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So, are you’re curious how much money I make blogging? Do you want to know why you don’t see tons of reviews on this site that’s all about making money blogging? Or are you’re just curious why someone obviously interested in problogging would offer free advice without trying to sell you one damn thing?

Well, folks, I’ll be happy to answer that question — and any other questions about starting a blog or making money blogging that you might have.

And I’ll tell you why.

Out of the five blogs I run, this is the only one through which I don’t hope to make profit by blogging. That might sound like an odd confession, given the blog’s name, but I’m already making money with my other blogs. I don’t look to this one to generate one red cent.

I established BFTM after I began making money blogging on my other blogs: my first and most beloved, Electric Venom; my blog about home school, parenting and family life, I Think, Therefore I Blog; my blog about dieting, weight loss (or lack thereof) and living with middle-aged spread, Chubby Mommy; and my celebrity gossip and entertainment news blog, Queen of Snark.

I’d been blogging at EV for four years, and at ITTIB for one, when I first found out about companies that pay bloggers to blog. Back when I’d first started blogging at EV I’d told my husband that some day I’d make money at it — which he didn’t believe — so I jumped at the chance to prove him wrong. (I’m just that way.) That’s when I launched CM and QOS.

After signing up to do reviews with one company, I was making over $1800 per month. Then paid bloggers got spanked, and even though I made light of it (and another $250), my income took a dive.

(Aside: I have to confess there’s a small part of me which revels in the fact that they got spanked on their stock prices since then, too. They’re currently listed nearly $200 per share lower than when I urged people to sell their stock, although I’m certain I had nothing to do with that dive.)

Eventually, I got over my spanking thanks to this company and this one which continued to pay me the same rates as I’d been earning prior to the spank. So did advertisers with this company. In fact, that “techno triumvirate”, as I think of them, have made running 5 blogs rather profitable for me.

The thing about announcing that you make money blogging is that everyone wonders the same thing: How much money do you make blogging each month? I’ll be the first to say that I’m not in the Big Leagues like Darren Rouse, or Jeremy Shoemaker, or even the gloating and rich yet not wholly visually repugnant John Chow. (Or, for that matter, the man/team who brilliantly stold John Chow’s #1 ranking and now blog at John Cow).

But I’m doing okay, assuming you think that roughly $3950 per month for six hours of work, five days per week is “okay”.

I do.

Don’t get me wrong: I still plan to make even more per month, but the knowledge making that kind of money doing pretty much what I’d previously been doing for free? Man, that is priceless. It feels good, too, and that’s precisely what led me to start this blog.

I started BFTM to help bloggers in the position that I was when I first began trying to make money with EV and ITTIB: people who know they love blogging and would do it for free but, hey, if someone’s going to pay them, then why not try to have it all?

But the real catalyst that prompted me to launch BFTM wasn’t money. It wasn’t the desire to become a “big name” in the whole make money blogging niche. That well is already tapped out.

I started this site because I like helping people reach their potential with blogging. I like showing folks who think “all that techno stuff” is dull that learning some of that dull stuff can have magnificent effects on their blog. I feel a thrill each time I give tips to someone about fixing their page, installing a plug-in or cleaning up their code and they say, “Hey, I figured it out!”

I’m here to help, and knowing that someone finds blogging a little bit more fun, a little less intimidating and — hopefully — a little bit more profitable, well, that makes blogging here for free immensely rewarding.

To that end, I’m starting a new feature: Ask Kate. If you have a question or need advice about blogging — whether it’s starting or maintaining a blog, improving your design, or making more money blogging — just ask and I’m here to help.
For free.

Because, really, knowing that you’re having fun makes blogging more fun for me.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Make Money Blogging. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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