Like previous blogiversaries, we’re gonna use this week as an excuse to take a look at the business side of blogging (at least as we know it). As you’ve probably gathered by now, we never intended to start a business when we wrote our first post back in Sept 2007, nor did we ever construct a formal business plan. So this whole adventure has been a learn as we go / roll with the punches / adjust along the way / insert more cliches here kind of deal. And just like we don’t claim to be DIY experts or trained interior designers (we’re just two people with a chihuahua and a baby), we’re not about to pretend that we’re the savviest business people out there either. But like everything else we do, we’re just gonna share our experiences in an effort to help someone out there who might be trying to grow their blog… or is just curious about what we do all day.
We’ve lightly touched on some of this info in past blogiversary posts, but this year we’ve added a lot more details along with some new visuals: PIE CHARTS. Oh yeah, you read that right. Sherry’s math-teacher dad is about to do the happy dance. So get your fork out and prepare to dig in.
Let’s start with a look at how we spend our time… a slice (har-har) of which was somewhat encapsulated in yesterday’s day in the life post. But this is a more global look at all the things we do as opposed to the somewhat random and always-changing things that we do in a day. Oh and to be clear, this is a look at when goes into running Young House Love (so it excludes things like parenting a sixteen month old and other general I’m-an-adult duties like cooking and cleaning). Behold, a very simplified / approximated breakdown (all the pie charts in this post are very general guesses, btw):
The main thing that might surprise you here is that we actually spend a very pretty small sliver of our time actually doing projects (aka “DIYing”). In fact, some weeks it feels like we barely have any more time to tackle our to-do list than we did back when we both had full-time jobs in advertising (that was pre-Clara too, so we might have had more energy, haha). Our weekends (along with weeknights after 7:30 when Clara’s in bed) are still our most productive days in terms of making house progress because the blog is “quieter” (as we say around here). So we can focus more on tasks and less on answering comments and proofing & posting posts. But that pie chart isn’t complicated enough, so…
Here’s a further breakdown of the breakdown above (yup, we broke down a breakdown) to give you a better sense of what we really do within those general categories:
INTERACTING:
- Comments: Our philosophy is that if you take the time to read what we write, the least we can do is return the favor. So we manually moderate all comments so that one of us – usually Sherry – can read it before it risks getting lost in the count and so that we can answer any questions that come up (the only exception to this is giveaway entries, which get approved in bulk since they routinely top 3K and actually topped 10K yesterday, and stopped loading, so we had to start a second giveaway post). Yes, it’s time consuming. And no, it’s probably not the most efficient system. But being part of the conversation on our blog is very important to us and we hate leaving any question unanswered. Farming that duty out to someone like an intern just feels too “answering service” to us, so we’re happy to stay grass roots and hands on.
- Twitter, Facebook & Email: Similarly, we try to be as responsive as possible on other social media. We don’t hover on our Facebook page as much as we used to, but we still try to poke in to respond where needed. And Hootsuite helps us track @mentions on Twitter so we can do our best not to let a tweet question or comment flutter by unnoticed.
WRITING:
- Posts: Well duh, a blog has to have posts right? We’re wordy and we know it (clap your hands!), so this is another major chunk of blogging. And we write around 35 a month, so it keeps us busy. But we’re not sure how you can be a good blogger without spending a good portion of time on your posts. Plus it’s our first love, along with DIY. Writing posts is what we used to do on nights and weekends after long days of working in advertising just for fun. And we still feel that way – it’s a good time.
- BabyCenter & Do It Yourself Magazine: We’ve been lucky enough that writing our blog has spawned other writing gigs, like our weekly post on BabyCenter’s Momformation blog and a regular column in BHG’s Do It Yourself Magazine. So between coordinating those with our bosses over there, coming up with ideas, writing them, taking photos (or briefing an illustrator or photographer in the case of DIY), and answering comments (on BabyCenter), they’re sort of a part time job on their own.
- Book: We’re writing a 260+ page book (due out in Fall of 2012) full of hundreds of projects and photos (more on that here). Some weeks this slice of pie should be muuuch bigger, and some a little smaller. Now that we have 90% of our manuscript turned in (whew!), this slice may actually get permanently larger since it’s time to actually do all of the projects that we talked about and have them photographed at our house by a pro before Christmas (yes, hundreds of them). Should be interesting…
DIY-ING:
- Projects: This is the actual doing of stuff to our house, which we then blog about. Most of these projects might have gotten done even if we didn’t have a blog (DIY is just something we love)… but we definitely take on projects sooner, faster, more thoroughly, and with more gusto than we may have if we didn’t have an audience. The fact that you guys are watching adds pressure, but it’s the good kind that keeps us going. Promise. You guys = momentum.
- Gathering Supplies: This is the part that makes us best friends with the employees at our local thrift stores, home improvement stores, craft stores, fabric stores, lighting outlets, etc. Sometimes running errands (aka: gathering supplies) can take less than an hour. Sweet. And sometimes it can take more than a day to track down something we need. Hunting stuff is always kind of a wild card item on the to-do list. But you know what they say about the thrill of the chase…
PHOTOGRAPHING:
- Photo Taking: Sometimes this is just taking a few moments during each step of a project to snap a few shots. Sometimes it’s cleaning up and styling rooms for “after shots” or “house tour” pictures (Hurricane Clara can leave quite a mess before we swoop in and straighten up so you guys don’t have to stare at a giant stack of books in front of the new desk that we built). This also includes the technical aspects of photography that still take us more time than we’d like (using the tripod, adjusting the aperture, waiting for different times of day to see which light is better, etc), which is why we have…
- Photo Editing: These are things like adjusting the color, exposure, size, and the way that our photos are cropped (sometimes even after thinking we’ve mastered the camera things are too blue or too yellow or too wide or off-center, so we try to adjust them so they look as true to life as possible). This also includes uploading and sorting through the hundreds of pics that we take each week. Wish I were kidding about the “hundreds” part, but we usually average 50-200 photos per post (which can tip the scales at 1,200 photos snapped each week). We then boil them down to under 20 per post and size & upload ’em).
BUSINESS RUNNING:
- Sponsors: This is where most of our money comes from (more on that later) so it involves a lot of fielding advertising requests, notifying sponsors about renewals, sending invoices, and uploading ads to our sidebar. (FYI, we use Google AdManager to serve our sponsors’ ads to our site, which takes a bit of “supervision” but not too much beyond the whole client-relations thing that we do via email).
- Giveaways: We make no money doing this, but it’s our way of “giving back” to our readers (and a way to deflect the free products that we’re offered but no longer accept). Coordinating each week’s giveaway involves a bunch of emails to confirm the prize details, notify the winners, and facilitate the prize delivery. There’s also the task of being the bearer of bad news to folks since we just don’t have room for every prize that we’re emailed about (and sometimes they don’t feel like the right fit for you guys). Which leads me to our next point…
- Saying “No Thank You”: We’re people pleasers, so this is a hard one for us, but we get so many requests each week that we 1) just don’t have enough hours in the day for (i.e. attending a local – or not so local – event), 2) don’t really blog about (i.e. “could you pretty please write about my dog walking service?”) or 3) have a policy against doing (i.e. reviewing a product, adding paid text link ads to posts) that we find ourselves having to decline a lot. Sorry if you’ve been on the receiving end of this. We’ve learned that saying no is difficult, but sometimes it’s necessary for reasons of principle and/or sanity.
- Bookkeeping: Ugh, this bores me too much to talk about. Just pretend I said something interesting about paying bills, filing quarterly taxes, renewing our business license, paying for our own health insurance, managing our site-hosting fees, and organizing receipts. Wish it was less yawn inducing, but it’s a necessary evil when it comes to running your own business (more on that here).
- Technical Stuff: On a good week this slice could all but disappear, but on a busy week we may be installing updates, dealing with server glitches, craaaaaashing entirely (which gives us approximately 50 gray hairs each time), or even doing a whole blog redesign like the one we did a few weeks back (we probably spent 40 hours total on that over the course of about four weeks). Since we’re not technically trained I’m sure all of this takes longer than it should.
So now that we’ve taken a general look at the time aspect of running our blog, let’s talk money. Before you get your hopes up, we’re not gonna detail how much we earn. Call us old fashioned, but we feel like “how much do you make?” joins “who’d you vote for?” and “are those real???” in a our list of conversations not to be had with the entire planet (anything we don’t talk about with friends at dinner usually = off limits here in blog world). In a general sense, we like to say that we make a modest living (we’re not rolling in cheddar, especially after we pay our business-related expenses like hosting fees – which we outline at the end of this post). But we actually think is a good thing because we blog about living modestly, so it all goes hand in hand. But we’re happy to talk about where our money comes from and how that has changed over the last four years. Let’s do it.
Waaay back in 2009 we spoke on a local panel about making money blogging. At the time we sung the praises of a “multi-channel” approach to earning income from your blog. Because, at the time, we (though mainly Sherry, since she was the only full timer then) got money something like this (again, this is a very general guestimate):
We’ll breakdown some of those terms further under the next pie chart, but let’s talk generally for a second. A few years back, despite our best efforts, money from advertising just wasn’t cutting it. So Sherry branched out and started selling inexpensive art prints that she had printed locally and shipped herself (she’s got a fine arts degree). It was sort of like being an Etsy vendor (but she created a shop page on our site to vend them instead). At that time Sherry also began offering custom mood boards to help readers with their “Design Dilemmas” (and briefly even offered smaller services like paint color advice and even short phone consultations).
When it came to pricing those mood boards out, Sherry did some for free first, just to get interest up and a few under her belt. Then she slowly raised her rate using supply & demand as the guide. After being free for a while they were $30, then $60, then $100, and slowly built up to $250 when supply/demand increased over the years (Sherry refused to sell them for more than that, even when the two per week that she would offer up would sell out within two minutes). Oh, we were also writing for Do It Yourself Magazine and our local R Home design magazine, so that’s where we got the whole multi-channel method thing from. We were doing lots of stuff to make a small income. Which was necessary because ad income alone just wasn’t cutting it (I should mentioned here that Sherry took a huge pay cut to go from advertising to blogging, but she just wanted to see it through, and looking back it was a risk that we’re so glad we took).
But now let’s look at a new pie chart. Times have changed, and luckily for the better. As our traffic grew, so did our ad revenue, which meant that we were able to spend less time on services and selling prints (both of which we discontinued after Clara’s birth in May 2010 out of sheer no-time-at-all necessity). The elimination of these services allowed for more time that we could spend focusing on blogging. In fact, while baking making these pie charts I noticed that our currently weekly Google Ad income is larger than what we pulled in our entire first year via Google. This is not to indicate that we’re making an enormous amount now, but rather that what we started at was so laughably small. Hopefully this encourages anyone who is currently earning a few cents a day to stick with it for four years and 2,000+ posts (if you love it I guess, haha, don’t stick with it for the uncertain years-down-the-line dividends). So now our income sources look more like this (this chart might be completely inaccurate since we didn’t really calculate things so it’s not made up of actual percentages – it’s just representative of the general shift in our income sources):
It’s still “multi-channeled” in a way, but the majority of the channels are advertising-based. We still keep our income split across different sources so that if one falters, we aren’t sent into a panic. And in case you’re scratching your head at any of those labels, here’s a quick breakdown:
- Google Ads: These are labelled as such on our sidebar or at the bottom of a post (they’re by the geniuses at Google who take words from our page – or hints from your browsing history – to show you ads that they feel are most relevant to you). We have little say in what’s shown here, except for blocking inappropriate ads. But we love that they’re pretty self-sufficient, which means more time for projects and writing posts.
- Ad Networks: Lots of blogs substitute or supplement Google with ads from a network, which allow for more home improvement specific ads that can also pay more (since they don’t usually have enough “inventory” to fill all slots, we usually use a back-up method that shows Google-Ads when they’re not running). Our ad network is Haven Home Media for anyone wondering, now owned by Reader’s Digest. And they came to us, so we’re not sure how you sleuth an ad network out (in general we believe in focusing on keeping projects/posts great and sponsors/networks will hopefully come to you).
- Sponsors: These are the ads that you see on our sidebar marked as such (as well as folks who get shouted out in a thank you post once a month). These are people/companies that we work with directly, who come to us because they think we’d be a good fit. If we agree (and have room for them, since sometimes we’re “full”) they come on as YHL sponsors and we send them lots of virtual wet kisses. We have a lot of love for them because unlike the random ads that come through an ad network and Google, these folks choose to work with us directly, which is pretty cool of them.
- Amazon Affiliate: There are lots of affiliate programs out there where basically bloggers earn a very small cut (usually around 4-7%) when someone purchases a product that they recommend. The most common affiliate links you’ll find are in our “We’re Digging” sidebar column with a label under them that says “links contain affiliates”(we’re sticklers for labeling ads, sponsors, and affiliates to try to keep things 100% transparent). They’re all items on amazon.com that we love (some of which are things that we’ve actually bought ourselves – like a specific book, camera accessory, decor item, or toy for Clara). Occasionally they pop up in posts about things we’ve bought and loved, where they’re also always clearly marked.
- Writing Gigs: These are the aforementioned BabyCenter and Do It Yourself columns that we write, as well as random things that come our way once in a blue moon (like an opportunity to write an article for another publication).
- Book: Yup, they’re actually paying us to write a book. We can’t believe it either.
But of course, no business is without expenses. And it easy to assume that blogging is a free endeavor (after all, it was when we started in ’07, we even had one of those free urls with wordpress.com at the end of it). But as our traffic and business grew, so did our costs – such as:
- Hosting: Between paying for our site (on LiquidWeb <–affiliate link, fyi) and our images (on Amazon S3) we’re headed towards a five figure year when it comes to hosting expenses alone. Yes, that’s tens of thousands of dollars just to host our site so you guys can read posts and see pics. Totally worth it though. Blank blog page = no readers. And we like having you guys around.
- Taxes: Not that anyone is immune to these, but since no employer is taking out taxes for us upfront, it takes some extra planning on our part (i.e. remembering that about a third of every paycheck needs to be squirreled away because it’s going right back to the government in the form of quarterly tax payments).
- Insurance: When I left my advertising job last May we were suddenly on our own when it came to securing and paying for our own health insurance. And it’s not exactly cheap, but with a little one, good coverage is definitely worth the peace of mind.
- Retirement: Without an employer automatically socking away bits of a paycheck into a 401k (or doing any sort of matching for us), Sherry and I each opened a SEP on our own, which we’re responsible for contributing to regularly.
- Business License/ LLC Fees: Since we’re a legit LLC in Virginia, we pay annual license fees and taxes.
- Professional Help: I know that sounds like a therapist, but what we mainly mean is that we pay our accountant (who does our taxes) and the occasional programmer to help us navigate technical issues (ex: we crash four times in a week and feel like throwing our computers out the window). Though maybe we should consider the therapist sometimes…
- Equipment: If it weren’t for blogging, we probably wouldn’t own a second laptop, a DSLR camera, an HD Flip video camera, an external hard drive, or an iPhone (among other items that I’m probably forgetting right now). But it definitely helps to have some decent “tools” for blogging as efficiently as possible, so we’re glad to invest in them (and yes they’re write offs, which doesn’t make them free, but it takes away a bit of the sting).
- Project Costs: Arguably a lot of these costs would probably have been incurred eventually since we were DIY junkies even before we started our blog (so we would do most of this stuff anyway). But as I mentioned earlier – some of our projects happen (or at least happen at the pace and scale that they do) because of this blog. So we might have done all the things that we did to our current house in two years instead of in nine months if we weren’t home bloggers. Oh and since we get asked this a lot: none of our projects are write-offs since we’re doing them to our primary residence (our house isn’t zoned as an office building, which is a good thing because if it was – and we wrote projects off – we’d owe a big chunk of money to the government if we ever sold it).
If you want more info on the expense side of blogging, we actually wrote about it in more detail last year. But that’s enough out of me for now. Hopefully “peeling back the curtain” helped – whether it’s to use this info as you plan your own blogging business (or other somehow-related venture), or to just help you better understand what goes on behind the scenes around here. It’s certainly a lot more than just doing projects and writing about them, but there’s nothing else we’d rather be doing. Seriously, we’re completely amazed that we ended up “here” and our cup runneth over with gratitude. In fact a pie chart of our gratitude would be 101% full. And now as anything with charts should end – who else is hungry for pie?
Update – Some of the most frequent requests that we get are for info about professionally blogging (how we made our site, how we grew our following, how we make money, etc) so we shared all of the details about how we started a blog, grew our traffic, and turned it into a full time job.
Breanna says
Sometimes I want to comment just to be the first. : ) Happy blogiversary!
Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says
Okay – the “are those real” question totally caught me off guard and I actually snorted at my desk. Haha.
Anyway, it’s nice seeing the whole break down of blogging and how things work. There’s so many pieces I wouldn’t consider but it’s also nice that everything can go smoothly!
Kay says
first off – Happy 4th blogiversary! and thanks so much for all of the above. i totally enjoy all of your posts but this 1 really allowed me to “peek into the window” of the not so glamorous side-very insightful…
Erin says
Congrats guys on four years! I am fascinated by your daily posts but especially the post above. I have worked in the advertising business for the past 4 years and so many companies strive to have what you got going on. I have watched it changed from a tv, brochure and printed ad business to a good portion of it going digitally. But one thing that differentiates you from other businesses is that you are not afraid to take risks in your DIYing and in your business, and you easily adapt to what is working and what is not. So congrats. Here is to continually adapting, taking risks and doing what works for your family. Cheers!
annabelvita says
I found this so interesting. I actually work in traditional media and so all I’m used to hearing is doom and gloom about how advertising is falling – so it’s so amazing to see that you make so much of your money from advertising and that it’s growing (I’m guessing).
I think it’s the interaction you do on your blog that really keeps everyone coming back time and time again. So I think you’re right that it’s worth spending that big chunk of time on that bit. But I do wonder if there’s a way to do it that’s less time intensive. Like, paying a moderator to get through the bulk of comments and then flagging others to you… or switching to post-moderation and then responding from the front end… I know you’ll have thought all this through endless times and I’m just talking out of my butt, but those were just some things I think.
I’ve always wondered what sort of percentage of blocked posts you get? I’m imagining if you get a lot of abuse it’s not something you’d want to talk about, but if there’s anything you could say in general about blocked comments I’d be really interested.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh when it comes to how many comments we delete because they’re suuuper mean, maybe one a year? I’m really not kidding. I probably shouldn’t jinx us, but YHL is generally a pretty happy place and our readers are the best. We publish the kinda mean ones (ex: this is dumb, this is ugly) because everyone is entitled to an opinion (we know putting ourselves out there means someone who can be anonymous online can have a little fun picking things apart) so we just won’t publish something suuuuper mean that would make our parents cry (like “your baby is so ugly and looks like an alien”). But those are so few and far between. Honestly, around once a year we get a really ugly comment and just click “trash.” Otherwise we’re just deleting spam! That stuff rolls in about 50 a day (and that’s after about 300 get caught in our spam filter). Pesky spam.
xo,
s
annabelvita says
That’s amazing. I guess the trolls know you pre-moderate so they’re not going to be able to cause a huge stink.
I mean, not that I can imagine who would be mean to YHL, but I know it can happen to anyone if they know they’re going to be able to cause a big old blog drama.
YoungHouseLove says
Yeah, I hope that’s the case! Whatever it is, we’re extremely thankful for the overwhelmingly supportive and awesome comments. You guys keep us going!
xo,
s
Jill says
First of all I cannot imagine someone would waste their time to say something mean to you guys… and secondly, Clara is adorable and if they really did say she looked like an alien, I would personally go beat them up for you!! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, that’s actually a real comment that we deleted about a year ago. It caught us so off guard that we immediately trashed it and later decided it must have been submitted by a child or something. You know how you’d write “you smell like cheese” on someone’s notebook secretly in middle school? Haha. Who knows, that was just our best guess.
xo,
s
Jill says
One day I’m going to randomly post “John eats his boogers, ewwwwwwwwwwwwww” and see if you catch it. :) haha jk
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, seriously. Well yesterday someone asked us when we had sex (in our day in the life post) and we posted that comment, just had to plead the fifth on it. I think two years back someone asked if I wore thongs. Also plead the fifth on that. Haha.
xo,
s
Jill says
I SAW THAT POST!! I was like, for reals? I love you guys but I don’t really wanna know that much!!! :)
Michelle says
Glad to hear you guys do not get a ton of hate comments. There is a whole site dedicated to Pioneer Woman…just to be mean. What’s the point of being so mean? What kind of person would say that about a person child? By the way Clara is so cute! My 3 year old son loves the video of her and John with the toilet paper. He can’t stop laughing and he keeps saying “awwww she’s so cute” I think we watched 5 times in a row, haha
YoungHouseLove says
Wow, that is truly shocking about the Pioneer Woman hate site. So sorry for her. Gosh, some folks spend their time in such interesting ways. Anyway, on to happier things- so glad Clara and John with toilet paper can bring so much joy. Haha.
xo,
s
Stephanie Phillips says
Y’all are awesome. Thanks for humoring our constant curiosity about who you are and what you do. And WOAH, congrats on the comment explosion yesterday!
Caught one typo: “We’ve earned that saying no is difficult.”
:)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the typo alert Stephanie! Off to fix that.
xo,
s
Jill says
I like the typos. Makes it real. Yall aren’t robots!! :) lol
YoungHouseLove says
Unless we are robots, and we’re throwing in those typos as tricks to convince you we’re human. Haha.
xo,
s
Jill says
Muahahahaha (I swear I totally heard you do the evil laugh)
YoungHouseLove says
But it was kind of tinny and mechanical. Hah.
xo,
s
ALittleBite says
Great post! It’s fascinating to see the “backend” of the business. Congrats on four years!
Katie says
My husband is self-employed and I am a SAHM, so we need to set up a retirement account. I’m curious since I don’t know where to start, did you and Sherry consult a financial advisor to do this?
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, we have an awesome accountant and he helped us find a financial guy so we could roll over our old 401K and start a SEP that we could contribute to. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Crystal says
You guys make it look so easy but you work your butts off! On the flip side, you get to spend quality time with your family and avoid rush hour traffic. Congrats on 4 successful years and mannnny moooorrrreee!
Pip says
Thanks so much for having us at your virtual dinner party – will try and be a polite guest and not talk politics! Is there a ‘planning’ wedge of pie? Where you thinks projects through- or on another level, what’s next business-wise? Or do you reflect on the go as things come up?
YoungHouseLove says
I would say that we include planning as part of projects, since they all have a little brainstorming and discussion at the beginning- well I guess 90% of them do and we wing the other 10%. Haha. As for thinking about what’s next for the business, we just remember that we never knew we’d be here five years ago so it’s pretty hard to predict where we’ll be in five more years. We just try to hold on and enjoy the ride! Haha.
xo,
s
John@Our Home From Scratch says
Great Post. I’ll be reading this one multiple times this week. Thanks for the inside scoop! Now. What’s next? How to grow readership?
YoungHouseLove says
We have a little outline of all the subjects we’ll cover here in our blogiversary intro post from Sunday for ya: https://www.younghouselove.com/2011/09/blogiversary-iv-its-on-like-donkey-kong/
Hope it helps! As for our single best advice for growing readership: just do what you love and people will sense your enthusiasm and honesty and appreciate that. Then they’ll hopefully come back! I think authenticity and excitement can be magnetic, so don’t blog to fill a certain niche in a market or satisfy a business plan, do it because you’re so darn passionate about it that you might explode into a pile of rainbows and unicorns.
xo,
s
John@Our Home From Scratch says
I was with you right up to the rainbows and unicorns.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, sometimes the cheese-factor gets up there so we diffuse it. With unicorns and rainbows. Or puppy dogs. Those are sweet too.
xo,
s
Jackie Centeno says
West Me! I didn’t have a clue what a blor was and now I can’t start my day without YHL.
Barb says
Wow…Who knew? Amazing post. Thanks for the break-down. We have all been curious about this Great, great post.
Can’t wait for the book to come out. I want mine autographed. Do you think you will be doing any traveling to promote the book? Who is the publisher?
B.
YoungHouseLove says
The publisher is Artisan/Workman (who actually published the Design*Sponge book that’s out now – which excites us to no end since it rocks). We definitely hope to do some book promotion stuff when it comes out next fall! We’d love to meet you guys.
xo,
s
T.D. says
The traveling part sounds interesting, and as a reader I would be pretty excited to possibly meet you guys!
It could also mean some time off of the blog or some random posts about your experience being big ol famous authors? haha
Sarah says
ahhh a book tour! i hadn’t even considered that, but love that you’re open to it! i’ll be the first in line. i’m sure logistics might be complicated, but would love to see you branch out and hit some other major cities. hmmm i’m now seeing another fun road trip time lapse, but this time with Clara and sing-a-longs and lots of other goodies :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, you love we love a good road trip video…
xo,
s
Whitney says
Thanks guys for the information, this is the post I’ve been waiting for and you answered so many of my questions. Thanks again!
Kati H says
I want to have my own blog business sooooooo badly. Time and God will tell! For now, grad school and a baby for sure/instead. P.S. – I think you meant under Saying No Thank You “We’ve learned that saying no is difficult…” Instead of “We’ve earned that…” Guess one sneaked through, but I thought you would rather know. (It’s the copywriter in me I swear!) Love your blog, love K
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the heads up Kati! All fixed.
xo,
s
AarthiD says
Well, this took me like a half hour to read (haha) but I actually really liked getting a look under the hood. Before I got hired, I thought I’d do the pro-blogging thing, and it had been working out, but I don’t think I would have realized just how intensive this whole process can be!
I can’t comment on everything (or we’d be here all day, let’s be real) but I will say that the fact that you’ll respond to individual comments — and even have extended conversations with us! — is one of the reasons I adore reading YHL. :)
erika says
*saviest ?
erika says
nevermind! Looked like a “w”!:) carry on!
Emma says
Those are some hot pie charts! What program did you make them in? I’m not at all surprised given your talents of course.
YoungHouseLove says
I made those babies in excel.
-John
Lindsay says
I <3 Excel.
YoungHouseLove says
Me too. It gives me butterflies.
-John
Jill says
I’m teaching myself how to use excel and googling all of the formulas and stuff. I work for a small financial institution in NC and while we have some great cash analysis tools to use when determining how much to order every week, they don’t necessarily work for our small town branch. SO I have decided to give myself an ongoing headache and develop my own spreadsheet chock full o formulas and percentages that I could never explain and really honestly don’t understand… but I just want to be able to go in every Friday and PlUG N’ PLAY is what I say. Anyway, long story short, I want to learn how to do the pie chart. That would be impressive to show my supervisor and manager… plus, my brain works SO much better in color and shapes rather than numbers and formulas. LOL (I have a design degree and have been stuck in banking for 5 years- help!!!!)
YoungHouseLove says
In an Excel chart I put the categories in one column and then their guestimated percentages in the other column and then use their auto chart feature to create a 3-D pie chart. From there I just edited the colors and the text within the chart (since their auto colors were kind of gross).
-John
Jill says
Cool beans! Thanks for the tips, John. I’ll letcha know how it goes… if I ever get started on it and stop reading your blogs!! LOL
Emma says
Excel? I’m impressed. You clearly didn’t use the Excel 2007 default colors (mauve and maroon with a gray background anyone?). Well done!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- yeah he customized it because he thought the regular colors “weren’t very cheerful” – haha.
xo,
s
holly@LoveofLifeblog says
Wow, thanks for posting this! It answers a lot of the general question’s I’ve had about your blog and business approach. It obviously takes a lot of work and shows the effort you’ve had make your goals come to fruition!
One random question though, Sherry does your hand ever hurt approving comments using the mouse? I’ve always wondered that, especially on those thousand plus comment posts!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, thankfully no. My only complaint is eye strain sometimes from staring at the screen all day. I generally try to get up and hang with Clara and take breaks and look away so it’s not as bad when I do that.
xo,
s
Lizzy says
great info! thanks for taking the time to share – i’m guessing tallying up all this info and creating pie charts wasn’t a quick project!
im listening to sherry’s interview right now. (don’t tell my boss!) sherry, you’re so cute and peppy! (but i will admit, i have chuckled a few times because the hosts remind me of delicious dish from SNL!)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks for listening Lizzy! I was so nervous the entire time. I think I said the same ten words over and over again.
xo,
s
Meredith says
Is it wrong the first thing I noticed about your pie charts were that they were the same color as Sue the Napkin?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, that was all John. Love him for it.
xo,
s
Nette @ This Dusty House says
This is one of the reasons I love you guys: you are so transparent about the fact that this blog is your business, your job, and so much more than just a hobby. Of course, this kind of thing also makes me slightly jealous that you’ve been able to pull it off when the rest of us late-comers are struggling to break into a saturated blogosphere. This info was great. Thanks for sharing it!
Mary@TheGoodLife says
I agree, I love that you guys talk about the realities of what you do and how much you love it. And the time it takes. Every time I get frustrated about where my DIY projects are at, or whatever, I remind myself that YHL wasn’t built in a day. lol. Thanks for that.
Staci @ My Friend Staci says
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_J8QU1m0Ng
Had to!
YoungHouseLove says
Bwahahahahahah. Just watched that over and over again with John. Hilarious.
xo,
s
Harinee says
Hahaha! I’d forgotten that episode – thanks for the reminder!
Do you guys watch How I Met Your Mother? Since y’all are such TV fans..
Very interesting post this by the way – I really appreciate that you are willing to share this kind of information. It’s very selfless of you.
YoungHouseLove says
We have to start watching it. That clip is hilarious and we hear nothing but good things!
xo,
s
Sarah says
LOVE that show!
Shannon says
This was a really interesting post, I really enjoyed learning about this side of your blog! :)
Ellen says
Right next to the section about Amazon affiliate links is that picture of an ADORABLE “cut up the fruit” wooden toy thingy. Off to add it to my baby registry!
(Wondering: I know you get a cut if I buy it right away from your link, but if I add it to my registry from your link and someone else buys it, will you still get a cut?)
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, I don’t think so but that’s just fine! Haha. No worries! Clara has that on her wish list too (as in, I have it on mine for her – maybe for Christmas). We bought it for her cousin Elsa for her birthday and she loves it.
xo,
s
Karla says
I have a daycare and the only food I have for my kitchen set is Melissa and Doug wooden food and homemade felt food. It just holds up so well. I hope you get it from your registry and for Clara! :)
Katie @ explanationrequired says
I have to say that I appreciate the time you guys put into responding to comments, both here and on Pinterest, etc. That’s some dedication to your fan base!
Kelly D says
I totally agree – I LOVE that you answer ALL questions! nothing is more annoying then reading someone’s blog comments and seeing unanswered questions (bc usually I am thinking the same question!) so it’s like why bother commenting if they dont seem to care enough to respond. (and its even more annoying when its a small blog bc its not even that many to answer! :) )
We feel the love from you guys though!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Kelly. We feel the love right back from you guys. Best readers ever.
xo,
s
fd says
Happy Blogiversary. You’ve achieved so much in 5 years. Two houses, a business and a baby. Youse are awesome. times ten to the power of a multitude of billions.
Amy says
I love all these behind the scenes details….I started my own company last summer (a nanny agency). I help families find nannies. I have zero business background and have been learning a lot as I go & loved reading everything you guys have learned along the way. It’s true, way more goes into owning a company than most people ever realize…but so worth it to work from home :)
T.D. says
First off, thank you for this blog and the amount of time and effort you guys put in. It is the perfect getaway from everyday activities. Plus, you guys are such good people to look up to.
I have some questions about your photo storage and organization (my apologies if you planned to touch on this in an upcoming post).
You mentioned you take approx 1200 photos a week- do you have multiple SIM cards or do you dump them quite frequently? If you have multiple SIM cards do you label them so you remember which one was used for what?
Next- do you keep ALL the pictures you take or do you delete them if not needed?
How do you organize all the photos- IE- do you label a folder ‘posts’ and by date or maybe they’re all in one HUGE folder haha or maybe its super chaotic and you guys leave that section a mess?
My apologies for so many questions but I have a hard time organizing folders sometimes and maintaining that organization system I finally put in place and thought I could ask the ‘pros’ :P
YoungHouseLove says
We dump them often so we just have one SIM card. Once dumped we try to immediately go through them and flag just the ones that are best in iPhoto. Then we make a new event out of flagged and delete all the extras. This keeps the numbers down and allows us to label each project in iPhoto after we flag just the good pics we’ll use. For example, we would label things by task (ex: mirror framing project, rocker reupholstery, painting the dining room) and then in iphoto they each have a little thumbnail above the label which is helpful for scanning the page to find something quickly. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Eli says
Not sure if you’ve said you use Photoshop for your photo editing, but I just wanted to mention the option of automating batch actions. For instance if you have a bunch of photos and you need to re-size, rename, crop, rotate etc. all of them, there is a way to automate it all in one fell swoop. Batch automation and creating action scripts for tedious editing things are a HUGE time saver! I would think other photo-editing programs have these capabilities as well as Photoshop, but if you use Photoshop here is a link that may better explain my gobbledygook, hope it’s helpful! http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshoptutorialsactions/Actions_Droplets_and_Batch_Processing_in_Photoshop_and_ImageReady.htm
Eli says
And since videos are always awesome-er: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK4IqS9qAZc
Eli says
Even better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK4IqS9qAZc
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah- we batch edit whenever we can!
xo,
s
JanetL says
I’m sure it’s difficult to say no to free stuff so I just wanted to say a quick thank you for the no swag policy. I have a lot of respect for it and it makes me appreciate your blog even more.
Also…hundreds of projects by christmas! Oh my gosh how are you not hyperventilating?
YoungHouseLove says
Ahhhh, don’t remind me!!
xo,
s
Lauren L says
I haven’t finished reading this post yet, but after reading the link you added to your previous post about free swag, I wanted to let you guys know how much I appreciate and have learned from your blog. I have told friends in the past that my understanding of home deco is based on the HGTV model: Get it all done at once, get it all right the first time, and have lots of money ready to spend on it. Gee, I wonder why I could never get started on a decorating project then. Thanks guys for breaking it down for real for us readers, and emphasizing again and again that it doesn’t have to be perfect, you can always redo it, and it doesn’t have to be expensive! You rock.
KristenK says
interesting, but I know the one question everyone’s dying to know is what is a “modest” living…. $40k, 60k, 100K…. [Totally respect your privacy so don’t answer, just saying this is the main type of question I am asked about the bloggers and sites with whom I work from people wanting to know if they can quit their day job, lol]
Your hosting costs seem kind of high, even with your traffic. Maybe you should look into buying your own server and housing it, & hire a P/T sysadmin person to monitor? Probably save lots of money in the long run.
YoungHouseLove says
As for quitting the ol’ dayjob, I definitely took a huuuuge pay cut to be a blogger and it was a huuuuge risk but it was after writing hundreds of posts (so I knew it truly was my passion). I guess it felt like one of those “now or never things” since we didn’t have kids yet and had enough in savings as a cushion. Luckly if it didn’t pan out many of my advertising clients (I was a freelance ad copywriter at the time) were still interested in working with me again, so I had that to fall back on. Probably wouldn’t have had the guts to do it without that “back-up plan” – haha.
Oh and thanks for the server suggestion! It’s just because we have so many (hundreds of thousands of photos) that we have to keep on the cloud (amazon s3) since they don’t even fit on the server that we have with Liquid Web (and we really love and rely on LW’s customer support, so I think for now it’s the best combo for us). Who knows where we’ll end up though!
xo,
s
KristenK says
S3 is super cheap, but I guess you DO have to keep print ready (ie large) sized files in case you use from them for print…
To put it in perspective – we helped a start-up spend about $3000 to set up up the hardware – they had to be cost sensitive; mostly using Dell servers. They have 5 static IPs and pay about $600 month for a dedicated rack (same facilities with security blah blah). It’s a social networking site so has as more pics stored (in the millions now) which uses S3 as a back-up. Anyway that’s all technical but if you ever want to explore, be happy to give you some names of folks to talk to.
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- thanks for the info KristenK! We’ll definitely drop you a line if we have questions!
xo,
s
janie says
You know, as a reader I really miss the number of decor-related posts you used to have. The reader redesigns were good reading and filled the spaces in between your projects. I think the amount of time you spend on comments could be way better spent doing posts featuring actual DIY stuff, whether it’s yours or someone else’s. As feedback, I read Chez Larsson and Censational Girl before I read you guys because I know they’ll have real renovating posts. And I don’t particularly care if it was them that wrote the post – CG has quite a few guest posters.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the feedback Janie! We actually had an awesome discussion in the comment section of yesterday’s day in the life post about bringing Reader Redeisgns back! So stay tuned…
xo,
s
Jill says
Hey! It’s their blogiversary! Let’s celebrate all the things we love about YHL!! Don’t be a party pooper now!
Lisa in Seattle says
I totally disagree. I read CG and truly admire her decorating style and DIY projects, but it really bothers me that readers ask legitimate questions in the comments that never get answered. If I could only choose one blog to read ever again, it would be YHL *because* of the interaction in the comments. Why would you suggest they change one of the things that make them stand out most in a sea of decor/DIY blogs?
Sarah says
Congrats!
Me and my mom just started a blog and you guys have been our numero uno inspiration.
I must say.. I’d been very envious of all you’ve accomplished and created! But now I feel overwhelmed and in need of a nap! Haha :)
Sarah
Lauren says
“So we might have done all the things that we did to our current house in two years instead of in nine months if we weren’t home bloggers.”
I felt a sense of relief wash over me as I read this line. Not sure why I would ever compare my house/progress to yours, but I do it all the time and really need to stop. You do this FOR A LIVING and I sit in an office all day. Time to be okay with the slow pace of my projects!
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, yes, yes! Never feel bad about your pace vs. ours. We’re nuts who stay up til 1am with paint brushes in our hand, both because we love it and because it’s how we pay the mortgage!
xo,
s
Kelly says
I agree, Lauren! We’ve been working on the lower level of our tri-level since the beginning of July, and we still have a few odd pieces of molding to reinstall and some paint to touch-up. I feel like it’s taking forever when I read about what some bloggers do over the weekend!
Karen says
Thanks for a glimpse into what makes YHL work. I had no idea it was all so complicated. LOL
One thing I always wonder when I’m reading a post… you’re so good at including links to past posts, diy projects and how to’s.
How do you keep track of all these links you reference?
YoungHouseLove says
Oddly enough those are things we actually both have really good recall about. We’ve written over 2,000 posts but we generally can remember almost every single title for them (isn’t that kind of crazy?!) so if we’re chatting about the dining room and mention the curtains I remember that the post was called “My Babies” so I just search that in quotes on our sidebar to find the post so I can toss in a link.
xo,
s
Sarah says
I love this post so much I read it twice- so interesting! I CAN’T WAIT for your book! Are there any projects you want to get done before they come to photograph your house? I’m thinking you have a list…
YoungHouseLove says
Oh they’re not really photographing much of our house, just projects that we’re doing (many of which will be on a white or colored backdrop, so you won’t see much of our house). Haha. We told them our house is waaay too unfinished to be immortalized in print forever. It would be so funny to see pics of our house at this stage next fall when the book comes out (in 2012) because so much will have changed we probably wouldn’t recognize it!
xo,
s
Kathryn says
I didn’t realize it took so long to approve comments, but when you break it down, I see why it does! This is one of the features that makes your blog GREAT. There are other blogs I read that I like, but “blogger-reader” relationship isn’t there because they never respond to their comments or what the readers are saying. I feel more connected to your home’s process when I know you take the time to read our remarks. :)
beth in dc says
I love that your piecharts are done in Sue the Napkin colors!!!
Tay says
Love this post! Reading your blog is a daily (sometimes double-daily) treat, and it’s so interesting to read about the behind-the-scenes of how it works! Out of curiosity, will the book be a greater revenue generator for you when it is published? I’m sure you’ll have a whole bunch of fans out there camping out for a copy!
YoungHouseLove says
We do get royalties for every copy sold (I think that’s a pretty standard thing) but we chatted with our publisher and they say that the advance is usually where people who write books make most of the money (as opposed to royalties on the back end) since you only get royalties after other fees that the publisher has incurred have been paid off (like all of the photography/printing/distribution fees, etc). So we’re trying to be smart and not really count on any royalty money since it can take years to actually pay off those other fees and see a check (and most books that are published aren’t best-sellers or anything). We’re mainly just trying to focus on making an awesome book! Haha.
xo,
s
annabelvita says
When my mum got royalties for old books she’d helped write (foreign language learning books) she always bookmarked the royalties for “treats” – this meant she never banked on it for essentials then had to scramble if it fell short and never felt guilty about spending it on treats. (There was never very much).
It worked out well as royalties always seemed to come at the beginning of the school holidays!
YoungHouseLove says
I love that idea!
xo,
s
Julia @ Chris loves Julia says
Totally intriguing. What do you do on sick days? I assume you have gotten sick in the last 4 years. I ask because right now in our home a stomach bug traveled from our little girl, to me, to my husband and we don’t want to mooovveee! I can’t imagine trying to run a business during those circumstances.
YoungHouseLove says
I work. I know that’s crazy, but I had a baby (with some pretty crazy complications) and we didn’t even miss a post. I’m telling you, we’re crazy. I might just work from the sofa or from bed, but I can answer comment questions in my pjs when I’m under the weather, so it’s not too bad.
xo,
s
Mary@TheGoodLife says
Dude. Mad props for working through post partum recovery. That is so crazy.
Jen says
When I read yesterday’s post, I wondered what you guys did about working while sick/post-partum too… and I immediately got a mental image of Sherry with a fever/red nose, camped out in bed, surrounded by used tissues, furiously typing on the laptop. And I knew it was true :)
You guys rock – your blog is the only blog I read daily. I love it and really respect you guys. Congrats on living the dream!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, oh man I’m predictably lame!
xo,
s
Kim says
Thanks for sharing!!! I always have wondered about monetizing blogs.
Amanda at Easily Inspired says
Just wanted to let you know that I really appreciated this post! Great information for anyone that wants to move their blog to the next level or even run a web based business. I’m a huge fan of you guys and I hope you’re making a ton of money doing it!
Just curious – I totally understand not wanting to share the specific dollars and cents you are making, but would you be willing to share if you are still taking a pay cut from when you were still both in advertising? I would hope that with taking on the risk of your own business, you’d be rewarded with more, but then again, it is wonderful to have the more flexible schedules (even though you work your butts off) to spend time with Clara. Take care! Amanda
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, that’s a really good question. Since I haven’t been in advertising for a few years (and John left 16 months ago) we probably still make less than the trajectory of what we would be making if we stuck with that career path the whole time. But nothing beats being home together with Clara – even if we burn the midnight oil to get stuff done!
xo,
s
Melanie @ Mailbox Journey says
Wow, that was one long post, but really informative. Thanks so much for breaking it down for us!
Lindsay @ A Walk in the Closet says
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed breakdown and “behind the scenes” view of your income and expenses. I think it is absolutely fantastic that the two of you are so open about this. You don’t owe it to any of us to explain but doing so really gives me a LOT of respect for you. It’s funny, because of your transparency, it actually makes me want to click through the ads on your page moreso than other blogs who simply have a multitude of ads on the sidebar.
Knowing that the two of you work very hard to deliver quality content to all of us makes me (and I’m sure many others) want to contribute to that success.
Keep up the wonderful work! :)
Emma says
This is really interesting information – am trying to grow my blog so is useful to see all your points. Thanks for sharing – will keep an eye out for future posts!
Jen @ The Decor Scene says
WOW, this is a great post. Thanks for all the info. It really puts things into view this way. There is soooo much more that goes into a business blog then just posting. You guys do an amazing job. :)
Elise says
Can you believe that your giveaway yesterday has close to 15,000 entries and still counting? That is absolutely crazy to me. Congratulations on all of your success and I wish you many more years of blogging (and family) happiness!
YoungHouseLove says
I know it’s kind of nuts right?! Who knew that post could actually break after hitting 10K?!
xo,
s
Rachel says
As a CPA, I loved this post! It’s so interesting to see the business-side of it all…thanks for sharing! :)
Lindsay says
Same here, Rachel! CPA YHL fans, unite!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love you CPA folks. So full of pie chart enthusiasm!
xo,
s