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.)
I think it’s wonderful that you are doing what you love and I agree, most success stories come from people with an idea, time to develop that idea and then sharing it…but most importantly an idea that they love and are passionate about. I’m so glad I discovered yor blog! Thanks for sharing your talent and I do hope you can do this for as long as you like 🙂 I will definitely be a faithfuln reader 🙂
Can you go into more detail on how t you get a sponsor such as Food Buzz or any sponsor to put ads on your blog? And how do you have them pay you when someone just visits your site?
They actually contacted me. But I think if you go to their page (foodbuzz.com), you can sign up.
As for the payment thing, I had to put a tracking code on my site, so they see all my stats.
Could you tell me how you put a tracking code on your site?
Thanks!
Would Google Analytics work?
http://www.google.com/analytics/
If you sign up with foodbuzz, they tell you how to do everything.
Oh, thank you so much, Katie!!!
By the way, I’m not sure if you know this or not, but, the times on the comments are really off. It says I posted a comment @ 12:32 am & 1:42 am on April 19th and that you posted yours at 1:31 am on April 19 but it’s only 8:44 pm April 18 right now…… Just so you know 🙂
lol yeah, I have to set my posts to publish at some random time as well! No clue why, but it doesn’t seem to matter much.
No, it doesn’t….. lol!! I don’t mind at all….. Just wondered if you knew!
One last question…. How long ago did Foodbuzz start sponsoring you?
Thanks!
They contacted me a few years ago… 2008 or 9?
Thanks!!
Aww, you don’t need to apologize, Katie! You work so hard at what you do, and we love you no matter what! 🙂
Good for you, Katie! I’m glad you have a job you love and enjoy. Since I found your blog I’ve been trying to figure out what it is about your blog that’s got me clicking through links to old posts and checking every day for new posts. You have a combination of talents that’s made this blog so successful…artistic sense (gorgeous photographs!), great original recipes, and great language skills… Your posts are so well-written; they’re always a pleasure to read and I appreciate not having to comb through millions of abbreviations. I know they must take time to craft and you deserve each and every one of those 8 million page hits!
Just a random note, I remember reading in one of your comments that you loved the Thai dessert that has black glutinous rice with coconut cream…that’s one of my absolute favorites too! It’s super easy to fix and I’ll be happy to send you my recipe if you can find some black glutinous rice at an Asian grocery store.
I would love to hear your recipe!!! I’m sure I can find the rice… my Asian market is really big.
Not going to lie, I’m super stoked for chocolate tomorrow!
I think they are going to be cherry chocolate chip cookies with some kind of cereal and cookie mixture. They look too crunchy to be just soft cookies.. have you seen Trader Joe’s kettle corn cookies? Something like that is my guess!
It must be awesome to blog for a living — I write on the side for a few blogs and make *enough* money, but certainly the pleasure out of working with a passion is worth it! 🙂
I just baked the One Minute Chocolate Cake for my little girls, as it is their half birthday and they wanted a half party. I wish I’d had some coconut butter on hand, because the icing I improv’d was truly gross. The cake was great, as usual.
I was very interested in your day in the life posts. I am surprised to see that anyone was snarky. Your blog actually provided new content and new ideas that were not out there before. It all seems so simple- few ingredients, whole foods, low sugar- but you were the one who perfected it. It was innovative, and there is not always innovation in blogs.
You also TEST your recipes. It drives me crazy when “food bloggers” post something they just tried once. I almost always go to CCK or Elana’s Pantry because I know you’ve tested and perfected something that can be tricky, trying variations on the ingredients.
Keep it up! I am addicted!
Aw that’s SUCH a cute idea! I’ve always wanted to celebrate my half birthday… but I forget every year, without fail!
You have absolutely no reason to apologize!
I’m eagerly awaiting a Chocolate Covered Katie Cookbook if one is in the works! 🙂
Congrats on the success of your blog! I truly enjoy reading and making your desserts, your hard work is VERY much appreciated. 🙂
I didn’t think your previous post sounded like you were complaining at all! I have really enjoyed these posts, and of course I really enjoy your recipes! You seem like a very humble and honest person. I, too, feel like people that read my blog (and the authors of blogs I follow) are my friends.
I think everyone else has summed up pretty much everything i’d want to say, except that i think it is really great that you leave your comments open and allow people to have discussions, and its really sweet that you answer as many queries as possible.
I really don’t understand bloggers who turn their comments off – ok, you might get some people who don’t say the nicest things all the time, but i think the point of blogging is to communicate, discuss, chat about things. And when you take that away you lose a lot. So good on you!
I completely agree, and I try really hard to NOT moderate comments. Every now and then, such as if a commenter is attacking another reader or using profanity, I have to take one down. But otherwise, I think one of the best things about the world we live in is that people don’t agree on everything. Life would be really boring if we all had the same opinions!