I could (basically) live off this blog today if I wanted.
I looked at my current income numbers for the blog, and was shocked last month.
(I normally never check, to be honest. I’m quite lax about the whole thing, still sort of pigeonholing myself as a hobby blogger in my mind.)
Wow. I could live off this blog today, right now, if I wanted.
Of course, it would be a kind of super basic, spend $0 living, but I technically could.
3 YEARS LATER & I AM CLOSE TO BEING RAMEN PROFITABLE
You may or may not know, but I sold my two blogs I started about 10 years ago for about 5-figures, and then got bored quickly not blogging & started this one again.
Now 3 years into this blog, I’m almost ramen profitable.
Seriously.
“Ramen profitable means a startup makes just enough to pay the founders’ living expenses.”
Ramen Profitable (H/T to PK)
This blog is in its third year, and I make (now) on average a little under $1000 a month which just about covers my condo fees, condo taxes and part of my groceries but not shopping, taxes, government fees, incidentals, gas, car maintenance.
(Not to mention taxes, government fees, etc..)
What I could do, is live off this blog if I ate ramen and stayed inside all day, doing and spending absolutely ZERO MONEY on anything else.
NOTHING ELSE.
So.. technically ramen profitable?
Debatable.
I obviously need to double that income to live at my current state, but .. it’s pretty much on its way now.
SO ARE YOU GOING TO QUIT YOUR JOB NOW?
Hells no.
I make so much more money at my real job per hour, that it would be pure insanity for me to just give up on that.
No.
I am still looking for and taking contracts, but now I am a little less stressed about money. I still burn through my savings obviously, but now at a slower burn rate.
ER…SO WHY DO WE CARE?
Well..as I have mentioned in my past budget roundup, I am working on writing ebooks.
I have been basically hassled for the past 8 years since I started blogging on my other blogs which I sold, to write books on everything from minimalism to style to money.
My first book?
How to make money blogging.
Catchier title to follow.
I was asked to write it by a reader, and I am doing it done.
I started the book about 3 weeks ago, and I am almost finished it completely.
I started the book on October 1st and as of today, October 22nd, I am finished it.
I mean I AM DONE.
Including screenshots and titles in images, actual images and whatever else I wanted to add.
(Today as of writing this post, is October 22nd 2016 at 16:43)
My book is 217 pages before review (waiting for a cover inspiration to hit), 24,418 words, not including a table of contents which I have yet to compile now that I’m done.
The checklist I am creating is 10 pages, and 638 words:
I have been writing and taking screenshots and going like a maniac ever since playgroup started and aside from taking a mental break here and there..
I also find that I think I want to add a few more images, but it’s pretty much written. 99% I’d say.
How?
I have tried to write every single day for at least an hour (length of Baby Bun’s nap).
I’m a bit of a Type A freak like that.
Once I get my sights set on something, it is DONE.
Still, this is kind of insane for me.
All that’s stopping me now, is coming up with a nice cover design for my future series, adding more images, then reviewing the info in there before hitting publish.
I will be selling it online only through the blog, and am considering buying an ISBN to publish it on Amazon, Google, etc, but I haven’t decided if I will, because doing so, would mean that they take up to 50% of the profits.
:\
No hardcopies will be created.
I will offer it in PDF, Ebook, MOBI and whatever other ebook formats are out there for download.
New ebook site to follow, as a static website, much like my Budgeting Tool.
I finally feel like I am on track.
I finally feel like I am useful, I have a purpose, and as a result, I am even turning into a mini Martha Mommy.
I have been making pasta carbonara, baking cakes… DIY’ing (easy) things… and taking Baby Bun to the park or his playground every single day. Sometimes twice a day.
Thank you all, for your (continued) support, encouragement and most of all, for being readers even if you never buy any of my future books. 🙂
I really appreciate it.
28 Comments
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Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life
Whoo! What’s the next level after this – ramen with egg? Pho! That’s more expensive and a treat.
I was JUST thinking about ramen-profitable level living today and how I know I could but hell no I don’t want to, not when I have the choice not to. Still experimenting with various revenue streams that fit into my life as it is now without pushing everything out of balance since other than the “what’s next?” question, our set-up right now is pretty awesome.
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save. spend. splurge.
Yes. One egg every other bowl of ramen, and maybe a sprinkling of green onions. 🙂
That’s where I’m floundering a bit– the balance! This blog sucks up so much of my time that it is about time it started paying some bills…
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Jen
Yay!! That will be your paper baby (babies) :).
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save. spend. splurge.
Paper baby. Haha 🙂 I have a real one and a paper one. And an electronic one (this blog)…
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Corina
While I have been following you since the old blog, I am a bit surprised by the amount of ads you put on your blog lately….plus they keep popping up on top of the content 🙁 I come back less frequent now and I have stopped commenting a long time ago…
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save. spend. splurge.
So, great points! Here’s my response:
I’m in the middle of experimenting with 3 ad networks, and it is between putting ads, or paying out of pocket, so it is kind of messy right now, but I’m working on trying to get it to be less ad-filled, but that balance is hard because I need data. I need to know what works and what doesn’t before I can remove things without impacting the revenues greatly.
Without the amount of ads up there, I actually can’t cover my costs consistently (webdesign, hosting, etc) as I cannot rely on the other sources of income. Half of the income comes from ads, believe it or not.
The rest come from affiliate links.
If I could rely LESS on ads, and more on things like eBook sales, I would cut back on advertising without a doubt. I personally hate it, and it looks ugly on the blog, but I’m sort of caught between a rock and a hard place so to speak.
I’m sorry you don’t read or come back any more to comment, but I have to start making this a viable side income.
I would have hoped all the work I put into my content, and the hours I spend creating all this content organically from scratch to post daily would be good enough to garner reading, and an occasional comment but you’re your own person.
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Corina
A bit of an uncalled for rant… You do mention yourself that you are a hobby blogger, that all profits from this blog go to charity etc . God knows I am not telling you to change anything on your own blog!!! You obviously do exactly whatever you want to do and you are doing a fine job out of it. But I noticed a change (the number of ads) and I commented on it. As there was no way for me to know that you plan to make this lucrative, I told you that I do not particularly like it. For you to take this personally….and post this message…. it is a bit disconcerting to me. Therefore I apologize and wish you the best of luck.
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save. spend. splurge.
Well it is a personal blog. I’m sorry you feel that way but it is kind of obvious if I put ads up, it means it is to make money, otherwise I wouldn’t bother..
You hit on a sore spot for me because I’m struggling with the balance of ads & blogging as a side thing. I’m sorry if I took it out on you, or if it seemed like that.
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save. spend. splurge.
I should also note that this is a hobby, but all the work I put into it, means I barely get paid a minimum wage if I were to try and live off this blog.
If you think of the hours I put into the blog, at least 35 a week, ad getting back only $1000 after 3 years of sweat (or longer), that’s a really bad job.
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Cassie
Mmmmm, carbonara…
Seriously though, congratulations on cranking out your first eBook so quickly! I know I shouldn’t be surprised given your writing ethic when it comes to blog posts, but 217 pages in 3 weeks is still pretty impressive!
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Vivien
If it werent for this post, I wouldn’t even have noticed the 7 ads on one blog. I guess we are pretty desensitized to it nowadays.
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save. spend. splurge.
Thank goodness. I’m trying to strike a balance between beauty and revenue. Can’t eat pride.
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Ali
Hi Sherry, Congrats on the book. I will definitely support you and buy it. I love the stuff that you write.
It is amazing how you are making under 1k on this blog every month.One question though: What is the revenue stream coming from? your ads, budget tool, clothes for sale?
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save. spend. splurge.
Thanks kindly.
So it’s from ads, the budgeting tool, affiliate links. No clothes for sale, that’s a separate one-time thing, not actual revenue 🙂
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Tim
Way to go on finishing the book….I have ideas for ebooks, but I just haven’t finished them yet. I blame the novel project. 😉
While it is true you may lose some profit by going to bigger publish platforms, but that may make up for volume of sales. ISBN’s are easy in Canada. Let me know if you need some help (email me). I did my first book, print and ebook, a while ago (2011) but I still kept my lesson’s learned from the entire experience.
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save. spend. splurge.
HAHA! Maybe I’ll be a novelist too, in the future. Who knows. Right now, I am finally getting around to those ebooks everyone keeps harping on me about 😉
I’ll shoot you an email, thank you for your offer!
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Taylor Lee @ Yuppie Millennial
Impressive writing speed, congrats on the book!
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raluca
Congratz on the book, I’m looking forward to it :).
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Ramona @ Personal Finance Today
LOVE the idea of the book and I can’t wait to read all that great information. Coming from someone who’s clearly on track with their blog income, this can be only great stuff 🙂