Like previous blogiversary posts, this week we’re taking time to examine the business side of blogging—how we spend our time, where our income comes from, and what it costs to run a site like ours. We never set out to build a business when we wrote our first post in September 2007, nor did we create a formal plan. This has been a learn-as-we-go adventure: experimenting, adjusting, and figuring things out as opportunities appear. We’re not professional business consultants—just two people balancing home projects, family life, and an online audience—so we’ll share what we’ve learned in case it helps someone else grow a blog or understand what running one actually looks like.
We’ve mentioned bits of this before, but this year we’re providing more detail and a clearer look at our time and money breakdowns. First, let’s look at how we spend our time. This is a broad, simplified view of what it takes to run our blog—excluding general adult responsibilities like parenting, cooking, and cleaning—and is meant to give a realistic sense of where our hours go.
The most surprising thing for many readers is that actual hands-on projects (DIY work) make up a relatively small portion of our time. In many weeks, the demands of photographing, editing, writing, coordinating sponsors, and answering readers leave limited blocks for building or renovating. Our most productive windows for projects remain weekends and weeknights after our child is in bed, when the blog is quieter and we can focus on tasks with fewer interruptions.
Below is a clearer look at the main categories of our work and what each entails.
INTERACTING
- Comments: We manually moderate comments so we can read and respond directly—this keeps the conversation personal and prevents questions from going unanswered. While labor-intensive, staying engaged with readers is important to us, and outsourcing this task would make interactions feel impersonal.
- Social Media & Email: We try to be responsive on social platforms and via email. We don’t monitor every channel constantly, but we check in regularly to answer questions and engage with readers. Tools that track mentions help us catch conversations that need replies.
WRITING
- Blog Posts: Producing high-quality posts is central to what we do. We write many posts each month, and writing remains a core focus because it’s how we connect with readers and share projects, tips, and stories.
- Freelance Columns: Writing for other outlets has been a natural extension of the blog. Those gigs require idea development, coordination with editors, and their own rounds of editing and audience engagement.
- Book: We’re working on a book that compiles projects and photos. Manuscript and project work can shift our priorities significantly depending on deadlines and production needs.
DIY-ING
- Projects: This is the actual hands-on work we do to update our home. Many projects would happen without the blog, but having an audience often accelerates timelines and increases the scale of what we tackle.
- Gathering Supplies: Sourcing materials—whether at thrift stores, hardware stores, or specialty shops—takes time and can be unpredictable. The hunt is part of the process but can affect schedules.
PHOTOGRAPHING
- Photo Taking: Capturing the right images ranges from quick progress shots to full styling sessions for “after” photos or house tours. Technical considerations like lighting and composition add to the time required.
- Photo Editing: Editing includes color correction, cropping, resizing, and sifting through many shots. We often shoot dozens to hundreds of photos for a single post and then pare them down to the best images for publishing.
BUSINESS OPERATIONS
- Sponsors & Advertising: Sponsorship management—fielding requests, renewing contracts, invoicing, and uploading ad creative—takes significant time. We use ad-serving tools to handle placements but still manage relationships directly.
- Giveaways: Giveaways are a reader perk we run regularly. Coordinating prizes and notifying winners requires email work and logistics, and while they don’t generate revenue, they maintain community goodwill.
- Declining Opportunities: We receive many requests for collaborations, events, and services that don’t fit our focus or schedule. Learning to say no is necessary to protect time and editorial integrity.
- Bookkeeping & Taxes: Managing invoices, expenses, quarterly tax payments, and licenses is part of the business reality of independent work. It’s necessary but not glamorous.
- Technical Maintenance: Site maintenance, updates, server issues, and occasional redesigns demand time and sometimes outside technical support. These tasks can balloon on weeks with technical problems.
Now let’s talk about money. We won’t disclose exact earnings, but we’ll explain where income comes from and how that mix has shifted over time. In our early years, ad revenue was modest, so we experimented with several revenue streams—selling prints, offering design services, and taking freelance writing assignments. Those efforts helped bridge income gaps and taught us the value of diversification.
As traffic grew, ad revenue increased and became a larger part of our income. That growth allowed us to step back from time-intensive side services and focus more on the blog itself. Today our income is still multi-channel, but the majority comes from advertising-based sources. Here’s a summary of the common revenue types:
- Display Ads: Programmatic ads that appear on the site. They’re relatively passive and scale with traffic, making them a reliable income source.
- Ad Networks: Networks provide more targeted advertising and can offer higher rates for niche inventory, supplementing programmatic income.
- Sponsors: Direct partnerships with brands who sponsor site placements or content. These collaborations are negotiated and managed directly and often reflect a closer brand relationship.
- Affiliate Programs: Earning a commission when readers purchase items we recommend. We label affiliate links transparently and only share products we genuinely use or believe in.
- Writing Gigs: Paid columns and freelance assignments outside the blog contribute to income and offer editorial variety.
- Book Advances: Advance payments for book projects are another part of our revenue mix.
Running a blog also comes with expenses. As traffic and production quality grew, so did costs. Major expense categories include hosting and content delivery fees, taxes, health insurance, retirement contributions, business licenses, professional services (such as accounting and technical help), equipment (cameras, computers, storage), and project materials. Hosting alone can represent a significant annual cost for a photo-heavy site. These expenses are part of the practical reality of turning a hobby into a business.
We’ve written in more detail about expenses and behind-the-scenes operations in past posts, but the key takeaway is that professional blogging involves far more than projects and posts. It’s a mix of content creation, community engagement, business management, and steady investment in tools and services that keep the site running. We’re grateful to be doing this work and humbled by how it has grown over the years. If you’re considering blogging professionally, plan for diverse income streams, realistic time commitments, and the unavoidable costs that come with building an audience and maintaining quality content.
Update – We’ve received frequent questions about how we launched and grew the blog and turned it into a full-time job, so we’ve shared details about how we started, grew traffic, and transitioned into professional blogging in a dedicated how-to resource.