$10k Challenge: Start a Blog

Here's another idea for those of you playing along with my quest to raise an additional $10k this year in income -- extra income outside my regular job. (The numbers I ran show that making this amount and socking it away year after year can yield quite a sizeable next egg.) What's the idea? Start a blog, of course! Here's what CareerJournal has to say about making money by having a blog:

Most self-employed bloggers take in between $2,000 and $10,000 a month from ad sales, says Henry Copeland, founder of BlogAds.com, a Web advertising concern based in Carrboro, N.C. The few that have huge audiences make significantly more, he adds. During election time, for example, a political blogger can bring in $20,000 to $30,000 a month, says Ken Layne, West Coast bureau chief for Wonkette.com, a political gossip blog owned by Gawker Media.

Ha! I wish it was that easy! ;-)

Then again, you can earn a decent side income with a blog -- if you do it the right way. For my thoughts on how to start and run a successful blog, check out How to Get Your Blog to 100,000 Visitors and Beyond.

Comments

[Big Cheese]

Dear FMF,

How much money do you make a month on this blog? I've clicked a few of your ads and should have helped your revenue. You don't have to tell all just give a ballpark number.

Many thanks,

BC

[FMF]

BC --

First of all, I give all my blog revenue (not profit, revenue, I pay the blog's costs myself) to charity. See this link for details:

http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2007/01/2006_charities_.html

Secondly, I don't reveal actual revenue numbers, but I'm in the low to mid five figures in annual revenue.

[Minimum Wage]

Wow, I didn't realize there's that much potential in blogging. Well darn it, people have said I can write reasonably well (if not well enough to get a JOB writing), so this is definitely worth a shot.

[Big Cheese]

FMF,

Thanks for the reference to the other post. Good job and keep it up!

-Big Cheese

[Matt]

I'd be interested to see how that number really breaks down - are a few really successful bloggers bringing that number artificially high? The next thing I'd love to see is a traffic/income breakdown; I'm sure it changes per topic but it would be interesting to see such info.

Good luck getting to 10K extra income.

[Joey]

(sorry for the late comment)

Making an extra $10k from blogging sounds like a great idea. Curious what hourly wage you think you earn from blogging? In other words, if you consider all of the hours you spend on writing, maintenance, research, etc., how much would you say you bring in per hour?

[FMF]

Joey --

That's a good question. I did a rough calculation and at this point it's somewhere in the $30-$40 per hour range.

[JC Rockafella]

Hi,

I found your blog the other day and was very impressed. I have recently decided to start a blog as preliminary research for a financial advice website, can you give me some tips for promoting my blog?

Best regards,

JC Rockafella

[FMF]

JC --

See this link for details:

http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2005/12/how_to_get_your.html

[Julie]

I was just looking at your comment about how you were making in the "low to mid five figures in annual revenue" over a year ago and wonder how much your revenue is increasing as your readership is increasing?

I also find it very comendable that you give it all to charity...not many (including myself) would be so generous.

[FMF]

Julie --

I'm now in the solid mid five-figures and working toward the high five-figures. :-)

[Julie]

Thank you for sharing that info. I am planning on starting a blog, for hopefully some side income, and though I know it will be a lot of work, you and others are inspiring. Happy New Year.