hard road to actually see those riches. But we\u2019ll keep aiming for it.\r\n\r\nFor me, I\u2019m not trying to figure out the next book that\u2019ll net me millions of dollars. I\u2019m looking for the next book that\u2019ll connect with an audience, who\u2019ll in turn pay me enough so I can write more books. Anything left is a bonus.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nRelated: Invest in life experiences: Why you should buy less crap to be happier in life\r\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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