Time to make some money from this blogging thing?

It’s not that easy. Most blogs wither and die after a time. Persevering no es facil. People have a habit of showering bloggers with swag. But swag won’t pay the bills. And let’s not even get started on Google ads. I love Google products too but their ad platform is the biggest legal scam of the century. The only one getting rich off it is … Google.

If you want to make some money for yourself, consider putting out a tin cup. I.e., reimagine yourself as a mini-PBS or NPR. If you’d like to cross over into publishing a book, here’s some great info from More magazine on what it takes to monetize your blog:

Running the numbers

 • $0 Cost of starting your own blog at WordPress.com with one of its 135 free designs

 • $17 Annual cost of setting up a siteusing a domain name (such asGood-EnoughMother.com) at WordPress.com

 • $100 Cost of a USB microphone (forexample, a Snowball) to record podcasts for a website

 • $150 Cost of a portable HD videocamera (for example, a Kodak Zi6)to create videos for a blog

 • 10,000 Approximate number of followers a blogger needs in order to capture the attention of a mainstream book-publishing house

 • $300–$500 Cost per day of hiring a professional video editor

Go forth and make things happen.