For some, blogging is simply a therapeutic idea and we love that you have zero intentions for your posts. No stress to get perfect content out there, you feel better after writing it, and maybe someone else will read it and find something restoring about it. The goal is not to get traffic (though it always feels good to know you have people viewing your work), but to get the thoughts out of your head and onto a medium that best suits you. You may pick up an advertisement to cover the cost of the hosting service, but the profit has already been made and it is more than a monetary reward.
For another portion of us, we blog with a specific intent. It maybe sales, provide resources, or network with others. For us here, we want to blog for a purpose beyond ourselves, to inspire, equip, and encourage you to use technology for ministry better. With that comes some extra expenses to the blog and a bit of a profit too. In fact, if I keep up at this pace for the year, I will have to record blogging as an income on my taxes.
I have a graph below with the break down of where the projected income has come from as well as where most of that cash goes towards in the expenses. Nothing is set in stone yet, but fingers crossed, we will see how it goes! For personal reasons, we will only be sharing with you the percentage instead of actual numbers.
It is interesting to note that a high percentage is from guest posting, that is because we have nothing to sell at seventy8 Productions (nor will we ever, it’s all free!). And because our brand is new, we cannot rely too heavily on advertisement until traffic goes up, which it is looking better every day!
The expenses, while again not written in stone, are where we see the priorities. Stuff like the hosting and apparel are already paid for, where as the contest and guest posts are always on going. What is left is simply personal income at that point. There is a fine business line of, how much goes into the blog and how much can I take for self. (Notice that we have paid guest posts, but have not done so yet? That will be changing this week! Keep your eyes open for it!)
For those that are looking to have more than just a therapeutic blog, what does your projections for the 2012 year look like?
RJ Grunewald says
Thanks for sharing so clearly what you’re looking at for income and expenses. I haven’t pursued monetizing my blog yet as I’m focusing on developing my content and growing my readers first, but I love reading about how people are making money writing about youth ministry.
seventy8Productions says
Keep up with this series and maybe an opportunity will present itself for you with monetizing your blog. *wink wink* (Visit our Facebook page and look at the sneak peek photos to find out what I’m talking about.)