inspiration

how to create a successful blog that doesn’t make a lot of money

by theminimalistmom |

This blog has been a big surprise.

I started it to kick my own butt into gear with de-cluttering. I needed some motivation and I love to write. A blog made sense.

At the time my husband and I had plans to work on a writing project together. When I told him I had registered a domain name and started a blog, and that I was going to get rid of a lot of our possessions, he was taken aback. It was certainly out of left field as I had only read a few articles on minimalism and hadn’t discussed any of them with him.

Unfortunately for him, I had the fever. I wanted things out of the house that day. I wanted open spaces and drawers and I wanted less stuff as soon as possible.

I went on a rampage getting rid of clothes, books, DVDs, furniture and everything else I knew we didn’t need.

I wrote about my adventures in de-cluttering a few times a week on this blog. It helped. It gave me structure. The blog and discussions with my sister Katy kept me going.

This blog was never intended to be an income or an ongoing passion. At the start it was purely an experiment in finding a way to manage and motivate myself for massive change. I’m not sure I ever thought beyond getting our home in shape and radically changing our consumption habits.

I’ve checked off radically de-cluttering our possessions and becoming conscious consumers. Sure, I still need reminders and we currently have a box on the go for donations, but the huge ‘will this ever end’ part of this journey is done.

So why am I still blogging here?

Certainly not for the money. I would be better off getting a job, a job anywhere, than trying to earn an income blogging. If you’re a blogger just starting out my advice is: don’t get into it for the money. There really isn’t any.

So why keep a blog? Because you’re passionate about it.

I like the conversation here, I like all the great links and suggestions readers send my way and I like researching how others are leading a rich life with less stuff.

I like not feeling alone on this journey.

You might be surprised but I don’t really talk about our life with less stuff in daily conversation. It rarely comes up. When it does, usually around our no-car situation or that we’re a family living in a small flat, I lean towards making light of it. I don’t want to make other people feel uncomfortable about their choices. I’m certainly not uncomfortable visiting friends with bigger homes or more stuff than us.

But what about earning a living?

Well, I’m fortunate that we can live comfortably on my husband’s income alone. In part that’s due to the changes we’ve made to our lifestyle and the work we put into getting out of consumer debt. But I still want to work, to build a career, and work on things I’m passionate about.

I’ve day dreamed about being a working writer since I was 14. It seemed an impossibility. I didn’t know any writers, journalists or novelists, that earned a living writing. My undergraduate degree is in English Literature and Creative Writing. The Creative Writing courses were the few university classes where I was really engaged. When university ended so did my writing.

Sometimes we get sidetracked from our dreams and passions. It’s happened to me a few times.

My rowing career spanned from the age of 15 to 26. There wasn’t much time for novel writing or submitting short stories to contests. I was training three times a day and sleeping or eating the rest of the time.

When I was 27 I went to film school. I studied screenwriting for a year then worked at a remote fishing lodge for four months. I made a bunch of cash, and with the help of my at the time boyfriend (now husband) I was a writer for 10 months. It was hard. I never wrote as much as I hoped. I got a kudos for a screenplay in the form of a writing fellowship but not much more. For the last five months of my full-time writing I was planning my wedding and my output was on the very low end.

Then I got a job. It was a mind numbing job but my coworkers were nice and I needed the cash for the wedding. After six months of it I got a new job in a more creative field. This one was more interesting but the top brass were terrible and eventually the only thing I liked about going to work was commuting by bike.

Finally I found a job I really enjoyed. It was demanding but I liked the work and my coworkers were fantastic people. Then, after quite a few months of trying, I got pregnant. I was sad to leave the job for maternity leave and even went to work after my water broke to tidy a few things up.

The writing dream was still there but it seemed farther and farther away. Once Henry arrived I shelved the writing dream even farther back in the closet. You might say I moved it to off-site storage. Out of site out of mind.

Then I started this blog. My husband and I changed our lifestyle and could afford for me to not go back to work. The blog slowly grew in readership as we got rid of more and more stuff and stopped buying things we didn’t really need.

My writing dreams slowly moved from off-site storage to our closet.

Writing here gave me confidence and I decided to pour my love for less stuff into a book. I probably should have worked on something general and marketable to everyone. Instead, I wrote about what I was most passionate about right then: less clutter and stuff with a newborn. I had learned a lot in the first year with my son and from all of our home purging. I wanted to encourage other parents to let go of the stuff, relax and embrace simpler living with young children.

Last week I received my first cheque from Amazon for book sales. It was for $192. I know, that isn’t a huge sum of money but it’s a start. And the feeling, the feeling of eeking out a small income from writing, I can only describe it as being akin to the high after giving birth to my son or the feeling of crossing the finish line at the World Championships as the third best team in the world.

At the beginning of January I started work on a collection of essays, in the vein of David Sedaris or Mindy Kaling, that I hope to publish in the fall. Some of the material I have dates back from my university writing days. I am both excited and terrified to publish something so personal.

While this blog will probably never be a big income for me it’s given me something more valuable. I have my dreams back. I’m acting on them. Daily. And for a long, long time I thought they were impossible. For a long time I thought they were for someone else.

Now I know they were for me. Some years of my life they were shelved away and gathering dust but they were always waiting.

This blog, and you dear readers, helped me find them again and make them a reality.

Thank you.

 

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  • I just found this blog post, and it’s at the perfect time. I, too, have always loved writing but though it impractical or unattainable. Instead, I chose the journalism industry: the most practical industry in which I could make a living writing. But after years of thinking I needed to find the right niche within journalism and then I’d love it, finally I realized… I just didn’t want it. The shifting, 24/7 schedule has wreaked havoc on my health, too, further cementing my desire to leave. Tomorrow is my last day, and I feel a bit anxious and scared that I am taking the leap to become a writer — quitting a so-called “impressive” career for a dream that may or may not happen. But my current situation left me depleted of any energy after work for even laundry, much less writing. I think I’m making the right decision, and your blog has given me a bit of peace I needed today. Thank you :).

  • I really can’t believe how similar we are in terms of writing dreams, and our blogs helping clarify them and point the way forward. Good for you! This is very motivating.

  • Thanks, FW. I really enjoy the little communities of simple living families too. Makes me feel like we’re not such outliers. 🙂

    Thanks for the donation button suggestion. I’ll mull it over – I’ve always been terrible at asking for things, donations, raises, etc. Right now the proceeds from the books I suggest (over there on the far right) and donations people made for my Year One book in the fall, have covered my hosting and design costs for the year. I’m quite grateful for the support!

  • I got a little teary reading this post. I’m so proud of you and all that you have acheieved in following your passion. I’m so excited about what is to come. I love this blog. You are inspiring me to follow my own dreams. Thank you and keep it up!

    • Thank you. You and L have been a big inspiration to me as well. You live so mindfully in everything you do – how your home runs, what you devote your time and energy to. The success you have both had is well deserved and I know there is even more to come for both of you.

      Miss you!!

  • I look forward to your posts. Love the idea of a no waste home. Clutter free is the way to be. We have a long way to go yet to get there …but we are planning to downsize our large home to a smaller one this spring. So glad that we can read along here as we do so. 🙂

  • Congratulations!!!!!!!! The same thing happened to me–that first amazing check from Amazon, and it just bowled me over. I started my blog two years ago for pretty much the same reason you did, to journal the decluttering and minimalism process, then it became more of a blog than a journal, then as I decluttered my working life I got into writing ebooks. I was an English major, too, with an MA, and was a writer for ten years after college until a series of unfortunate situations shoved it into that old off-site storage and I worked at everything except writing.

    The blogging helped me to find my writing voice again, and now I’m back into writing fiction as well as creative nonfiction, and I couldn’t be happier. The blog is still relevant because I never really got into the “how-to” part of decluttering, and stayed with the philosophical, using it as a way of looking at the world around me. But I will be bringing in the writing side of things now that it’s growing.

    Congratulations many times over and best wishes as you go forward with your writing life, with lots and lots of check from Amazon and beyond!

    • Inspiring to hear that thing have come full circle for you and you are back to writing. Many thanks for your posts and your links on Twitter – great resources for me.

  • Finding your passion and turning your passion into your job is one of the greatest achievements in life, I think. Keep writing Rachel. You certainly have the passion and the talent for it! 🙂

  • I truly love this post. It’s so, so spot on. I know there are some mommy bloggers who make a living off of blogging, but it appears that they must sell their soul by selling advertising space or doing paid reviews. I’m glad you haven’t gone that route. When I started blogging years ago (high school actually), I did it so I had a place to feel heard. Then I started reading other blogs and felt confused–should I have a main focus? Should I be scouting for advertisers? Should I write a book like everyone else is? Finally, I’m at the point where I have it all narrowed down to writing as a creative outlet, writing to connect, and writing for a sense of community. I’m glad you’ve found something similar in your journey 🙂

  • You´re such an inspiration, thank you! My dream isn´t writing, but I´ll find my dream to and until then I´ll keep decluttering, saving money and spending more time with my children instead of moving things around my house…

  • Thank you for sharing and thank you generally. I relate to much of what was said (apart from the writing dreams). As you know we started blogging around the same time, I’d been reading about minimalism for about 18 months prior, and had been an active part of the community through comments. Then it was time to push a little further. It was like finding a new home. I found you first (in the Mom sense – I’d been reading a lot of stuff from single young men prior who although they had something to say they were at a different point in their lives – simplifying with a family in tow is a whole different ball game). Why do we blog? Well for me it’s because I have found a new home here, a home where I feel like me. Blogging is such a motivator to accomplish what I aspire to do, and it makes you so accountable – this stuff really works. As for real life, I don’t talk generally to friends and family as I do on my blog – eyes would glaze over. On a blog the people who want to be part of the conversation find you, they want to have that discussion.
    Keep at it Rachel – all of it – ’cause if anyone can do it…you can…
    p.s. That fishing lodge? – can I get the number? Sounds like my kinda place!

    • The fishing lodge was a unique experience. Very very remote. You fly in by helicopter. Crazy expensive to actually stay at the lodge but unbelievable experience. You could see Alaska on a clear day and the salmon and halibut fishing was great.

      Thanks for encouragement, Jo. Like you I have found a home and motivation in blogging. 🙂

  • Congratulations! I can only imagine how amazing that must have felt. I first came across your blog via the Strocel.com podcast and I’m so glad I did. Many of your ideas resonate with me, and as someone just starting out on her own writing career, I can relate to how exciting this is for you! Good for you for following that dream… can’t wait to see what other great things are in store for you.

  • $200 would lead to a victory dance in our house! Great work!

    Blogging is so much fun. I enjoy the writing, it’s a silly outlet for me and my husband (who is a professional salary-paid writer), and I know I’ll never make money from it. There appears to be a formula that many of the money makers follow, and while I’ve cherry picked some of the variables (the most fun ones), I can’t see myself jumping in all the way. This has been a great jumping off point for some major creativity in our house–my husband has finished a novella and is finally writing stories again, I’ve pulled out some of my old short stories from grad school and have started some new ones, and I noticed that our children get into our conversations when we try to think of story ideas, blog posts, ridiculous gimmicks…it’s been wild to see my four year old turn into a fantastic story teller.

    So for us, blogging has been a creative exercise with some unexpected results. I’m glad it has been for you, too.

    • Had a moment where I thought about framing it. But that’s $200! Took a picture instead.

      That is so nice to hear that blogging and writing is a family affair for you. I hope we have that some day. My husband is a very talented song writer and a local sports reporter long, long ago. We muse about down shifting even further to an even cheaper style of living so we could both write full time. Maybe we’ll move to Thailand in a few years for a year of writing – who knows!

  • Thanks, Joanna. I do have affiliate products (over there on the right) but I shy away from selling anything in blog posts. The truth is that 99.9 % of us just need a bit of motivation and hand holding to de-clutter. Both free things that you can get from a blog or a friend or find within. 🙂

  • I love this, thanks so much. I’m also trying to blog more this year– thanks for helping me to remember why. I need the creative outlet for my passion… until I can make it my life! onward!

  • Congratulations!!! You were meant to do this! I can’t remember how I came across your blog, but I am so thankful that I did. In the last month and a half I have reduced the amount of excess “stuff” in my bedroom closet, kitchen cupboards, kid’s rooms…. Anywhere! Have also cut back extra spending and only bought consumable groceries, and made a huge dent in the once jam-packed pantry and freezer. I have also cleaned out the spare bedroom and turned it into an office and started my own business, thanks to you!! You have been truly inspirational, and I am reminded everyday of the things you have written about when I am in my house and feeling happy and relaxed. I can’t even remember the stuff I gave away that I once thought I needed. Perhaps your “writing” writing will help me with my next project, too- writing for my website and blog. So grateful that you found your way back to your dream, since it’s helped me find mine. Congrats, again.

  • How fabulous to have your writing dreams closer to the fore. I do lament how distant my old dreams seem these days.

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