How Do I Make Money in Genealogy?

My take on the fourth in a week-long series of posts at GeneaBloggers entitled Genea-Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money).

How Do You Make Money in Genealogy? – most readers here at GeneaBloggers and at my other sites know that I am a pretty open and transparent guy when it comes to disclosing my material relationships with other genealogy vendors and organizations. Well, I am willing to spell out what I currently do in the genealogy field to try and make a buck.  I’m not going to give exact dollar figures (because you will be greatly disappointed, believe me), but I will be upfront about some current projects.  I’m hoping my colleagues might consider doing the same.

Hahahahahaha...

Seriously, though:

I have recently begun accepting clients.  I do not advertise currently and tend to be found through APG.  After speaking with a person at the the NERGC conference from BCG I am rather determined to take more clients, as I have time.  I am also looking into just assisting people in Western and Central New York for some practice (namely friends and family).  My 3-5 year goal is to make enough money doing research to pay off my and my husbands student loans prior to our retirement...

I have a couple affiliate links, that I have not made any money on yet.  Maybe someday:-)  The main goal for these is to pay for hosting fees.

I would love to start lecturing at genealogy societies and conferences, which would help to pay all of the conferences I [want to] attend.

The one thing I am now making money with is as a contracting archivist.  This combines my degree and my genealogical studies (I assist patrons searching for their family as one job task).  This is providing me with a lot of experience and opportunities.  I look forward to continuing with this far into the future.

Genealogy-What Do You Mean It Isn't Free?: My Take

This is my response to the third in a week-long series of posts at GeneaBloggers entitled Genea-Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money).

What Do You Mean It Isn’t Free? – how do we as a community deal with the perception that everything – and I meaneverything – is free for the taking when it comes to genealogy. From commercial databases, to freely stealing content from a blog or website, to being incensed when a genealogist charges for a webinar or a syllabus.  This will be a no-holds barred looked at why certain perceptions exist in the genealogy community and how they must change in order for the industry to move forward in the 21st century.

I have always been taught that there is no such thing as a free lunch.  We get lucky in genealogy, with many things that appear free: familysearch.org, RAOGK, Legacy webinars, etc.

The problem with this is that none of these are actually free.  Someone, somewhere, is paying.  Legacy can host these webinars because of all the people who purchase their products; RAOGK volunteers are using their gas and time to help out fellow researchers; FamilySearch is part of the LDS church, and members help support it.

We need to treat genealogy like we do any other service and pay for services and items we want.

Careers in Genealogy-"Off the Chart" Thinking: My Take

This is the second in a week-long series of posts at GeneaBloggers that I giving my opinion on.

My bachelor's degree is in political science, but after graduation I started a career in retail management.  Though this wasn't my plan or what I planned to always do, it has taught me valuable skills.

When I began looking for a more permanent career, library science was recommended to me.  In May, I will join the large group of genealogists with an MLS.  Working in a library or archive will allow me to assist others with their genealogy and to bring history, in the form of primary source documents, to children.

I also am working toward doing what Thomas MacEntree calls the "Franken-career".  I would like to lecture, publish and work further with helping companies or genealogists market themselves through social media.  I also am interested in the idea of "curating".  I have never heard this idea before, but it is very appealing to me.  I love researching and trying new things and think I would enjoy disseminating them to fellow researchers.  I also would enjoy being in retail at expos and conferences.  I have more customer service experience than I know what to do this, so this would be a great job.

My dream combination genealogy and library job would be as genealogist (they call all of their librarians by this title) at the New England Historic Genealogy Society in Boston.  As they have begun promoting their New York collections, I keep hoping they will need a Western & Central New York specialist.  If so, I am ready!

Genealogy Blogging – For Fun or Profit?: My Take

This is my take on Thomas' series at GeneaBloggers entitled Genea-Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money).

Why is it just one or the other?  I find it fun to make a profit.  But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Thomas MacEntee, creator of GeneaBloggers.com, has brought to light a very timely and important topic this week.  For the next 5 days, I will be giving my take based on the topic he presents.

In every other blogging community I have followed, namely healthy living and mommy blogs, it is well known that if you become a top blogger you will be able to make a profit off of your blog.  Until recently, I had not seen the same happen with GeneaBloggers.

I do not have a problem with people making a profit off their blogs, although I do believe in disclosure statements and telling your readers that you are posting an affliate link.  It does get annoying when nearly every blog you read has the same giveaway/review.  It gets unethical, in my opinion, when bloggers review items positively that you know they do not like or normally support, just because it was free.

Upon graduation, I hope to have a more regular blogging schedule and expand my skill-set to become a more useful resource in the community and, eventually, leverage my skills to become a speaker, webinar giver, etc.  I hope to review books and projects (that I receive at not cost), host giveaways and become a blogger of honor or conference blogger.  Although I started doing this as just a fun, personal project, I now want to take it to the next level.  I do not believe all bloggers want to or should do the same and that that is okay.  It should not be an us-versus-them mentality, just that different people have different ideas and want to do different things, and we should respect each other for our choices, as long as they are being done in an ethical way.

One more reason GeneaBloggers rocks

My recent post, Data Backup Weekend, was also an entry into the GeneaBloggers Data Backup Weekend Contest and, amazingly, I WON!  My prize is the Handy Backup Standard 6.4 by Novosoft LLC.  I am so excited to have this software, which will back up my computer on a monthly, weekly or daily (for those true OCD types) basis without my having to worry about it.  I am so excited to start playing with this new software and will let you all know what I think about it for the next Data Backup day:-)


Thank you GeneaBloggers and Novosoft LLC!

Advent Calender - Opening Day 5

The GeneaBlogger Advent Calender prompt #5: December 5 - Outdoor Decorations
Did people in your neighborhood decorate with lights? Did some people really go “all out” when decorating? Any stories involving your ancestors and decorations?

In recent years, my sister has slowly become one of the more out-of-control light people. Each year after Christmas, she gets another one of those lit, movable, holiday animals to add to the collection. Her and my mom also put up icicle lights around the house for a complete winter wonderland.

My favorite lights are those of an unknown neighbor. Each year, for as long as I can remember, he has put up a huge Christmas tree, made out of green lights. It never feels like Christmas until I go home and see the tree all lit up against the dark night sky.

Advent Calender - Opening Day 4

The GeneaBlogger Advent Calender prompt #4: December 4 - Christmas Cards
Did your family send cards? Did your family display the ones they received? Do you still send Christmas cards? Do you have any cards from your ancestors?

My mother is fantastic about sending Christmas cards, which is a trait I am trying hard to pick up on. She would write out dozens each year, as would my grandmother and, in return, our mailbox would be full each day leading up to Christmas. Trying to display each one could be tricky, but we went through a multitude of card holders over the years to do so.

I do not have any cards from my ancestors and until reading this prompt had never thought to look for some. It looks like it is time to mention that to relatives as they pull out all their holiday items and hopefully find some old cards tucked away.

Advent Calender - Opening Day 3

The GeneaBlogger Advent Calender prompt #3: December 3 - Christmas Tree Ornaments
Did your family have heirloom or cherished ornaments? Did you ever string popcorn and cranberries? Did your family or ancestors make Christmas ornaments?

My mother has a multitude of ornaments her grandmother and other female relatives made over the years. Each year we would hang a few of these on the tree along with all of our Hallmark ornaments from more recent years. The ornaments I love the most are those with a story attached and my mom does an excellent job at picking them out for us year after year. My favorite from last year was the "First Christmas Together 2008" she got for Aaron and I and our first apartment together.

We also tell the story each year of when my grandmother bought each family a pickle ornament and my cousin Jake picked one up and it just crushed in his hand. He had the most crestfallen look ever, but after making sure he was okay, we all just laughed and laughed. Glass ornaments around a bunch of active kids did not work out too well. But they received another of the ornaments at a later date and it became family legend.

Advent Calender - Opening Day 2

The GeneaBlogger Advent Calender prompt #2: December 2 - Holiday Foods
Did your family or ancestors serve traditional dishes for the holidays? Was there one dish that was unusual?

My favorite holiday food story is also always brought up by my Gramma Acquard every time I see her:-) We spend Christmas each year with my father's family and for every Christmas dinner my grandmother makes baked beans. Every year she also forgets to take them out of the oven, which is where I come in. I always remember that they aren't out on the counter in the buffet line with everything else, so she will pull them out of the oven and find a place for them with everything else. This is apparently a long running tradition, as my mother used to always remind her before I was old enough to. She makes fantastic baked beans.

Advent Calender - Opening Day 1

The GeneaBlogger Advent Calender prompt #1: December 1 - The Christmas Tree

Did you have a real tree or was it artificial? How big was the tree? Who decorated the tree? What types of Christmas trees did your ancestors have?

We almost always had an artificial tree growing up, except for the few years my sister convinced my mom that a real one was necessary. After still picking up needles in July, we would switch back to the artificial for another year. We all helped decorate, pulling all the ornament boxes out of the attic and remembering why we had received each one or which relative had made them back in the day. Everyones favorite part was always the tinsel. As kids, we would throw it on in globs and my mom would add it in a more restrained way.

Since moving out, I have a very small artificial tree, which works perfectly with the miniature ornaments that I love. I put the few larger ornaments around it on the table, along with my Charlie Brown nativity scene and other random holiday items. Doing this post reminded me that I need to clear the school books and papers off the coffee table, pull my Christmas box out of the closet, turn some carols on and start the holiday decorating!