(Newswire.net — December 9, 2015) Portland, Oregon — 2012 was a life changing year for AJ Harmon. Stepping outside her comfort zone, she started experimenting with ways to turn her passions into income and eventually a career.
“Doing what you enjoy makes all the difference in the world,” AJ stated as she began to tell her story. “Being a YouTube sensation is quite a surprise, especially since it was delayed for a few years after completing the project.”
In September of 2011, Harmon launched AJ’s Craft Room, a membership site designed to help would-be-crafters develop craft confidence, with the help of her son who filmed, edited and added the graphics to her “How to …. step by step craft training videos” for members to learn and practice new crafting skills.
The site quickly became very popular with lots of visitors, but only a few dozen actually joined the site and paid the $7 a month fee to have access to a new craft training video every month. Even though the site wasn’t an instant success, AJ jokes about the fact that at least her husband was happy that all the money she spends on crafting supplies was at least a tax deduction now.
In March 2013, AJ’s Craft Room became a free site, hoping to generate revenue from sponsorships and Google AdWords. “It was a bold move,” AJ recalls. “But we had a library of craft training videos with very few people able to view, apply and enjoy them.”
Meanwhile back at the ranch, AJ was focusing on another passion. When her opinion on a popular romance novel trilogy was challenged by a friend, AJ implied that she could write a better love story in her sleep, to which her co-worker replied, “Prove it!”
Empowered by the minor success of AJ’s Craft Room and with a growing confidence, like the one she’d tried to inspire with her videos, she set out to do just that, prove that she could write a wonderful love story. On November 17th, 2012 she published her debut romance novel “First Class to New York” followed by its sequel “First Class to Portland” on December 10th, 2012. With 30,000 copies of her books downloaded in the first six weeks of her author career, AJ quit her job in the accounting field and has been writing fulltime ever since.
Contemporary romance author AJ Harmon has published 15 romance novels and 6 novellas. She made the USA Today Best Seller list in October of 2014 with her boxed set of “Frist Class Novels”. AJ has spent much of 2015 flying across the country to book signing events, trying to raise money to aid survivors of domestic violence and was included as a headliner in a Christmas Anthology to raise money for a children’s hospital.
Busy with public appearances and writing romance novels, AJ’s Craft Room was left to simmer on the back burner. “Totally surprised!” Harmon explained when asked about becoming a YouTube sensation. “Every year around Thanksgiving we get a bump in views to our YouTube Channel. It took 2 years to reach 1 million views and to have over 1.4 million people watch the video “Dollar-store Christmas Ornament Wreath” in six weeks is just amazing.”
While going through her Facebook feed responding to romance reader’s comments, AJ saw her Craft Room video featured in a NewsLinQ article. “It Just blew up after that,” Harmon exclaimed. “The video views were going through the roof.”
Craft Diva turned Romance Author and now YouTube Sensation, AJ Harmon jests about appearing on “Dancing with the Stars” (#DWTS) in the near future. “You never know? They’ve had YouTube sensations on in prior seasons. I can’t recall ever seeing a bestselling author in the cast.” AJ’s smiled “I mean, they always need an underdog celebrity on the show, someone no one will cry over when they go home in the first elimination.”
With over half a million romance novels by AJ Harmon digitally downloaded from Amazon-Kindle, Nook and iTunes and over 3 million views of her YouTube channel AJ may have to choose between being a Craft Diva or Romance Author, but maybe not; when you do what you love you’ll never have to work a day in your life. AJ has certainly discovered how to follow her passions and bring joy into the lives of other.
To learn more about Craft Diva, Romance Author and YouTube Sensation AJ Harmon you can visit her website AJHarmon.com or Follow her on Facebook Google+, Twitter and YouTube.
About AJHarmon.com
AJ Harmon published her debut novel in November of 2012 on Amazon. She now has 15 novels and 6 novellas available from Kindle, Nook and iTunes. She has just released her first audiobook “A Choice For Claire” available on Audible.com