Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How Do Bloggers Make Money?

Consider the next part of this post as an update to this one from two years ago where we first broke out a few pie-charts to generally illustrate how we spend our time and how we make money as bloggers (because even our parents get confused about that sometimes). Things have changed over the last couple of years – not dramatically – but enough that we felt it was time for an update. So let’s kick this charty goodness off. Behold, a very simplified / approximated breakdown (all the pie charts in this post are very general guesses, btw)…

Pies Time Spent Overview

First, we should point out that this is not a complete representation of our waking hours – it’s just our “work” time. So you can see yesterday’s “Day In The Life” post for a better sense of how things like parenting, cooking, and running errands fit into the mix. That being said, the interesting thing to note here is that the majority of our work time is spent running a website (blogging, interacting, and managing a business) not doing DIY projects, as some might assume.

We always describe our job as a mostly-desk job. We might get to paint or build something while Clara’s in bed for the night (which is when we used to do projects when we both had day-jobs anyway), but between the hours of 8am and 6pm we’re most likely found on the computer sizing photos, writing posts, organizing giveaways, emailing about our book or the showhouse, answering comments, doing our expenses, or coding something. But let’s dive in a bit deeper to get a closer look.

Pies Time Spent Detail

When we look at how some of these areas break out, there are two changes that are most notable to us:

  • We’ve managed to streamline the managerial aspects of our business. Simple changes like using Rafflecopter to run giveaways (which also saves us from approving thousands of comments and allows us to accept more than 10,000 entries without the site crashing) along with hiring out more of our accounting have made small but significant impacts. But perhaps the biggest is a shift that we’re making in our advertising program. We’re currently transitioning our 4-year-old private sponsor system out (private sponsors = people that we manage directly, so I was manually uploading 30+ ads and invoicing 30+ people). We’re upgrading to a more auto-pilot system that is managed by a third party who can serve/place/bill automatically. The kinks of the new system aren’t all worked out, so I don’t have any other helpful details to share yet, but it promises to save us lots of time in ad renewal notices, invoices, and even writing sponsor shout out posts (which have been phased out as of this month). In addition to being more efficient for us, we’re aiming for a more pleasant experience for you guys (less sidebar clutter, for one!) and a more effective, flexible system for our advertisers (so they’re not one of 30 boxes blinking on our sidebar).
  • Which enables us to give more time to side gigs. Freeing up some managerial time allows for things like book #2, the showhouse, and a secret project that has to stay secret for now (ARGH, SECRETS!) to take up more of the pie. It could be argued that this is a bad thing (doesn’t it take away from spending more time on projects or posts?) especially when side gigs don’t contribute to the majority of our income (more on that in a moment), but to us, they’re the opportunities that we can’t pass up: they keep us fresh, help us grow professionally, and stretch us in new ways. And because they’re still only about 19% of our total time, there’s still just as much room for projects and other blog stuff as there always has been, which still make up 80+ percent of the pie.

Obviously this isn’t a perfect model of time management or how to run a blog. We’re constantly trying to improve our processes so that we can put the most time into activities that invigorate us, help and entertain you, and – let’s be honest – put money in Clara’s college fund. One thing some people suggest is “why don’t you spend less time responding to comments?” or set them to auto approve for repeat commenters, but the reason we keep comments in moderation is so we don’t miss questions. If we auto approve some or all of them, questions will slip through (they not only roll in on current posts, but old ones as well). And since we believe connecting with you guys and offering additional info is a big part of what got us here, we’d never want to phase that out.

Speaking of which, I think it’s time for our next chart:

Pies Make Money

Unlike last time we did this chart, we’ve now collapsed all of our advertising – private sponsors, ad networks, and Google – into one chunk. That’s partially because those slices of the pie are rapidly shifting while we’re in this sponsor program transition (you may notice over 25 fewer ads on our sidebar by the time it’s done). But it’s also to make it crystal clear that the majority of our income comes straight from sidebar ads. Much like how magazines or newspapers keep their doors open thanks to advertisers, blogging seems to follow that model as well, at least for us – especially since we don’t do other things like sponsored posts to make additional income. Although that red affiliate slice of the pie is from sharing some things we love – usually on our sidebar or occasionally in a post (both clearly marked as affiliate links whenever they occur).

Another interesting distinction is that as much as things like writing a book and having a lighting line might sound like cash-cows, they’re not things that we have experienced as high earners, as demonstrated by our chart above. But they’re a really big deal for us personally and professionally, so they’re well worth the effort and the experience. For those wondering, we still haven’t reached our royalty point on the book (more on that here) but we did hear from a publisher in China who bought the book rights from our American publisher for a nominal fee and is re-publishing it there in Chinese (which is really exciting to see – the cover’s going to be different and everything). So since we get a small percent of that fee for being the authors, that’s what that sliver represents. Admittedly the proportions represented above are a bit rough, since the goal was just to generally illustrate the point. So as long as we’re talking non-specifics, let’s move on to our third graphic.

Pies Spent Money2

After a couple of attempts to make a useful pie-chart, I gave up (these fluctuate so much that trying to quantify them just wasn’t working). But the point we wanted to illustrate was that some people think that blogging is a “zero overhead” profession, but if your readership grows, your business costs definitely rise with them. Here are some of the notable places that our earnings go:

  • Taxes & Accountant: As exciting as those auto-pilot ad network checks are sometimes, a big chunk of that goes right back to Uncle Sam (around 33% of our total income bounces right out of our checking account across four quarterly payments). We use an accountant to help keep it all straight, but it has definitely been the biggest adjustment for us (going from banking/spending all of our paychecks in our previous professions to having to hoard a big cushion to send back four times a year).
  • Retirement: Since we don’t have a boss taking 401k money out of our paychecks anymore (or anyone doing any company matching), we have to stay on top of our own retirement planning. We each have a SEP IRA and after year-end taxes our accountant calculates what our maximum contribution could be for that tax year and we try to invest as much of that as possible (as well as contributing to Clara’s college fund then too).
  • Web Hosting: The biggest unexpected cost for us in blogging was web hosting and other fees – everything from hosting our site and photos (which are stored separately on amazon.cloud to keep the site from crashing) to paying a monthly fee for Rafflecopter and Vanilla Forums. These expenses actually add up to almost double our mortgage payment each month!
  • Health Insurance: Another “perk” of being a small business owner is that you get to pay for your own health insurance. It’s not fun, but it’s definitely one of those “now I can sleep at night” investments in your business and family.
  • Business Insurance: While we’re on the topic, we also pay for business insurance. This helps to protect our business (and us personally) if we were ever to be affected by things like a lawsuit or the death/injury of one of us (knocking on so much wood over here right now).
  • Legal: This is a new expense for us recently because over the past year we’ve engaged a trademark and licensing attorney. Since our book was going to be titled Young House Love as well, we needed to fully claim the name – and she also helps us navigate some of the contracts that we’ve received for some of our side gigs (like our lighting collection). Plus, now we’re officially Young House Love™. Holla!
  • Projects: Last but not least… everyone knows home improvement isn’t free – and while most of the things that we blog about would be costs that we’d incur anyway, we certainly work at a faster pace (and therefore spend faster) than we did before we were blogging full time. We get asked all the time if these home purchases can be write offs since we’re blogging about them for a living, but the answer is no. Since we’re fixing up our primary residence (and not an office or investment property) we could never write a cent of it off (and if we attempted to, we’d owe a big ol’ chunk of money to the government if we ever sold our house since it would be partially theirs instead of all ours).

And now let’s lighten up this numberfest a bit, shall we? Like previous years we thought we’d throw some random stats and facts your way, but this year I’ve spiced things up a bit visually. You know I love a good infographic…

Facts 279 Days Writing Posts

Facts Giveaways

Facts Comments

Facts Forum Threads

Facts Forum Badges

Facts Instagram

 

P.S. – You can check out our original pie charts from 2011 here, and look back at our past by-the-numbers posts for our last five blogiversaries here: 2012,  2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.

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. 

Comments

  1. Rebecca A says

    Props to you guys for keeping the interaction up. That’s one thing I love about your blog posts are the comments and your replies! A lot of accomplishments in 6 years. You guys should be proud!

    Reply

  2. Cassie says

    I actually went back and looked up what when blogiversary was a couple months ago because it’s always my favorite! Your lives are so fascinating to me. Love the blog and you guys! Happy Blogiversary!

    Reply

  4. priscilla says

    Thanks so much for spending the time to show us how this business works for you. Besides responding so quickly to comments, which is amazing, I think the main thing is you too are such good writers, and that really makes a difference. Your communication skills are extraordinary and with the touch of humor you add, it is a delight to read your posts.

    Do you think you will ever add back the decorating boards you did for readers? It was so great to see the before space and then see your design boards that reflected how the homeowner could make it over. I loved those!!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks so much Priscilla! It’s interesting because just yesterday some folks said they’d love to submit specific room questions and have us answer them and find items and sketch out solutions for them, sort of like our mood boards used to be – so since so many people commented under that to say they’d be interested, we’d love to bring that back!

      xo
      s

  6. Angie says

    Is there a reason you guys don’t do sponsored posts but instead giveaway the items? Which is awesome btw. I think you may have answered this before but I can’t remember in which post. Just curious.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks Angie! Here’s that post for ya: https://www.younghouselove.com/2010/12/everyone-loves-a-freebie-2/ We just realized that it was a nice clear line for us to draw, so you guys would know that if we were gushing about something, we had bought it and truly did love it. It also really simplifies our life to have a blanket policy (there’s no meeting to chat every time someone offers us something to decide whether we want it – we just redirect them to giveaways and hope that we can score some great stuff for you guys instead!).

      xo
      s

  7. Amy says

    But perhaps you could make a pie chart explaining how much time you spend making pie charts. (I am taking a class on excel and I just finished the chapter where we learn how to make many different kinds of charts and I would be content to never see a chart again in my life but I still love your blog.)

    Reply

  10. Kaycee says

    The “Where we spend our money” chart says: “Account ant’ thanks to some kerning issues. It gave me a little giggle, and I was hoping that maybe your Aunt did your accounting :)

    Reply

  11. Kristi @ Addicted 2 Decorating says

    If your trademark is “official”, meaning registered, then you would be Young House Love®. The TM can be used by anyone without actually registering a trademark. :)

    I was so excited when mine was finally registered about two months ago, after 10 months of waiting. And even happier that I could finally put that little ® after my blog name.

    Reply

  12. Michelle | Birds of Berwick says

    I’m always curious about how blogs make money! (young blog + no advertisers = no clue) Since this IS your job you do seem to move through Listy-McListerson pretty darn fast. It’s definitely easy to get envious that you do so much so quickly. John, these great graphics and information show just how much hard work and dedication goes in to keeping this all going, though! Thanks for all the info!

    Oh, and don’t feel bad. I have a 8-5 that doesn’t match my 401K either! A good plan manager is worth it to help it grow a bit faster!

    Reply

  13. Tom says

    Hi,

    Is there a reason why you do a SEP IRA rather than a SIMPLE IRA? Depending on how much you are making, you may be able to put just as much or possibly more into a SIMPLE IRA. Anyone can put $12,000 into a SIMPLE whereas you have to operate under a percentage basis for a SEP IRA. So SEPs favor people with higher incomes. If your income is more modest, a SIMPLE is… well, simpler. The only reason that I mention this is that if you are paying your accountant to do the SEP calculation each year, you could save money by just doing a SIMPLE. Feel free to email me if you want to discuss. Love your site!

    Reply

  14. Anthea says

    I really enjoyed this peek behind the curtain at the life of a full time blogger! There are so many assumptions that go into the life of a blogger or “full time YouTuber,” and I love how open you guys are to the reality of all the time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears that it takes to build a vibrant blog and community! Keep up the great work. :)

    Reply

  15. Sharon Sprague says

    This is so great. I love how organized you guys are. I want to see the breakout of Clara’s time. :) How do you schedule/organize what blogs will come up? Do you plan it out a week ahead a time, a month, longer? Do you have a schedule of topics and themes, too? Just curious! Love you guys! Sharon

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Love you right back, Sharon! Other than aiming for 2 projects a week (that seems to be the average pace that we’ve kept up with since going full time) we definitely don’t have a lot of super-advanced post planning. We like to keep things as real-time as we can (it’s MUCH SIMPLER that way!) and we like variety. So on Sunday we might say “projects will go on Mon & Wed” and then we’ll pepper in some inspiration (a House Crashing or Reader Redesign), some other what-we-learned posts (like an E-mail Answer), a window shopping adventure or some house-related story (like researching/planning/buying something) along with the giveaway for the week.

      xo,
      s

  16. Hannah says

    while you’re at it, make sure you trademark both middle-aged house love and retired house love, lol. just thinking about the future of your business :P

    Reply

  17. Kim says

    This question isn’t completely related to this post, but this post made me think about it. How in the world do you find time to do stuff the rest of us do like clean, laundry, etc.? Do you have a housekeeper? I don’t know how you guys do it. I made a dinky blog for a church activity and it took 3X as long and looked 3X more sucky than I thought it would.

    The tax thing isn’t just for you self employeds. We have a private plan b/c my hubby’s firm has too many old sickies on it and it was costing us more than our mortgage every month just for the premium. I don’t love the cost of health care, but like you I understand that it’s an investment worth making.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Wow, that’s interesting that a private plan was smarter for you even thought you’re not self employed! Never heard that! As for housekeeping, we DIY that stuff! I think we’re just wired to want to do things ourselves (that and we’re cheap, haha) so we just try to clean as we go (laundry one night after dinner, I’ll clean the toilets one morning if I wake up early, we clean up dishes after each meal, I might vacuum upstairs one night and do the downstairs vacuuming a few days later – we try not to bulk it all (that can be a full day of cleaning) and just chip away at things when we can.

      xo
      s

    • Hillary says

      I know you guys are “cheapies” (but I also know how much John loves gadgets)…so seriously…you should look into buying a Roomba–it’s like the Nest for floors! We have a Lab who sheds constantly and I tell people that it is the best investment we have EVER made:) It transitions from hardwood floors to the area rugs over thresholds and goes back and charges itself when it’s finished. As a side note, I am not a Roomba salesperson but I could be!!

  19. N Shirley says

    OK I am going to go right out there and predict that your surprise is that you are going to BOTH be on “Dancing With The Stars”? “Real Young House Wife of Richmond”?

    Reply

  20. Emma says

    There you go with those sexy graphs and infographics again. It’s very cool of you to share this stuff. I also feel bad that I’m adding to your comment approval work. Sorry :)

    Reply

  21. Emylee says

    Well I just purchased the Large Wire Globe Light from your lighting collection so you’re welcome, go ahead and go out to dinner on me guys :) hahaha

    Reply

  22. Diana says

    The former public accountant in me is always strangely curious about this behind the scenes stuff.

    And I never realized how much work a blog was until I started my own! I do 3 posts a week; huge props for doing 7 and keeping up with everything you do! You are much better at time management than I am!

    Reply

  23. Christy says

    It is interesting to read about your growth as bloggers and your trial and errors. Congrats to you on your success and thanks for sharing a bit more of your blog life with us.

    Reply

  24. Jackie says

    If you’re ever looking for entertainment you should have us fans submit our guesses on what your secret project is- probably be hilarious to see what people speculate. You could reveal whether anyone was right upon the unveiling of the secret.

    I’m REALLY excited to find out what this latest one is :)
    Congrats again on the anniversary- its really awesome.

    Reply

  25. sarah says

    You guys are amazing – the quality of content you provide is something I’ve found no where else on the web both in posts and comment replies. Thank you, thank you, thank you for always keeping it genuine and personable!

    Reply

  26. Cait says

    Exciting about the book being bought/translated into Chinese. I’m a reader who recently moved from Boston to Shanghai…and speak Mandarin, so would be happy to help if you end up making a trip here and need a ‘local’ but English speaking tour guide (I’m working on starting up a part-time tour guide service for people traveling here). Would love to hear from you!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      You’re so sweet! We wish it meant that we got to make a trip over there, but the publisher who bought the rights does all the translating and new art directing and just ships us a book to see when they’re done!

      xo
      s

  27. Lindsay says

    Always interesting to read posts like this. You guys inspire me to keep my blog a rolling of our home reno and family life. Thanks for the daily fun!

    Ourlittlenuggetanderson.blogspot.com

    Reply

  29. amy says

    It’s too bad this blog has gone from a DIY to complete narcissistic drivel. No one cares. Really. Oh, and you forgot to tell us in the last two days how often you use the toilet and if you do it together or actually get some alone time. Please, do share, we are waiting with bated breath.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’ve covered the same behind the scenes topics for the last three years over blogiversary week since we came on full time, so I’m afraid it’s nothing new. It’s just one week out of 52 where we get a bit more personal before returning to DIY again on Monday, but we’re sorry if it’s not your thing.

      -John

    • Gina says

      Ok, I have criticised this blog and J&S before, but today for some reason, its gone way too far. Amy, is that really necessary?

      John and Sherry, I sound like a broken record, but I really wish you would consider moderating because some of this stuff aimed at you two today is really turning my stomach. I am sorry people are acting like this during your Blogiversary. I like these Blogiversary posts and find them really interesting.

    • Katie says

      I read your blog every day. I love what you do and the sweet little details you add about your life. Keep up the good work and ignore the haters; life’s too short.

  30. Stephanie P says

    Very interesting info. Was quite surprised by the high costs involved and hosting and offsite “storage” for photos. What makes that so expensive or is that just the going rate?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      A lot of it’s traffic based, so if you have six million page views a month, those photos are loading over and over again, so paying to have a server that can handle the traffic and off-site storage for tens of thousands of photos keeps the site from running slowly or crashing.

      xo
      s

  31. Sherri says

    Just had to comment and send some more blog love your way. Those statistics are impressive. Your attention to detail in every aspect of your business contributes to your success. You think things through and it shows. I love your DIY projects, of course, but I also enjoy the dialogue you have with your readers and find myself reading a ton of comments. Your sincerity and love for your followers keeps us coming back. The Petersiks and Young House Love are the best!!

    Reply

  32. Emily @ GinghamAndSteel says

    Loved this post. Super nerdy business question for you: what was the process for deciding how much to charge for advertising over the years? Obviously you didn’t start at the same rates you have now, so how did you decide where to start – and when to increase? Numbers don’t really matter to me, but rather the metrics and the comps you used over the last 6 years. Is it something you can answer?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      John loves just comparing numbers so he looked at other public ad pages and found sites with comparable traffic and sort of just averaged what they were charging or halved it if we had half their traffic to get a ballpark. We typically tried to be cheaper than the going rate, just because we figured it might inspire more interest, which seemed to be appreciated since nobody thought we were asking for more than we were worth.

      xo
      s

  33. Kelly M. says

    hi! I just came across your blog a few days ago and it couldn’t have been better timing! My husband and I are in our late 20’s and we just declared that our house that was built in ’78 is going to be our “forever” house. We love the location so we decided to make it a priority to pay this baby off. You are a great inspiration to young couples by working together (for some that’s a task in itself), living within your means, and not being afraid to get your hands dirty. I look forward to learning with you!!!

    Kelly

    Reply

  34. Cathy says

    I’ve got to agree with Hillary about the Roomba! Hillary, I am their second salesperson after you (I know 18 people who own one now who bought because of my “sales job!”). I bought mine 2 1/2 years ago and my home has never been cleaner. I kept reading reviews before buying where people would say they couldn’t believe how dirty their home was now that their Roomba was doing the work for them. I told my husband it would not be like that for me. Au contraire—–I was SO wrong! The thing that finally made me buy (Costco is the best deal by the way) was a review comparing a Dyson with the Roomba. The reviewer said, “Do I do a better job with the Dyson? YES. But I have to PUSH the Dyson! The Roomba does a great job without me!” I bought it that week and should mine die tomorrow, I will rush to Costco and buy another. I haven’t used my upright vac in 2 1/2 years, I tell you! John and Sherry, you may not be interested, but for all the rest of you reading comments, I can say without wavering, the Roomba is my favorite purchase OF ALL TIME.

    To be clear, I’m 52 years old and have never had a housekeeping service, and like you, John and Sherry, I do a little every day to keep a clean house. Woohoo for a Roomba! And I agree with Hillary: think of it like you do the Nest, but it cleans!

    My brother-in-law named his Roomba, “Dustin DeBris.” Get it? Dust and Debris! His Roomba is French, and apparently he has quite the attitude. Haha!

    Happy Blogiversary, YHL! I am a very early reader and an almost-never commenter, but I appreciate the diligence with which you approach your job. I always tell my adult daughters that I was doing the DIY part of what you do before there was the Internet, but the fact remains: you are DIYers, but you do every layer of what you do well, and it shows. Your integrity shows. Congrats on six great years! And who else gives us Barbie synchronized swimming videos, I ask you?

    Reply

  35. Janette Diaz says

    I hope you guys have looked into Izea for sponsored marketing, they are the best, I’m interning with them now and everyone is so great there.

    Reply

  36. mp says

    “We get asked all the time if these home purchases can be write offs since we’re blogging about them for a living, but the answer is no.”

    Testify! That was one of the most surprising things I learned during a tax course earlier this year. For instance, everyone thinks you can deduct a home office if you do any work from home, but the truth is, you can’t do so unless you don’t use that space for anything else at any time.

    Reply

  37. JoeyfromSC says

    Thanks SO much John for putting this together!! I found it very fascinating!! I know this post took alot of work lol:)

    Joey

    Reply

  38. JoeyfromSC says

    Oh, I also just now looked at the “Clara’s photo project” banner on the right sidebar, and WOW!! That is so amazing how y’all did that since she was a week old!! I was thinking at first that you made a diff. onesie for each photo, then I read that you said it was photoshopped lol.makes sense!

    She’s so adorable and that was a great idea! Surely she will cherish it when she is older and appreciate that y’all documented her younger years!

    Reply

  39. September says

    Not sure if you would have addressed this in an older post: but would you say that your “project time” is all “go-time” (ie. actually physically working on the project), or does it include making decisions and purchases as well? I’m curious, because whenever my husband and I work on something, it’s that part of the task that takes way longer than we expect and, to be honest, totally exhausts and frustrates us (especially because “we take it back” too [I did read that post!], which is sometimes a lot of work just to organize/coordinate). We’re A-types and talkers and dreamers like you guys, but we haven’t hit our groove as far as being able to enjoy the actual DIY process (though we are really driven by the results). We try to be efficient, but always feel like collecting inspiration / researching stuff online leads us down hundreds of bunny trails. So, we spend a ton of time online trying to figure things out, but still feel like our days aren’t ever as productive as we want them to be because we are always re-deciding what the next step is for such-and-such.

    I don’t know if I’m making any sense… but, anything you can say to shed light on the lead-up work to actually starting a project (how long it takes etc.) would be much appreciated. And, if you think it would make for a good blog post at some point, feel free to tell me to hold my horses. I’d be very happy to wait for a good breakdown of this from you guys! ;)

    Regardless, thank you for being such good sports about your role as house-owner mentor to all of us. Your ability to make this all so fun and entertaining never ceases to amaze me — nevermind your ability to make us all feel like you are our for-real friends. As many have said, the comment responses are amazing. We do appreciate it!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That’s a really good question! I wonder if planning/getting supplies/research should be broken out into another category next time. That project time in the chart is actual hands-on time, so the prep is just kind of missing from this breakdown, but I agree it can take a lot of time! Although one somewhat helpful thing for us is sometimes just to blog about the planning/shopping/consideration phase, because although posts take time to write, sometimes they help us organize our thoughts as we go. We have a Q&A video that we’re sharing later today that sort of touches on how we brainstorm during walks or rides in the car so that sort of multitasking while doing other stuff might help us squeeze it in and keep trucking too!

      xo
      s

    • September says

      Phew. That’s a relief to hear. Thanks! I’m telling myself, too, that there would be some automatic efficiency in the fact that you guys do this all the time — getting to know what’s where (which store / where in the store), and being able to stay in the head space of the project you are working on (vs. starting something, and then doing the next step a month later). You also just build up supplies and tools in a way that we aren’t going to / able to.

      Anyway, it helps to think about the fact that blogging about it, itself, is part of the process. That is another piece that we don’t have in the mix.

      It’s awesome of you to always be reassuring and encouraging to those of us who aren’t as good at this. Thanks for all the step-by-steps and inspiration!

      Love you!

  40. Chris says

    Keep up the great work! I’m a regular reader and I’m inspired to tackle many little projects around our place because of you both! Just wondering what aspect of it all excites you both the most? You two seem to have such a great energy regardless of where it’s being directed.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw thanks Chris! I think we are still just really excited to look at a room full of potential and chip away at it and just experiment as we go and share what we’ve learned. It’s that “always learning” thing that keeps us excited I think. And seeing the impact that even small updates can make!

      xo
      s

  43. Kathy says

    This is amazing. I read every word. It is obvious that success follows pure hard work. Oprah, too, followed the road as it opened before her. Being a teacher I understand that some people focus on the end goal while others see the step right in front of them and dare to take it not knowing the outcome.
    I read many comments to the post last night and then came back this morning to read more. Your readers are talented and offered up some excellent suggestions or information. I recently attended SPX in DC and heard Jeff Smith speak about the success of his graphic novel, Bone. He said some of what he wrote (it took 12 years to complete) came from suggestions from his readers. Bone eventually went from comic book status to becoming a graphic novel and then to the shelves of every school and public library. No one could have seen that possibility at the beginning. I’ll bet his parents wondered how writing a comic book earned him a living, too.
    Keep talking with your readers, your instincts are perfect.

    Reply

  44. Liz says

    Wow, I had no idea how complicated running a blog was. I knew that the side bars helped out financially but not all that other stuff! I think I’ll keep on reading plus keep my day job, thanks! BTW I love your blog and find it really inspirational all the changes that you are making to your beautiful house! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  45. Leslie C says

    I have a random question: When you receive your checks from advertising, or any other income, do you have a seperate “Young House Love” bank account? Or does it go into your personal accounts? Just wondering how you stay organized and keep things seperated while still supporting your real life.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, it’s all set up so we have a business account for YHL payments to go into, and a business credit card/checking account so that YHL expenses can come from those. That way it’s easier to track business write-offs since they’re separate from grocery shopping or trips to Home Depot!

      xo
      s

  46. Molly says

    Awesome post! You are so detailed & organized, I love it. (: I need to get my hands on your book for sure. In English of course, for I cannot read Chinese :P

    Reply

  47. Karen @ Dogs Don't Eat Pizza says

    Thank you for this post – it’s really helpful and informative. As a blogger, I rarely know if the time I’m spending and money I’m spending makes sense or is out of whack somehow. But, while I am clearly a much smaller operation than you/YHL(tm) (Yay for TMs!), it’s helpful to see this information as somewhat of a reference.

    Reply

  48. Joan B. says

    Wow! What a great post! I love your blog. You are both very creative and obviously have tremendous business savvy! As a newbie blogger, I am in awe! Congrats!

    Reply

  49. Tara Jane says

    Do you think that you should buy your own server, it might pay off in the short/long run. Of course, I am sure the learning curve would be high, but you guys are so good at DIY!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We rely so much on the support from LiquidWeb that their service/help makes it SO worth it the price for us right now. I hope someday we can master the whole “ahhh, we’re crashing!” thing and buy our own server, but I don’t think we’re quite there yet!

      xo
      s

    • Sandra T says

      Okay, I’m reading and loving on everything, then I get to this question! Ha ha. My husband works for a large company doing this VERY thing. Setting up servers, maintaining servers, backing up data for servers, etc for other companies, large and small. YOU DO NOT want to be in the server business! He is pretty much on call 24/7 and just got back from a week in California (we’re in NJ) setting up a server room for a customer. It is a can of worms! Don’t go there!

  50. Kelly says

    It’s clear that you both work incredibly hard and that you are both passionate about what you do.

    I loved the Barbie video!

    Reply

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