Breakfast:
Today’s breakfast was this recipe: Eggless Breakfast Scramble.
See? Proof that I don’t just eat chocolate! It’s an older recipe, with terribly old photos, but I still love it. There are actually quite a few old recipes on the site that I missed when archiving the recipe page, and I’m trying to go back to find them all. It’s like a Where’s Waldo…
Tomorrow I’ll get back to the chocolate recipes.
Promise.
Today’s post, though, is a follow-up to Thursday’s Day In The Life post, since so many people had the same questions. I figured it’d be best to answer them all in the same place.
I also wanted to apologize.
In my last post, I stressed the fact that I work hard at my job; that running the website takes up a majority of the day—nights and weekends, too. But re-reading my post, I’m cringing at how it almost sounds like I’m complaining about the amount of work.
Perhaps I chose the wrong words; it was definitely not my intent to compare my job to those of people who do manual labor or spend long hours at tedious jobs they hate. I can see now how my post could’ve sounded privileged and insensitive. If you took offense, please accept my embarrassed apology, as well as my gratitude for enabling me to have this job that I love.
To answer the questions…
How can I become a full-time blogger?
To be really honest (and blunt), I think that if your goal in starting a blog is to turn it into a career, you’re going to fail. You should blog because you love it, not because you want to make money. I didn’t set out to make this my job, and I happily blogged for years without getting much (or any) pay. My goal in blogging has never been to earn tons of money; it’s just to make enough money that I can continue doing what I love. I’d still run this website if it made absolutely nothing; I’d just be forced to devote less time to it.
If it turns out—without your trying—that you can blog for a living, that’s a happy coincidence. But I think if you specifically tailor your content to become a full-time blogger, people will see through you and see that your heart really isn’t in it.
So… how many visitors does your blog get?
At first I wasn’t going to answer this question. But the truth is, I’m curious too, and I’d love it if more bloggers shared.
My website received almost 8 million visits for February and March. If you’ve ever told your friends or family about Chocolate-Covered Katie, or shared my website on facebook, I am forever grateful to you… I’d bake you a giant batch of “thank you” cookies, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near enough!
(Seriously, it wouldn’t.)
Are you going to blog forever?
I don’t know what the future holds, but I’d love to continue running this website for as long as anyone cares to read. There is something else I’m working on, and many of you already know about it because I’m lousy at keeping secrets. I’m planning to finally announce it officially on the blog next month!
How does a person make money from a blog?
I have a sponsor, Foodbuzz. Their ads are on the side of my blog, and in return they pay me. This amounted to a few dollars a month when I first started out. But if a blog gets popular enough, you can actually make a living from it. I’m sure there are more lucrative ways to make money from a blog, but I haven’t looked into it. As I said earlier, I’m not interested in making a huge amount of money—just enough to pay the bills, cover the expense of my baking supplies (I go through a lot when doing recipe experiments!), and pay the server costs for website hosting.
Can I make a donation to your blog?
I actually don’t have a donation page… I know many other bloggers do, but I’d feel weird asking for donations when there are so many charities out there more in need than my need for money for baking supplies. But if you made a donation to your favorite charity in my honor, that would absolutely make me so happy!!
Do your parents financially support you at all? Does your husband?
My parents don’t, and my husband definitely does not support me. Unless you mean my imaginary husband. In that case, yeah he gives me tons of money. 😉
How do you make friends when you work alone?
I’ve kept in touch with some of my college friends and high school friends, and I’ve made more friends through their friends; plus many of my roommate’s friends and coworkers have also become my friends. Then I also have you all! Reading your comments makes me feel like I’m getting to know you and like we’re friends. I love being part of this online community and can’t understand how a blogger could take comments for granted and ignore his or her readers. You all teach me so much, and I wish there were more time in the day to respond to every comment and to try all the recipe ideas people send me.
(2015 edit: It’s so fantastic how many real-life friends I’ve made from people who have recognized me on the street from my blog! If you see me, please do feel free to say something!! Meeting new people is one of my favorite things, and it’s one of the top reasons I enjoy living in DC.)
Thanks for sharing this! It’s funny, but I know most people don’t like to talk about hits, but it really does put into perspective the traffic you need to make a living off Foodbuzz. Thanks Katie and I LOVE your blog. 🙂
I was also curious about how people make money blogging. I could never be a blogger, myself. I love baking and writing, but I love baking OTHER people’s recipes 🙂 Which is why I am such a HUGE fan of your blog! And I’m so glad you can make a living from it!
PS – I REALLY hope your big surprise is a cookbook of single-lady recipes! Because not only would I buy it, but I would buy one for EVERYONE i know who bakes!
Thanks for sharing more details about your blogging life. I understand what you mean about actually loving to blog. I know I’ve been asked why I write my blog, or as others put it “waste my time” with it. For me it’s all about sharing what I know I love to share what I learn and how I do the things I do. You share so many good recipes and your blog really reflects the fact that you love to bake/cook and your genuinely love writing. Both of which make reading you blog an everyday pleasure. Keep up the great work.
What a fun series of posts. I always get so inspired when other people make it doing what they love because then I think there is hope for me. 🙂
I laughed at the imaginary husband. I have one too…
I didn’t think you sounded like you were complaining. 🙂
I thought these two posts were really interesting. I love your candidness and transparency. It’s so cool that you have been able to turn your passion into your business!
For what it’s worth, I didn’t think an apology was necessary. It didn’t sound like complaining at all to me. We all have jobs where many of our closest friends and family don’t even know what we do all day every day, so it’s fun to share that with others. The fact that you are able to make a living is a testament to how much effort you’ve put into the blog over the last few years. Your photography is beautiful and your recipes are always well thought-out. I’d say you’re not “lucky” to be doing what you love every day; rather, you deserve it.
I think your blog and recipes are fantastic, so thank you.
Thank you, Catherine. I definitely try to remind people who want instant success that this blog was NOT instantly popular for me (although I do think it was an instant success, because to me “success” means it was something that made me happy, not that made me money). I’m sure there are people whose blogs take off overnight, but I am not one of those people!
I’ll share statistics: my blog’s had about 350,000 visitors…since I started it in September 2010! Haha, I don’t think I’ll be going full time tomorrow 😉
I don’t think you have anything to apologise for. Working a job you hate, for long hours with little praise or gratification has, sadly, become the hallmark of the 21st century. And, to an extent, I can understand why people who HAVE to do these jobs would resent those that have a comparatively ‘cushy’ lifestyle. I constantly feel guilty and like I have to apologise for being able to have parents who do help support me, and give me time to try to make a living at something I might enjoy. I don’t think it’s fair to think that everyone else should have to suffer and be miserable just because a certain percentage do. I know I’m exceptionally lucky to be in the situation I’m in, particularly with my long-term mental health problems and I wish with all my heart I could make a living while working from home (and I don’t see anything wrong with doing so) but at the same time I know I’d probably think very differently about full time blogging if I had to sit in a cubicle for 11 odd hours a day.
xxx
That’s way more than me! Oh, and I read your blog too :).
Kaite,
What I enjoy about your blog is that it’s specific to dessert. With that being said, I had no idea (before finding your blog) that oatmeal could be prepared in so many amazing and creative ways. Thanks to Angela at ohsheglows.com, I now take recipes from both websites and create my own versions custom to what I like. Seriously, I get excited about breakfast every morning! I definently would not have discovered creativity and new love with food if it wasn’t for your blog. Also, I enjoy that your recipes are easy and can be experimented on without completely changing it.
I recommend your website to all of my clients, friends, and family AND the desserts I have made for dinner parties have been all yours… and everybody has loved them every time.
THANK YOU for your hardwork, effort, and passion.
Thank YOU for mentioning the site to others. It means the world to me!
Awesome, simply awesome. Good for you… And don’t worry about naysayers, you are a sincere young woman who generously shares her passion, and it’s very evident to your faithful readers. I never get the impression you are deliberately doing things to ‘up’ your numbers or are pushing things on us. There are several blogs that when they started earning a living ( a lot in the DIY field) changed how they blogged and sadly now it’s all about the money and not content. But you have not changed and I continue love reading your blog.
Hey,
Thank you for the follow up – I was pretty curious about how you made a living blogging. The funny thing is that I actually just like the foodbuzz features when I see them! I also liked tha way you started it saying that blogging is just out of love. I am in a professional field that I enjoy quite a bit, but it is not (I don’t think) my one purpose in life. However, I also love love the way I am living right now and because of that and my love of cooking I share it on my site – which seems to fill whatever was lacking with my other job. Success is not always measured in profits. Still, I am happy that you found success in something you do out of love!
P.s. I will be happily awaiting that cookie recipe.