Someone once asked me to write a post on Blog Overheads and Costs.
I thought it might make an interesting open mike question for some discussion so I’ll throw it over to you the ProBlogger community to write this post in comments below.
What costs do you have in your blogging business?
the snacks i’m eating while i’m blogging
$7.95/month hosting
$15/yr per domain (but right after I signed up with lunarpages, they started offering free domain for life, so I am going to revisit this one).
no start-up costs
Because it’s not a registered business expense, I don’t consider including the DSL in this calculation as *extra* money I am paying related to the site. If the site were for-profit though, of course I would include it as an expense!
My actual payouts for Fyreplace.com (all costs in USD):
Startup Costs:
Domain Name: $9 (Godaddy.com)
Blogging Platform: Free (WordPress 1.5.2)
Blogging Client: $15 (Ecto, on sale)
Graphics Program: $25 (PSP 7, Student version)
Code/Design Editor: Free (Notepad++)
Monthly Re-occuring:
Hosting: Free (long story, but it’s a darned good plan)
Broadband Internet Access: $44.99 (I will never give this up, it would be the last utility to go, after my phone, cable TV, and possibally natural gas and water)
Electric: (Varies, but c’mon, it’s a blogging-based expense. The more time I spend online, the more I pay in electric)
Cable Television: $39.99 (For news stations, educational channels, and the occasional cartoon network break)
My next blog will actually be much less expensive:
Startup: Free (Blogging client, platform, and hosting are paid for (the site will be a subdomain of my current domain))
Monthly: Probably no change, excepting a slight increase in electricity bill.
If that’s not a telling nudge to have more than one blog, I don’t know what is. If you subdomain it, future blogs are always less expensive.
ause it’s not a registered business expense, I don’t consider including the DSL in this calculation as *extra* money I am paying related to the site. If the site were for-profit though, of course I would include it as an expense!