zero2illo Asks For Your Help!

Hi folks, this is Lea here – Jonathan’s wife. If you took part in the 12 week challenge, you’ll have seen me in the video for week 2 talking about OGSMs and how to plan and strategise for your illustration career.

Here’s the thing…Jonathan doesn’t actually know I’m writing this post and he’ll probably be a little unhappy with me when he finds out (he’s currently taken Mali – our 1 year old – out for a walk so she can nap & I can do some work!).

It’s quite a long post but I’d really appreciate it if you stick it out to the end because it’s got some good stuff in that I hope you’ll appreciate…

As you know Jonathan started zero2illo as a way to chart his progress in becoming a full time, professional illustrator in the hope that it might help others to do the same.

It’s been a while since he’s done an update on that because there’s actually not been much progress! He’s been so busy running the challenge, running zero2illo and in his day job as a graphic/website designer.

I hate being the nagging wife…

Unfortunately, that’s left me playing the role of nagging wife (which, by the way, I do rather too well!). I love the fact that he’s passionate about helping others achieve their goals too but it doesn’t pay the bills – and he’s spending more & more time on this which leaves him less & less time on the stuff that actually pays & puts food on our table!

There’s a reason you didn’t see much of him in the z2i Clubhouse during the challenge – he didn’t actually get any time to do the tasks himself <cue nagging wife mode, again> – which was totally not the point of the challenge <cue nagging wife mode, yet again>.

Coupled with the fact that Ning have started charging for their networks, we’ve spent the best part of a month or so discussing what we’re going to do with the Clubhouse, what he’s going to do with zero2illo and how the hell he’s going to find time to make progress as an illustrator.

Something’s got to give…or he’s going to have to find a way to start generating an income out of this side of things. That’s basically the ultimatum I gave him a while back.

Here’s how you can help with that…

As you may know, Jonathan asked for your feedback about what to do with the clubhouse & whether to implement a small fee in order to cover the costs of keeping it on Ning.

He has been pretty much adamant all along (despite the feedback) that he wants to keep it free. That’s cool – and we’ve decided to migrate away from Ning so we don’t have to be out of pocket.

In fact, he’ll be announcing the all-new clubhouse soon (I can’t tell you how difficult it’s been trying to decide what to do and all the parameters we’ve had to consider – but I’ll let him tell you about that!) which *will* be free and which we’ve also had to pay for to be customised & branded <cue nagging wife mode, yet again>.

But that still doesn’t solve the problem of Jonathan spending too much time on stuff that doesn’t put food on our table! So, here’s where I’m asking for your help.

We’ve got a ton of cool stuff coming up for you at zero2illo, including:

• An all-new Clubhouse which will remain free for you to join & use
• An expanded 12 Week Challenge kit with lots of additional resources focusing on some of the bits many of you found the most challenging
• New tutorials coming up including:
  • How to get the most out of WordPress for your portfolio website
  • An introduction to using Headway for your portfolio website
• New articles scheduled including:
  • How to use your creative skills to create additional income
  • How to get more done with the time you have & other creative time management strategies
  • How to design your illustration career to fit your ideal lifestyle

With the exception of the 12 Week Challenge Kit which will be the first product Jonathan will release at zero2illo, everything will remain 100% totally & utterly free.

But if you’ve got or get any value at all out of the zero2illo resources & community, here’s what I’m asking you to do in the hope that we can keep everything free & most importantly, keep it running:

Donate

At my nagging, Jonathan just added a “Donate” button in the sidebar of the site. If you’d like to donate anything at all to help keep this going, please do so – any amount will be gratefully received & put back into the pot to re-invest in the site.

Pre-purchase

The 12 Week Challenge kit will be ready to ship within the next month. We don’t even have a sales page for this yet nor exact details of what’s included (except in our notebooks!) but if you liked what you saw in the challenge (or heard about it), then this will be like that but even better.

At the very least, it’ll include extra resources on how to create your OGSM and more in-depth WordPress & Headway tutorials to create your killer portfolio websites. If you’d like to pre-purchase the kit, $14.95 is a pre-purchase price which will go up to $24.95 once the kit is released.

Spread the word

Jonathan’s currently on the lookout for sponsors/advertisers for the site. There are 2 ways you can help with this:

1. Let him know of any services, companies or contacts you might have who’d be interested
2. Spread the word about the z2i site & community, the bigger & better it is the more attractive it’ll be to sponsors

Ok, so that’s it from me – I think I’ve nagged quite enough for today and if you’re still with me then thank you for listening. This site and community means an awful lot to Jonathan and it’s something that he cares about deeply so I’d rather not be the nagging wife anymore

Related posts:

1. Have You Joined The zero2illo Clubhouse Yet?
2. The Future Of zero2illo