I was reading an article over on ProBlogger.com titled How to Make $30,000 a year Blogging where the author writes great details on how a blogger should set goals and break out their goals into manageable chunks to make them seem more reachable. Though I myself am only making around 8% of 30k per year blogging, I have been blogging for 14 months with 2 blogs trying to earn money while enjoying blogging as a hobby. I have cleared about $2500 in my first 14 months earning, and my most recent months were not my most profitable if you think that you always grow more profit with each passing month. But if you are considering to stay at home and blog full time, don’t forget blogging income alone can’t just match your salary from your day job, assuming that your company pays part of your health insurance, PTO and you pay taxes, you would have to make almost 2x your full time job to be able to quit your day job and blog full time.
For people who have families the health insurance alone can cost 500-700 dollars per month if you have to pay out of pocket to cover a family, if you made 30,000 USD in one year blogging, lets say 22k after taxes, more than 8k covers health insurance premiums and another 2k in copays for an average family of four, which means if you can live on 30k from a salary day job, you need at least 50k equiv in blogging income to live the same lifestyle.
Lets also remember that bills are constant (every month paid same time) and blogging incomes are constantly changing, one good month or week, one bad month or week. Unless you are making enough that a fluctuating week or month is still enough to cover your expenses, you could come up short some months.
One last note about the article is that they mention doing affiliate sales and sales of your own E-books or products as a part of blogging income, I don’t consider affiliate earnings blogging at all. They are product sales, though a blog can be used as a medium to sell products, it isn’t really blogging selling affiliate products or your own books. But you are right that affiliate sales are where the real money is, if you have a product to sell that you created and can keep most of the earnings, and it is something that you can sell and people want you can make good earnings. This is an area I have yet to tap myself though and something I have been hoping to try and gain more success at in the future.
Share your thoughts about blogging, earning full time and your goals. I would love to hear from fellow bloggers.
-Dragon Blogger
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Tags: blogging full time, Blogging Questions, blogging tips, can you blog full time, can you live off of blogging, Can You Quit Your Day Job to Blog, earn a living from blogging, Earn Money Blogging, full time blogging, is full time blogging possible, is full time blogging realistic, make a living from blogging, make money blogging, problogger, questions about blogging, questions for bloggers, quit day job to blog, quit job to blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 8:47 am
I’ve found that the best way to make a real living at blogging is to combine doing your own blogs with blogging for paying clients. This increases your income, makes it more steady and still leaves you the flexibility and time to do things with your own blog.
Kathryn´s last blog ..From Non-Fiction to Novel
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December 22nd, 2009 at 10:49 am
I agree, I did some paid blogging for other sites for a short period of time.
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December 22nd, 2009 at 9:42 am
I know lots of people who have e-books. Not sure how successful they are, however. Someday, on my long list of things to do lol, I hope to create and sell crochet patterns as pdf files. Sooooomeday.
Not really income from blogging, but I think that anything that wouldn’t be selling without the promotion of your blog and via your social networking efforts, is in that pile.
Heather Kephart´s last blog ..Hyenas and Secret Cheerleaders
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December 22nd, 2009 at 11:39 am
I can’t quit my day job. Greg Ellison
Greg Ellison´s last blog ..Motorola Droid Battery Cover Problems
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December 22nd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
IMO, it’s not just a question of financial feasibility. It’s mainly a question of do you want to be a blogger/web publisher. Do you enjoy writing, publishing, interacting, monitoring stats, installing plug-ins, etc etc.
Anne @ b6s.net´s last blog ..How to Recognize Comment Spam
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December 22nd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Most of us do this because we enjoy it and love to do it, but don’t earn enough to do it full time. Then again, you are right maybe some people choose to blog part time because they don’t want to make it a full time career, a hobby is a lot less pressure than if you were forced to earn money from it.
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December 22nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I’ve been hearing so much about affiliate sales and this is the post-straw that finally broke my camel’s back — with a bit of time off now for the holidays I can dive into things like this for blog maintenance and improvements.
Affiliate Links, eh?? I’ve been blogging for 15 months so.. IT IS TIME!!
Thanks.
whooo=hoo.
Jannie Funster´s last blog ..A Peanuts Christmas Song For You
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December 22nd, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I have never had much success or luck with affiliate sales myself, haven’t made 1 follow through sale from any products I reviewed, or affiliate links I have hosted.
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December 22nd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Unfortunately, I cannot leave my work for blogging. For one, it is from my work that I get my rootedness to whatever I am writing on my blogs. And second, as you shared, blogging is not really stable. I would rather want blogging to augment whatever I am earning from my day job.
elmot´s last blog ..Sen. Bong Revilla Jr. in Good Shape for a Re-election
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December 22nd, 2009 at 10:30 pm
I think that a lot of successful bloggers don’t just depend on straight up income from the advertising on their blog, but also from doing work related to their blogging, such as article writing and blogging for businesses, as someone mentioned earlier.
If I counted just the income I made from Adsense and other advertisers, it would be a nominal amount. But combined with my freelance work that I got based on my blogging experience, and it becomes a part time job.
~ Kristi
Kikolani´s last blog ..Ultimate Freelance Resources – 100+ Links to Freelance Jobs, Blogs, Podcasts, Guides & More
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December 23rd, 2009 at 8:18 am
True, I consider writing for other blogs and being paid to write content online for any site even if its not your own a huge success. It is a highly competitive market.
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December 22nd, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Same here, I’m not that good doing affiliate sales.. so far I’m only earning around $150 per month so it’s no where near where I can quit my job and blog full-time
I want to though, just don’t know how
Michael Aulia @CravingTech´s last blog ..Razer Imperator Review
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December 23rd, 2009 at 8:18 am
I don’t even really want to quit my day job, I do want to earn enough from blogging that I can hasten my retirement however (pay off debt and all that).
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December 23rd, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Blogging is already pretty much my day job, it’s a part of it or at least one of the many things I need to do.
Extreme John´s last blog ..10 Reasons I Wouldn’t Copy Your Article
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December 24th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Excellent info, albeit a very scary breakdown.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Final “Official†Post For DSWM!
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December 27th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I have read that you should have six months living expenses saved before becoming a full time blogger. That will take a lot of the pressure of producing income off of the new full timer.
Unfortunately, when you take something that was an enjoyable hobby and turn it into a profession, that can sometimes remove a lot of the joy from it. It’s probably the stress.
I guess the bigger question there is whether you will be happier than in the rat race (grindstone, salt mine, galley slave, you name it) you are presently stuck in.
Keith@Norman Rockwell Art´s last blog ..Dec 20, Breaking Home Ties, Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post Cover from 9/25/1954
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December 27th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
That is true, I am not sure I would enjoy blogging so much if I was pressured into blogging and had to do it to feed my family. The stress of the fluctuating income would drive me nuts.
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December 28th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Actually that “six months” is in regards to starting your own business, generally speaking; not necessarily or specifically blogging…the expression actually came into play looooong before online business was popular or even considered.
Take this as just another opinion if you wish, but if “blogging” in particular is going to be your full time profession, I’d make the pay considerably more then 6 months.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Again – Pick My New Domain Names With A chance To Win $10!
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January 5th, 2010 at 3:40 am
My opinion is personal blogging is never a way to earn more money than any paid job but blogging of a particular topic along with its affiliate links or ads will definitely help make good money. But it involves a lot of research to write blog on that particular topic. So its better to blog on any topic in which you are well verse and which also has proper affiliates. Thanks
read Lauren from Crochet baby patterns´s article about Lala….a Mountain Mama: Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
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January 5th, 2010 at 7:09 am
Thank you for your thoughts and I agree with you.
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February 19th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Great article. To make real money online you need to create a product that satisfies the needs of a certain group of people. Some writers have turned their blogs into a business because their blog is more like a product than a blog. If you want to make money online you should focus your attention on developing a product, if that product is a blog, great, but be aware you face plenty of competition!
Nick´s last blog ..An Awesome Podcast to Start the Day
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June 10th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
As long as you have substantial interesting content and make full use of all the internet marketing tools out there… sure why not!
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