Time to talk about the F word.
Yesterday’s f word was frivolous: Healthy Frappucinos.
But today, it’s time to get more serious; today’s f word is “future.” Specifically, my future and the future of my chocolate-covered blog.
The future of Chocolate Covered Katie…
This summer, I had to make a big decision regarding the blog I’ve written for over three years. I enjoy every second of the blogging process—from writing posts to creating recipes to setting up photoshoots to interacting with readers. But keeping up a blog takes a lot of time, and as the blog has grown, so too has the time requirement. Answering the hundreds of daily questions I receive from readers could be a full-time job in itself!
I knew there’d be no way to maintain a full-time job and still focus as much passion and energy as I’d like on CCK. If I didn’t want to give up the blog completely, I would at least be forced to give it less than my full attention.
This was not ok with me. When I do something, I do it 100% or not at all. But I couldn’t imagine giving up all my passions to make room for a job where I’d be miserable. Therefore, I decided to make this blog…
My full-time job.
It seems to easy, now, to write the above statement. Just. Like. That. But the truth is my decision wasn’t just like that. It took many hours of going back and forth, writing pros-and-cons lists, and eating a copious number of chocolate bars to counter all the nervousness. There were many “cons” on the list of reasons not to keep blogging, but I realized that most of them had something to do with security. And when it comes down to it, I’d rather take a risk if there’s a possibility to be ridiculously happy.
With Robert Frost’s “Road not Taken” poem in mind, I’ve decided to not go out and look for a “real” job. Instead, I will be a full-time blogger, at Chocolate-Covered Katie.
Nothing is going to change, except that I’ll now have even more time to dream up—and experiment with—healthy dessert creations like hot chocolate fudge cinnamon rolls or chocolate pumpkin cream pie. If I have a chance to do what I love for a living, I need to take that chance. I have to take a risk and at least try!
The fact that I even have the opportunity to make this choice is all thanks to you. If you’ve ever recommended my site to a friend, shared a link, liked the Chocolate Covered Katie Facebook Page, made one of my recipes, or even simply read one of my posts, I am so incredibly grateful.
Yes, I’m scared about the future now that I’ve made my decision. But I’m also excited because of the people with whom I’ll get to interact every day: you all! (Well, you all and chocolate. I must admit to being pretty thrilled my job lets me work so closely with chocolate.) I think part of my apprehension for the future is unavoidable no matter what route I take. That’s just the nature of getting out on one’s own and defining one’s life. It’s a scary time.
I am so indebted to your support and kindness that makes it even possible for me to explore this path. I hope, if any of you are ever faced with a scary decision requiring you to take a leap of faith, that you go for it! Don’t force your passions to take a back seat to the “shoulds” and “have to”s in life, because you only stand to look back someday with regret, thinking:
“What if I’d followed my dreams???”
Just curious, How does a blog such as this one make money? I noticed you call it your job (which I think is awesome by the way) – I know some people that have blogs and sell stuff to make money, but I was just wondering how one like this works. Don’t want to get into your business, just curious in general (I have a full time job – promise I’m not looking to still ideas!). I Googled it and saw some people let ads be posted but it doesn’t seem like yours if full of commercials. Just wondering 🙂
Hi Jackie,
I have a sponsor, foodbuzz. Their ads are on the side of my blog, and in return they give me a few cents per page view to my blog. When I first started out, it amounted to a few dollars a month. But if a blog gets popular enough, you can actually make a good living off of even just a few cents per page view :).
A very inspiring post, especially to someone nearing the end of college. My biggest issue is having too many intests ans not knowing which path to take, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out when the time is right. I applaud your decision and wish you the best of luck!
How does one become a full-time blogger? Can you share a little bit about how you are making this work and how things are going for you now?
I guess I need to write a post about it, and about what I do and what it means. But in short, I have a sponsor, foodbuzz. Their ads are on the side of my blog, and in return they give me a few cents per page view to my blog. When I first started out, it amounted to a few dollars a month. But if a blog gets popular enough, you can actually make a good living off of even just a few cents per page view .
Yay! I just recently found your blog. I am so glad you are not going away!
Wow, good for you!! I hope it turns out great for you, but even if it doesn’t, at least you got to do it for a little while! 😉
Okay, Katie, when are we FINALLY going to get a vegan dessert cookbook?!?!?!?! Like a real one that we can go buy from the bookstore and tell the whole world about so they’ll go buy it too? Because it needs to happen!
You are the sweetest!!
It will happen… I’m in talks with agents and a publisher. But I need to have 80% new content for the book (i.e. unposted recipes) so I’m in the process of compiling new recipes at the moment. I need to get good ones! 🙂
hey you’re so young, don’t worry about the real world yet. congrats on finding out what you love at such a young age. shoot, i figured it out and began going to school at 25 lol…. thx for your blog
so guess you could say I don’t know much at all about blogging so my question is how exactly does a person make money blogging?
In short, I have a sponsor, foodbuzz. Their ads are on the side of my blog, and in return they give me a few cents per page view to my blog. When I first started out, it amounted to a few dollars a month. But if a blog gets popular enough, you can actually make a good living off of even just a few cents per page view .
Dear Katie, I’m new to your blog, but WAY TO GO. My husband and I are dairy-free and mostly sugar-free, and it’s hard to come up with recipes, thanks for your creative suggestions! Are you (I hope) taking good steps for your blog, such as gaining healthy advertising (from healthy companies you pre-screen) if you want to put that on your blog, or are you going to do an ECookbook for Kindle through Amazon? There are good books on writing EBooks out there, check out worldwidefreelance.com, or email me, I have some emails on the subject that I could send to you if desired. Either way, make sure you are doing this in a smart way so that you can succeed in your dreams! Pitch how many hits you have from Google (get a company to track them for you, or automatic software to count your unrepeated visits and daily hit rate) and pitch those numbers to publishing companies or (as I suggested) get into the Kindle EBook route, or self-publish to all your bloggers. We would buy your book! GOOD LUCK, it’s wonderful you’re pursuing your dreams!
Sorry, I just updated myself by reading more of your comments — if you need unpublished recipes for the publisher of a cookbook, that’s awesome, but please get all of your posts from this blog into an eBook for your fans so those recipes are not lost! Thank you and CONGRATS!
Thank you so so much, C.J.
Your comment really meant a lot to me… and I love your idea about an e-cookbook. Honestly, I’m kinda sad I’ll have to come up with new recipes for the cookbook and leave some of my favorites out, so I really will have to look into your idea!