Blogging About Blogging?

notebookA Career Change

I’ve recently shared with you readers that for the next three months I’m going to focus solely on writing – a true passion of mine – while simultaneously flexing some serious frugality muscles to see if it’s possible to write for a living. What I’m trying to accomplish is effectively a career change where I no longer work full-time at a car dealership and instead focus on inspiring others through my words.

Don’t worry, I’m still marching down the path to financial independence as determined as ever. I just look at this as a different road to the same destination. Whereas before I was driving down the freeway at 80 miles per hour, I’m now taking a back country road at a more comfortable 45 mph. So I’m still driving in the same direction, but at a slower and more enjoyable pace. I don’t know if this little experiment is going to work or not, but I’m excited to try it out. And I will only consider this career change a success if the gap between income and expenses is large enough to allow for regular investments, just the same as it was before.

In the meantime, I have had a few readers ask me if I could open up and share exactly how I generate income from writing. I’m  happy to oblige; however, I won’t make this type of post a regular occurrence as I find blogs that talk too much about blogging kind of boring.

Passive Versus Active Income

One reader in particular noted that my blog was now worth more than my portfolio, as the income the former generates far outpaces the latter. Maybe I should blog about blogging after all?

Well, this isn’t really the case. The income my portfolio generates is completely passive. No matter what I do for the next year, The Coca-Cola Company (KO) is going to send me four dividend payments. I could sleep in until 2 p.m. every single day for the next 365 days and do nothing but eat ice cream. I wouldn’t be in real great shape physically, mentally, or emotionally, but I’d still collect those four dividend payments from Coke. Those checks require no work on my part other than continuing to hold on to the shares I’ve already purchased.

However, if I stop writing this blog ceases to interest anyone and eventually will stop generating revenue. So it’s an active income source versus the passivity of dividend income. I simply consider this blog and my other writing activities a job I just really happen to enjoy, and one that I hope to eventually generate income on par with what I could make if I were to go out and work at a more conventional job for a living.

I’m No Expert

It should be noted that here that I don’t consider myself an expert in this arena. I never took a course on blogging or bought some kind of e-book that explains how to generate online revenue. I simply aim to share and inspire with every post. I write my heart out and share as many details as I possibly can. The rest is really up to you readers. Put another way, it’s the immense support you all have provided me over the years that generates the revenue this site produces.

So I have no tricks or anything, but I will break down the income and I hope it serves as useful information to some of you out there. I’ll be as forthright as I can, although my income does oscillate quite a bit from month to month so what I’ll be sharing is just an approximation.

I’m expecting to generate approximately $1,800 per month in online income going forward, and I’ll show you how that looks.

Income Breakdown

  • Advertising on Dividend Mantra – $1,200/month

This is the bulk of my online income right now. This income is generated via the passive ads you see on the blog. I don’t really sell anything here, so my success in this category is largely based on the ad quality from the providers, whether or not you readers then click on those ads, and my pageviews. The only thing I can control is the pageviews, although even then I have limited control. For perspective, I typically receive between 200,000 and 230,000 pageviews per month based on the last six months worth of data.

I don’t really sell anything here at the site, which is why I like banner ads – they don’t require me to sell anything to you guys. Thus, I can concentrate on writing. Obviously, you readers are really supporting me here in this category. Thank you!

Most of this income comes by way of the Google AdSense program. Although I do have accounts with a couple of other advertisers, AdSense is by far my largest advertising income producer.

  • Freelance Writing – $500/month

I’m hoping to increase this in the future now that I have more time for writing. Whereas some people may enter into blogging and eventually try to hire off the writing and automate everything, I really enjoy writing and interacting with like-minded investors and frugalists. So I’m not looking to hire anything off. On the contrary, I’m hoping to write even more than I do now. The only downside of more freelance writing, however, will be that I’ll have less time to write here at Dividend Mantra. But I should be able to maintain a schedule where I’m able to write at least three new articles per week here on the blog even if my freelance writing triples.

An example of my freelance writing can be found at Daily Trade Alert. Specifically, I write a weekly series where dividend growth stocks that go ex-dividend the following week are highlighted. I then analyze one of these companies in-depth and discuss certain quantitative and qualitative aspects before valuing shares. Finally, I conclude whether shares in that particular company are a buy, hold, or sell. You can see some of the past articles here.

  • Affiliate Sales  – $100/month

This income is generated via any sales that come by way of the blog. For instance, I have some affiliate partners (ScottradePersonal Capital,and Bluehost) on my sidebar, and if you sign up for an account with one of these companies I could potentially earn a small commission. I only have these three companies listed there because I either personally use their services or can personally vouch for them due to the high amount of value they provide. Thus, I feel 100% comfortable with wholeheartedly recommending those companies. Likewise, I have book recommendations on my Getting Started page, and if any of those books are purchased I earn a small commission. Again, these are only recommendations because I have personally read and benefited from these books. I don’t recommend anything that I haven’t personally found value in.

This income is small and hasn’t really grown over the last six months or so, and I actually rounded this figure up a little generously. However, as I stated earlier, I’m not big on directly selling anything. As such, I’m not actively trying to really grow this income. I simply put products and/or services out there that I personally recommend and if some readers out there then go out and buy those services and/or products and benefit then I feel good about that. The income is just icing on the cake.

Expenses And Taxes

It should be noted that I also incur expenses from running this blog. Namely, I have hosting fees that currently run $150 per month with Liquid Web. I also use an email service (combination of MailPoet and Elastic Email) that costs approximately $20 per month. I could go cheaper, especially with hosting, but much like the companies I invest in, I like to stick to high-quality providers. And after a horrendous experience with another hosting provider, I moved over to Liquid Web and have been very happy ever since. Plus, there’s a lot of room for growth under my current plan, which means there won’t be any slowdowns in case Dividend Mantra grows from here. (Edit to add: I use Liquid Web because of the size of my site, but I recommend Bluehost for most everyone else since they provide a great platform for much less money.)

In addition, I’ll have taxes to pay on any income earned from online activities. I’m currently paying quarterly estimated taxes, and will have to increase this next year if I’m still earning an income solely from writing as I won’t have any regular withholding from a traditional paycheck. Taxes will come out of the gross income, and the income I’ll be reporting in my monthly budgets will always show income net of taxes.

Conclusion

So that’s it. I don’t have any secrets. I’m simply here to share my journey, and in that journey I hope to inspire others to take control of their finances. I believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone, not just those that make a lot of money. And I aim to be proof of that belief. I never made anywhere close to six figures while I was working as a service advisor, and as you can tell by this post I certainly don’t make anywhere near that now. But controlling your expenses through careful budgeting, taking advantage of opportunities, investing in high-quality companies that pay and regularly raise dividends, and staying diligent and persistent can yield wonders.

Full Disclosure: Long KO

Was this post helpful? Do you think I’m doing well with earning an income from writing? 

Thanks for reading.

Photo Credit: artur84/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Note: This post includes affiliate links. I may receive a commission if you sign up for services and/or purchase products using the links in the article. However, again, I only recommend products and/or services I’ve personally used and/or found value in. I don’t blindly recommend anything. Furthermore, using these links will not add any cost to you, and in some cases may actually offer a special discount. 

Edit: Updated affiliate links. 

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93 Comments

  1. I think you’re doing really well with your income from writing and thanks for sharing your information 🙂 good luck in increasing your freelance writing – I’m sure it’ll pick up now you have more time to dedicate to it 🙂

  2. Good for you Jason! I didn’t realize your Adsense revenue was up to $1200. That’s outstanding! I for one appreciate that you only pitch companies you use. I do the same, and I think that honesty shines through. Where will you be writing your freelance content? Given your following on Seeking Alpha and Gurufocus, I bet you’d get some nice views. I was making about $750 per month on SA, but the revenue took a nose dive. Two other guys told me theirs did the same….long about April. Were you writing premium content then, and if so did you notice a change?
    -Bryan

  3. I wish you well in your writing endeavors. It would be great to make a living at something you enjoy so much. I have to say that your hosting expenses rather caught me by surprise. I’ve had a couple hosting accounts off and on over the years. Nothing sophisticated, but nothing even close $150/month. I had no idea it could cost that much.

    Just curious…. would you be willing to share the name of the provider that was horrendous? Take care.

  4. Nicola,

    Thanks for stopping by!

    I’m definitely hoping to increase the freelance writing, and that is probably the biggest opportunity for improvement right now. It’s still crazy that I might actually be able to write for a living. I’m ecstatic. 🙂

    Cheers!

  5. Beautiful and well-written post. I really wish you can grow your income (blog and stocks) a lot more. You wrote previously that you would need only 1’500 $ to consider yourself financially independent. With 1’800 $ foreseen revenues from blog and around 300 $ from dividends, I guess you virtually have reached your goal. Enhorabuena !

  6. Bryan,

    Appreciate the support and encouragement. Thank you very much.

    I don’t know if these articles are helpful or not, but readers were asking and so I’m happy to share.

    I’ve never written any premium articles for SA. I’ve tried in the past and had issues with their editing team and putting charts and graphs together. It just took a ton of time and so it never really went anywhere. It’s a shame your income declined so much. If you could reliably make $750/month that would be fantastic! Maybe it’s just a summer slowdown?

    Best wishes!

  7. Steve,

    My first hosting experience was with HostGator. It was really bad, and I wouldn’t recommend them at all. As I understand it, many of the major providers out there are all part of one company, and many of the servers are overloaded. I had a massively hard time transferring posts from Blogger to WP and then once content was up on a virtual url the site kept crashing. It was nuts.

    I do pay a lot for hosting, but it’s worth it. The site has been trouble-free since I moved to LW, and I’ve been able to reach someone within 2-3 minutes on the phone, if necessary. Compare that to 45-minute waits on the phone with HG and the switch was easy. I’d rather pay a premium and make sure you readers have an awesome experience here with fast load times and no issues.

    Thanks for stopping by!

    Take care.

  8. Aspenhawk,

    Thanks so much! I’m really happy right now to be able to write much more and actually make a living from it. It’s wonderful. 🙂

    I don’t actually consider myself financially independent right now only because I still have to “work” for a living, but the work these days sure is fun. I would say this is about as close to financially independent as I can get without being able to pay for all expenses via dividend income. And I say that because even if my dividend income tripled overnight I’d still wake up tomorrow and write.

    Appreciate all the support throughout the years.

    Best regards.

  9. Smart move. This amounts to one of those rare opportunities to transition to self-employment in adulthood. Never easy, but so much depends upon your efforts and no one else’s. I sincerely believe you’ll make it, Jason. I’ll be watching and cheering from the sidelines.

  10. What’s great about your approach is how it meshes so well with your integrity. It’s the quality of your writing and its appeal to your readers rather than hucksterism that will determine how well this experiment goes.

    Now that you presumably have a little more time to “fill up the well,” as Mark Twain used to say, have you thought of the possibility of writing a few reflective posts about your frugal predecessors? For example, in some ways you’re following in Thoreau’s footsteps.

    Have you read Walden? It would be really interesting to hear what you think of that book. Thoreau was not aiming at passive income which was a lot harder for a little guy to achieve 170 years ago without the internet, modern securities markets, etc. He expected to work, but he wanted to minimize work in order to make his time his own, same as you.

  11. Wow! 200,000 visitors per month to generate only 1200$… That’s a lot man… You should give personal courses or something like that… I’m sure people would pay to be coached by you. You don’t need a lot of students to make a couple hundreds or thousands per months. This could double or triple your income Jason in a matter of weeks. Write a course instead of a book! Take a look at http://www.boostblogtraffic.com. The guy is interesting a making huge money out consulting. He doesn’t even have pay per click adds on his website.

    You are a consultant already. But you only get paid from the pay-per-click. People are following you, are reading you and are learning from you. Why not make the extra step of being their personal teacher!

    I followed a very simple course about politic inside a corporation recently. For a 15 hours training, the consultant was charging 2000$ per student. We were 19 in the class… I could have given that course which was standing in a 40 pages binder… You could set a new career as a consultant. You don’t need a master degree in finance and you probably even know a lot more than many graduated in the field.

    People don’t know how to invest their money. That’s a fact. School is not teaching it, most parents don’t know more than school teachers, employers don’t give defined benefits plans anymore… There is a great opportunity right there my friend!

    But anyway… Don’t think that I’m telling you what to do. I just believe that you are a great teacher. You know how to captivate and explain stuff. You’d be a great consultant!

    Now… No wonder why I make pennies with my blogs lol (less than 5$ per month minus the hosting) ah ah 😉 I barely receive more than a 1000 visitors per month on my 3 blogs. But two of them are in french and it’s a pretty small market I guess and the other one is pretty new so I guess things will improve with time.

    I’m blogging for fun but I’d be happy to make a 100$ per month :). I guess I will come to that point someday! 🙂

    How long did it take you to receive that kind of traffic?

    Keep going my friend! You’re doing a great job!

  12. Thanks for sharing. Authenticity and integrity as well as a being a good person are the hallmarks of the identity you project. They show up in how you address your topics and how you respond to comments. Those are priceless and so easy to lose if you do something crass or just “for the money.”

  13. Curtis,

    Thanks so much. It’s definitely a very unique opportunity and I’m trying to make the most of it.

    I agree that it’s all up to me right now, and this is when you find out what you’re made of. It’s very different to show up to a job, clock in, take direction, and collect a paycheck then it is to wake up every day and do what’s necessary to make it for yourself on your own. But I’m really enjoying the challenge thus far. I guess I have a bit more entrepreneurial spirit than I thought I did. 🙂

    Appreciate the encouragement and support very much.

    By the way, really exciting stuff you’re doing over there with the rentals. You’ve got a real estate empire going on over there. Keep up the great work!

    Best regards.

  14. Jim,

    Thanks for adding that.

    I’ve never read Walden, but it’s on my list. I’ll have to sit down and read it one of these days. I know it’s a classic. I’ve read various quotes and parcels of the book over my years, but never the whole thing.

    Thoreau was definitely ahead of his time. I do wonder how he’d approach things if he were born at the same time as me. I have to imagine he’d build passive income sources much like I have, but he’d also be considerably more frugal/DIY than me. He’d probably take a different approach to FI where he’d work less on the front end. I can’t imagine him working at a luxury car dealership for any period of time, that’s for sure. 🙂

    I’ll read it one of these days and do a review here on the site. I’d be honored.

    Thank you for the support very much!

    Best wishes.

  15. Allan,

    Ha! I appreciate the confidence there. 🙂

    Maybe I could put some kind of course together, but it’s really not my style. Success in this arena, just like anything else in life, just requires persistence and hard work.

    As far as how long this took, it wasn’t really up until six months ago that I thought I could make the leap and try it out. It took years to get to this point. For instance, my budget in March 2013 – after two years of blogging – shows just $110 in online income:

    https://www.dividendmantra.com/2013/04/incomeexpenses-for-march-2013/

    Of course, it wasn’t long after that that I received considerable attention via national media. That certainly helped propel things along. In the end, success is simply where hard work and luck intersect. And I’ve certainly had my fair share of both.

    Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll eventually see the fruits of your labor. 🙂

    Cheers!

  16. Greg,

    Thanks for the kind words there. I appreciate that. And I’m glad my integrity shows up well here.

    I value you readers, and I value the message I’m trying to get across. Everything else just kind of gets in the way of that.

    Thanks for stopping by. Hope all is well with your journey!

    Take care.

  17. Perhaps so, but I think the difference is the way they are syndicating their articles. The unpaid (non premium) articles get dramatically more views. I get two or three times the view on my unpaid articles. Plus, they pop up on Yahoo and everywhere else…….but the paid articles don’t. I’ll give it another shot soon, but it’s disappointing because that income really provides some flexibility.

    You’re giving the readers what they want…..I can’t fault you for that. It’s like in my business, customers tell you what they want to see…..and what they want to pay. It’s a constant feedback loop. I’m glad you’re listening
    -Bryan

  18. DM,

    Thanks for sharing this. I’ve been curious as to how you were generating income and you really summed it up here.

    I have one bit of unsolicited advice. If I were you I would consider giving yourself plenty of time to see this venture through. You mentioned before that you were going to take the summer to see how things go, but that may not be enough time. Just as it took you time to build a blog that generates income as well as I nice looking portfolio I think it may take longer for you to really see the success you are hoping to achieve with writing. I have faith you can do it, but just consider allowing yourself more time to really give it a chance. There is a bit of inertia to overcome when you start something new, as I’m learning with a small side business I’m working on, but you have already set yourself up for success and have the resources to get through several lean months if not a year or longer. Give it plenty of time to grow…

    Sorry, I know you didn’t ask for advice, but I really want to see you make this work and believe wholeheartedly you can, it just might take a little longer than you were originally planning.

    All the best my friend,

    The Stoic

  19. Thank you for sharing your insights and experiences with blogging. I hope to start a blog one of these days, I may end up putting it together after I leave my job. I have to admit that I am intimidated by $150/mo in hosting fees, especially after I heard from someone else that you can get hosting services for $5/mo. Of course, the amount you pay has a direct impact on server quality and stability, so I’ll have to do my due diligence and choose something that is conmensurate with my blogging needs.

    One of these days I will pick your brain for blogging wisdom =).

    Again, it’s incredibly cool to see you doing your own thing. I get a lot of encouragement from your intrepid move!

  20. I just stumbled upon your site again and wow! I sure missed a lot… And congrats! I’ll be clicking on the ads to give support!

  21. Another open blog post about the DM way. I had no idea Adsense paid out that much. But I guess, as you said, it is a function of traffic. More traffic = more dollars. I just signed up with them literally 5 days ago and it was fairly easy to set up. Not sure if I want to crowd my site with ads everywhere but for now I think they look unobtrusive. Have you looked into other publisher ad sites? I did notice you have a Yahoo! ad banner as well. Like you I find it fun to just write about dividends in general and the many high quality companies out there that pay. I always get excited when comments are left on my posts and curious to see what people have to say about my investment themes, purchases, dividend income, etc. As always, thanks for sharing.

  22. Thanks for sharing this, Jason! $1,800 per month is fantastic! That would cover my current monthly expenses. It’s encouraging to see how you’ve chosen to monetize your blog. Passive ads are more my style, as well. Looking forward to following your career change.

  23. The Stoic,

    Thanks for the advice. It never needs to be solicited, especially when it’s really great. 🙂

    I hear you loud and clear. And for me, it was never about make or break. Rather, if I thought I was pretty close I was more than willing to give it more time and develop it. Rather, I just didn’t want to be in a situation where I felt it was pretty clear it wasn’t going to work and I was giving up precious time on my pursuit of financial independence. But I honestly think that this is really going to work. I’m really optimistic and couldn’t be happier right now. 🙂

    You were one of the readers that requested the details, and that’s why I’m sharing. I don’t know how helpful it might be to you, but I think the lesson is that there are so many ways to make money. And following your passion is probably the best way of all. I’m now writing and you’r doing rehab work. I think it’s amazing how dynamic life can be as we change and transform. And that’s what’s so fun. A linear life would probably be pretty boring.

    Thanks for all the support through the years. It’s because of this great community that I’m in this position today. And I’d like to really think we’re all in this together. We’re all aspiring to be free, in one way or another.

    Cheers.

  24. Spoonman,

    Well, you know you’d have a fan in me right away. And I’d be sure to root for you and support the transition to blogging if you so decide to take that step.

    My hosting needs are obviously much greater than what you’d need to start with. As such, you wouldn’t be using the package I am. But I’d still recommend Liquid Web. They offer shared hosting for under $15/month and I can guarantee you’d like their service a lot better than some of the more popular players.

    I’m always available for help or advice. Either way, it’s exciting to see you transition to a new phase.

    Best wishes!

  25. Henry,

    Thanks so much! And glad you found my humble little spot on the internet. 🙂

    I see you’re just starting out in your journey. You’re young, and time is on your side. Use this time wisely, and keep building that portfolio!

    Appreciate the support!!

    Cheers.

  26. DivHut,

    Google AdSense is wonderful, in my opinion. I also wouldn’t want ads everywhere. I used to have ads that were in the middle of posts, but I took those away after about a month. It was more money, but it wasn’t worth it. I wish you luck with Google. 🙂

    I do have accounts with other ad networks, but AdSense delivers the most revenue by far.

    I’m with you. Writing is a lot of fun. I spend a lot of time with it, as I can be a bit of a perfectionist sometimes. But I’ll very likely still be writing even after I’m financially independent. And even better than the writing is the conversing with other like-minded investors out there. It’s just a great community!

    Take care.

  27. Addison,

    I’m really proud of my progress, and I’m hopeful it can continue. I’ve found it best to focus on what I can control and not worry about the income. That credo has served me well. 🙂

    And I agree that passive ads are the way to go.

    Wish you the best of luck with the blog and all of your other goals!

    Cheers.

  28. Think you can write a blog post about how ad sense works? That would be something interesting to discuss, thanks!

  29. DM,

    Thanks for this post!

    I am starting to work less at my job and hoping to figure out how to start monetizing my blog as well. Adsense seems the ost popular and easiest to sign up for. I think eventually I’ll likely switch to self hosting and wordpress too. I’m not sure I know how to setup all the different ways to make everything happen, but I love to write about dividend investing and it would be awesome to make a little money from it at the same time. I’ve read some guides or watched videos on how to do some stuff with self hosting and it does not seem too difficult.

  30. DM,

    $1800/month from blogging sounds real solid to me… And you’re just getting started! Once you dive full steam into thins, I’m guessing you’ll find other creative ways to bump up the income quite a bit, which would be awesome. The best part? You get to do all this while being your own boss! It may be the more scenic route, but definitely the more enjoyable of the two paths. Wishing you all the best on the writing!

  31. Jason,

    Thanks for sharing that info – most complete! I’m at 1/100th of your monthly page views so I have a long way to go. It’s good to know that it took you 2 years to get there because it gives an idea of the timeframes required.. What were your techniques used to try to increase your traffic, other than writing good posts?

    I’m still on WordPress.com hosted site as I’ve only been blogging for 3 months. The whole migrating to self-hosted really scares me. Having to know more about plug ins, backups, spam filters etc. I figured I would start out and see if I could keep up with a 2x/wk posting schedule and attract enough readers. It’s tough when you are working a FT job, trying to write, gather information and read and comment on many other blogs. I’m enjoying it but I must admit I’m working hard at it! 😉

  32. Henry,

    I could certainly write an article about it, but I don’t think there’s really much to share. You basically just put the code from AdSense into certain areas of your website (where you want ads to appear) and that’s pretty much it. It’s simply a matter of your pageviews x clicks. At least, that’s from what I understand of it.

    Is there something in particular you’d like to know about?

    Cheers!

  33. SWAN,

    Well, AdSense is the big dog for a reason. It’s super easy to use and they have a huge catalog of advertisers they work with.

    Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily need to move to WordPress for self-hosting. You can easily do that with Blogger (your current platform), and that’s what I did for years. I had no issues with Blogger, but I write quite a bit and wanted to own my own content. But I’ve also had a great experience with WordPress.

    Best of luck if you decide to take things to the next level. I could offer a little advice here and there if you go that route.

    Take care!

  34. FI Fighter,

    You’ve got it, man. I’m working for myself, and I’d like to think I’m a pretty good boss. 🙂

    I guess maybe I can make one of those YouTube videos about how “I’m a boss”. Haha.

    I’m really enjoying the new transition. I’ve had a lot more time to focus lately on writing. In addition, it’s been great to have some unstructured free time here and there to just sit down and think. I’m one of those people who enjoys quiet time to just contemplate and dream. Being present is really underrated. And I haven’t had time to just sit and do nothing in many years now. It’s nice.

    I know you’re not too far away from freedom on your terms, and you’ll be earning some serious rental income from that real estate portfolio. Keep it up, my friend.

    Thanks for stopping by!

    Best regards.

  35. debs,

    No problem on sharing. I’m here as an open book for everyone. I just hope you found some value out of the post.

    As far as building traffic, I truly have no secrets. I’ve just been writing and sharing for the last 3+ years. And I know all too well how hard it can be at times. Working for 11 hours just to come home and start writing is really difficult. I would often not get to bed until 11 p.m. or later just to get up at 6:30 a.m. to do it all over again. The weekends were generally the only time I could really check in on investments, manage the portfolio, and start getting drafts ready for the following week. I didn’t have a lot of free time for a good two years there.

    But I really enjoyed every minute of it. It wasn’t the blogging that bogged me down; it was the full-time dealership job. And I knew that I had to eventually find a way to get rid of it, which I did. And now that I can focus solely on my passions I couldn’t be happier. It’s been an amazing journey. But it’s been full of hard work. I believe success is where hard work and luck intersect, and I think you’ll find that to be true. Keep plugging away!

    Best wishes.

  36. I really appreciate these types of articles. Very insightful for us bloggers just starting out. What I enjoy about your blog is that you have a honest and fresh outlook on things. You don’t sell yourself on the blog but let your articles do the talking. You march to the beat of your own drum and it is refreshing.

    Yes you could sell yourself more but whats the cost? Nobody like pushy. Nobody likes a wall full of ads or aggressive pop ups. Nobody wants a product being shoved down their throat via a shill semi fake article.

    I dont know where you go from here, but I would be interested to see where u do wind up. I see you as a teacher or a public speaker giving out lectures on the college circuit or during trade shows.

    For bloggers I enjoy I usually click on their ads so they get a few clicks. Its the least I can do.

    Good Day and Grind On!

  37. Jason,
    As one of the people that asked how you make money blogging, I thank you for the explanation.

    I went to Daily Trade Alert to check out your other work and noticed that it says this:

    “Top Stock Picks from Today’s Leading Analysts”

    Wow, I’m getting free advice from one of today’s leading analysts! Awesome!
    KeithX

  38. Good luck with the log writing and freelance work. I do see a trend that the pageviews really dictate what your online income will be. If you dont have them no income will come.

  39. Great online income Jason. What’s yor CTR on adsense?. I struggle just to cover hosting expenses on my blog. I find that using affiliation is even harder to get income. Interesnting metaphore that of you cruising at 45mph much more relaxed that at 80mph

    http://www.dividendogma.com

  40. I feel like $170/month on hosting your website seems quite high. There are other web hosts that are quite good and of high quality with affordable prices. I use AsmallOrange.com to host my website. They have the bet tech support (almost guaranteed quick response time 24/7 chat) and the best quality servers and hosting.

    Also, some plans you can pay for in a lump sum. That is what I like to do. When I hosted the website I have I bought 2 years of hosting upfront. If you do this there are some great discounts, and there are coupon codes you can look for online to save even more money.

    As for email, the $20/month is not required. If you wanted to you could easily connect the domain to your google gmail account and you would be able to send and receive emails (for free).

    I feel that you could easily save around $100/month (or more). That would be an extra $1200 to invest in ever year, or even just money to have fun with.

    Just a thought,
    Sage

  41. Thanks for the reply! Oh no, I just was curious how the whole ad sense works. Like do you get to pick what type of ads to display, how much revenue per pageview/clicks, etc. Thanks again!

  42. Thanks for sharing your blogging side of income, Jason. That monthly income from Google AdSense is applaud-able. Keep up the great work! My true passion is in writing as well, and Ive been working on developing my writing skills since I started my blog a year ago. I hope to reach where you are someday, where writing will bring a bigger paycheck for me.

    Hopefully you will share more nuggets in the future about blogging and writing. Loved this post.

    regards
    R2R

  43. Asset-Grinder,

    Thanks, bud. I appreciate the kind words there.

    I definitely march to the beat of my own drum. I remember co-workers thinking I was crazy by leaving behind a job paying more than $50k/year, but I just wasn’t happy. And life is too short to not be happy. Whereas it worked for me for years to do it and sock away the money, it was time to try a different way. And it’s good to know that dealerships will still be around tomorrow in case this doesn’t work out and I need to go back into the industry.

    And I’d love to eventually do some kind of speaking. I think that’s a possibility if/after I put a book together. If a book were to gain some kind of traction then I think that might be a nice segue. We’ll see!

    I definitely don’t plan to change any of the advertising here. I have a few well-placed ads out of the way, and that’s it. I may very occasionally publish sponsored posts, but those will always be noted as such and include extremely relevant content. Otherwise, it’s just a big advertisement and I hate that. I don’t like visiting blogs with advertising and pop-ups everywhere so I would never want that here. It gets in the way of discussions about what matters. Being on the other side I can understand how an income is necessary, but I don’t think that’s the right way to do it.

    I remember growing up and being a big Nirvana fan. And I loved Kurt Cobain because he never sold out. He stuck to what he believed in and refrained from listening to what everyone else around him told him to do. It’s unfortunate that he had drug problems and ended up committing suicide, but I guess that mantra of not being a sell out always stuck with me.

    Really appreciate the support there in regards to the ads and what not. And thank you again for the email the other day.

    Impressive net worth, by the way! Keep up the great work over there. I’m jealous. 🙂

    Best wishes.

  44. KeithX,

    No problem at all! I’m happy to share. 🙂

    And I wasn’t aware at all that they include me in that classification. That’s pretty cool, but I’m just here to inspire, educate, and learn. We’re all part of one big team anyway.

    Thanks for stopping by!

    Cheers.

  45. RichUncle EL,

    I agree with you. The traffic you receive will give you a good idea of what the income possibilities are. However, there is a big variance there. I know of other blogs that receive similar traffic to mine that make 3x what I make, and that’s because there’s a lot more affiliate sales going on there. It all depends on what you’re selling. I don’t really sell anything here and that’s why my affiliate income is very low. But it’s not really a big deal to me. I just recommend what I find value in and that’s it.

    Cheers!

  46. Jose,

    I wouldn’t mind sharing that, but it appears that sharing one’s CTR is against Google’s policy. My apologies!

    From what I understand, many of the big blogs that generate heavy income receive a lot of revenue via affiliate sales. There’s ways to do this, but it ultimately comes down to marketing and selling. And I’m just not big on that. Every minute I spend selling something is one less minute I can spend on writing and conversing with people. And it’s not just writing, but also responding to emails. I respond to every email, and so that’s the first thing I generally do when I get up in the morning. Spending a lot of time marketing and trying to figure out how to sell stuff would just take away from what I’m really trying to do here.

    Best regards!

  47. Sage,

    Well, hosting needs will vary quite a bit depending on what kind of blog you have. I have pretty heavy traffic and also keep quite a few comments and pictures live on every page. I just looked at your site and it’s brand new, so that’s why you don’t have the same kind of hosting needs or costs.

    I would be careful with sending out emails from your gmail account. That can get you blacklisted pretty quickly. I would recommend doing a little research on how mass email works.

    Cheers!

  48. Henry,

    Well, as far as I’m aware you can’t actually pick the specific ads that will show up on your site. Google automatically does that for you based on your site’s content. You can, however, pick the size and placement.

    And there’s no set formula for revenue per pageview or anything like that. Ultimately, it comes down to the amount of pageviews and the clicks (CTR). One cannot control the CTR, so I simply focus on what I can control – content. 🙂

    Best of luck with the new blog!

    Take care.

  49. R2R,

    Glad you enjoyed this post! I was hoping there would be some value in it.

    I wish you the best of luck with writing and generating revenue from it. Just keep plugging away and good things will come. 🙂

    Best regards.

  50. \

    Hello: I so enjoy your well written. clear, and thorough articles, and stock analysis. I’ve learned a lot from you; thank you. And now, thanks for explaining how making revenue from blogging works!

  51. I’m always interested in how people go about making income on their own blogs. I have zero ads or affiliates and it will continue that way for some time, until I get some good stories and info out there(i’m 2 months in). After that I am certainly with you I plan to use affiliate ads for only the things I use and believe in. I’m even thinking about only doing those affiliates and/or advertising, but I’m far enough away to only think about that…..

  52. Curious how the income from blog related activities is taxed? Simply as ordinary income? Or does it make your taxes a pain in the butt because of form 666qF.me.5 and 123.lame?

  53. Thank you for sharing about your blogging income. You are a great inspiration to many of us.

    I am not a native English writer and actually try to improve my writing skills. Honestly, I’m learning a lot from you in investing, blogging, writing, etc.

    Best wishes,

  54. True, Your blog is pretty big compared to mine :PPP It is amazing with the speed your blog has grown btw!

    Oh wow, I had no idea about the email thing. I will definitely check that out. But, for now I will just use my plain ol gmail address and not use my domain email (as I don’t have reader base yet.).

    Oh and btw, I love your blog! You have many interesting posts 🙂

    Sage

  55. helen777,

    Thanks for the very kind words. And I’m glad you’ve found some value in what I write and have learned something along the way. That’s exactly why I write.

    Thanks so much for dropping by!

    Take care.

  56. evenstevenmoney,

    All in due time, my friend. It took me years to get to where I’m at now, and the more I go along the harder I actually work. However, I suppose that old adage of never working a day of your life when you work on something you love is true, because even though I probably put in almost as many hours with all of this as I did when I was working at the dealership I don’t feel like it’s working at all.

    Anything worth having is worth working hard for. 🙂

    Best wishes!

  57. Zol,

    It’s taxed as self-employment income as far as I’m aware. I’ve used TurboTax for the last four years, so I’m not quite sure about forms. The program simply asks me where the income comes from and I enter it in. Of course, self-employment income tends to be taxed higher because you’re paying both the employer and employee side of SS taxes.

    Cheers.

  58. Finance Journey,

    I’m glad you’re picking up some valuable information here. I’m sharing because we’re all part of one big community of like-minded investors and savers. Helping you helps me, and we both end up helping each other. And I think I’ve learned far more than I’ve taught over the last three or four years.

    Appreciate the support!

    Best regards.

  59. Sage,

    Thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoy the blog!

    Once you get a readership just be careful with sending emails using your gmail account. That can get you blacklisted pretty quickly if you’re sending out a bunch of emails as you’ll be picked up as spam. This is why there are so many email marketing services out there.

    Best of luck growing your readership and blog. 🙂

    Take care.

  60. Congratulations on making the leap to full time writer! You’re betting on yourself! I’ve only just discovered your site, but I admire how prolific you are. I look forward to reading more of your daily posts. It’s becoming a daily routine I look forward to at work.

  61. Phil,

    Thanks so much for the kind words and warm wishes!

    I am indeed betting on myself. It’s a bold move, but I’m really optimistic. I enjoy writing, and I think if you have a passion and you work at it day and night then it’s hard for things to not work out.

    I appreciate the support and readership. I only write articles I would enjoy reading, and I take pride in everything I publish. And I try to mix things up as well, so I hope you stick around. 🙂

    Best wishes.

  62. This is pretty terrific! Thanks for sharing.

    And I’ll go read your archives again…

  63. Ive been checking out your blog here and there. Some good stuff but man you have to get a real job. I mean Cmon. Your leeching off your sister living there. Get your own place and your own life. Thats almost as bad as livin with our parents. If I was like you and didnt get out my dad wouldve givin me a good kick in the ass. I guess if your sisters OK with you leechin its OK but man thats just sad man. One thing that aint OK is you mabye using Obammycare to pay for you health. Theres enough leeches and takers out there stealing from us taxpayers and it has too stop. I’m a maker not a taker and proud of it. Get your own healthcare. And it aint right you dont pay your school loan. I know Obammys gonna let kids off the hook but that aint right either.As stocks go I like tobacco and oil Guns too. If you use them buy them. I smoke and own Malboro. I dont think smoking is as bad as they say. Its my right to smoke where I want when I want dont take that freedom from me. This is america and Im sick of the health police sayin I cant smoke in public. Its America not russia. Everyone drives and puts gas in so buy oil stocks too. Im sick of these tree huggers tellin me what to do. Oil comes out of the ground so it dont pollute. You got oil and tobacco stocks but should have gun stocks too. I own Storm ruger and they pay me a dividend. Check it out. HANK

  64. Hank,

    Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and you certainly have a right to yours. But it’s my opinion that your comment is so far off base and ridiculous it’s not even funny.

    I don’t mooch off of my sister. I rent a room from her and pay her rent. I either rent a room from my sister and pay a near market rate while getting to spend more time with her and help her out while she’s pregnant while also giving her a little extra cash, or I rent a room with a stranger, live with someone I don’t know, and circulate that money outside the family. The choice is easy in my eyes.

    As far as my student loans go I do pay on my loans and have been since Day 1. I really have no idea what in the hell you’re talking about. I asked for and received a two-month forbearance to give my cash flow a little breathing room while I transition into what I hope is a new career. Don’t worry, Obammy won’t send you a bill…I pay for my own interest during this time period. So don’t worry.

    As far as healthcare, I bought a health plan off of an exchange last year. I paid full market rate for that plan. It’s no good in Michigan and I had to purchase a new plan. I was forced into the national exchange and was able to pick up a plan with similar benefits at a similar rate. The ACA should be your best friend, as it’s forcing a young, healthy person like myself into the system to lower costs for others like yourself. You clearly have no idea of how that works.

    I see this is your first comment here. I’ve never deleted a comment before or banned anyone because I believe in free speech and I don’t like the idea of censorship. We’re all adults here. But if you’re coming here to just to trash what I’m talking about then I’ll have to revisit that policy and make a special exception for you.

    Take care!

  65. PIM,

    Thanks so much. Appreciate the support and encouragement very, very much.

    And inspiration/education is exactly why I share this information. I’m so glad you found some value in it. 🙂

    I wouldn’t be able to do without the support of this great community, and that’s something I never forget!

    Take care.

  66. Congratulation! So you’ll be going to FinCon this year, right? I’m looking forward to meeting you in person. It’s a good resource to increase your online income. Good luck!

  67. Joe,

    I hope to make it to FinCon, but I’m keeping a real close eye on cash flow right now. I’d love to see the presentations and network with other bloggers for sure! If I don’t make it this year, however, I’ll definitely go to next year’s conference.

    It would be cool to meet up!

    Cheers.

  68. As always, thanks so much for being such an open book about your financial life, I think I can speak for a lot of other readers who appreciate seeing real world examples of ideas and principles at work.

    Also thanks for linking to your freelance articles, I’ll definitely head over there to get an extra dose of DM!

    All this blog talk has gotten me thinking much more seriously about starting my own blog, if nothing else than to practice writing and to serve as a journal for myself.

  69. Sundeep,

    If you do decide to start your own blog make sure you share it. Would love to check it out!

    And I’m happy to share. Too often in personal finance there are closed doors which only hampers everyone. I’m here to help and inspire others, and being completely open is the best way I know how.

    Best regards.

  70. DM – $1,800 a month is already great but I have a feeling your income will continue to rise. Thanks for detailing where your online income comes from. I am a ways away from actually monetizing our blog but its nice to know how other successful bloggers are making their money. For now, I will just continue to enjoy writing my articles on our family’s journey as well as interacting with fellow like-minded bloggers. Keep up the great work. Cheers! AFFJ

  71. I wouldn’t delete the comments it shows how foolish some people are. You are paying a fair rent and probably helping your sister. I have a family and could not live as you do but I am trying to teach my children the same values you have learned and practice much whatr you preach

    Ken

  72. AFFJ,

    Thanks so much for the support and encouragement. I’m definitely doing my best to offer great content and value here. And I hope that over time the readership grows, not for the additional monetary possibilities but rather for the opportunity to spread the message to a wider audience and inspire even more people. I have high hopes. 🙂

    I wish you the best of luck with both your blog and your family’s journey. The best of times are still ahead of us. 🙂

    Cheers!

  73. Ken,

    I’m with you. I’ve never deleted any comments here, and I prefer it that way. I love dialogue, even when that dialogue involves expressing ideas much different than my own. I only ask that it be respectful.

    I appreciate you spreading the message and trying to pass along some of the values I talk about here. I really appreciate that, and hope your children do as well. It’s really all about being happy in life. 🙂

    Best wishes!

  74. Thanks for all the inspiration DM! I’v been following you for at least a year now and I’v been thinking of starting a blog of my own and finally posted my first few posts tonight! 🙂
    Hopefully i’ll catch up to you one of these days!

    Congrats on the new found freedom!

  75. Dividend Wisp,

    Hey, the new blog looks great. Keep it up! 🙂

    And you’ll catch up to me. It just takes consistency and persistence. Stick with it.

    Best of luck on building both the blog and your portfolio.

    Cheers!

  76. A friend and I tried to do that, start an investment seminar/webinar business. The laws can be pretty strict depending on your state (with New York State and New York City being pretty anti-business, in my experience), but what did us in was the costs. Thousands of dollars to start an LLC, hundreds of dollars a month for general liability and E&O insurance, and tons of money to rent out a place for seminars or get a permit to “preach” to a handful of people in a taxpayer-funded park, all for what would have not likely been that much money.

    Hopefully if Jason ever did that, he would have better luck (dealing with a more business-friendly environment, I hope). Honestly, Jason, you should write an ebook about dividend stock investing.

  77. Hello, just found this blog and it is awesome. Really enjoy reading it.
    Just curious if you were planning to update this page since your online income has sky rocketed in the past few months.

  78. Jordan,

    Thanks! I’m glad you’ve found some value in the blog. I try my best to put out great content related to stocks, investing, dividends, frugality, and financial independence. 🙂

    I don’t really plan to update this post anytime soon. The only thing that has changed is that I’m freelance writing more. The amounts might have changed due to volume, but the actual framework and idea behind the content is all still the same. If the income dramatically increases even more due to some other reason, then I might be inclined to revisit this topic. I just don’t know how interesting it really is to the readership in general, and it wasn’t one of my more popular articles.

    Thanks again for the support!

    Best wishes.

  79. DM, I have found your site from back linking from another site. Have read some of ur posts and I’m truly impressed! I can sense you really share ur thought without much secret. Good job and yeah you have inspired me to do something like you which I have always wanted to do since long time ago – generating online income via blogging. Hail the FI preachers and frugalists!

  80. Jay,

    Glad you found the site.

    I wish you the best of luck with building your online income and blogging. I’ve found this incredibly rewarding, but mostly because I enjoy writing and sharing. If I would have been out for money right away, I surely would have failed.

    Cheers!

  81. I think we share a lot in common – FI, frugal lifestyle, early retirement, passive income via stock dividend. I’m 36yo this year and my annual dividend income averages $15K but mostly from mutual fund distribution. I’m still trying to find the right strategy in direct stock investment and after much reading and thought, I believe dividend investing still best suits my character and lifestyle. I have some niches I’m passionate about but I’m from Malaysia and English is not my first language so I find it difficult to express my thought as well as you so when I read your posts, I can feel they really flow from your mind to the words. Online income is definitely my target for this year (I failed last year), I still have a full time job which pays me well but like most people here, I hope I will be able to have that option by the time I’m 40yo. Good luck and will bookmark this site and follow your journey.

  82. Hey DM,

    Just curious how many clicks on average is it taking to earn $1,200/month in ad income? I am actually trying to avoid the adsense route personally, but I am nonetheless curious.

    If my plan to avoid adsense doesn’t pay off like I think it will, then I may have to revisit my monetization strategy.

    Cheers!

  83. Gen Y,

    I don’t really pay attention to clicks or metrics or anything else, to be honest. I can tell you that I average around 300,000 pageviews per month, if that helps. I could probably increase online income by paying more attention to that stuff and maximizing everything – I’ve run into blogs similarly sized to my own that are making a lot more – but I’m pretty happy with where it’s at.

    Best of luck figuring out the strategy that works best for you. There are a lot of different ways to go about it, that’s for sure. 🙂

    Cheers!

  84. That is very interesting. Can I ask another question?

    What percent of you traffic comes from organic vs referral vs social? If you don’t mind sharing.

    Thanks for being so transparent and helpful.

  85. Gen Y,

    I’m afraid I won’t be of much help to you here. I just don’t really track all of this stuff. I focus almost solely on the writing side of the house. The blog could probably do much better if I were to somehow market myself, but I just prefer the way I do it. That said, I’m not particularly active on social media. I can tell you that the blog received almost 10,000 pageviews this past Friday. Of that, 20 were from Twitter and 10 from Facebook. It’s almost all search engines and referrals from other blogs.

    Hope that helps!

    Cheers.

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