The Cost of Blogging

Posted on 11. Sep, 2009 by Jeremiah Hoyet in Blogging

I was recently showing off my blog to a friend of mine. At first he was intrigued and started to ask me if I thought he should start a blog. It was at this point that I told him how much time and money I have invested in my blog, and how much I have receive in return for that investment. Hearing this immediately changed his mood about blogging. He thought I was crazy for investing so much time and money for almost nothing in return.

I told him it would be worth the investment if I continued to work hard!

Blogging is a great way to make money online, but it is not free or easy by any means. Blogging requires you to pay a cost and continue to pay that cost until you eventually receive a return on your investment or quit blogging altogether. Some of those costs are monetary, while others come in the form of time and energy you give up to keep your blog going.

Blogging Costs Money

Yes. Blogging costs you money. There are free blogging platforms, but if you want to control every aspect of your blog, it will costs you a few bucks. How much money does a blog cost? Here’s a run down of how much money I have spent on my blog this year alone:

Hosting Costs – I’ve been hosting this blog on Media Temple’s Grid Hosting service for almost a year at a cost of $17.99 a month. That comes out to around $216.
Wordpress Theme - Shortly after I started this blog I purchased a Wordpress theme from WooThemes. The theme was $70.
Advertising Costs - To help grow traffic on my blog from the beginning I purchased a few ad spaces for a month, that ran up a bill of $40.

Total cost of blogging this year – $326

Blogging Takes Up Your Time

Another cost of blogging is your time. I would be lying to you if I told you that blogging doesn’t take up a good portion of my free time. I’m a young father, so I don’t have a ton of free time to spare, but I spend a large portion of it doing something related to my blog.

I’m also constantly giving up something to make time for my blog. For instance, my daughter hasn’t been allowing my fiancé and I to get a lot of sleep the last couple of days. That, coupled with the hours of my regular job, have left me completely exhausted. Since I am dedicated to making my blog successful, I am up bright and early this morning writing a blog post, instead of sleeping in with my fiancé.

It’s All Worth It

I don’t want to paint a picture of blogging as a lot of hard work with no return. There are benefits to blogging, some more direct than others, but they are present. I’m just saying that blogging takes a lot of hard work, and it’s something you should know before you decide to give blogging a try.

That image is by TheTruthAbout…

7 Responses to “The Cost of Blogging”

alaJoAnn

17. Sep, 2009

Yes, blogging requires hard work, dedication, time and energy. BUT think of the expertise you have developed when $326 is about the tuition rate of a single community college class, and a fraction of the cost for a graduate course – you have actually saved thousands of dollars!

Oh, if you were a golfer, you’d have spent a lot more this year too!

Blogging isn’t for everyone, but you have obviously got IT. What other work would you rather do, that uses the talents you have? Where you are master of your universe? Where you can shine and help others at the same time?

Here’s wishing you a long prosperous career in blogging and much life happiness.
kuhinje

24. Sep, 2009

I think people are starting to realize the hard work blogers put into their work. Of course every blog doesn’t have to cost money but those bloger also don’t get anything out of their blog, except maybe some clarification on their thoughts.
Tom -StandOutBlogger.com

04. Oct, 2009

So many people don’t see the hard work that goes into the popular blogs and just think it will be a quick money maker. Just like everything in life, blogging is a long term project and the effort you put in will be rewarded in the future – IF you are willing to keep persevering.
Gerri - Ninety Nine Ways

06. Oct, 2009

I say it all depends on what you want to get out of your blogging. Not everyone is out there only to try and make money – that there is a just a bonus. Blogging will take up a fair amount of time and energy and that I think is something that needs to be considered and we cant forget (as you mentioned), the financial investment. It can be a very enjoyable experience or things can not work out and you will hate it.
Diego in Del Mar

16. Oct, 2009

You’re not kidding. Blogging is hard work and serious commitment. In order to build a blog community you need to provide lots of relevant information on a regular basis, and work extra hard to promote the blog in as many social networks as possible. One of the best examples in my industry, looking at the Phoenix Real Estate Guy’s blog, you may be tempted to think that anyone can pull it off. Not so!
Roschelle

18. Oct, 2009

The time investment far outweighs any amount of money a blogger forks over. Pumping out quality content day after day, optimizing for search engine recognition and interacting with visitors can be consuming. The one thing you never want to lose sight of is the reason you started blogging in the first place. Great post!
Primary Work at Home

30. Oct, 2009

I agree, it’s not easy earning through blogging. It takes a lot of effort and determination.