I just bit the bullet and renewed the hosting and domain for brokeGIRLrich for another three years. This is usually my biggest expense for this side hustle.
However, I also got hacked last month, so that was also pretty exciting. I have a confession to make, I am really bad at installing updates. The back end of my website totally freaks me out. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
Wrong. That is apparently very, very wrong with software.
So in the last few weeks, my blog has cost me almost $1,000. Ugh. This is a way higher operating cost than usual.
As I sighed and kept forking over my credit card number, I wondered if this was really worth it?
I broke down the income from brokeGIRLrich a couple of years ago, but I thought it was kind of time for a blogging update.
Blogging isn’t a get rich quick (or maybe ever?) scheme. Instead, it’s like a strange little passion project that just might bring in some money eventually.
I wrote for the majority of two years without making a dime on a self-imposed, slightly insane, three times a week schedule.
Some Great Things About Blogging:
*It’s really flexible. I’ve been all over the world since I started this blog, and as long as I have a laptop and WiFi, I can run this blog.
Sometimes that meant getting up at 6:00 AM on crazy work weeks to get posts written and formatted. Sometimes I write 9 posts in advance because I know work isn’t going to even give me the time to get up at 6:00 AM and write. Sometimes I frantically write borderline insane, stream of thought posts an hour before the post needs to go up on my site.
Mind bogglingly enough, the posts I think are the worst often get the best reception. The ones I spend months researching barely get read. I still don’t understand this part of blogging.
*It keeps me totally accountable about my money. For me to keep writing about finance for six years has meant I’ve had to keep learning about finance for six years. Also, my monthly accountability updates have probably been the number one thing that has put my finances in order and helped me become so stable.
*The personal finance community is pretty great. Yes, there are some douche bags telling you your lattes, and only your lattes, are making you broke. And some ridiculously judge-y jerks. But some of the most amazing and inspiring people are in this community too. Whenever I need a dose of some financial inspiration, these are a few of the folks I love to read:
- Budgets Are Sexy
- Budget and the Beach
- The $76K Project
- Bitches Get Riches
- The Lady in the Black
- Debt Discipline
- Super Savings Tips
- Femme Frugality
I think you’re safe from the judge-y latte haters if you start with that crowd.
*I make some money. It fluctuates wildly (see below), but it’s still sort of crazy to me that this blog has made me the equivalent of a new car over the last few years. And, like a Prius, not a Kia. Dude, I was excited when it hit Kia numbers though.
*Once you’ve established your blog and your audience, there are a lot of ways you can scale it up and make more money, if you want to put in the time and effort.
Some Hard Things About Blogging:
*I just have to do it. No one would yell at me if a post didn’t turn up at 8 AM EST three times a week. But, I also know me and if I break that pattern, it’s going to be the beginning of the end.
*Sometimes, I have nothing to say. I just stare at the blank word document and think “I cannot write about budgets again and all I did this month was spend too much, so what the heck am I going to write about?” It happens a lot.
*Sometimes some asshole hackers hack into your site and you just have to throw money at the problem to fix it.
*You have to persist for months or even years before anyone starts to read your site. And then even longer before it can make any money.
*You have to sort through all the different ways to make money and see which ones you feel comfortable with.
*All of the back end. Or maybe it’s not? But to me it is. Whenever I need work done of the site, I just outsource it, which really hasn’t been too bad.
However you slice it, this is a personal finance site here, so I thought some numbers might help too. I mean, you can go back through all my accountability posts and note how much brokeGIRLrich made each month and how much she cost, or I can do it for you:
To set up brokeGIRLrich, I spent:
- Domain Registration (it wasn’t included back then) – $22.51
- Hosting – $286.56
- WordPress – FREE
- Technical Assistance installing WordPress – $5
- Blog Header Design – $80
brokeGIRLrich Start Up Fees – $394.09
Additional fees since then:
- Hosting Renewal 2016 – $296.20
- InLinkz for 3 Years – $107.64
- Miscellaneous – $619.18
- Blogging Courses – $775.86
- Hack Repair – $635.50
Additional Fees – $1,023.02
Miscellaneous was a little hard to sort out because if I didn’t leave a comment in the Accountability section of my post, I don’t always know what it was for. I can say that I know I bought several blogging books and that I paid for a redesign of my header and logos during that time, so all of that is likely a part of the spending, as well as renewing my domain registration and one more 3 year hosting renewal in 2019.
- July 2013 = $0\$0.00
- August 2013 = $0\$0.00
- September 2013 = $0\$0.00
- October 2013 = -$394.09\-$394.09
- November 2013 = $0\-$394.09
- December 2013 = $0\-$394.09
- January 2014 = $0\-$394.09
- February 2014 = $0\-$394.09
- March 2014 = $0\-$394.09
- April 2014 = $0\-$394.09
- May 2014 = $0\-$394.09
- June 2014 = $0\-$394.09
- July 2014 = $107.51\-$286.58
- August 2014 = $10.92\-$275.66
- September 2014 = $0\-$275.66
- October 2014 = $1.14\-$274.52
- November 2014 = $195.80\-$79.00
- December 2014 = $96.80\$17.80
- January 2015 = $305.26\$323.06
- February 2015 = $180\$503.06
- March 2015 = $100\$603.06
- April 2015 = $225\$828.06
- May 2015 = $303.08\$1,131.14
- June 2015 = $179.71\ $1,310.85
- July 2015 = $429.06\$1,739.91
- August 2015 = $0\$1,739.91
- September 2015 = $779.85\$2,519.76
- October 2015 = $754.25\$3,274.01
- November 2015 = $508.50\$3,782.51
- December 2015 = $777.23\$4,559.74
- January 2016 = $475\$5,034.74
- February 2016 = $637.40\$5,672.14
- March 2016 = $638.62\$6,310.76
- April 2016 = $132.47\$6,443.23
- May 2016 = $593.81\$7,037.04
- June 2016 = $685.75\$7,722.79
- July 2016 = $1,439.80\$9,162.59
- August 2016 = $900.90\$10,063.49
- September 2016 = $736.66\$10,800.15
- October 2016 = $644.98\$11,445.13
- November 2016 = $385.20\$11,830.33
- December 2016 = $844.08\$12,674.41
- January 2017 = $221.80\$12,896.21
- February 2017 = $195.80\$13,092.01
- March 2017 = $1,227.76\$14,319.77
- April 2017 = $1,499.80\$15,819.57
- May 2017 = $667.10\$16,486.67
- June 2017 = $744.26\$17,230.93
- July 2017 = $671.90\$17,902.83
- August 2017 = $695.12\$18,597.95
- September 2017 = $592.72\$19,190.67
- October 2017 = $622.21\$19,812.88
- November 2017 = $960.82\$20,773.70
- December 2017 = $1,359.04\$22,132.74
- January 2018 = $1,575.12\$23,707.86
- February 2018 = $1,125.87\$24,833.73
- March 2018 = $1,622.80\$26,456.53
- April 2018 = $408.84\$26,865.37
- May 2018 = $1,568.83\$28,434.20
- June 2018 = $961.08\$29,395.28
- July 2018 = $676.61\$30,071.89
- August 2018 = $586.49\$30,658.38
- September 2018 = $603.90\$31,262.28
- October 2018 = $754.51\$32,016.59
- November 2018 = $797.24\$32,813.83
- December 2018 = $463.24\$33,277.07
- January 2019 = $762.04\$34,039.11
- February 2019 = $827.45\$34,866.56
- March 2019 = $611.82\$35,478.38
- April 2019 = $892.77\$36,371.15
- May 2019 = $619.98\$36,991.13
- June 2019 = $423.72\$37,414.85
brokeGIRLrich total income after 6 years: $37,414.85
Some Things I Think I Did Right:
*I just persisted. I started the blog for me, really, as an accountability tool, which helped me keep going in the beginning.
*I set a schedule from the get go and just stuck to it. I’ve seen two main schools of thought in posting – post when you have amazing content with something great to say orpost on a set schedule no matter what. I couldn’t have done the first way. I needed the framework of the second way. Sometimes posts are great. Sometimes they’re terrible (sorry), but overall, they have been getting better over the years.
*There’s an incredible course called the Elite Blog Academythat is pretty much nothing but success stories. It sounds borderline scammy, but I’ve met Ruth, the creator, and she just really freaking nailed how to build and market her blog, and her Academy explains all of it. The thing is, it’s really expensive and only at a certain time of year. Like… I’m not sure what it is now, around 2014 it was almost $500 and I think a lot more than that now. I think there’s a solid chance the course is worth it, but the thing that I did that was right was to buy her book, How to Blog for Profit Without Selling Your Soulfor $10 instead and it was the best blogging book I bought when I was starting out.
*I made a fancy shmancy media kit to send out when people want to know my advertising rates. It looks better and I have to haggle less. I just respond with an email that says:
Thanks for reaching out! I do accept sponsored posts/sidebar ads/etc. I’ve attached my media kit for you to get a better idea of my readership and my rates, please let me know if you’re still interested!
Yes, some people still write back with some ridiculous lowball amount. I just respond:
I’m sorry, but I’m set on my prices. If your budget ever increases, please let me know! Until then, best of luck!
And then if they keep being obnoxious, I ignore them.
Some Things I’d Do Differently:
*Looking back, if I were to redo it, I’d totally do Tuesday/Thursdays instead of Monday/Wednesday/Friday, and while I suppose I could change my posting schedule anytime, even after all these years, I still live in fear of missing a single post and then entire routine collapsing.
*I’d take a blogging course when I was first starting out, not several years into blogging. Something like the Pro-Blogging Secrets,which I took about four years into blogging and barely learned anything new, would’ve been really valuable in the first six months I was blogging.
*I also wouldn’t have waited to take the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course for five years, because while it’s still excellent, it would’ve been excellent and really helpful for better understanding that revenue source much sooner. I’d say at around a year in would’ve been the right time to take that course.
So to recap, if you’re interested in starting your own blog:
- Pick your topic.
- Name your blog.
- Buy the domain name.
- Sign up for a free WordPress site.
- Sign up for your social media handles.
- Set your posting schedule.
- Read How to Blog for Profit Without Selling Your Soul.
- After posting for a few months (decide in advance, I went with three), upgrade your site to a paid hosting account (I use HostGator. BluHost is also a good starter hosting company).
- Take the Pro-Blogging Secrets course, or a similar starter blogging course. Or scour the internet for blogging info. You can find everything in the Pro-Blogging Secrets course for free, but it does take a lot of time.
- Make a media kit.
- Build up your readers using the tactics you find online, in blogging books, and through any courses you take.
- If you want to make money with your blog, take a course like Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I’d wait a little while though until you know you’re really committed to blogging.
