Q: I know this might be a bit on the personal side, but I’ve always wondered what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to running a successful blog. I’m sure a lot of readers just think you write up posts and conquer home improvement projects but from owning my own small business I know all about the “maintenance” (like taxes, health insurance, business licenses, etc). I don’t know if it’s something you’re willing to talk about but I’m sure there are a lot of other aspiring small business owners and bloggers who would like to learn about everything that goes into keeping YHL going. Thanks so much for the daily inspiration and all that “eye candy” as you call it! – Miranda
A: We thought this question was perfect for the ol’ blogiversary since there are definitely a lot of behind the scenes undertakings when it comes to keeping YHL up and running! The good news is that the “maintenance” as you call it is absolutely worth it – because we’re doing what we love and – pardon the corniness – following our passion. Sorry, I cringed when I typed that but it’s true.
Back when we started YHL we didn’t have a business plan (read all about how our blog baby evolved here). We didn’t intend for it to be anything other than a hobby on the side to keep our friends and family in the loop when it came to our continuous house projects. So over the years as YHL grew and we slowly wrapped our minds around the fact that it could be more than just a nights & weekends hobby, we knew we had to not only learn about blogging, but also needed to learn how to run a small business since it slowly snowballed into my full time gig and is now John’s as well. The great thing was that it wasn’t too intimidating because we just decided to learn as we went- which is exactly our approach when it comes to home improvement. And thanks to people like our brother-in-law (who owns a small business) and our accountant (who we met through a close friend) we can definitely attest that it’s possible to go from knowing absolutely nothing about saving for your own retirement and paying for your own medical coverage to becoming knowledgeable in all of those areas and then some.
First we’ll mention blog hosting. Gone are the days when we’d spend $180 a year hosting our site through BlueHost (that’s an affiliate link). Sadly we outgrew them as our traffic slowly increased. They’re a good starter web host because you can split the expense by sharing a server with dozens of other people. But as our traffic overloads started to crash our site last summer, we took dozens of other blogs down with us- oh the guilt! They eventually said we were too much for them to handle (basically they broke up with us – sniffle) so we set about finding another host with more room to spare. Happily we found LiquidWeb (that’s an affiliate link) who placed us on our own jumbo dedicated server to keep from crashing (ourselves and others) when thousands of people click on a giveaway post all at once to enter. Whew. It was a bit stressful moving two years of files over to their server (let’s just say thousands of comments and hundreds of images went missing and we had to digitally restore them) but we lived to tell the tale! And the site has been humming like a well oiled machine ever since – even more so since we upgraded to an even larger server back in August. The only shocker was learning that we’d have to go from spending a couple hundred dollars a year to a couple thousand (it was quite the jump). But it’s just one of those hidden business costs that are all part of the equation of being bloggers- and we’re so glad to have so many people stopping by to see us. You guys are worth every penny it takes to support all the traffic!
On top of using LiquidWeb to host our blog we also learned that it was helpful to use another company to host our images (it keeps the page loading faster and avoids the risk of having everything in one spot). For this reason we use an Amazon cloud server to host all of our images which charges us based on the volume of images we use (lots) and traffic we get (also lots) so it also adds up to a couple thousand dollars a year. We tried using a much more affordable option like Flickr or Photobucket (which are nearly free) but many of our readers lamented that our images were coming up as blocked when they checked the blog from work, so we opted to keep the site as accessible as possible. For anyone interested, we’ve also been super impressed with their service and have never had an image issue since trying them on for size nearly a year ago.
Now for the taxes explanation. We pay quarterly federal and state taxes on every dollar that we make, so a good chunk of change goes right back to the government every three months. I’m not gonna lie, this was definitely the biggest adjustment. It sucks to go from the every-dollar-I-take-home-is-mine mentality to the every-third-dollar-I-take-home-must-be-saved-because-it’s-owed-back-to-the-government mentality. Of course we know that taxes make the world go round and that just because people who work for a larger company get them taken out before the paycheck is generated doesn’t make it any less of a hardship on them. But it really is a mind shift to look at your bank account and know that the number isn’t really what’s yours because you have to save a fraction of everything and send it in every 90 days. We’ve hired an accountant (which we definitely recommend to anyone else who aspires to blog as a full time gig) to help us make those quarterly payments four times a year. It’s definitely more expensive than paying someone to do annual taxes (since they’re filed four times more frequently) but it’s such a lifesaver. Our accountant is the best, and he’s definitely super knowledgeable about every single aspect of our business – so it’s a lot easier than blindly trying to navigate this new way of living by ourselves.
Being our own bosses also means that we pay for our own health insurance as opposed to having that covered by an employer, which has been another pretty major adjustment since we used to be covered by John’s office. It wasn’t hard to find insurance (we just Googled around for “freelancers insurance in Virginia” and got a few recommendations from other self-employed friends) but we will admit that it’s not exactly fun to pay for it each month since it’s a lot more than we were used to paying (let’s just say there’s an extra zero). But in the peace of mind arena, it’s priceless. Especially with Clara around.
We’re also now responsible to save for our own retirement since we don’t exactly get the amazing company-matching 401K benefits that we used to. Instead of being called a 401K it’s actually called a SEP (Simplified Employee Pension) and we basically divert a specific amount of our income every month to that account in order to ensure that we can retire someday! It’s funny how little things like retirement aren’t really things that you have to research or think much about when your company does it for you, but it was definitely something worth learning about when we were tasked with looking out for ourselves. In fact it was actually kind of fun to learn about how to DIY something like retirement. You know we love jumping in and getting our hands dirty (so picking the right company and plan was semi-enjoyable).
Of course we also pay for a business license and to maintain Young House Love as an LLC each year. There are actually a decent amount of annual business fees and expenses since we’re a bona fide two person “company” (even though the idea of being a company makes us laugh- we just consider ourselves to be two people sharing our home improvement trials and triumphs on the ol’ blog). If you’re looking to learn more about licenses and other “paperwork” items like this, just check out both your county and state government websites for business info (we’ve also found that our accountant and lawyer friends are a wealth of knowledge on the subject).
Also in the column of behind the scenes maintenance, there are those occasional times when we have to hire programmers to fix any bugs or glitches that slow things down for our readers. We also occasionally invest in business equipment – like a faster/bigger computer or camera just to keep up with the times so we can edit larger videos and take better pictures to enhance the site and our readers’ experience when they drop by. These few and far between expenses can be fun (who doesn’t like a little update here or there?) but it can also affect the time that it takes for us to save up for major or even minor projects here at Casa Petersik. So although we might have been dying to tackle the bathroom remodel or the basement overhaul, we may have had to wait a few extra weeks or months until we had the funds to take that on since we just got a new camera or paid a coder to fix some blog glitch to keep YHL looking up to par.
And speaking of undertakings like bathroom remodels and basement makeovers, we also take on non-stop projects here at YHL. It might sound silly to mention, but just to keep the blog up and running with new content and info calls for regular home-related investments (sometimes we daydream about being someone like Dooce who blogs about her life without any necessary home improvement store purchases… but then we snap out of it and realize that we couldn’t stay away from the paint and wood cutting aisles we tried). So we’ve gotten used to budgeting and saving up for every project that we tackle, both big and small. Even if we just tackle one mini project (like making a pendant light fixture or whipping up some cork vases) that’s still money that’s going out, so we’ve learned that it’s smart for us to save for and expect those expenses as well. It’s all a part of being our own business, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you’re looking to maintain a home blog- the key is that you have to keep tackling new makeovers and projects (which means they’ll probably know you by name at places like Michael’s and Home Depot since they’ll see you at the register so often).
Whew- so there’s a little behind the curtain look at how we keep YHL up and running. We can definitely attest to the fact that it’s not something that “practically manages itself” (we wish) but it’s so worth it because (corniness ahead again) we’re living our dream. There’s nothing we’d rather be doing and no one else we’d rather be sharing our adventures with. So a big wet kiss goes out to every single person who drops in to see what we’re up to around here.
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.
Emily says
I’m loving all the behind-the-scenes blogiversary hooplah. It’s easy for many of us who spend our days trapped in cubicles under unflattering fluorescent light to romanticize the life of the home blogger–the working in PJs, the flexible schedule, the cute baby babbling nearby–but I know it’s much harder than it seems! Thanks for the reality check. You’ve shared tons of info about how you keep your physical space organized, but what about your virtual space? How do you keep all those digital images, e-mails, and video–both YHL and personal–in order? I love a cute desk caddy or hidden storage, but my hard drive is a mess. Help!
Apologies if this is a repeat of a previous comment–I haven’t scrolled through them. Those of us trapped in our cubes can’t spend too much time online during the work day! ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Emily,
We actually have started to store all of our treasured pics on Flickr (that way if something happens to our computer or our house burns down we have them all on a third party site) and we also keep videos on Vimeo and YouTube for that reason (and also just because it’s easy and saves space on our computer). We also have a Lacie external hard drive where we keep our entire computer backed up (with things in folders labeled “coding, blog images, house pics, etc”) and we just periodically update that (at least once a month) so our back-up isn’t ever too old to be helpful. We also burn CDs of each of the backups and pop them in our fireproof and flood-proof safe so that if the house did go up in flames and our external hard drive and computer were ruined we’d still hopefully have salvageable files. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Dana @ House*Tweaking says
Whew! I had no idea it was that involved. You guys are amazing. What a great peek into the business life of a full-time blogger. I guess that’s why it’s called a ‘busy-ness’.
Meg says
That’s too bad. Darn tax laws! :)
Randy Noseworthy says
Hey Guys! I just did a little post on my site about yours, and how you guys did your blogging thing. Showing that it takes some work and effort to get a business off the ground. – One might be able to get rich quick, but don’t count on it. Count on putting in some effort doing something that you like to do, that might/will pay off in time.
Thanks,
Randy
Karen J says
Great info (as usual). But what I REALLY want to know is … what happened to “Calling All Experts”?? I thought you had a few posts in that topic and would love to see more. There was a comment on one of the posts about cleaning (I thought) that helped me remove wood stain from our white carpet. It was a true lifesaver!! Anyway, I bet your readers have lots of knowledge to share.
Karen J says
Sorry, it’s me again, but HEY!!! When did you add the “Projects” tab up top?? I just now noticed it.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Karen,
We’ll have to do more of those Ask The Expert posts! And as for the Projects tab, we’ve been working on that for a little while (it used to be called “How To” but we added a lot more info and made it a bit easier to navigate). Thanks for noticing!
xo,
s
Nicole says
I’ve often wondered about all of this as well. Being your own bosses definitely takes some major management and commitment but if you’re living your dream, it’s all worth it!
Beth2.0 says
glad you’re still going strong! I love reading this blog– I first found it when we bought our 1980s house, and then when we were getting married I read up on your wedding tips. I still check in just about every day, and especially love your paint colors advice! You help me feel much more confident about making design choices for our home– THANKS!!
Natalie Cofield says
Great to learn even more from you two! This is the only blog I religiously read every single day (stalker-ish!) but seriously! It’s just so fun to read and I’m learning so much along the way!!! Love it! And you guys!
Monica says
I just downloaded that song! How funny!
Kris says
Word, word, word! This year I started working from home as a full-time freelance writer, contracted through an international company. You’re right – the having to set aside a third of your income for quarterly taxes is a MAJOR adjustment! First world problems, I know, but it’s tough to hold off on big purchases for your home when you have that quarterly savings piling up. I was nodding along as I read your post.
And while my company gives me a monthly stipend for health insurance, I found said insurance on my own, and it’s my choice & responsibility rather than theirs.
It’s been a paperwork extravaganza for just little old me, so I have a whole new respect for small business owners!
Amanda@Longroadset says
This was very insightful, I appreciate it as a fellow blogger.
anna says
I’m from the Netherlands and I’ve discovered your site in the last couple of weeks, since I was scouring the internet for tips and ideas that fit my style. I just completely redid a room in my house and LOVE it, with big help from you, cause I l-o-v-e your taste. The room is clean and white, but cosy at the same time, with all kinds of whitish accents and different textures; completely in love. Everytime I step into the room I’m completely giddy :)
Anyway, the tab ‘projects’ at the top was SO helpful for me, I was able to find so many things than on other sites are somewhere buried in archives and difficult to find.
Also really like the layout of the site and how fast it loads.
These behind the scenes blogs are so interesting!
Nicone says
Very interesting read! It sounds like a lot of hardship, but so is going to work every morning when you’re “working for the man”, right.
Congratulations on your great success, which I’m sure will keep on growing with you and your family! :-)
Liz says
Why did y’all relocate to Richmond from NYC?
YoungHouseLove says
We were working 80+ hours a week in midtown Manhattan and we wanted to slow down and get a house with a yard for a dog and future kiddos. It was one of those life/work balance decisions. And it was definitely a major change, but we were dying for it!
xo,
s
sheila says
I have to add my .02 about the site as well. It’s one of the very best in the way it’s set up…easy to navigate, loads well. Job well done!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks! You’re making John blush.
xo,
s
Beth says
Thanks Maggie for the tips!
Kasey says
Good for you guys. You have obviously worked hard for it and in the end, hard work pays off.
Do you ever miss the traditional ‘working’ environment? [i.e coworkers, structure… etc]?
I dream and long for the day I can work from home, but at the same time im afraid of leaving an environment behind that I am so used to.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Kasey,
There are definitely days when we miss the structure and the routine and the whole coworkers thing! But we just try to remember that we’re doing what we love and there are lots of perks to this set up too… so it’s usually just a grass-is-always-greener thing!
xo,
s
Allison K. says
Isn’t it funny….20 years ago when someone asked a child what their parents did for a living, not one single child could/would answer “blogger,” but Clara will! How cool!
Harmony says
Your hard work provides countless hours of internet joy while I’m at work. Thank you! And you mention Dooce, and my first thought is that I’d love if you threw in a purely navel-gazing post every now and then. I’d love to hear whats going through your head as you try to balance new parenthood with your blogging duties… because its your more personal posts that I enjoy the most. Its like when I had an argument with my hubby the other day in front of a friend… I was sooo embarrassed about it, but the friend said, “I liked seeing you fight. It reminded me that you guys are only human like the rest of us.”
April B says
What a fabulously informative post. You guys really have your stuff together!
Beth C says
Thanks for informative post–and happy blogiversary!
There was a question earlier about using photos from other websites. Do you need to get permission every time you use one, or do you just get permission once and then link back if you use another image from the site at a later date? (I’m think of starting my own blog and have been wondering how that works.)
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Beth C,
Typically as long as you link back to a big company (like Target or Ikea) you don’t need to ask permission first (of course if they ask you to remove the picture you should!). It’s only necessary to ask permission with every photo or link that you use if it comes from another blogger who clearly asks that you do that on their blog (some photographers or other home bloggers make this request on their home page or their disclaimer page). Others don’t mind at all (we’re cool with everyone using our images whenever they want without permission as long as they’re accompanied by a link). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
amanda says
i am just wondering how you can actually make enough money off the blog in order to support yourselves? it seems like you would be spending more money on it than the blog brings in.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Amanda,
We used to sell homemade prints on an online shop and offer a mood board service along with earning an income from sponsors and google ads (while taking on the occasional writing assignment from Do It Yourself magazine) to make ends meet. Thankfully as our traffic has grown we have been able to phase out mood boards and shop prints (which we sadly no longer have time to tend to). Luckily our google ads and sponsors can now nearly fully support the blog as a business (along with our writing assignments from Do It Yourself magazine and BabyCenter.com). And we’re certainly good at living cheaply and saving our pennies. We’re hardly rolling dough (we make a lot less than we did in our advertising days) but we’re doing what we love so it’s totally worthwhile!
xo,
s
Natalie says
Hey Guys! I meant to post this when you first wrote this, but honestly, I thought it was probably tacky. But – I’m going to anyway.
You said you use two separate companies for your hosting and cloud services. I thought you might want to know that Rackspace offers hosting and cloud services. Might save you some $$ using one company for both services.
My husband works for them and it is the best company either one of us has ever worked for! Awesome!! So, if you get a chance check them out and see if you can save some money!!
Natalie
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for the suggestion Natalie! We’ll definitely have to look into it!
xoxo,
s
Dee says
Quick question for you. My husband and I just started our own business and now that tax time is around the corner, I was wondering how you went about finding an accountant. I beleive in your post you said that you were introduced to your accountant by a friend, but since, none of our friend’s work for themselves….we haven’t had much luck getting good recommendations. How did you decide that your accountant was a good fit for you?
Thanks a bunch!! Love your blog- visit it every single day during my mid-afternoon coffee break :-)
YoungHouseLove says
He’s actually a friend’s dad who specializes in small business and sole proprietorship taxes so he seemed like a great fit – and years later he definitely has proved to be. Perhaps if you can’t get a recommendation from someone you can just seek out a firm or person who specializes in your area of business and give them a try? Good luck!
xo,
s
Sarah says
I noticed a typo in the third paragraph from the bottom- ‘it can also effect the time’ should be ‘affect’. Tiny detail but for some reason it sticks out like a sore thumb to me!
I hope I am being helpful rather than pedantic!
Keep up the good work :) xxx
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much! Off to fix it!
xo,
s
Stephanie says
Wow that’s definitely a lot to keep up with! You guys are awesome. You remind me of myself in that you seem to wear black t-shirts a lot. As do I. They are also usually covered in fur. =0)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- ours too!
xo,
s
katalina says
I am curious what health insurance for freelancers you found in Va….I am a freelancer working from home and my cobra insurance with carefirst went from 300 to 950 a month over the years…for one!
YoungHouseLove says
We use Anthem – it’s pricey but not as bad as Cobra!
xo,
s
Meagan says
Katalina, Sherry & John: I’m an Independent Authorized Anthem Agent and would be more than happy at looking at some less expensive health insurance options for you guys. (Sorry for the shameless promotion, but I love your blog & was reading through comments and couldn’t help myself!)
John & Sherry, I know you’re with Anthem now, but Anthem has introduced some cost-saving plans that may very well help you on a month-to-month basis. Call or email me if you’d like a quick quote…it’s really quick and could save you some moolah! (804) 785-9431
Keep up the great work!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Meagan, we love our agent (we have been with him for years) but thanks so much for the generous offer! The costs are pretty much our fault (we like really good coverage for Clara and for maternity stuff in the future with me since I had such major complications with Clara’s birth).
xo,
s
Brittany says
I know from reading the blog that you guys spent your fair share of time doing the workforce thing, but it’s SO awesome to see some of your comments and know there’s other young couples that are able to live modestly in order to do what they love. That way of life isn’t for everyone or possible for everyone, so kudos to you for making it work and reminding small business owners (like me and my husband!) that it’s totally worth it!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Brittany! You’re right – it’s amazing to hear from other folks who do it too! Congrats to you and your hubby!
xo,
s
Jessica says
Thanks for sharing! Great post.
SG says
We’re about to enter self-employment land (albeit not as a blogger), and this post was really helpful – it’s been a little scary to think about. Can you say a little more about SEPs? How you went about researching them and learning about them? I liked how you talked about DIY-ing that research.
And if there’s another post that also speaks to being self-employed, please let me know. I did a search of your site and this post came up. One thing I didn’t see mentioned was disability insurance – is that something you all pursued?
Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
We had a few meetings with financial advisers to choose our SEP, etc – which I would definitely recommend! We also have a great insurance guy who helped us figure out what kind of life/health/disability insurance we felt most comfortable with. Hope it helps!
xo
s
SG says
Thanks so much for responding!