The other morning I rolled over in bed and made a groaning noise that someone might have suspected was coming from a dying cat.
It was Monday. I needed to get up and start my work day. As I lay there, my mind flashed to the previous Sunday morning when I had bounded out of bed (I am not a morning person so this was a feat in and of itself), plopped myself down in the desk I use for work, excitedly opened my computer and began writing a new post, jotting down ideas for future posts and chatting with my friends on Twitter.
These two mornings consisted of the same base actions: sitting at a desk and typing on a computer, but my excitement level for each could not be more opposed. Despite my proclamations that my dream job doesn’t exist, it turns out that it does…it’s blogging…and blogging pays basically no money.
In 2019 I decided to monetize this blog after writing it for 4.5 years and in 2019 I made $225. I wrote 55 posts that took me approximately 8 hours each to complete between writing, copyediting, photo editing etc. So I did 440 hours of work for a cool salary of $0.51 an hour. Oooh we’re rolling in the dough!
But wait – before you get excited – that $225 was before taxes and expenses. After those items were removed, I made a whopping -$839 last year with this blog. A keen observer may be able to tell that that’s not actually a profit, but a loss 😉 .
There’s an interesting stereotype floating around the internet that it’s easy or normal to make money from blogging – a lot of money – when actually that’s not reality. This untruth might be perpetuated by the many “Earn Quick And Easy Money Online” articles that I find misleading, but it’s actually rare to (1) make any money blogging and (2) make enough to fund your lifestyle.
For example, a survey of 1,000 bloggers by blogging.org found that:
- 81% of these bloggers never made $100 from blogging
- 8% make enough to support their family
I’ve seen similar statistics across multiple surveys that go back the last 10 years or so. The few outliers raking it in are often plastered all over the media (BECAUSE they’re outliers) and seem to perpetuate the stereotype that bloggers make bank when in fact there is a minuscule number of people that actually make a lot of money from a blog.
To give more color to those surveys, check out this awesome thread by Military Dollar where 50+ personal finance bloggers answer questions about their income:
FIRE Bloggers, please answer questions for me for a post:
1. Do you monetize?
2. If you monetize, have you earned enough to fully replace what you've spent to blog? (hosting, domain name, events, etc)
3. Does your blog earn enough to pay for your lifestyle? (numbers appreciated)— Military Dollar (@Military_Dollar) November 25, 2019
So bloggers make a lot less than people assume and it’s interesting because not only is it very rare to make money from a blog, especially enough to live on, but it appears that doing so often times makes it into a ‘job’ – as in you have to do things you don’t want to do in order to specifically make money.
Examples for me include: SEO, Pinterest and a lot of other stuff that I currently have no interest in doing because that doesn’t sound fun and that’s my main objective here – to catalog my journey and enjoy myself.
If money was my #1 focus for my blog, I personally wouldn’t find it fun. In fact, I do very similar things for my day job that (smart) bloggers tell me I should do in order to improve or grow and that…sounds like the opposite of what I want. Being able to take what you love and leave the rest without a concern over how this decision impacts your ability to feed yourself is the freedom a hobby provides.
So, I’ve discovered my dream job. Unfortunately my dream job (like many of them?) does not pay the bills and most likely cannot unless I turn it into something that would feel like work, which defeats the original purpose. So that’s why I’m still at my full-time job while I do this hobby, but I’m glad I discovered it regardless, because it has everything (besides the ability to pay the bills) that makes it perfect for me. Let’s jump into the specifics!
REMOVING NEGATIVES
No Boss
I truly am my own ‘boss’ in this endeavor. No one is telling me what to write or that all my posts this month should relate back to X event that is coming up. No one is editing my posts to make sure the content fits their agenda or sounds ‘on brand’. No one has influence over what happens here, but me and that feels so freeing.
No Reliance On Others
One of the aspects of working at ad agencies that I found most annoying was the rigid hierarchical structure. I swear it hasn’t changed since the 1950 Mad Men days.
This hierarchy was a constant roadblock and source of unnecessary late nights during my years of agency life. I was constantly waiting for 4 levels of leadership to review anything I did – be it a 2 sentence email or a presentation for clients. I am happy to say that since moving into marketing, that has mostly become a frustration of the past, but not always.
For example, last Friday my boss requested that our team of 5 people review an email before I sent it to a few clients. I sent it to them at 10am and requested feedback by 4pm. At 5pm I hear that my boss has edits, but won’t be able to send them until 6pm – he asked if I could wait until then (since it’s past my deadline). I said no I could not (DGAF status coming in hot) and asked him to just send it when he was done editing. On Monday morning I saw that he sent the email at 7:30pm. I would have been waiting on others and working until 7:30pm on a Friday because of some bullshit chain of command.
Anyway, all of that to say, I absolutely love that blogging is a one-woman show. I am not waiting on anyone or relying on anyone. If I feel motivated, I can crank out 3 posts and schedule them all or if I’m not feeling it I can just lounge on the couch for days until inspiration strikes (#sluglife). My schedule is not at all dictated by others.
No Pressure
I’m not sure what it is about blogging that has made my perfectionist mind retreat into its cave, but it has. At work I am super Type A. If I make a mistake, it haunts me…sometimes for years.
With blogging, I constantly make mistakes (if you see a typo please let me know!). For example, I have at least 3 times messed up sending a new post tweet only to have a (kind) Twitter friend tell me the link isn’t working. This would instill horror in my work persona, but I’m pretty chill about it over here.
This might actually be linked to the lack of compensation blogging brings in (and how it’s mostly de-coupled from the writing I do). But then again, I haven’t looked at my job as something I have to do perfectly to get raises or future positions for years so maybe that’s not the case. Either way, it’s great to put my perfectionist beast to sleep once in a while.
No Set Schedule
I have an “Every Tuesday” posting schedule for myself, but the actual blog work doesn’t have to be done at any one time, such as during a 9 to 5 and I absolutely love that. The idea of a 9 to 5 arising during the Industrial Revolution specifically for physical labor makes sense, but doesn’t seem to apply to a lot of the more mental jobs many people have these days.
My motivation and drive to be productive with mental work do not fit into a tightly packaged 8 hour window, especially with all the meetings my industry seems to love having that take my mind off track every hour or so. Regardless of my motivation level I have to be available and ‘working’ from at least 9 to 5 (though lately it’s been more 6:30am to 5pm…don’t ask). So I find it very freeing that blogging can truly map to my schedule and the ebbs and flows of my motivation and inspiration.
I got up at 6:30am for work calls and people had the gall to turn on their cameras. Good try. pic.twitter.com/DNopSNzXCv
— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) May 6, 2020
ADDING POSITIVES
Meaning
I started this blog to catalog my journey to early retirement for myself to look back on. I still write with that as my main objective, but this site has also morphed into a source of inspiration for others based on the comments and messages I receive. I never could have imagined that would be the case and my heart feels warm every time I hear that, but now that this change has happened I feel something I never have at a job: Meaning.
My entire career I’ve been in the room when corporate overlords detail their goals and what they want – and it was our job to get them there. More profit, more ‘engagement’, more sales. It was never really about the customer and trying to help them (like many companies claim) though it’s possible that that was the original reason these companies were founded.
These meetings made it sound like customers – and people – were just a means to an end. As a result, I didn’t feel like I was having a positive impact on the world by helping these companies just make more money. But now on this blog, I’ve been told that I provide hope, a possible alternate path and an example to whoever is curious enough to listen – and that feels powerful. People that go into work they find meaningful might be onto something 😉 .
Community
I know I harp on this every time I mention blogging, but community is such a huge part of my experience that I can’t help myself. In my career, ‘community’ was just another word for networking and that meant ‘using people for your own ends’ which usually involved connections to get another job or move higher within your current company. It was a cold transaction.
This has not been the case in the wonderful personal finance blogging community I’ve stumbled into. I’ve met some of the kindest people of my entire life here. We don’t think of each other as competition – and we’re honestly not. The internet is big enough for all of us and we act like it. We support each other and offer help and advice when requested. We volunteer our time and money and airline miles to help each other. We are truly a community – not just masquerading as one to get a leg up.
Conclusion
So I’ve found my dream job and it pays a whopping $225 a year. The below chart might be onto something. I don’t think that #Win section exists and the intersection of “What you love” and “What pays well” being “Just a dream” seems to be quite accurate.
What’s your dream job? Does it pay enough to cover your bills?
I did the math and my dream job cannot pay the bills. Unless maybe someone has any idea how to make money from drinking mango smoothies in Thailand all day 🙂
Just kidding. I actually think the dream job does exist. The great thing about being financially independent is that you are able to keep at it for a very long time until it will eventually pay your bills.
Your blog for example, as you said. You aren’t doing it primarily for the money but it will eventually arrive. I’m sure if you keep at long enough it will eventually bring in enough money to pay the bills.
Most people don’t have the luxury of doing something they love just for the chance of maybe making some money after 5 years.
We do!
Haha – if you figure that out please let me know! That’s awesome you think the dream job exists – I guess my pessimism is showing 😉 .
That’s an interesting point – how dream jobs could be something that pays the bills if you don’t care about the money and therefore can keep it up without pay for years. Now I’m wondering if amortized it would pay the bills that way though 🙂 .
I’ll take you up on that bet – I don’t think this blog will ever come close to paying the bills and that works for me. I’ll check in after a few more years and buy you a coffee if I’m wrong 🙂 . Thanks for making me think!
I started my blog recently with no expectations of making money. I just want to document it as I go.
But I’m curious, you mentioned SEO in the blog , do you put any effort into that at all? I don’t know if I’m supposed to be or not or even if it’s worth bothering to learn.
And then I think, if no one can find my blog what’s the point of writing it.
Oh I dunno, I’ll figure it out eventually but interested to hear what you do about SEO
D
Congrats on starting your blog! I mentioned SEO and Pinterest as things I don’t do because I find the idea of them boring. Both of those are basically writing for an algorithm and then people who want an answer to a specific question or problem (that often never comment or return to your site at all). Instead I write for myself and secondarily for people that want to come on this journey with me. To that end, I personally don’t care if anyone read this blog since I mainly do it for me.
However, if one of your goals is to have people read your stuff, there are countless ways to go about that outside SEO if you don’t find it interesting either, such as social media or referrals from other sites if you write awesome stuff they happen to link to.
Thanks , I guess I need to answer the question ‘who is the blog for ?’ before I dive into SEO
I am in absolutely no way an expert, but that sounds like a smart first step.
I hated SEO for most of my webmaster life (which is close to 20 years). But it does work. Not easy to do and extremely boring most of the time, but it does pay off.
Anyway, creating a nice community and blogging constantly do work as well 🙂
Yeah it seems effective! Just not how I want to write things – for an algorithm instead of myself/humans basically. I’m glad a community and consistently works as well 😉 .
This post is GOLD! Ha. I remember that Twitter thread by Military Dollar, tweeted around the time I had a Reddit troll complaining I was only blogging for the money. Oh wow, how I LOLED.
Like you, I love having a blog that is all mine (mwa-ha-ha) and I get to write what I want. The community connections I’ve made by having this presence are so worthwhile for me too. Yes, if only this dream job paid a little more though!
Haha I’m glad you enjoyed it! And yeeeah people online sure do have a skewed view of how much blogs make – even I was surprised after starting my own at how little it was 🙂 . I assumed it wasn’t much, but was still surprised. That Mil$ thread was also extra illuminating – people I knew to be at the top of their blogging game were still making zilch – fascinating anecdotal info!
Yaaas for being one-woman-shows and building that community!!! As for money…I guess it’s good we’re working on becoming independently wealthy unrelated to our blogs then eh 😉 ?
I love your blog so much. I look forward to your posts every Tuesday. They give me hope and positivity throughout the week. I love that there’s some finance, some lifestyle, some food, etc without anything being too technical or heavy handed.
I’m trying to find something that gives me purpose and meaning. I don’t worry about finding that in a job as much. I try to find the moments in my job that I love. Sometimes that’s conversations with clients, mentoring new colleagues or just taking breaks while working from home.
Thank you Nate – you are too kind!!! I also look forward to every Tuesday so I can hear from wonderful people like yourself 🙂 . Y’all give me hope and positivity. It’s also awesome to hear my ‘all over the place’ style is welcomed – I’ll keep it up 😉 .
That’s so smart you look for meaning in the things you enjoy about your job, but also (mostly it seem) outside of it and in the little moments of job. You seem to have it all figured out 🙂 . Thanks so much for stopping by!
This is an awesome post! Blogging for fun is pretty awesome. And you can make non-zero money doing it. So therefore it must be the fast track to wealth! I’d bite my arm off for $255 in revenue. You’re killing it. Perhaps you could sell an online course on how to make money blogging.
I’m so glad you liked it! Blogging for fun is indeed awesome. And your logic is bulletproof right there 😉 . Good to know how much your arm is worth to you haha. And if I ever start selling a course on how to make money blogging please call the authorities – it means I’ve been kidnapped and that’s my cry for help.
We are such blogging twins. Seriously – where do our Type A personalities go when it comes to our blogs?? I’m not going to argue though because it’s pretty awesome.
Ps. Miss seeing your actual face, but sure glad the internet exists.
Haha we really are. I’m glad you feel like your Type A personality goes away with blogging, but I must admit I see our overachieving tendencies a little in your blog life as well Ms. 3x week posting + a second Ecofrugal site + a Facebook group with tens of thousands of members, but I’m just sayin’ 😉 . I miss your face too!!! And yes I am so grateful we aren’t actually in the 1920s because going through this without seeing people virtually would have been torturous.
When someone as interesting as you that is so entertaining and fun to read isn’t making gobs of money that just reinforces my resolve to keep my blog non-monetized. I have some money making side hustles in my slightly early retirement but none of them have anything to do with blogging or the internet in general. I have a pretty good sized group of readers and do enjoy posting when I get a message from my muse, but I think to actually make money you have to work it like a 9 to 5 job. And that is something I have no interest in since I no longer need an income.
Oh my – compliments will get you everywhere haha. Totally fair on not monetizing a blog – I was firmly in the “no” category for years and never thought I would change my mind. Fair point on treating it like a FT job to make money…and that doesn’t sound fun at all 😉 . Glad you make it work for you and your muse.
Great article, APL! Thanks for the honest post on your dream job. My dream job is definitely to become a Blogger, but like you, I have realized it is challenging to monetize a blog. There are also things I don’t like about blogging that I have started to do over time as well. But it’s good that you enjoy it as a hobby and gain the positives from it.
Regarding the income, I know it’s not your goal, but I would have thought a blog with your traffic would earn more. Even at 3,000 page views per month in 2017, I made over $400 from blogging through sponsored posts. And in 2019, I earned some from Google Adsense and some from sponsored posts. I had 1 affiliate sale too lol. Although I agree that blogging usually doesn’t pay much, I think it is possible to earn more if it’s a priority. I sort of enjoy the challenge.
The only other thing I would say is that most hobbies progress over time. At least for me, I want to improve at something I spend time on, or it is not worth spending time on. Blogging started as a hobby years ago but it has slowly become more over time. I used to despise the e-mail subscription popups, I thought most blogs lacked creativity, and I was almost bothered by SEO-centric content. It just seemed like a lot of the writing on blogs was bad. But over time I realized that blogging is my dream job. Because it’s my dream job, I want to give it everything I have. Blogging doesn’t pay the bills yet, but income has been increasing. If I can’t earn enough solely from blogging to cover my expenses, I will just keep my part-time job and continue building my dividend income stream. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! That’s awesome you’re moving towards your dream job and (from what I can tell 🙂 ) getting closer every day? Out of curiosity, what things have you started to do that you don’t necessarily like?
That’s cool about your income – I don’t accept sponsored posts on this site so that could be part of it. I also only added ads to my site in December. That’s awesome you enjoy the challenge of bringing in more though! Whatever keeps you motivated.
That’s a great point about hobbies and interesting because I have basically the opposite experience 🙂 . I am a serial hobby-trier. My partner calls them my “schemes” because they last between 1 month and 1 year usually. Blogging is the only one that’s stuck for many years – possibly because there’s so much to it (thinking, writing, photography etc).
It sounds like you’ve got an awesome game plan to follow your dreams and backup plans you’re already fine with. I love it!
I didn’t like the focus on SEO in the beginning. It seemed to make writing more robotic. I also didn’t like e-mail subscription popups early on. I despised the idea of scheduling social posts. I looked at blogging as more of a journal. I even didn’t like the idea of guest posting and link building, because I looked at blogging as a creative endeavour. But now, I started scheduling social posts on Hootesuite and TailWind. I added an e-mail subscription pop-up, and I have written a few guest posts. I guess I am slowly more willing to try those tips that the successful bloggers recommend.
I totally understand why you wouldn’t want to accept sponsored posts. To be honest, I never felt that great about any of them. Most sponsored posts are sketchy. So, I have become much more selective about it. I have not accepted 1 so far this year and won’t unless it is a perfect fit. It’s just not worth it.
Haha we do seem to have an opposite experience. I have fairly narrow interests that I like to dive deep into. I would probably benefit from being more open minded about hobbies lol. I couldn’t agree more about all the things to enjoy about blogging. That is awesome that you stuck with it. Plus we all benefit and are inspired by your creative writing and FI pursuit. 🙂
And that makes sense about the ads in December. I hope you earn more this year, but mostly, I hope you enjoy blogging the way you want.
How do you approach SEO now so it doesn’t feel robotic? And why’d you dislike the idea of scheduling social media? Less organic? That’s really interesting. I’ve never been opposed to scheduling social media cause I just think of it as the computer sending a new post notification (for example) while I’m sleeping, not that it’s inauthentic or anything. I never had an averse reaction to guest posting either – I see it as an honor to post on other people’s sites (maybe because I don’t think of it as link building? No idea).
Good job being selective on sponsored posts! It’s fascinating how people approach hobbies different. I dive in deep into them, but read everything there is to read and live that new lifestyle for a while and then move onto something else. Maybe my hobbies weren’t ones that lent themselves to being long lasting in the past 🙂 . Blogging is a never ending pit of learning – in a good way haha. And thank you!
I genuinely love this! I think it’s so great that you are doing it for yourself and to document your own journey. Soooo many people put those cheesy money titles about making boatloads of money blogging and it’s just not needed!
I totally agree with what you’ve said about what most people achieve “blogging” and I think it’s a totally different mindset to start an “online business”.
Keep doing what you’re doing! Did you decide to retire by the way?
Thank you! And yeah you can spin things certain ways “See how I made $10,000 on my blog in 1 month” vs “See how I made $11,000 on my blog last year…$10K of which was 1 sponsored deal that happened in 1 month”…I’m in marketing…I know how that evil works lol.
And yep – I’m full-steam ahead and still quitting in September. Check out my “5 months to retirement: yes I’m still quitting in september” post for the details.
Nice one! I have not even come close to recouping the costs for the blog. 😂🤷🏻♂️ C’est la vie!
Yep, my blog isn’t perfect, but I’ve made some amazing friends thru it and that has been priceless.
Haha thanks! And yeah on recouped costs – that may never happen for me since they include FinCon. “My blog isn’t perfect, but I’ve made some amazing friends thru it and that has been priceless” -> This right here is what we need to tell all newbie bloggers when they enter the fray. You may not make money, but you will gain something that’s priceless!
Another classic from the biblioteca de Purpura! Making money from blogging reminds me of making money writing books. It’s possible, but it’s definitely not easy and anyone trying to be an indie author essentially needs to become an almost full time marketer. I’ve been trying to finish the last novel in my sci-fi trilogy and it’s hard to get motivated. Writing novels is a marathon and imagine getting to the end of a marathon and realize no one is at the finish line? That’s what writing a novel and having hardly anyone read it is like.
There are rewards too though. When you get a review where someone gets what you were trying to do with the book, it’s a feeling like no other. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. But it’s made it a struggle to finish book three.
Blogging works a lot better for me as a creative outlet for now. I hope to return to novel writing when I hit my FI number but for now I just don’t think it fits into the picture. I was in the black for a while on blogging (since I don’t go to conferences and such). But the ad revenue has almost completely dried up since the start of the year. I have a small amount of residual benefit since I have made some referrals to Wealthfront so I save a little on my advisory fees (pretty miniscule) and I’ve had a couple of affiliate products.
I learned my lesson with my last blog, J Geeks, which focused on pop culture. A blog has to be based on something I will be into long term – when I started to lose my strong interest in Japanese pop culture, language, etc, I found I didn’t have much motivation to keep the blog going. I expect FrugalWheels to go long term because I care about bicycles and finance and I don’t expect that to change in the near future.
Great post as usual! Also thanks for linking to that thread – I missed it the first time around (or I forgot about it – never can be sure these days…) so I was a fun read this morning with my coffee.
Haha thank you! And another amazing phrase from you that I’m saving for tomorrow…The comparison between blogging and book writing seems really spot on and definitely even harder with latter. I really appreciate the instant ‘gratification’ of a blog and my ability to edit my inevitable typos haha. I didn’t know being an indie author means spending basically all your time marketing, but that makes sense since I assume bigger publishers do more of that heavy lifting. I hope that muse hits you again soon to finish book three 😉 .
Congrats on being in the black for a while with blogging! I don’t know what that’s like lol. “A blog has to be based on something I will be into long term” really is wonderful advice and I’m glad your two interests are going to be long term ones.
And thank you so much! And glad I could bring that thread back into the spotlight – it was illuminating *snicker*.
Wait, you mean I’m not gonna turn into Ruth Soukup if I blog for another six months?
In all seriousness, though, if nothing else, my blogging has helped me connect with other like-minded people (even if absolutely every one of you is way closer to FI than I am). That’s gotta be worth something, even if my blog isn’t (I haven’t quite hit that $225 mark yet).
Yeah I hate to break it to you 😉 . Blogging is definitely great for meeting people and joining a community. As for closer to FI – are you sure? I see complete FI newbies popping up with blogs every day it seems. Good luck on reaching your $225 mark 😉 .
I’m pretty sure you can make more money if you focus on monetization. But you’re probably right. It won’t be as much fun once you do that. It’s a delicate balance. Luckily, you don’t need the money so you can minimize the ads and keep it a good experience. Hopefully, you can break even this year. FinCon is looking iffy to me, though. I don’t think a big gathering like that will be safe in September. 🙁
I’m sure you’re right, but if I do the tasks smarter and more successful people (such as yourself) seem to recommend those tasks are literally the same ones I do for my day job that I feel like are chipping away at my soul (not to be overly dramatic or anything 😉 ), but then it would feel like a job, which for me is the opposite of fun. And that’s not worth more money to me at this point.
And yeah I’m not sure about FinCon. If it isn’t (or shouldn’t) happen and I’m able to get refunds for all that I might just break even – we shall see! I’ll keep being transparent with my income and expenses (blogging and everything else included) in my annual recap posts that come out in December.
Great post. I experimented with blogging with a free wordpress site and a total of 2 writings. Between the time it took me to write, edit, find pictures, edit said pictures and whatnot I decided it was not for me especially since I spent way too much time in front of a screen for a 20 year career. I just didn’t care enough to want to learn and I found my own perfectionism creeping into the writing/editing process. Now I just write in word document when I feel like writing and every now and again share to Angela’s site. 🙂
I wonder too, if your mindset would change if your intention were to make money and you would become more Type A about it?
I have a friend who is an entrepreneur and she came over for coffee and home made cookies 6 months ago or so and she kept telling me how good my cookies were and that I should sell them. And I was like – I like baking cookies once a month or so, eating some of them, sharing them with others and I especially love it when ppl enjoy eating them! I couldn’t imagine it to be anything more than that. For you, blogging seems to fit the same need. 🙂
It sounds like you found the right balance for you and a way to do what you like (write) without the other stuff (thanks Angela haha)! I suspect I would be more Type A about it if I was trying to make money since every mistake would push against that goal. That’s also why I’ve never wanted to be an entrepreneur (or turn anything into a cookie shop 😉 ) – you don’t know which opportunity will help you pay your bills so you have to do ALL of them. A steady paycheck is way more my speed 🙂 .
You know, it’s weird, I am not sure I have a dream job anymore. I have blogged forever and make no money from it, but that’s a labor of love, and I do it because I enjoy it and the community it usually builds. But it has never really paid for itself so I’ve never called it a job. And honestly, if I DID want it to break even, I would have to take steps that make it not-fun for me anymore so turning it into a job may not be in the cards for me.
Partly I stopped equating “job” with “a thing I do because I love it” but rather “a thing I do to get paid”. They shouldn’t be mutually exclusive but at some point they stopped overlapping. Mostly I don’t think I can accept a “job” that doesn’t pay because my experience with being poor and underpaid was pretty excruciating. I wasn’t the kind of underpaid that could afford it with any kind of subsidy or nest egg to fall back on, it was the kind where the lights get turned off if you’re not working overtime to pay the bills.
And partly because I’m in a season where the dream is NOT to job! 😀 I’m sure this will pass.
For the moment, I’m excellent at the job I do have and all my preferred trappings are there: I rarely have to talk to anyone, I hire and train my people, I have a ton of independence and autonomy. It’s just hard to care about ANY job in the midst of a pandemic where I am worried about my health and that of family and friends and the general future because there are many variables we have to worry about.
Exactly! Those are two interesting definitions of a job – I feel my pessimism clouds mine a lot 😉 . They definitely shouldn’t be mutually exclusive and I’m with you on not taking a job that doesn’t pay. The stress of that seems to outweigh the possible happiness the job would bring.
And haha you’re right the dream is not a job. And agreed – I find it difficult to care about the ’emergencies’ of my colleagues and clients when they are anything but and we have an actual emergency happening around us. Ugh – keep some perspective people. Hang in there!
Can I consider Early Retirement a dream job? With the passive income from our investments covering our living costs? We get to do our own fun work at home and our investments pay us. Seems like a win, win to me.
For your job, it seems to be a recurring theme with your superiors requiring meetings, or sending emails, or asking for work late on Friday… 🙂
Haha sure! And yes unfortunately inefficiency and political bullshit is indeed a theme in my industry though I am happy to say it occurrences have decreased after I left ad agencies and went into marketing.
You’ve touched on so many things I can relate to! A few years ago I had plans of monetizing my blog, but as I ramped up my number of posts (still modestly 1x per week), I realized how much stress it was adding to my already busy schedule. (Unlike you, my perfectionist gets worse for blogging.) And after further research, I realized I’d have to get interested in a bunch of things (like you mentioned) that I wasn’t interested in. And potentially lower my integrity a touch in order to make it happen. So that was a no-go for me. I’ve come to terms with it being “just a hobby.” Maybe that will change someday, but maybe not.
I’d love a career shift, but am trying to sort out what that could possibly be. Relating super hard to your accurate (yet mildly depressing) Venn diagram about that!
Thanks for sharing all of this with us!!
Yes yes yes all around. And that lowering of integrity piece is a no go for me haha. Also “accurate yet mildly depressing” is a great phrase describing everything about me 😉 – I’m sorry it seem accurate and depressing.
it’s great to blog and not need money from the enterprise. it’s also surprising what an eclectic and diverse circle would find your work amusing or informative to keep coming back. i like that there is no real pattern to my regular readers except an independent streak.
i used to enjoy being a part-time bartender. that dream is on hold for now.
Agreed all around. The internet is a weird and fascinating place 🙂 . An independent streak is a great pattern! I don’t think I have even that – maybe someone that enjoys cursing and wild hair colors? I’m curious to know if you take up being a part-time bartender again 😉 .
Wow, 4.5 years into it already, good job. Your take on the lack of earnings for bloggers is not surprising. There is no way everybody is making money on blogging. For me starting a blog eventually came down to wanting to participate in discussions online anonymously. Also, I had some ideas I wanted to put into writing for coworkers and family to help them out.
Overall, my approach is more about having skin in the game, and building skills through application. Letting things be a little messier than I normally would is also fun. Getting used to making things and putting them out there as they are is definitely a skill I needed.
4.5 was when I monetized – it’s been almost 5 now 😉 and thank you! It sounds like you have it all figured out over there – I love it! Has your writing for coworkers and family been shared with them? Just curious 🙂 .
I think many people started blogging thinking they’ll make tons of money. When things get hard and money isn’t rolling in, they quit. That’s why there are so many blogs that disappear after one year.
For me, I never started the blog wanting to make tons of money. Any money I make is just the extra gravy. I totally agree with you that I have come to enjoy blogging a lot, especially the community part. For me, blogging has becoming a creative outlet. 🙂
That would explain how so many blogs seem to come and go quickly – I wonder if they get the idea they’ll make money quickly from assumptions, those clickbaity articles I mentioned or something else. Woohoo for blogging as a creative outlet! It also helps me organize my thoughts and remember how they’ve changed (for better or for worse 😉 ).
My dream jobs also make no money. I collect vintage clothes for a store I want to open one day at random hours. It would just be a fun project! I think it’s important to always have something going on where you feel like have autonomy.
I started my blog for creative reasons, but I eventually got in the black, because my interests lend themselves to people using my links (shopping, credit cards, etc.).
That store sounds lovely! Always having something where you feel autonomy is a great idea and something I haven’t had before. If I ever stop the blog I’m going to keep that in mind because the autonomy does feel awesome…or maybe retirement will help me feel that regardless. No idea – we shall see. That’s so awesome your interests align with ways to make money from the blog!
Do you expect to make changes after going through the blogging course?
Also, is there a service that can help you monetize the heck out of the blog (i.e handle SEO, pinterest, etc) while you just write and without changing your content? Maybe they keep half?
The only change I made after reviewing that course was that I was open to monetization because it made it seem less evil. No other changes really. As for hiring someone else to do that: That would remove the things I like about blogging because I would have to rely on others and also SEO is literally about how you write so I can’t hire that out. I would have to change what I’m writing and how and I have no interest in that. For Pinterest I could hire that out, but I actually have no interest in the traffic that comes from Pinterest – or SEO for that matter – because it’s people looking for an answer to a question – not someone who will stick around or comment or care and that’s what I enjoy.
Great post. I’m a longtime lurker in the PF blog community but recently started my own blog, which I’d been thinking about doing for years. I looked into monetizing, but first wanted to find my voice, know how often the muse struck me, and see what happened once I started publishing my nonsensical ramblings. I made the right choice for me, f’sho. And I’m pretty sure that I don’t have the desire — and certainly not the wits — necessary to enable my blog to cover our family expenses.
Thanks! And congratulations for coming out of the ‘shadows’ 😉 . I was a lurker for about 3 years before I emerged into the light – it sounds like you’re ahead of the curve 🙂 . That’s really smart to find yourself before introducing any of the monetization stuff. I checked out your site and enjoyed it – and don’t think your words are rambling or nonsensical. I’m with you on the lack of desire to make the big bucks – though I’m sure you have the wits 🙂 . Thank you for stopping by!
One reason I love this blog is because it is so genuine. I can usually tell if someone is writing a post or covering a topic for SEO. I dont trust sponsored posts at all. In fact I plan to do a series of endorsements without sponsorship.
Aww thank you!!! And yeah it’s pretty obvious 😉 . I am very skeptical of sponsored posts and personally haven’t seen any that would tempt me to ever accept one. And yep – I like to recommend things that are good regardless of payment. It’s hard enough to find good products or companies. Those that pass muster should be highlighted.
Hi,
I have written the posts on my blog for almost two years. 19 May 2018 was the date in which I created my blog and made the first post.
Till to date, I have not monetised my blog. I desire to keep it as it is. I decide on the content of the daily blog as per my prevaling thought in my mind at the point of writing.
This has been my favourite activity for the past two years. I do not know how long the daily posts on my blog will last. I can only state that I try my best given that this is still my best interest at this point of writing.
WTK
That’s awesome you found a way to make your blog work for your without any pressure to recoup your costs! And a daily post for two years – wow! That’s really impressive. Thanks for stopping by!
I think that you are too negative on the statistics. There are 31 millions bloggers in the U.S. alone. If 19% in aggregate are making decent money that is 5.89 million. That is not a small number.
I disagree 🙂 . 18% made $100… ever. It usually costs more than that to run a blog so they lost money. Also a lot of blogs don’t even monetize (based on the personal finance bloggers response thread I included above) so they’re automatically losing money. I would like to see more comprehensive statistics on this though.
It looks like you have successfully moved from a place of “need” (your “paycheck”) to a place of “want” (your blog) so congrats on that.
By not focusing on monetization you are definitely 100% authentic into the content you are sharing and this is a brave thing to be able to do. I see a lot of PF bloggers that have a ton of debt to pay off and for them, monetization sounds like a great way to tackle it. Being in a place of “want” is totally a game-changer.
That being said, would you think that sticking to a strict weekly post schedule can sound like work for some people? 😀
As for us, we are 100% in control of our content. But since we do like to experiment with life in general (a bit like Tim Ferriss :P), we see monetization as yet another thing we enjoy learning about (note: we had zero knowledge about monetization before starting our blog). Same applied to us when by learning Canvas for our infographics, or Mailchimp for our newsletter. To me, monetization is like acquiring new knowledge that we can add to our skill stack. But as I said earlier, we are not gearing our content towards what would get us the most page views, but rather what we believe people want to learn more from us. Which seems to still pay off at the end.
True! And thank you. And 100% authenticity is the goal so I’m glad to hear I’m hitting it 🙂 . I haven’t noticed debt pay off bloggers that use monetization to do so – that’s interesting. I would think the time needed to make money significant enough to do so would have a better ROI…literally anywhere else lol. Or maybe they enjoy it and would do it for free so any money at all is gravy.
As for if a weekly posting schedule would sound like to work to some people – I have no idea what other people think lol, but it’s not work to me (work as in something I don’t want to do and do for other reasons like money). My weekly posting schedule was based on when I posted without a schedule. I just looked at how often I posted before my blog was live and it was at least once a week for over a year without me declaring I had to post any number of times a week or on any specific day so I knew that rhythm matched how my brain works and for the last two years of the blog being live that’s been true.
That’s cool you like to experiment with your blog and enjoy learning new things. I’ve heard that from a few other blog friends who have basically stopped writing, but enjoy the back end stuff more. It looks like you’ve found a balance of everything which is really impressive.
Totally hear you on the SEO stuff – it would be like writing for work with all the meaningless buzz words that corporates like to see.
If I had to rely on my blog income in any way, I would not enjoy writing at all!
EXACTLY 🙂 and I’m totally with you.
I hear you on the SEO and Pinterest – they are on my Too hard to do list! I love the outlet that blogging gives me to – share my experiences, connect with others. It’s the connecting with others that has been most surprising and rewarding for me (introvert)
Congratulations on $225! You never know … could head upwards 🙂 Thank you for writing regardless of $ earned
Haha yeah – I dipped my toe in to see what they were about and ran in the other direction lol. Not for me. Sharing and connecting have definitely been the best parts of all this and I was surprised by how much I enjoy both aspects. And we’ll see about the $225 😉 . And thank you for reading!
Super interesting, but not surprising at all. This is the 2nd time I’ve blogged (started in 08) and that endeavor never took off until I did more of the technical work like SEO and running ads. Kudos to you for sticking it out this long!
’08 wow! That’s awesome. And yeah it’s not surprising, but even I was a little taken aback at how rare it seems to be to make even your expenses back based on these surveys. And thank you!