it takes time to make a new path

I just keep putting designs on Redbubble even though I don't make any sales. I made a few sales early on, mainly from one friend, but it's been over a year with no sales. I still keep uploading though, and I'm planning to try a few things - improving my graphic design and vector art skills, researching what kind of designs actually sell, incorporating words and phrases, etc. 

But there's a few other things I want to work on first. I'm working on some e-books and planning a new blog, and some other projects. I want to try another print on demand platform as well. Since I got more organized with my designs, it's a lot easier to use my art in different ways. I used to just save my art in folders as files formatted according to the software - so, for example, Clip Studio Paint files saved in that format in a folder. Now I have a spreadsheet and I give all my works a serial number, and I save a PNG file with that serial number. So, if anyone sees anything they like on my Instagram, they can just tell me the serial number and I can put it on products using Redbubble, or some other platform. 

All the YouTube videos about how to do this stuff make it sound easy, but there are always complications. Things only run smoothly once you figure out how to do them yourself. Like, for example, I learnt about opening a Redbubble shop, and I opened one and started uploading designs, but the designs were all too small. It didn't work. So then I watched a YouTube video about how to make the designs bigger. I actually have to use a whole other program to do that - Gimp. There are probably different ways to do it, but that's what I do. 

Medium has been more encouraging in terms of actually making money. Not that I make a lot of money, but I do make money every month, and I'm growing in my writing practice. It's only going to grow. 

I've watched a few videos and read some articles lately that talked, among other things, about the importance of not giving up. Try different things. I want to try all kinds of things. But I can't rush it. It takes time for an enterprise to evolve. There's so much to learn and you can't take the steps that are further down the track until you get there.