The Year of Consolidation: Fewer Projects, Greater Focus

The year of… is a concept I was introduced to by the podcast Cortex and I’ve decided to join the party. While it’s strictly speaking not the beginning of the year anymore, it’s still early days. I’m not too late! And either way, I make the rules here. I’ve decided that my 2018 will be the Year of Consolidation. There are so many projects I’ve started in the last couple of years, and only a handful have stuck. There’s the YouTube channel, my Stock Photography Adventure, Lia & Liam and so many more. I feel like things have come to a point where I have to stick to what I’m good at and forget the rest. Obviously that doesn’t mean I’m never going to try anything again. As a naturally curious person that’s what comes to me… well naturally. There’ll always be time to play around with new things. However, that time will henceforth be limited.

My Blog and Lia & Liam

By focusing mainly on Lia & Liam, I’ve been neglecting this site over the past year. It was never something I intended to do, but turns out learning a new skill set takes time. Food photography was something I’d never done before. Except for a few smartphone shots for my Instagram story, I’d never really considered it. With over 100 recipes shot and edited it has slowly become a routine for me. I no longer fiddle around with my reflector and umbrella to find the perfect lighting. I’m not trying to sound big-headed, but I just know where things are meant to go. Being passionate about photography and cooking has helped me sustain my level of interest and there’s not been a boring session as of yet. By being able to sustain a high quality and quantity of output for over a year I’ve surprised myself and here’s hoping things go as smoothly during 2018.

Lia & Liam will continue seeing a high output of content. We’ve been greatly rewarded with an ever-increasing number of visitors and people genuinely seem to like what we’re doing. I can’t deny that seeing the Analytics number going up every month is a hugely important factor in my continued enthusiasm for the site. It’s nice to know that others appreciate what you’re doing. A pleasant side effect being that thousands of people are also enjoying my photography. I’ve even managed to sneak in some of my landscape shots. The site will remain a top priority for this year and we’re constantly looking for ways to expand our “empire”. The nature of site is very time-consuming and also costs us quite a bit. Considering that, one of my goals is to see something in return. If I could just recoup the cost of keeping the site online and the domain registered, I’d consider that goal completed.

On to this barren wasteland: My personal blog has seen hardly an update for the past year or so. Turns out writing about stuff I enjoy is more likely to keep me going and to not let things go stale (no pun intended). Whilst writing articles like the Yi 4K review were very enjoyable, the monthly financial updates and the Week in review were not. And for that reason, I’m hereby officially retiring those two series! I want to return to things I’m passionate about. Things I enjoy writing about. Not just something I think might be popular or get my page-views up. While I’ll never have the time to maintain two sites on a weekly basis, I’ll start producing content for my personal blog once again. Be it just one article a month, there will be new content coming this year. Be it gadgets reviews, productivity guides or a behind-the-scenes look at how I do things over on Lia & Liam. There will be new content! Going on I won’t be restricting myself to just photography any more. Two new things I’ve recently introduced into my life are my DIY NAS and my home automation system. Perhaps they might make an appearance at some point.

Letting Go Not Giving Up

As I’ve mentioned, I never really enjoyed writing the Week in review and Stock Photography Adventure series. Both have more-or-less limped to a sad and lonely death. And I’ll keep things that way. Another thing I’ve all but given up on is uploading to stock photography sites. To sustain any form of income from stock photography you need a near unlimited amount of time and an ungodly amount of shots. I don’t have either, so I quit. Previous uploads will stay online, and I might check my earnings now and again, but no more writing on the subject. Here’s to a better and more productive new year!

Get in touch

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You can contact me directly through my website or via email. You can check out my portfolio on www.lacphotography.net and find out more about my favourite project on liaundliam.ch.

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