Could I be a full-time blogger?
As more bloggers quit their day jobs and become full-time web authors, I’m becoming more envious of their positions. Granted, I fully appreciate the difficulty of the switch, especially when it comes to the loss of stability (for most of them) as well as benefits, especially medical.
I make a decent income off my various sites (I have 3 main ones, but only 2 are monetized and publicized right now), but it’s not even half of what Stacie makes each month. That means it’s less than a fourth of what I make (Stacie makes less than half of my salary). I say that because if Stacie was the main blogger, then it would be a much easier transition to full-time blogger. So for now, the money is used for debt repayment, home improvements and other expenses.
The Only Way I Could Go Full-Time
So my epiphany today is basically the only way I could become a full-time blogger. Basically, we would have to do the following:
- Sell our house in Maryland
- Maybe sell the truck (maybe not)
- Move in with Stacie’s parents in PA (mine wouldn’t do as there’s already 4 generations in that house)
- Stacie would still need to get a job with benefits so I could get on her healthcare. It would be much cheaper than paying outright for both of us.
Stacie’s parents have 2 rooms only being used for storage, and best of all, they don’t have a mortgage. I wouldn’t expect to live there for free (although my father-in-law probably wouldn’t accept rent), but if I could, I would try to pitch in about $500 for rent and utilities. I could also apprentice for my FIL as a handyman, which would make my truck pretty useful.
Stacie’s income might drop by about 20-30%, but we would be close (very close) to at least half our family and I think I would be a much happier and content person. Along with inexpensive housing, the costs of most other things in central PA are less than the DC region; mainly food. And if we split grocery costs among 4 people, then the bill goes down even lower.
Right now I can’t really see myself making such a major shift, but both Stacie and I are getting burnt out by not only our jobs (mine isn’t so much the work, but the type of work), but also just living in a congested, unfriendly area like DC.
So it’s just a daydream for now, but who knows, we might decide to discuss the idea further with each other and maybe eventually with our in-laws. We’d have to investigate the possibility of Stacie getting a job somewhere in central PA (like at a certain major university or nearby hospital), and I’d have to start working on my various sites a bit more actively to monetize better while producing better content. The plan would be to eventually move out once we can support ourselves easily, but having the fallback of our family is helpful.
I guess we’ll let you know if anything ever happens 😉
Wouldn’t it be nice? I’d love to be able to do something like that so I could be around to raise children (when I have them) more. But…it’s only the select few that seem to be able to make that change. Maybe some day…
It’s a dream of mine as well, but unfortunately I just can’t swing it now with my wife at home. If she could pick up something with insurance and enough take home to cover the bare necessities, I could add some freelance work to make up the difference. As it is, with three mouths to feed at home, and mine as the only FT income it will have to remain a daydream in the near term.
That’s why they call ’em dreams my man 😉 At least you know what yours would be though! That alone beats out others out there.
if it helps, i can mail you a penny each week! (that adds up ya know)
Clever Dude, what do you find to be the best revenue sources for your websites? It sounds like you’re doing fairly well with them, and I’d be curious to see what programs are working best for you.
@Lawyer, Right now, I’m making most of my cash off various text links sales, but when I apply myself, I do well off of affiliate links for credit cards. Adsense is probably only 5-15% of my income in any given month.
Clever Dude, have you ever considered selling ads yourself, or getting a company to sell your ad space for you? I don’t know what your traffic is like, but if it’s fairly significant, you may be able to get a higher price than what you get paid for the same space right now.
@Jon, I don’t really have defined ad space. I like to keep my site design clean (although I will test ad placements sometimes). If you have ideas, feel free to email me via my contact page
I’ve also been thinking the same sort of thing, but I reckon my blogging income is probably about a quarter of yours. So that’s not going to happen any time soon.
But, if I got a slightly better paid job (I’ve discovered that I’m underpaid compared to the market) and switched to working part-time, say 3 or 4 days a week, part-time pro-blogging would definitely be doable.
I’m concerned about how many hours I can put into blogging and work without getting burned out. It’s alright at the minute, but…
Hey Clever Dude
Don’t quite your job – it’s silly to do that when both of you are making much more. Sacrifice your nights and weekends a little more. I’d wait until you have consistently made 1.5 times your combined salary before you go full.
This way you are hedged! With a good risk reward profile.
Mr Credit Card
@Mr. Credit Card, I agree with your reasoning, but I can never imagine making 1.5x our current combined salaries just from blogging! Keep in mind that we live in the D.C. region, so our salaries, er my salary, is pretty high compared to rural PA.
While I’m sure it would make calculations in all my readers’ heads easier to just disclose our salaries, I can’t as some of my coworkers and Stacie’s coworkers know about the site. I will say, though, that we make in the 6-figure range combined (again, keep in mind we live/work in/around D.C.).
It’s not what you make. It’s what you keep. 6-figures or not, y’all probably do ok in DC, despite it’s high cost. 😉
Take it from me. I watched my parents work very hard for their livelihood all my life, even now. When you work for yourself, it’s a lot of work, despite the autonomy. Do it because you want that autonomy and flexibility because there is definitely security in what you do for your current job. Wait till you have to slow down to go pro and save your cash till then.
If you only needed to make 10/hour x 20 hours per week, would you be able to afford to quit your job then? Great, then hire someone to do extra blogging for you for $10/hour! You could branch off and start a related blog that they could control. I understand that large money seems far off, but Mike Arrington and Nick Denton have both done a pretty good job growing their blogs into enterprises. Expanding to a few times the size you are now can’t be impossible.
Blogging is only one way you could make money if you were to have all that chunk of time free without a full time job. I am sure you could work out a few more options.
Now that the dream has started, start dreaming a little more about the details, and the pieces will all just start fitting together.
Good luck.