The U.S. Department of Agriculture states that raising a child from birth to age 17 costs, for those in the middle-income groups, anywhere from $226,800 to $264,600. If you think that figure is large, consider the fact that those numbers do not take into account any damage (the physical kind, not emotional) the child can cause...
Continue reading
Welcome to this installment of Bloggy Thursdays, where I share with my fellow bloggers tips and tutorials to maximize and better your blog. While I do not consider myself an expert, I do like to think that after 10+ years of blogging — in addition to my technical knowledge — I know more than the average blogger when it comes to making your blog more appealing to readers.
Do you have any comments, questions, or topics you’d like to see covered here? Please send me a message via my contact form. Enjoy!
Today’s Bloggy Thursdays will not feature a tip. Rather, it will answer a question…
The second most popular question I get asked about blogging is: “How much money do you make from blogging?”
Last August, I had posted my revenue from the first month of monetizing this blog. (If you are too lazy to click over, the figure was $307.24.) The sum should have gone way up since then, right?
Wrong.
Well, not entirely. The actual answer is more complicated than that. Because, in a nutshell, life happens. Page views will not always go up. Advertisers will come and go. Your life outside of blogging may make an unexpected turn and you may not have the time or resources to devote to your blog as you did before.
What good is a blog post about making money from blogging without a clichéd picture
to accompany it?
As stated in an earlier post, 2011 was not the best year — financially — for my family. This does not only apply to my parents. While J and I are by no means poor, we have been on a very tight budget. Yes, we were able to hire a part-time nanny for a few months. Yes, we are able to dine out once in a while. But these luxuries do not come easily, as we have made numerous sacrifices to achieve them (e.g., not purchasing clothes for ourselves for the entire year). And as much as it pains me to not be able to afford toddler classes for Claire, or not be able to immediately afford a new couch despite the...
Continue readingThe media keeps telling us that the economy is getting better, that the unemployment rate is decreasing and that there are brighter days ahead. In my parents' circle, this is not the case. Because from what I can see, 2011 has been the most difficult for small business owners, especially immigrant groups who rely on dry cleaners, nail salons, delis, and grocery stores — previously some of the most stable small businesses — for their livelihood. My mother tells me that in the 20+ years she's been in the dry cleaning business, she has never seen it this bad. Two of her close friends are in default on their mortgages. My aunt's family recently had her home foreclosed. Everyone else is dipping into, and depleting...
Continue reading
We've all seen the commercials. A doting spouse surprises his or her significant other with a brand new car for Christmas, complete with a big red bow on top. A screenshot from this year's "A December to Remember Sales Event" commercial And if you're anything like me, you're probably thinking, "Does anyone actually do that?" Apparently, yes — there is even a warehouse in California that stockpiles the iconic oversized red bows because the demand for them is so high! Granted, the article referenced is a bit old, but as Lexus's annual "December to Remember Sales Event" is ongoing, I highly doubt that this tradition of the financially privileged has expired in recent years. I always told J that I would be pretty angry with...
Continue reading