Both of my paid articles had 0 yen in sales

Looking at the 0 yen graph, and what I did this time

I have published two paid articles so far.

The sales for both combined are 0 yen.

……I wanted to write that number down first.

The first one was published in mid-June.
Over 70 people read it, and it even got likes.

But, there were 0 purchases.

The second one was published at the beginning of July.
That one is also 0 so far.

If it were me 10 years ago, I think I would have been crushed by these numbers.

In fact, 10 years ago, I would refresh the '0 sales' graph for my stock photos dozens of times a day, wearing myself down each time, until I finally gave it all up.
(I wrote about that story before ⇩)

But this time, I didn't break.
When I thought about why later, there were three reasons.

First. Because I had decided in advance how many times I would look at the numbers.

I only check sales once a month.
If it were 10 years ago, I would have looked at that 0 yen hundreds of times, but this time it's only been a few.
Even though it's the same 0 yen, the amount I was exposed to is completely different.
Numbers don't increase just by looking at them.
Only your heart wears down. I learned that with my body 10 years ago.

Second. Because I didn't treat the 0 yen as a grade for myself.

The reason they didn't sell wasn't because the articles were bad, or because I was bad.

When I think about it, I feel like many of the people who come to read my note are people on leave, people recuperating, or people worried about money.
(The feeling that articles about child-rearing expenses and household budgets are the most read)

In other words, the people who empathize most deeply with my articles are people who are not currently in a position to easily spend 500 yen.
That is what I think.

The 'people who read' and the 'people who can buy' were different.

Once I realized that, 0 yen was no longer a 'rejection.'
In the first place, I hadn't placed them where they could reach people's wallets.
That was all it was.

Third. Because I could see things piling up right next to the 0 yen.

The paid articles didn't sell.
But the likes were increasing.
My followers were also increasing little by little.

And last month, for the first time, an AI image I had placed on Adobe Stock sold, rather than a note article.

$1.07

(That story is here ⇩)

The money didn't come from articles, but from my work.

If that's the case, maybe the role of my note isn't to "sell."
It's to build trust with the people who read it.
And to continue a life of creating work without breaking.
As for the money, I'll leave that to the work I've built up on Adobe Stock.

So, I've decided.

I will basically write stories for free.

And for the next series, the third installment, "Operational Rules for Continuing Without Breaking,"
I've decided to make it available for free,including the content I had originally intended to charge for.

Ten years ago, I was broken by a graph of zeros.
This time, I was able to change one way of continuing from that graph of zeros.

"Continuing without breaking" is, I think, probably just a accumulation of small changes like this.

I will write about the specific methods for that in the third installment.

If you'd like, please take a look at my Adobe Stock as well.
https://stock.adobe.com/jp/contributor/207652252/sally%20san