Madigan made… an announcement about a few blog changes.
Not sure if you noticed… but I’m a bit of a ‘thinker’ about my blog.
I’ve told you about why I don’t want to do giveaways and that I need to avoid following every craft trend. I shared why I’m not ready to host a regular link party and general blogging advice.
And, of course, I have an opinion on monetizing this blog!
After a great deal of deliberation… I’ve decided to accept some compensation on this blog and I wanted to explain why.
I thought you should know why I hesitated for so long to monetize. When I tell people how long I’ve been blogging and the type of monthly traffic I get… many are surprised that I haven’t set up anything yet.
Why I didn’t monetize at first:
- I wanted to grow my blog and make sure I could “keep it up”
- Before I started to accept money here, I wanted to be sure I could continue to produce content and projects. And you know what? After 1.5 years later and a blog slump I think I’ve shown that I can!
- I feared I might not “love it” any more.
- This reason scared me the most. Like a ton. No, really! I already have a day job… I don’t need another one that I feel obligated to. I certainly hope that I can make a little money doing something that I love (who wouldn’t?). But the minute I hate blogging and feel like I ‘have’ to post just to help make more money, I’m out.
- It looked like a lot of work.
- Send several bills out to people for $10 a month and write a sponsor post for each OR work on a fun craft and write? I can tell you what I’d prefer to do! And let’s not even get into the paperwork for tax time, too! This effort is also why I’ve waited so long to monetize. I’m hoping that my traffic and blog size will make it worth the steps and paperwork involved in monetization.
- I hated clutter.
- Just like my home, everything I add on this blog needs to be pretty or serve a purpose.. or both. I really disliked the look of loads of ads on a blog. But I’ve slowly realized that those ads do serve a purpose for bloggers trying to make a living doing this. And I have seen some blogs that tastefully and neatly incorporate their ads.
Despite the reasons above, I started to realize that a little compensation for what I do here might not be a bad thing.
My reasons to monetize now:
- Blogging costs add up.
- So far, my actual out of pocket expenses in the past 1.5 years have been minimal. I already owned a pretty good camera before I started blogging. Blogger is free. The only things I’ve spent out of my own pocket so far are:
- Domain name: $10 / year got my very own url.
- Photo storage space: about $20-25 / year
- Tripod: $40 (but I will use it for other things)
- Two blogging workshops: $35
- Business cards: $20
- I can’t count my crafting supplies… because I likely would still be going to the dollar store or fabric store if I did not blog. In fact, I may have gone to those stores more… since I would have had more time!
- But if I want this blog to continue to grow, I may need to pay for a few more things (read below).
- So far, my actual out of pocket expenses in the past 1.5 years have been minimal. I already owned a pretty good camera before I started blogging. Blogger is free. The only things I’ve spent out of my own pocket so far are:
- Blogging takes time.
- Blogging is a hobby and it is a ton of fun. But blogging takes up a ton of time. I know it is highly unlikely I could quit my day job to blog (it would be nice, wouldn’t it?). But it would be helpful to make a little pocket change to feed my crafting habits!
- Blogging is a hobby and it is a ton of fun. But blogging takes up a ton of time. I know it is highly unlikely I could quit my day job to blog (it would be nice, wouldn’t it?). But it would be helpful to make a little pocket change to feed my crafting habits!
- I want to be able to grow this blog.
- In order for this blog to grow more… additional things may need to happen. And all of them cost money.
- Conferences
- I plan to attend a blog conference to meet and engage other DIY bloggers. I could learn more… It would be refreshing for me… and in turn, that energy would come back here on this blog.
- Transfer to WordPress? Maybe?
- I love Blogger. Blogger is great for a new blog… but there are some limitations with Blogger as your blog grows. Making the jump to WordPress would help, but hosting costs money.
- Set up a “real” blog design.
- As much as I loved learning html and blog design on my own… this site could use a little polishing and cleaning up. I know a couple of talented graphic designers who could take this site to the next level and beyond.
So, I’m going to try the monetization thing. My goal is to utilize ads and compensation that gives me the most bang for my buck while still being easy to maintain and not to disruptive for you, the reader.
Seems like an unrealistic wish, right? Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing! We will see!
In order to make a little extra money, I plan to work with 1 or 2 third party ad networks for now. Look for the changes soon.
I may be open to sponsored posts or affiliate networks down the road. I also plan to consider working with some brands for product and/or compensation. My plan is that these posts will be few and far between and all of this would be disclosed with you, of course.
If you read this blog, you may know that I do not like to create things just to blog about them. It is important for me not to ‘blog-on-the-bandwagon.’ That was a hard lesson I learned this past spring.
I also do not like clutter and free stuff… just because it is free, doesn’t mean I need it. We have a small house and I am picky about what I bring into my home.
So, if I work with a product or company, it will be because it is something I think I can really use in our home and that you might be interested in it.
Do I like to play with new craft mediums and techniques? Absolutely.
Do I want to share some of these with you? Sure!
I still do not plan to host giveaways.
Right now, I’m not selling individual paid advertising spots. I may in the future. After interviewing some of my blog friends… there appears to be a lot of work and effort involved in maintaining those ad spots. I’m not sure my traffic and numbers can support the cost I would want to charge for that effort. Plus, I’m trying to keep the look of this blog as clean and uncluttered as I can. One or two larger ads is preferred to me visually versus lots of little ads.
According to Heather (of the huge blog Dollar Store Crafts), I could make more money working at McDonald’s than I could blogging.
But… even if I’m only making a few nickels (or pennies!)… it would be nice to get a little payback for the time I invest here.
We’ve all had that blog we love go ‘too commercial’ for our tastes. I hope you won’t find this transition too jarring and I hope you understand my rationale.
At the end of the day, remember that I’m just a gal who loves to write, create and take photos to share with you. And I wouldn’t mind making a wee bit of money doing something that I love. Hey, isn’t that everyone’s dream?
P.S. I updated my disclosure policy, too!
