Budgeting for A Successful Money-Making Blog

When starting your own business, upfront cost is one of your main concerns. Many people try to start their own business because whatever they’re doing to make money elsewhere isn’t working. And while blogging is definitely one of the least expensive ways to make your way into the side hustle (hopefully to turn main hustle) market, it doesn’t come for free. That is, if you’re in it for the long-haul and want to turn it into something big. So before you really sink your teeth into getting your blog up and running, here’s a simple budgeting tool that outlines your upfront and monthly costs when setting up a money-making blog for success.

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Upfront Costs:

• LLC Filing Fee

  •  LLC Incfile Package ($50) + Operating Agreement ($40) + State Filing Fee ($200) = $290, call it $300
  • If you plan on treating your blog like a business, it stands to reason that it should be an actual business. There are a great many reasons why incorporating your blog is an extremely wise decision – but that is beyond the scope of this article. Stay tuned …
  • IncFile is, by far, the easiest online source for incorporating or forming an LLC.
  • We chose the LLC Silver Package on IncFile plus the Operating Agreement add-on since we’re a partnership – this can change depending on your specific situation.
  • Your state filing fee can vary drastically but a good number to assume would be in the $100 – $200 range – sorry Nevada ($425) & Massachusetts ($500). CLICK HERE to check both your state filing and annual fee for LLC’s on LLC University.
  • You can use incfile for ein/tax id services but we did it for free HERE.

• Web Hosting & Domain Name

  •   $150 – $200 (depending on the plan you choose)
  • This is where you can save some big money. We’ll use Bluehost , our personal choice for web hosting, for an example. Choosing a 36-month basic hosting plan gives you a $3.95/month rate totaling $150 + your security & add-on costs which bring you to about $200 give or take. Choosing the 12-month plan jumps you up to $7.50ish/month which totals about $90 + security and add-ons brings you to $140ish. If you’re able, it only makes sense in the long run to purchase the 36-month plan and have your domain & hosting set for an extra 2 years but only an extra $60.
  • This can also vary slightly depending on which web host provider you choose – CLICK HERE for more information on “Which Web Host is Right For Me?”

• Genesis Framework & Child Theme

  • $130ish
  • This is how your site functions & updates (Genesis Framework) & then how it looks and feels (Child Theme). The Genesis Framework alone (must-have) is $60 and Genesis-powered child themes can run anywhere from $60ish – $200ish. If you choose to purchase a StudioPress theme (creator of the Genesis Framework), you get the Genesis Framework & the theme of your choice for about $130.
  • This is not somewhere you want to cut corners because site functionality, look & feel is what’s going to keep your audience coming back regardless of your content. If you have great content but your audience can’t find it, can’t read it or can’t share it – it’s not going to make it very far.
  • This is a one-time cost and there are no additional fees when StudioPress makes upgrades to their themes (I can’t speak for all the other theme creators).

• Tailwind

  •  $120/year
  • We use tailwind for Pinterest scheduling.
    Pinterest is our number one traffic driver, and we don’t have time to constantly and consistently pin to get the traffic we want. I typically spend 20 minutes scheduling all my posts for the week. Then I spend 5-10 minutes daily reviewing said schedule and adding pins for new content. The amount of time I save using Tailwind alone is enough for me to deem this absolutely essential.
  • Tailwind also gives you great analytics – aka insights into how your pins are performing, most popular boards, pins, niches, etc. This service goes way beyond that which is provided within pinterest alone and is incredibly valuable.  
  • Tailwind does offer a free trial period for up to 100 pins – beware: this goes fast.

Monthly Costs

Now remember, these are the costs you can reasonably assume when just starting out. As you expand and grow your blog, other costs may come about that you’ll consider essential at that time (e.g. a Virtual Assistant, Facebook & Instagram marketing costs, Teachable costs for course creation and/or Shopify costs for your online store). These are what we’re considering to be purely essentials for your first few months.

• Email Marketing
  •  $30/month which totals $360/year

• • We use ConvertKit for our email marketing and firmly believe this is the best choice.
    Why do you need email marketing from Day 1? Well, your most loyal followers are always going to be those who subscribe to your email list. Not many people are going to remember to sign back on to your site every once in a while to see if you posted something new. People who love your content are going to want an email update when you post new content. So don’t sacrifice future traffic from those who love you most because you don’t want to spend money on an email list. An email list is also the only way you can intentionally, specifically and personally contact your audience apart from hoping they’ll see a pin on pinterest or a post on Facebook / Instagram.
  • The $30/month basic plan gets you from 0-1k subsribers. So unless you’re migrating an existing email list over from another blog or provider (which ConvertKit does as well), this plan should keep you going for at least a few months.

Total Upfront Costs ($750) + Monthly Costs ($360) = $1,110 for your first year

*Remember – this will vary depending on the options you choose within each of the items above. This is simply a gauge for your start your planning.

Related Articles:

Which Web Host is Right For Me?

2 Must-Have Resources to Monetize Your Blog

The 1-Hour Blog Set-Up

Stupid Simple 3-Step Guide to Launch Your Blog

Happy blogging!

Right there with ya,

Niki from