Like we’ve done for past blogiversaries, this week we’re taking time to share what running our blog looks like as a business. We never set out to build a company when we published our first post in September 2007, and we didn’t write a formal business plan. It’s been a learn-as-you-go journey full of adjustments, mistakes, and lessons. We don’t claim to be business experts any more than we claim to be professional DIYers or interior designers — we’re just two regular people with a chihuahua and a baby — but we do want to share what we’ve learned in case it helps someone else growing a blog or just satisfies someone’s curiosity about what our days look like.
We’ve touched on some of this in previous blogiversary posts, but this year we’re adding more detail — and yes, some pie charts for clarity. To start, here’s a general look at how we spend our time running Young House Love. This focuses on blog work, not parenting or household chores, and the charts are broad estimates:
The biggest surprise for many readers is how little of our time is actually spent on hands-on projects. Some weeks it feels like we have no more time than when we both worked full-time in advertising. Weekends and weeknights after Clara is asleep are our most productive times for projects because the blog is quieter and we can focus on tasks instead of moderating comments and publishing posts. But that chart is just the top level — here’s a more detailed breakdown of what falls into each category:
INTERACTING
- Comments: We manually moderate comments so a real person reads them and can respond. It’s time consuming, but being part of the conversation matters to us, and we prefer to keep it hands-on rather than outsourcing it. The only exception is huge giveaway entries, which get approved in bulk.
- Social Media & Email: We try to be responsive on social platforms and by email. We don’t monitor every channel constantly, but tools like Hootsuite help us track mentions so questions don’t go unanswered.
WRITING
- Posts: The blog itself takes a lot of writing — we average roughly 35 posts a month. Writing is one of our main passions, and it remains a core part of why we keep doing this.
- Other Writing Gigs: Our blog has led to other opportunities, including a weekly piece on BabyCenter and a regular column in Do It Yourself Magazine. Coordinating, pitching, writing, photographing (or briefing a photographer), and answering comments for those pieces takes time.
- Book: We’re also writing a 260+ page book full of projects and photos. With the manuscript mostly complete, a larger portion of our time is now going toward executing the projects and prepping them for professional photography.
DIY-ING
- Projects: This is the hands-on work we do around the house that becomes blog content. Some projects would have happened without the blog, but having an audience accelerates the pace and increases the level of detail.
- Gathering Supplies: Errands and sourcing materials can be quick or time-consuming depending on the find. Hunting for supplies is often unpredictable but part of the fun.
PHOTOGRAPHING
- Photo Taking: Some shots are captured throughout a project, while others require tidying and styling rooms for finished photos. Technical aspects like tripod setup, aperture adjustments, and waiting for the right light can prolong the process.
- Photo Editing: We edit color, exposure, cropping, and size for each post and sort through many images. We often shoot dozens to hundreds of photos per post and narrow them down to the best ones for publishing.
BUSINESS OPERATIONS
- Sponsors: Sponsorships are a major revenue source. Managing them involves client communications, invoicing, and ad placement. We use Google AdManager to serve sponsor ads and do the necessary oversight.
- Giveaways: Giveaways are a way to give back to readers. Coordinating prizes, notifying winners, and arranging shipping takes considerable effort, and we try to be selective about the products we accept.
- Declining Opportunities: We receive many requests that we can’t accept for time, relevance, or policy reasons. Saying no is often necessary for focus and sanity.
- Bookkeeping: Tracking income, paying quarterly taxes, renewing licenses, and handling insurance is all part of running a business and takes regular attention.
- Technical Maintenance: Site updates, server issues, and redesigns require technical work or hiring outside help when problems arise.
Now a word on money. We don’t disclose exact earnings, but we consider ourselves to earn a modest living — enough to sustain the blog and cover business expenses. Over the years the mix of income sources has evolved. In the early days we relied on a mix of small services and sales in addition to ad revenue:
Back then, Sherry supplemented income by selling affordable art prints and offering design mood boards and small services. As traffic and ad revenue grew, we phased out many of those services (especially after Clara’s birth) and refocused on the blog and advertising.
Today most of our revenue is advertising-based, though we keep multiple channels so that if one source dips, others can help stabilize income. A quick reference for the common labels you’ll see:
- Google Ads: Contextual ads served by Google that require minimal oversight. We block inappropriate ads but otherwise let the system work.
- Ad Networks: Networks can offer higher-paying, niche ads for home and lifestyle sites. We use a network in addition to Google to diversify revenue.
- Sponsors: Direct partnerships with brands that appear on our sidebar or in sponsored posts; these relationships tend to be more tailored and consistent.
- Amazon Affiliate: We earn a small percentage when readers purchase items we recommend through affiliate links, which we clearly label.
- Writing Gigs: Paid pieces for outlets like BabyCenter and Do It Yourself Magazine.
- Book: A traditional advance and royalties for the book we’re writing.
Running a blog also brings expenses, and it’s not a cost-free endeavor. Major ongoing costs include:
- Hosting: We pay for site hosting and image storage, which together can add up to a five-figure annual expense for a site with heavy traffic and many images.
- Taxes: We set aside a portion of income for quarterly tax payments since we don’t have withholding like an employer would provide.
- Insurance: Paying for our own health insurance became necessary when we left traditional employment.
- Retirement: We contribute to our own retirement accounts since there’s no employer plan.
- Licenses & Fees: Business registration and related fees for operating as an LLC.
- Professional Help: We hire an accountant and occasionally programmers or technical specialists to help with taxes and site issues.
- Equipment: Laptops, cameras, external drives, and other gear make the work possible and are part of the investment.
- Project Costs: Building and improving our home for content does incur costs, many of which would have happened anyway, but the blog influences timing and scope.
If you’re interested in more specifics about expenses, we covered details in a previous blogiversary post. We hope this behind-the-scenes look clarifies how much work goes into a blog beyond the projects and posts you see. We’re grateful to be able to do this full time and humbled by the support of readers. If you’re hungry for more practical tips about blogging — how we started, grew our traffic, and eventually turned this into a job — we’ve shared our process in a separate post about how to start a blog and grow it into a full-time pursuit.
Update — We get a lot of questions about how to start and grow a blog, so we’ve compiled detailed tips about how we launched, built traffic, and turned blogging into a full-time job in a dedicated post about how to start a blog.