What My Blog Salary Buys-2

For 18 months I was averaging a blog salary per day that bought we one bargain brownie per month. I decided to start fresh in June, and keep a monthly progress report. This is where watching pennies and dimes really becomes interesting for me. In June, I earned the grand sum of $3.04, just over $o.10 per day average. Woo Hoo, that's a 33% increase over my past average. Looking at it as part of a business, though one could argue chocolate brownies as a business expense, I earned enough to cover the domain costs for SamandCoffee.com and SamandCoffee.net for the month of June, with $1.04 left over. Not that I've added content yet there, but things are building up in the back ground, and it feels good to actually own a domain name. Sam and Coffee really does exist! 

I just have a siple google domain and $12 per year for each suffix. As much as I appreiate the free blogger site, I woudllike to migrate content there that is more research, article based, and keep this for conversation and community. I'm not sure how to link the two, and had menat when both DD2 and DS were here at Christmas, they could help me, but never found the opportunity. 

With the remaining $1.04, I will start a little business kitty. I'll apply that kitty to things like SD cards, for when the elusive camera is in my possession, notepads and good writing pens to keep handy for ideas, and maybe even business cards for the blog, ready for the Mn Blogger's Conference in October. I put the link becasue the slides and presentations are posted and there was some quality offerings. Oh, the kitty could go towards the conference fee too. 

My blogging expenses, at some point should include for the year:
Domain addresses $24
MN Blogger's Conference $20 (last year continental breakfast, lunch, snacks, and a first beer and appetizers for after conference party was all included, so it was as much entertainment as an investment)
Business cards-$20
Pens, notepads-$2 (I've been using my school supply stash, and will add a few things when target goes super low)
Computer Depreciation-agian computer used for lots of things, but at some point, I should have one for this work so should put aside $200 year, to replace every three years.
Camera  $175 (though I'll use for lots of things)-hoping to get with gift cards, and multi year use, but will put $40 a year for depreciation over 5 years to buy a new one.
SD Card- lowest I've seen, and adequate could be $5.00, and multi-year use

Grand total, this hobby/business costs about $309.00.

I'm pretty pumped about that, becasue even if I never earn a penny blogging, how many hobbies do people have that cost less than $30 a month?

What My blogging Salary Buys

Naivety can be a  good thing.  Blindly going into something with a preconceived notion of what the experience is like, but then ending up with something totally different-better perhaps, is a welcome. Blogging was my naive experience. I have to admit, I thought there actually might be a little side earnings available if I just worked diligently to post pithy commentary, share common experiences, and find advertisers and sponsors that would build my family's spending money coffers. I added the AdSense widget, and in December, 2014, my blog began to generate add revenue. $0.03 that first month.  

Well, 18 closed months later, and I have a finalized earnings total of $41.37. That calculates out to $0.075 per day. Looking at my earnings is a mild curiosity now.  I leaned quick that the AdSense does nothing without thousands of followers. A UK blogger, Skint Dad UK, has gotten a plethora of freelance writing gigs from his blog start, plus, followers in the quadruple digits, and I recall reading a post, months past his writing gig success, that he had cleared his first 100 pound milestone on AdSense.  DH will sometimes ask some days, "Did you clear your nickle yet?" on the rare day when I actually hit $1.00, I got an unenthusiastic, "Go mom" from DD2. This is not going to  be a money maker.

Or is it? I've decided to challenge myself to figure out just what my little earnings total might be able to do to enhance my quality of life. I'll start a new daily or monthly average in June, but for my past history, I did a little brainstorm on what exactly $0.075 can buy. While I didn't come up with much, I found that one special treat meets my blogging budget to the penny. Warnings, tedious calculation is ahead. 

I love made from scratch brownies, but am not opposed to boxed versions, particularly the fudgy ones. I regularly can buy boxed mixes for $1.00. They call for vegetable oil, $0.40, and two eggs, at my high average price of $0.20 an egg, and a pan will cost $1.80. I can get 24 bars from the pan, at exactly $0.075 a brownie-less if I get eggs and oil lower. Granted the last time I stopped at one brownie when I baked them was never, but conceptually, my blogging career pays for one self indulgent fudge brownie a day. I might scoff at myself and figure why bother with AdSense, but now it is a bit of blogging fun to check periodically. My earnings are pennies, however, blogging has earned me experiences, escapes, and connections that are priceless, and for that I'll gladly trade in my naive dreams.