How much do my blogs cost?
Filed under: blogging
As I continue working on my microscopic media empire (stolen from Jason Kottke but also other people), I asked myself: whow much does it cost to run all my blogs and various mini projects. I decided to keep it easy and calculate all the outgoings in 2020 so far and income I get from Patreon to calculate the gross and net costs.
TL;DR – it costs me money so please consider becoming a patreon.
Note: unfortunately, as I’m not an accountant and don’t have one, these figures won’t be exact due to currency conversion (I get paid in dollars from Patreon so my final conversion will be after deductions)
So, in 2020, according to my IONOS invoices, I have spent £174.66 inc. VAT. Those costs are made up of domain names (new and renewals) and monthly web hosting fees (which used to be quarterly but recently changed). I was stunned. That’s a lot of money.
In terms of Patreon income, in 2020 so far, I have made $134.01 of which I donated $63 to Black charities. That brings the net income to $71.01 which is £54.16.
That means I come out with -£120.50 and 2020 isn’t finished yet. This is why I’ve ramped up the requests for donations and Patreon pledges. I love what I do but it costs me money. Besides Patreon going towards the costs for domains and web hosting, I want it to go towards my time doing it all and I’d hope that the people who are and want to pledge enjoy the content as well. Most of the traffic I get is from Google searches so I never get to see or hear from those people directly. I’ve increased the tweets I send out and social referral traffic is up significantly but, again, I don’t really know who those people are (so thank you but feel free to chat to me about what I write for that sweet hit of validation).
I don’t like talking about money or going on and on about Patreon and nobody asks me about it but I believe in being transparent and open about it all so there it is.