Blogging For Money

This post is part of Women’s Money Week 2014.

I started this blog in 2006. In fact, next week marks the anniversary of it’s creation; eight years since I created my very first post! There weren’t a ton of personal finance blogs in existence back then, but I’ve always been interested in the topic and decided to distract myself from physical ailments by blogging about money and my relationship with it.

At some point along the way I began adding advertisements to the sidebar and attempting to gain referral money from a number of different websites. Eventually I permitted sponsored posts, which I was adamantly opposed to back in 2006.

I’m not as dedicated to this site as I should be. I also don’t like to push products or advertising. As a result I have earned a pitiful amount from maintaining this site.  Here is a snapshot of the money I earned in 2013.

Can you make money from blogging? Of course you can. JD Roth is a perfect example. He sold GetRichSlowly for some undisclosed amount of money that was large enough to allow him to move into semi-retirement. Will that be me. Probably not. At least not with this website.

I have found other ways to make small chunks of change here and there on the Internet. I’ve written about many of these before. I complete online surveys, enter giveaways, sell unwanted items on eBay and cash in on used books. I also sign up for programs that offer rewards for frequent purchases like Pampers, Coke and Disney Movie Rewards.

I haven’t earned a ton of money from any of these items individually, but each task takes very little time or effort. Last year I earned nearly $7,000 and my 2014 total recently hit the $1,500 mark.