Been meaning to write this post for a few days, and as always (more recently) it’s taken me a while to find my inspiration for making the post a little more interesting than just some numbers plucked out of various reporting sites linked to my blog stats!
For March, I’m gonna take the opportunity again to take you Behind The Screen to see what tools I use to create my content and what’s been going on during the month preceding this report. I then found inspiration from Charlie (of The Runner Beans) when she posted about “How much does it cost to run a blog?” and share my perspective too.
March 2016
Advertising Income: £3.71
Affiliate Income: £6.73
Collaborative &Sponsored Posts: £75
Other Work & Consulting: £0
Costs / Outgoings: £unrecorded
Total March Page Views: 4,111
As Charlie rightly says, this question essentially equates to how long is a piece of string! So I’m gonna hang my piece of string up here as I go along and share with you…
Blog Design – I used a graphic designer on Etsy I found after seeing some work he had done for some other blogging friends. This cost me about £110 (back on November 2014) and I used income from a blog post I had written to fund it. It was the turning point for me to start taking blogging a little more seriously.
Hosting – I currently am hosted on Blogger so this costs me nothing. This does mean that essentially, Google or whoever “owns” my blog but right now, that works for me!
Blog Photo’s – I take all my own photos so the only expense came when I upgrade my camera to the Olympus PEN in late summer of 2015. I don’t earn enough money (irrespective of the blog) to warrant having any professional photos taken that I need to pay for.
Advertising – I very rarely spend on advertising. On the odd occasion I’ll put a few quid into advertising a Facebook post because I feel it’s valuable and want it to reach as many people as possible. I’ve promoted a tweet once and have no plans to really do it again to be honest.
Workshops & Events – Luckily for us Bloggers, there is so much going on that is free. So it’s only on the odd occasion that I have to fund attending workshops. I recently attended a ‘Painting with Light’ workshop organised by Olympus which cost me just £10.
When it comes to events I guess that’s a whole other kettle of fish as you have to take into consideration the cost of travel (typically up to £12 return per event as I live out of town) plus the time it takes to travel there, spend there and then travel home. I think sometimes people forget how valuable time is…
Camera Kit – Along with my new camera last summer, I also got an additional lens, tripod, extension thingy-ma-jiggy so I could use the flip down screen on the tripod, an extra light…. You can read all about the Olympus PEN E-PL7 and I {Right Here}.
I recently just won a Narrative Clip 2 which is a little clip on lens that takes photographs at 30 second intervals and short 20 second videos. I’m planning on using it for capturing time-lapse videos and images at times / places where it may not be convenient to take my PEN.
Fit Kit – I’m lucky enough to only need to spend money on kit that I really, really need. For example, I’ve just started training for L’Etape in September and realised I don’t have a long sleeved jersey.
I have an awesome short sleeved one from Ashmei but it doesn’t have the pockets on the back that I really need when training rather than competing. I get provided with some kit as part of my role as a Studio Instructor, Personal Trainer and Fitness Blogger.
When it comes to money, I’m so organised; it means that I am able to have more freedom in my life, to work less, have more free time and pursue my passions. I mean, I’m yet to make a living from blogging, but that was never the plan!
So… anything I’ve missed that you’d be interested to know?! Are you thinking of starting a blog?!
Do you track your stats monthly?!
Elle
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