Consider this post an update to our article from two years ago where we used pie charts to show how we spend our time and how we earn income as bloggers. Things have changed a bit since then—not dramatically, but enough that an update felt useful. Below is a simplified, approximate breakdown of how we spend our work time and where our money comes from. (All pie charts mentioned are general estimates.)
First, it’s important to clarify that these charts represent our “work” hours only, not our full waking day. If you want a fuller picture of parenting, cooking, errands and other non-work tasks, check out our “Day In The Life” post. The main takeaway is that most of our work time is spent running the website—writing, editing photos, managing business tasks, interacting with readers—not doing hands-on DIY projects as many people assume.
We describe our job as largely a desk job. While we do get to paint or build things sometimes—often after Clara’s in bed—between roughly 8am and 6pm we’re typically on the computer sizing photos, writing posts, coordinating giveaways, emailing about book or showhouse projects, answering comments, managing expenses, or coding. Below are two notable shifts we’ve seen in how our work time is allocated.
- Streamlined management tasks: Small changes like using Rafflecopter for giveaways (which prevents us from manually approving thousands of comments and allows many more entries without crashing) and outsourcing more accounting have had a measurable impact. The biggest change is a transition in our advertising program: we’re moving away from a four-year-old private sponsor system—where we manually uploaded and invoiced 30+ ads—to a third-party-managed system that automates ad serving, placement, and billing. The new system still has kinks, so we can’t share all the details yet, but it should reduce time spent on ad renewals, invoices, and sponsor posts (which we’ve phased out this month). The goal is a cleaner experience for readers (less sidebar clutter) and a more effective, flexible system for advertisers.
- More time for side projects: By freeing up managerial time, we can devote more hours to side gigs like book number two, the showhouse, and a secret project that we can’t reveal yet. Even though side gigs don’t currently make up the bulk of our income, they keep us creatively engaged and help us grow professionally. Right now they take about 19% of our total work time, leaving more than 80% for projects and core blog activities.
We’re always refining our processes to direct time toward activities that energize us, entertain and help readers, and—yes—help fund Clara’s college fund. Some readers ask why we don’t auto-approve comments to save time. We keep comments in moderation to avoid missing questions; auto-approving would cause some questions to slip through, including on older posts. We value connecting with readers and feel that answering questions is part of what built this community, so we won’t phase that out.
Next, a look at income: Unlike our earlier charts, we now lump all advertising types—private sponsors, ad networks, and Google—into one category. That’s partly because these slices are shifting during our sponsor transition, but mainly because the majority of our income still comes from sidebar ads. Similar to magazines and newspapers, advertising keeps the site running for us, especially since we rarely run sponsored posts. The affiliate portion of our income comes from sharing products we genuinely like; when affiliate links are used they’re always clearly marked.
Some readers assume book deals or product lines must be massive income sources. For us, they’ve been meaningful professionally but not huge revenue drivers, as reflected in the chart. For example, we haven’t reached the royalty threshold on our book yet, but a small international deal produced a nominal fee and a tiny slice of income. The charts are intentionally rough, meant to illustrate trends rather than exact numbers.
We also wanted to touch on business expenses, since blogging is often portrayed as “zero overhead.” In reality, costs rise as readership grows. Here are major places our earnings go:
- Taxes & accountant: A significant portion of our income goes to taxes—around a third—paid across quarterly estimates. We use an accountant to manage filings, which was a big adjustment from receiving regular paychecks in previous jobs.
- Retirement: Without employer 401(k) contributions, we manage our own retirement savings. We each have a SEP IRA, and after calculating year-end taxes our accountant helps determine maximum allowable contributions so we can invest as much as possible, along with saving for Clara’s college fund.
- Web hosting and services: Unexpectedly, hosting and related fees are one of our largest ongoing costs. This includes hosting the site and photos, storing media on cloud services to prevent crashes, and monthly fees for tools like Rafflecopter and forum software. These expenses can add up to nearly double our mortgage each month.
- Health insurance: As small business owners, we pay for our own health insurance. It’s an essential expense that provides peace of mind for our family and business.
- Business insurance: We carry business insurance to protect against lawsuits or catastrophic events that could affect the business or us personally.
- Legal: Recently we engaged a trademark and licensing attorney to help secure the Young House Love name and review licensing contracts for projects like our lighting collection. That professional support led to our official Young House Love™ designation.
- Projects: Home improvement costs are a natural part of what we do and tend to increase when we work faster. These are personal expenses for our primary residence, not deductible business expenses, so they can’t be written off as business costs.
Finally, we like to share a few fun stats and facts each year in infographic form. We’ll continue updating these numbers as things evolve and appreciate your interest in how this site actually operates. For those curious about the origins of this series, you can find our previous pie charts and annual “by-the-numbers” posts in the archives.