Short Answer: YES.
Long Answer: Yes, but only a little bit and I haven't gotten any of it yet...
READ ON!
Blogging without trying to make money is very time consuming. Coming up with quality content every single day is fun, but it definitely takes time. I couldn't imagine trying to blog and make money from it! I guess that's because I already have a full time job and two part time jobs. I don't want to make blogging my third part time job!
That being said, I have technically made money off my blog- but I haven't gotten it yet!
Allow me to explain...
You may have noticed I have an ad on the right hand sidebar. I put AdSense there on November 28, 2013. I am embarrassed to tell you the reason I put an ad on my blog, but I'll tell you anyway. I thought it would make my blog look more "legit". So many of the blogs I read contained several ads. I thought putting an ad on my blog would make it look "official". (I was so silly with my logic.) I didn't add a million advertisements because I didn't want them to be distracting and I didn't want it to take forever for the page to load.
The ad has been up for almost a year, so 11 months later I have earned... $19.40!!!! Woohoo!!!
The funny thing is, AdSense doesn't pay you until you reach $100. So at this rate, I should be getting a check from AdSense in about 4 years! Do you think I will still have my blog in 4 years?
Now, if I had put 5 ads on my page, I maybe would have earned $100 by now. But at what cost? Annoying ads flying up all over the place? Video ads with sound that automatically play? Believe me, I know how annoying that is! (Ask Paul about the time he was accidentally woken up by a Vagisil commercial at five-thirty in the morning. I have to remember to turn the sound off of my computer!)
I don't think there is anything wrong with earning money from your blog. For some people, it is a job. Or, just a simple(???) way to make some side cash. I mean, all I had to do was spend 10 minutes putting that AdSense advertisement up, and look! Not even one year later and I can use that money to go out for sushi! (Paul will have to buy his own sushi though, not sure I can cover both of us!)
I have earned money from my blog but I do the minimal amount of work to earn it so the amount I earn is minimal! It's not even enough to cover my annual hosting costs, but that's okay! Since marketing and online advertising is my real job, I have to make sure I don't cross the line where I feel like I am doing work for my blog since blogging is supposed to be for fun! I actively do not do many things for my blog that I *would* do if I were a client of mine. It's sometimes hard to not do those things since they are ingrained in my brain as "necessary" but if blogging ever feels like a job I will stop doing it immediately!
ReplyDeleteI hope you are still blogging four years from now!!!!!!!!
It is good you can keep your job and your blog separate. but I can see how that would be difficult to do! I hope I am blogging 4 years from now as well because it is funnnnn!
DeleteI always read your blog on my phone so now I feel bad that I never see your ad!
ReplyDeletelol do not feel bad. I only make money if someone clicks on it (aka accidentally clicks on it... no one would click it purposefully) and even then I think I make 1/10th of 1 cent hahaha!
DeleteOne of my clients is in the health and wellness field and I have see Adsense pop up their ads on your blog. It always makes me smile when I see it there, haha. I am sorry that you are only earning pennies from it! If they ever do a blogger outreach program I will try to get you a real sponsorship, I think you would like what they offer! :)
DeleteThat is HILARIOUS!!! That's me, the little guy working for the big guys!!! :) My Adsense ad is usually something related to personal training, running shoes, or "fitness singles"... I don't know why, I am not single, not would I go on a website that suggests that I'm single!
DeleteI wish I made money from my blog! I work for a nonprofit and could definitely use some more income (but couldn't we all!).
ReplyDeleteI've sort of accepted the fact that it's just not going to happen. I don't have the time to pour into creating original content, and I don't have the graphic design or photography skills to create attractive visual content. I'm also not popular enough to get a huge following that companies would want me to endorse products. If I were a whiz at creating unique recipes or something (aka something that would get me a zillion hits a day), maybe I'd give it a shot. But the cards are stacked against me, so a hobby it will remain :-)
Plus, and maybe I just say this because I'm bitter that I can't make money off my blog (haha), I feel like having to obsess over stats and traffic would take away from what my blog is really all about.Like Kristina said, at the end of the day it's supposed to be fun, not work.
I looked into Google AdSense back in the day, and I knew that it wouldn't be worth it for me because I wouldn't get enough traffic to make it worthwhile. I also think it's total BS that they don't pay you until you hit $100.
Alright I'm done with my novel of a response :-) Congrats on your $20!! WHOO!!
The $100 thing IS BS!!! haha. It should be $100 OR every six months or something. I understand they don't want to be depositing $1.40 into my account ever month, what a waste of time.
DeleteLike you mentioned, it would be soooo time consuming to create the type of content and pictures etc to get a huge following. If blogging were our only job, I am sure it would be possible! I mean, if I worked on my blog as much as I actually WORKED I would hope I'd have a bigger following. But then again it may not be as fun. :)
Taking the time to make money off of my blog sounds way too complicated. I started blogging as a hobby and a way to make new friends and I think it is going to stay that way!
ReplyDeleteSame here! I am sure it is complicated at first, but maybe once you develop a system or something it is easier? We need someone to comment who makes $$$ off their blog to school us on how time consuming it is/isn't!
DeleteI could probably write a behind the scenes type post about this b/c of my job ... I can say that the REALLY big bloggers who are making major money have teams that help them with every little thing from ghost writing blog posts, to producing their videos, to having a photographer follow them around almost 24/7 to capture content for the blog to having management teams handle their PR/endorsements to having interns who reply to their fan emails. It's a full on production!
DeleteWow I can't imagine that. Truly a full time job plus some!
DeleteInteresting perspective Kristina! That sounds intense. I have always wondered how some bloggers manage to capture every single moment they talk about on photo. I'm not much of a pic-snapper myself, but I imagine that must be exasperating for them. Now I know their dirty secrets!! Hehe
DeleteIt can be stressful I would imagine.
DeleteMeg, like you mentioned, we usually recommend they set up a schedule. For example, say a fashion blogger normally posts a Saturday Shoes post (totally made that up) we'll suggest they shoot 4 to 6 weeks of images / video for that Saturday Shoes series in one day.
Putting together a process helps them with post preparation and is cost effective since they can hire a photographer/makeup artist/stylist/whatever they want or need just for one day. Most of these types of services are sold on a half day or full day basis so the more the blogger can get out of that time the more cost effective it is for them.
Obviously everything mentioned above is just general info - many bloggers will be their own stylist, etc.
I would say the service we get asked about most is ghost blogging and writing schedulable social media posts. This frees up the bloggers ability to attend meetings, work on sponsored stories and just generally do things that make them money more than AdSense ads do! ;)
Also, I am talking about REALLY big bloggers/youtubers. Even bloggers like Kath Eats Real Food Hungry Runner Girl with their fairly big audiences are still pretty small time compared to someone like Zoella.
You are such a wealth of information, Kristina. I have been curious about your job and what type of work you do... now I have a little insight. :) I was laughing at myself though... Paul and I used to shoot 3 Sunday Funday workout videos all at once so they'd be done for the next several weeks (a la your "saturday shoe example")... well, as you can see, we stopped doing that!
DeleteThis is so interesting!!
DeleteI usually work with small to medium sized companies in boring industries, but I LOVE when I get to work with d-list celebrities/bloggers :)
DeleteI DID notice that you stopped doing Sunday Funday workout videos and hope that you bring them back at some point!
I am having trouble coming up with ideas and I don't want to say "do this" just to give me a reason to post a video. I need to get my creative juices flowing.
DeleteDList celebs that is soooooo cool!!!! I wish you could tell us all about them. :)
I use adsense but like you it takes forever to make anything from it. There are other affiliate links too and some people do really well with this, but I haven't figured it out yet. I make most of my income from my blog from sponsored posts and links in posts.
ReplyDeleteYou should charge us to watch your awesome videos you make- I would pay for those!
DeleteI just blog as a hobby and a way to connect with other runners. I tend to look at it as an interactive journal for running...I wonder how much a "professional" blogger makes?
ReplyDeleteI have no clue but I would love to know!
DeleteWorking in the biz, I can tell you that some professional bloggers/vloggers who have agencies and management teams, etc. can make upwards of $30,000 PER MONTH. I haven't seen anyone in the fitness space make that much though unless she/he sells physical products as well as products blog posts/vlogs every time. Fashion bloggers make major bank, that's where the big $ is at!
Delete*produces blog posts/vlogs every day.
DeleteDang, that is A LOT OF MONEY.
DeleteI don't make money off of my blog at all. Obviously. Otherwise I'd put more time and energy into it. I've been blogging since I was 15 and since then have had about 3 different ones, all with different topics. Now that I am older and don't want to air my dirty laundry, I keep it to fitness/what I did during the week. When I was a child, I would complain about failed relationships, my secret feelings, ect. Now I keep those feelings for my private journal.
ReplyDeleteOn a completely separate note, I am SO jealous that you've seen NSYNC!!!
I used to have a LiveJournal and I recently went back and read it... I was mortified to see what I would write about! And I was in COLLEGE! That is cool that you keep a private journal. I used to do that growing up, so I have a ton of them in my basement, but not anymore. The older I get, the less I want to write out my feelings for some reason.
DeleteNSYNC was awesome! I went by myself. My boyfriend at the time dropped me off and waited in the parking lot until it was over and then took me home! What a guy! But I went to a lot of concerts with him that were NOT up my alley... like Neil Young and Blues Traveler... so I guess we were even. :)
Before I started blogging I thought I wanted to make money blogging. Then I started blogging and meeting people and realized that I just enjoy the whole experience -it is a hobby and a way to meet some really great people (for me) and that is enough. Plus, I don't want the pressure of having to write about certain things or at certain times - this way I can just do what works with my life.
ReplyDeleteThose are all very good reasons to just blog for a hobby and go with the flow. I am the same way in that I want to write about what I want to write about WHEN I want to write about it. I do enjoy your blog Kim because it is truly what you are thinking and feeling at that time!
DeleteMaking money out of blogging just sounds like so much work to me - I blog because I enjoy it, I don't ever want it to feel like work or a 'chore'. That being said, if my blog does someday generate me some money I'm hardly going to complain!
ReplyDeleteSame here! Like if a company contacted me and said "free running shoes if you give an honest review" I'd be like... sure!
DeleteI also use google adsense but haven't gotten paid yet! I think it will take awhile but I do have 4-5 ads up. Its very rare that anyone clicks them but I really didn't want them to interfere with how my page loads. I don't think it causes a problem but I'm not really sure! I feel like if having ads on my page doesn't hurt my blog then getting some money (even if years later) is an added bonus to a hobby that I enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThose are my concerns too- page loading and interfering with content. I hate when I can't tell what is on a blog is THE blog, or an advertisement. Your's loads fine on my computer and my computer is slooooooooow as molasses, so if it works on mine, you know you are golden!
DeleteOoooh, you're ROLLING in the dough!! hehe
ReplyDeleteI don't put ads on my blog because I don't want to them to annoy people...and I don't want to have to deal with the possible taxes. And I kind of like my small audience...what if ads somehow make me popular, and then I'd have an image to keep up with?!
Uh oh do you think I have to pay taxes on my 19.40? I didn't even think of that. FREAKING BIG BROTHER!
DeleteThank you for reading. :) I love reading your blog too! I always check for it, so don't worry about not posting consistently. It just makes us want it MORE :)
ReplyDelete