How To Avoid Becoming a Money-Obsessed Blogger
January 21, 2009 by Jason
Hi. My name is Jason, and I am addicted to stats. This was my mantra for the first several months of blogging. I could not pass up a computer without checking out Sitemeter, Google Adsense and my affiliate network. Sad, I know, but true. I distinctly remember when my primary blog took off and starting earning serious money–it was my fifth month of blogging. It was the best of things, and the worst of things.
From that point forward I was borderline obsessed with earning money on my blog. Up to that point I saw blogging more as a hobby, something I took up to help make myself more accountable with my own financial life, and as a way to help others from repeating the same mistake. Little did I know the blog itself would contribute to my bottom line and help us pay off debt while supplementing my income.
My enthusiasm for earning money through blogging almost became a liability, as I was soon tempted to link to services that I had not fully tested, or to products that did not line up with what I was writing about. For the most part, I resisted that temptation, but it wasn’t easy.
Earning money from blogging has a way of spoiling you. When I first started blogging, I would have been thrilled if I earned a couple dollars a day. Now, I would consider $50 a “down day.” Nothing about my financial life has changed, only my expectations, which I have to manage constantly. Here are a few techniques I use to keep things in perspective.
1. Set small earnings goals, initially. I think a great first goal would be to earn enough from advertising to pay for your hosting, domain registration, and any other administrative costs you might have.
2. Multiply daily earnings by 30. Instead of being bummed about earning $7 yesterday, convert that to a monthly earnings of $210. Further convert that to some other expense you pay, such as car insurance, or the utility bill, that you can now pay for via blogging.
3. Consider the working capital required to make same earnings from a bank. ING Direct recently dropped their interest rates to 2.40% APY. At that rate, it would take $50,000 to generate about $3 a day. Most bloggers can easily make that with Google Adsense after a few months of writing.
And now my take on making money via blogging. Some bloggers take the position of remaining ad-free, and provide their content free of advertising. To them I say, “Good for you.” I wish I was in a position to do that, but I have a family to feed, and I spend a great deal of time writing content and administering my blogs. Pardon me if I place a few ads to compensate me for that time.
We expect no less from magazines, newspapers and media websites. Why should bloggers be held to a different standard? Having said that, try to keep ads tasteful, relevant, and present them in a way that minimally interferes with your content.
Photo by sciondriver
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I am so glad that you have started this website to help out those that are trying to get into the world of blogging. Thank you for taking the time to start with the basics. I have a question for maybe a post down the road for you. How do you go about asking companies to advertise on your site or how do companies find your site to advertise on. What are decent prices for advertising on a site? How big does your website need to be before attempting any of this.
I only have a blogspot page right now but I am averaging about 500 hits a day. I’m still small but want to move on and try new forms of advertising.
Thanks again for your time and effort you put into Frugal Dad and now Side Hustle.
Erin
iamfrugal.blogspot.com
@Erin: Several good questions that could be the subject of a future post (or two). I will tell you that if you are averaging 500 visits daily you are doing very well. You might want to consider moving to a more scalable blogging platform like WordPress. I have a few early posts here sprinkled around on the subject of finding a host, domain, etc.
In most cases, advertisers seek you out, and find you through ranking services such as Technorati or Alexa, or they simply search keyword terms of interest in Google and see which sites rank high. Advertising rates vary considerably based on size of the blog, ad position, ad size, etc. I’ll plan a future post with more details.
Good luck expanding I Am Frugal–looks like you have a great blog going!
Hi. My name is Adam, and I am addicted to stats. I really am! I have even gone as far as using a parental blocker to block statcounter, adsense, etc. I NEED TO STOP! I’m not even making $1 a day yet!
Quick question for you though. How long before a company contacts you about ads and what do you charge them? I have been blogging daily for about a month although the site has been around since last July.
@Adam: It’s hard to say. Advertisers typically begin contacting you around the time you obtain Page Rank in Google and start picking up search engine traffic. By the way, congratulations on today’s mention at MSN Smart Spending!
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/smartspending/archive/2009/01/21/what-if-you-graduate-without-a-job.aspx
I currently have my blog through wordpress. Is it a good idea to get a host and start a new domain? My wordpress domain is very simple and unattractive. I do want to begin selling ads when my readership grows. I’ve been leaning toward doing this for a couple weeks. You have a great blog here.
@Ken: I would recommend moving to a self-hosted blog via Wordpress, particularly if you are looking to monetize your blog. I’ve written here about selecting a host and some things to look for. I’m with HostGator, and found there 1-click Wordpress installations via Fantastico a breeze, but there are lots of good hosts out there. Feel free to email me if you have any questions on set up.