Like previous blogiversary posts, this week we’re using the milestone as an opportunity to pull back the curtain on the business side of running a blog. We never set out to build a formal business when we published our first post in September 2007, and we certainly didn’t follow a strict plan. It’s been a learning-as-we-go process: making mistakes, adjusting, and gradually figuring out what works. We’re not experts in every field—DIY, parenting, photography, or business—but we can share what we’ve learned about managing time, generating income, and handling the practical costs of running a successful blog.
This year we added more detail and visuals — yes, even pie charts — to illustrate how we spend our time and how our income streams have shifted. To be clear, these charts are simplified estimates rather than precise measurements, but they give a useful overview of where our effort and revenue come from.
First, here’s a look at how we allocate our time across the core activities of running Young House Love. This reflects the work that goes into the blog itself, not unrelated adult responsibilities like cooking, cleaning, or parenting:
One notable takeaway: the portion of time we actually spend doing home projects—what most readers imagine when they think of a DIY blog—is smaller than you might expect. A lot of time is invested in planning, photographing, editing, writing, and interacting with the community. Weekends and late evenings tend to be the windows when most hands-on work happens, when the blog is quieter and we can focus on progress.
Below is a further breakdown of the main categories to show what those slices really contain:
INTERACTING:
- Comments: We manually moderate and respond to most comments because engaging with readers is important to us. We try to answer questions and keep conversations going rather than handing off that role. The only exception is extremely large giveaway threads, which we sometimes approve in bulk.
- Social Media and Email: We try to be responsive on social platforms and monitor mentions so questions and messages aren’t ignored. Tools can help with that, but human response remains important.
WRITING:
- Blog Posts: Creating posts is central. We publish frequently—roughly 35 posts a month—so writing, editing, and structuring content take a major share of time.
- External Writing: Our blog opened doors to other writing opportunities, which require coordination, idea development, and fulfilling editorial expectations. Those projects represent a steady part-time effort.
- Book: We’re working on a full-length book that required a large upfront time commitment to draft and coordinate the projects and photos that will appear in it.
DIY-ING:
- Projects: This is the hands-on work—building, painting, refinishing—that becomes blog content. Having an audience often accelerates timelines and elevates the finish standards.
- Gathering Supplies: Sourcing materials and parts can be quick or time-consuming depending on availability; it’s an unpredictable but necessary task.
PHOTOGRAPHING:
- Photo Taking: Capturing each step and the finished result takes time, from shooting during different light conditions to staging after shots.
- Photo Editing: Sorting, color-correcting, cropping, and resizing dozens of images per post is labor intensive. We often shoot hundreds of photos for a single week of posts and then pare them down to the best images.
BUSINESS OPERATIONS:
- Sponsors and Ad Administration: Working with sponsors involves communication, invoicing, and ad placement. We use ad-serving tools that require occasional oversight, but the client-relations work is ongoing.
- Giveaways: Coordinating prizes, confirming details, and notifying winners takes time, even though giveaways don’t generate income directly—they’re a way to give back to readers.
- Saying No: We regularly decline offers that don’t fit our values, capacity, or the focus of the blog. Turning down requests is sometimes necessary to protect quality and sanity.
- Bookkeeping and Taxes: Managing receipts, quarterly taxes, and business paperwork is a time-consuming but essential part of the business.
- Technical Maintenance: Site updates, occasional outages, and larger redesigns demand technical attention and sometimes outside help.
Now, let’s talk about money and how our revenue has evolved. We won’t disclose exact earnings, but we can describe the sources and how they’ve shifted over time. In the early years we relied on a multi-channel approach that included print sales, small services, and ad income. Over time, as traffic grew, advertising income became a larger share of revenue, which allowed us to step back from time-intensive services and focus on content and projects.
Today our income sources remain diversified but are more weighted toward advertising. Here’s a quick breakdown of common income types for professional bloggers:
- Google Ads: Contextual ads that run automatically and require minimal oversight. They provide a reliable baseline of revenue.
- Ad Networks: Networks that offer targeted advertising and sometimes higher rates than generic ad platforms. These can complement Google Ads when inventory is limited.
- Sponsors: Direct sponsorships provide a closer partnership and often better alignment with the blog’s voice and audience.
- Affiliate Links: Programs like Amazon affiliate links provide a small commission when readers purchase items we recommend; we always disclose these links clearly.
- Writing Gigs: Paid writing assignments and column work are occasional, steady contributors to income.
- Book Advances: Publishing projects can provide a different form of revenue tied to long-form content and product development.
Running a blog also comes with real expenses, and as traffic increases those costs can rise substantially. Major categories include hosting and image storage, taxes, health insurance, retirement contributions, business licensing, professional services (like accounting and programming), equipment, and project materials. Hosting and media storage in particular can represent a significant annual cost for image-heavy sites.
We’ve written before about expenses and the behind-the-scenes work of blogging. Hopefully this breakdown helps anyone who’s considering blogging professionally or simply wants to understand the practical effort that goes into producing content. It’s far more than projects and posts: it’s a business of content creation, community management, technical support, and strategic partnerships. We’re grateful for the opportunity to do this work and for the readers who make it possible—our appreciation is easily worth a full pie chart.
Update – Many readers ask for practical blogging advice, so we’ve shared a step-by-step guide detailing how we started, grew traffic, and turned blogging into a full-time pursuit. For those building their own blogging business, the topics of site setup, content strategy, audience growth, and monetization are essential parts of the process.