A few people have asked me, via email, whether or not I’m generating any revenue from blogging. So I’ll state, once and for the record, the truth on this.
This Blog is Not Monetized
It’s simply never been a goal of mine to make money off of these efforts — period. I view this pastime as entertainment and hope that others might benefit from sharing some of the challenges I’m working through.
Thanks for reading,
LivingaFI
Living a FI 
I’ve gone “semi-pro” a few times. Yes, you can make money, but it’s a PITA. Not worth it unless you luck/skill into an audience and you need revenue to deliver a site with capable hosting, performance, etc.
I’m still amazed, to be quite honest, that ANY internet company makes money. Online advertising is so weird.
Thanks for confirming my suspicions re: monetizing. I think I’d rather just focus on creating content, which is a lot more fun than playing this game. If I want to make extra money, I can think of other side-hustles that would be more reliable and probably less work in the bargain.
Keep your options open. At some point it could be very expensive to maintain the site based on the millions of page views you’ll receive every hour 🙂 Plus, the profits from advertising could fund the next Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Ha! Seriously, this site will simply never have a huge reader-base. First, not many people are interested in FIRE. I further whittle down any potential audience by making it slightly skewed toward geeks due to video game, comic book, and sci/fi references. And let’s not forget the quality of the jokes. I don’t do these things super-intentionally, but it does represent my style, for what it’s worth. I think if you’re a PF blogger and all you want is readers, your best bet is to be upbeat and post at least every other day with a short but informative blurb with some kind of novelty ‘trick’ in it, like soak your toothbrush in pickle juice between sessions (it’ll make the bristles last an extra three months and as an added bonus, your breath will smell like fresh dill.) That sort of thing keeps folks coming back for more.
Ugh. Blogs like that get deleted from my RSS post-haste. I’m much more interested in the PEOPLE than the numbers.
For the record, I wouldn’t mind if there were ads on the site. You’re creating something useful, so I think it’s fair to at least recoup your costs. Where I draw the line is when “guest posts” start appearing with links to specific companies/products (yeah, one big early retirement blog did that…) or when every fifth post involves credit card products (also witnessed that one…)
You just figured out what my next post is! A good friend from Citibank is going to show us how to save money with a new
lowhigh interest debit card. 😉I threw out a ‘should I monetize’ post on my blog and the commenters were all very supportive. I’m still not up to covering the hosting and site fee (let alone making anything for my time, not that I’m bitter :), but it does make getting traffic a little more exciting. Most folks have ad-block and you can control what and where ads are shown, plus it gave me some insight into ‘the business’, which has been interesting. Good on you for swearing off the slimy tactics (Product promos, Personal Capital, Lending Club, AirBnB, CC referral links – that stuff really feels forced in the middle of PF blogs).