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.
Allison B says
I’m sure you’ve been asked this before but how many times a day do yall look at each other and say something like “OMG, I cant believe this is our life!” and high-five each other!?! Cost = Priceless! :)
I’m a new but HUGE fan – I think it was the horse art post that hooked me! :) I hope your book is a best seller – I’d put money on the fact that it will be!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw you’re so funny. Maybe once a day we say something to the effect of “is this really our life?!” – haha. We’re just so thankful. And it kind of blows our mind.
xo,
s
Lauren says
I just wanted to say thanks to you both for posting twice a day. Pretty sure my employer doesn’t share my gratitude but it sure gives my brain a welcome break! :)
Callie says
I just finished listening to your whole interview Sherry (while measuring and drawing lines on ikea billy shelves so I can get the Home Depot guys to cut them for me) and now I want to be your friend even more. You are so humble and lovely and I cannot wait for your book to come out! (p.s. When it does, and I know this isn’t until next fall, I hope it’ll be a giveaway!)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that’s so sweet of you. So glad you liked it! As for the book, we’d love doing a big giveaway! Maybe even a few!
xo,
s
Jennifer says
You guys are my heroes! Any suggestions for how to motivate those of us who don’t have DIY blogs (or ever plan to)? Thanks for the awesome post.
YoungHouseLove says
I think bouncing around helps too. Just do projects that you feel like doing! Sometimes you can get in a rut of what you have to do and it can get overwhelming, but skipping around and doing whatever you’re psyched to tackle can keep the motivation up!
xo,
s
Laura says
the hundreds of projects you are doing for your book before christmas, will they be on here too or will you leave them out of the blog?
YoungHouseLove says
They’ll be never before seen! Haha. Not much fun to share a book full of stuff that’s already on the ol’ blog, ya know? Although we’ll probably share some behind the scenes sneak peeks of the photoshoots and stuff.
xo,
s
Lauren Bayne says
This is SOOOO great. Thanks so much for sharing – we just launched our site yesterday and are excited to use your info to help us grow it even more! Thanks!
Lauren Bayne
Co-Founder/Author of TXmilk.com
Texas Moms I’d Like to Know
Kristen says
You guys make it look sooooo easy, but your day in the life post really makes me realize that your life isn’t all fun and games… and paint chips :) I love everything that you guys do and have already had so many great ideas for improvements to my own home from reading your blog!
Janae says
WEST ME!!
Life for me is different now than in 2007 is that now I have 2 kids. I had my son in 2006 so he was a little baby then but now he’s almost in kindergarten!! And now I have my daughter Emmy (who coincidentally was born 5/13/2010 the day before Clara was born!)
Love the blog guys…you’re inspiring!
Janae says
Oops – commented on the wrong post!! Doh!! Please ignore!
Janae says
Oops commented on the wrong post!! Doh! Please ignore!
Stefanie says
First and foremost: Congrats on 4 years!
This is a very interesting post. There is so much more to blogging than just hitting “publish” – especially in your case.
Jennifer says
If I read your blog through a reader, does it count as far as ad revenue is concerned?
YoungHouseLove says
We have a little Google ad in Reader at the end of our post, so it definitely helps!
xo,
s
Hillary says
May I just say that I found this post fascinating? I never would have thought of how you guys spend the majority of your time/ where you get the majority of your money/ where you SEND the majority of your money. I am far, far from becoming a “professional blogger,” but this was still so eye-opening.
Tatiana Doria says
Amazing post! Thanks for helping so many bloggers out there, like myself, with such useful information.
You are out of this world! I´m excited when I get 100 visits a day!! I still can´t beleive your numbers.
Anyway, congratulations and thanks again for sharing your experiences…
Tatiana
Liz says
Do you guys get less advertising dollars if I only read your posts in my google reader? If so, I will start loading the posts!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw you’re sweet! We make a little bit thanks to the small Google ad at the bottom of our posts in Google Reader, so no worries!
xo,
s
priscilla says
Thanks for such an informative and honest post!! With so much to do and not wanting to turn this over to someone else, you might consider hiring a college girl to come help with Clara. I did that in the past and have a friend with triplets who works from home who does the same. It would give Clara some independence and you would still be “right there” if needed. You would be amazed at what it will do for you to have say, 2 to 3 hours a day, when Clara gets to play with her new “college friend” and you get to knock out the work. It might even give you two some “couple time” in the evenings.
Thanks again for being so real.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the suggestion! John’s parents watch her around 3 hours a week and you’re totally right! So helpful!
xo,
s
Kathy says
Yikes–2007 was yesterday right? I found myself working at the Pacific Design Center–west coast mecca for all things interior design. Now in Phoenix, I still love following YHL. Happy 4th Blogaversary!!
adrienne says
super interesting! thanks so much for sharing!!!! :)
Libby @ SweetCasa says
Great Post! Its so interesting to see how the money comes and goes. You guys do a fantastic job, I love checking in every morning (in Australia) to see what you guys have been up to.
michelle@decorandthedog says
This week’s posts have been extremely interesting!! You all inspired me to start blogging. It’s been a great experience. I used to be jealous of your career (ok, I still am…just less so after this week. ;)). It sounds very hard to separate your work and personal life!! I hope I’m still reading when we’re old and grey. I said that about watching Lauren Conrad on the Hills too…hopefully things work out better for you guys! :)
Michelle says
This was such a well written post! Congrats on your blogiversary and all your amazing successes! You should be so proud to be living your dream:)
Jessica says
Sooo fascinating to see the figures behind the blog. This is my favourite post so far (but then, I work in accounting, numbers really do it for me).
If you’re not into bookkeeping, don’t burden yourselves with it, outsource! ( I’m not offering…)
Fleur says
HI there, I am in the UK and just come across your blog! Good job! I am also writing a blog – mostly part time blogging – and your breakdown and pie charts are really interesting to see, and also interesting the Google Ad increase in income during one year. I guess it’s a moving feast and will evolve as and when the blog gets successful. Keep up the good work and so pleased it’s turning out well for you both.
Gillian says
Hi Sherry and John!
I wanted to thank you for sharing your advice on here and at the AIGA panel discussion. It is very inspiring to see you two doing what you love because of your passion & dedication. I am now trying to set goals for my blog and can’t wait to see where it takes me.
Thanks again!
http://www.gillianbowman.com
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks! We had so much fun chatting.
xo,
s
Bec - Adventures of a Pastor's Wife says
Guys, thank you so much for sharing all this info.
It’s so nice to dream of one day being a full time blogger BUT having a healthy glass of reality to balance that dream.
There is a ton of blood sweat and tears here!
Thank you, thank you, thank you :)
Ann Merry says
Fabulous post! Very interesting to read about all that is entailed with your YHL site. I might mention that there is a teensy typo in the first line (at least I think there is). Isn’t blogiversaries missing the first “r”?
-Ann
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the typo tip! Off to fix it!
xo,
s
KristenK says
I think I’ve shared this post with everyone and their mother in the past 24 hours… :)
Kris says
Great post guys, very informative.
I have one thing that’s bothering me about your business expenses section. Some things, such as health insurance, personal taxes and retirement I wouldn’t really classify as business related. They seem to fit better into personal expenses. Whether you are paying these directly through your employer or after the fact (as you are doing) these are going to cover your personal needs. They don’t really contribute to the running of your business.
I understand why you included them in your post (these are things that anyone running their own blog should be aware of). Just needed to get my point out, otherwise it’d be bothering me all day :)
YoungHouseLove says
Good point! We just look at them as something we have to now manage and budget for and hire someone to help us with (never used to do that before since our employer/hr department handled them when we were in advertising!)
xo,
s
Michelle says
I was at the 2009 panel! That’s how I learned about you guys and I’m so glad I did!
Alison says
So this might not be a question you’re comfortable with answering, but my mom and I are considering starting a blog together. We’re kind of people who like to look ahead a bit. When it comes to your LLC, do you use your business accounts to pay for your home improvements or do you use your “salaries”? I could see it going either way since you mentioned you don’t use the projects as tax writeoffs.
YoungHouseLove says
They just come out of our savings/income, since they’re no business expenses or write offs. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Sarah @ Just The Bee's Knees says
Thank-you so much for the insider information! I’m new at this and started my blog to revive my passion for design & decorating that took a total backseat after having my 2 boys. I’m always interested how people make a living at blogging while raising a family at the same time so thank-you so much for sharing this much valued information!
Sarah
Lara says
I know it’s your business to have something to chat about, but breaking down your whole business model to the brass tacks is so incredibly generous. THANK YOU for all the hard work!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw that’s so sweet of you to say Lara. We love sharing all the behind the scenes stuff! Blogiversary week might be our favorite ever. Although we do love big room reveals too. Haha.
xo,
s
Quiana says
“we believe in focusing on keeping projects/posts great and sponsors/networks will hopefully come to you” – I’ve found this to be SO true! I’ve been blogging since the end of 2009 and was approached by an ad network for the first time this summer. I was surprised! I must be doing something right. Thank you for the inspiration.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw congrats! Isn’t it funny when that happens? You’re like “me? really?” – so awesome!
xo,
s
Missy G. says
I have a random question about ads, of which I have no clue because I don’t have a blog. Yet. Maybe. Anyhoo, do you get paid by sponsors just for having the button on your sidebar by a monthly fee? Or do you get paid per click somehow?
YoungHouseLove says
We actually touched on that in the end of this post: https://www.younghouselove.com/2011/09/blogiversary-iv-lets-get-personal/
We charge a flat monthly fee for them (it’s actually the same rate we’ve been charging for the past almost-two years). We like to keep it simple. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Christina says
I just love you guys. Your enthusiasm is contagious. I recently updated my “Good Reads” page on my blog and was horrified to find that you weren’t on there yet. RECTIFIED. (I think I just quoted Tron accidentally.)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, Tron quotes are always amusing.
xo,
s
Vicki says
I don’t remember how I first came across your blog, but I’m SO happy I found it. You guys are an amazing inspiration, and so generous to share your tricks of the trade. So many other successful bloggers keep their hand hidden, and hey, to each their own, but I personally really appreciate you two taking the time to spell some of this trickier business stuff out for your readers. So, thank you, and happy blogiversary!
*camp1899* says
s&j,
two things, one i read a previous comment by someone on how they hate when other bloggers never answer questions because it’s a good chance they had the same question.. you two are amazing at responding and i wondered how do you feel if you ask another blogger a question or more than one over time and they never post a response? (of course since you are a big blog this may not happen to you!) (; just curious if it makes you less inclined to read said blog or it doesn’t matter to you at all?
also, i was surprised reading your pie chart and info about google ads, it always seems that all of your ads are sponsor versus google.. are these only the ads that are directly underneath your posts? and did you ever cinsider only sponsors and no google ads since you have limited say in what the ad is about?
thanks you guys!!! this whole week of posts has been amazing!! *tiffany*
YoungHouseLove says
We definitely have played around with the combination of ads that we have (more sponsors and less google, etc) but this mix seems to work the best for us (and diversify us so we feel the most secure). As for the commenting on other blogs thing, I’m generally pretty shy so I usually don’t ask questions but occasionally just say I love something (which never necessitates a response). Once I did ask what color paint someone used on their blog (I was surprised it wasn’t in the post) and they never answered but I still read her blog! Just sometimes read it while thinking “wish she told me that paint color!” – haha.
xo,
s
*camp1899* says
thanks! i wasn’t thinking of the security angle and that makes perfect sense.. i’m trying to navigate these waters and that helps a lot..
and as for the comments i just wondered i have had a few blogs that i asked a question based on something specific in one of their posts and have found more often than not no response to be the norm..it makes you think.. thanks s!
Joan says
Many thanks (from a longtime fan) for all of the fantastic information here! This post is one of the reasons you guys are my favorite bloggers. :)
Here’s a quick question about your hosting expenses for the blog & photos: If my reading is right, those expenses jumped from about $4,000 to more than $20,000 in a year?
(I was comparing the info in this post to the info in “Blogiversary III: Behind The YHL Scenes” to get those figures.)
Just curious, because I’m planning on starting my own blog and am interested in the business side of it. I hope the jump in expenses is due to *lots* of new readers — and not because of all the photographs you guys post!
YoungHouseLove says
Actually those hosting/image expenses jumped from $0 to five digits (we feel kind of weird sharing exact figures, but it’s in the tens of thousands range). Back when we had a free wordpress.com site all of the image hosting was free but our url had wordpress.com at the end of it, so to streamline we bought younghouselove.com from godaddy.com and went to Bluehost and paid $30 a year. It all went up from there as our blog baby grew. Haha. It really just depends on traffic (the more people need to access/load your pics at a time, the more strain it puts on a server so the more you have to pay for a bigger one (or a service like amazon S3 to offset that strain). So yes, the cost is definitely just due to more readers hopping onto our site at the same time and not due to the actual types of pics that we post. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Joan says
Wow — 15 minute response time! Can I tell you again how awesome you guys are?
Thanks! :)
lisha says
Thanks for all the info and for being so honest! From your “day in the life post”…I can’t believe how long it must take that you read each and every comment. I think it really does help your blog be more personable with active feedback! Thanks for sharing the radio interview link at the end of this post I just got a big sense of how down-to-earth you are Sherry…(& John of course)…. Congrats on all the success I’ve learned many things from your blog!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks so much Lisha!
xo,
s
Judi says
MAN you guys this is fabulous information!! Esp for anyone who loves blogs and diy/home design and thinks about this stuff a 1/10th of the amount that yall do. Hard works pays off.
Also sorry that catching up weeks later on google reader doesn’t help your ad revenue! :(
enybe diaz merritt says
Hi,
I was trying to figure out a way to email you without really posting on your wall. I just want to declare myself a fan of your blog. I’ve been following you guys for a year now. Basically since we bought our house (it’s our first home). It’s a very cute but older home with a lot of potential! I was trying to do some research one day on painting our basement wood panels and that’s how i found your website. I just love everything you guys do and i have learned a lot. I’m from Mexico and just moved to the states when i got married and i never ever had to do anything myself. Labor is very affordable down there and if you need something fixed, done, repainted you just pay someone to do it for you. In the States labor is so much more expensive so, my husband and I have started educating ourselves on DIY projects. We aren’t moving are fast as we’d like but I think we are doing well. We have refinished furniture, concrete patched, fixed/painted walls, pulled up carpets, lots of gardenign and a lot of ideas i have learned from your blog. Most importantly i’ve learned that things can done by us if we do some research and find the right tools. There’s so much information out there! I had never followed a blog before and i felt silly to be honest to be doing it so i never posted a comment before. Last night i found this post(very interesting) and listened to your radio interview and I could not not congratulate you guys. Thanks for all your hard work. It’s really inspirational.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks so much!!
xo,
s
Eva says
Thanks for that fascinating post! I started into my own business, and although I had a business plan, I wasn’t aware of how important blogging might be for me and how much fun. I really enjoy it, but put in a chart how much I blog, it would only be still a small piece of cake. And yet the work for it is already taken a large amount of time (writing bilingual sigh!). There many things for me to learn (like html for nice adjustments of my blog – still looks boring, so I’m always happy to find good inside information as input. Many greetings from Germany (where you have to pay for a business license only once!)
YoungHouseLove says
So lucky to pay just once over there! Good luck with everything and thanks for the kind words!
xo,
s
Shannon {aka}|design says
I know this is an older post, and I did read through it last fall. But our own blog is now starting to generate income (it’s finally paying for all it’s own expenses including hosting fees, new laptop lease and my iPhone!), so I’m curious if you have specific percentages you use to sort out what money goes where when you get paid? Like what percentage goes to savings, retirement, DIY projects, etc. just tying to sort out how to plan. Thanks guys! I appreciate your transparency!
Shannon
YoungHouseLove says
I think those things are always changing for us (ex: we might have more to put into savings/retirement at one point than another, and we try to constantly budget for DIY, but some months it’s smaller projects while we build up our savings and other times it’s bigger projects that we have saved up for). Sorry that’s so not-specific but it definitely shifts and evolves as we go!
xo,
s
Ulrich says
I just wanted to thank you guys for sharing some extremely valuable “behind the scenes” tips and tricks around blogging and how to make an Online income in and ethical and responsible way. Very, very cool – thanks!
Katie says
I have a very random question – Sherry, when you were selling your art prints, where did you have them printed? We’re expecting our second kiddo this summer so I’m hoping to cut back to part time at my current job and make some extra money elsewhere.
And thank you for your wonderful blog! Keep up the puns :).
YoungHouseLove says
We found a local print shop here in Richmond that we loved (called Uptown Color). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Elle Beautiful says
Holy cow – Best. Blog info post. Ever! I am a fairly new blogger and am curious how bloggers make ends meet (and make it a full time gig!). I LOVE how thorough you guys are in your posts! Bravo!
Ariela @ Ariela Designs says
I know I’m nearly a year late here, but I just wanted to let you guys know how inspired I am by your blog. As a fairly new blogger (I’ve had my design blog for about a year), I am constantly parusing the internet for new blogs to inspire me and I am constantly being led back to this blog. I love how transparent you guys are and so helpful with your tips. I keep this post bookmarked!
Also on a side note, you should consider doing a web class for blogging. I know, laugh at it. Adding another thing to your insanely busy schedule probably sounds nauseating but a girl can dream…
Keep rocking it!
Ariela
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks so much Ariela! You’re so sweet!
xo,
s
Pam says
I was looking for good content to share on twitter for making your home look beautiful and came across your site. After further reading of your whole blog I realized I already have you as a favorite because of your wedding ideas! Keep going, you’re an inspiration :)
Sophie says
Thanks for sharing so much information about your business. Congratulations to you both for your success in doing something you love. 35 posts per month is very impressive too :)
Cheers
Cyndi says
This was mind blowing!!! I am a full time 1st grade teacher who just loves decorating my home and decided to blog about it. I follow YoungHouseLove daily and always admired what you two have made for yourselves and your family. I would truly love to make my little blog into something amazing but after reading this, I can’t even begin to try and squeeze all of this in with teaching first graders full time, managing a home and being with my husband! I applaud you both for this amazing success and thank you for sharing your lives and experiences with the world.
Check me out at decisivedecor.blogspot.com