I’m in The Times … squeal!

Little Dimples and Curly Headed Boy are very unimpressed that Mummy is in a posh newspaper, but I’m chuffed and rather surprised that Mumsnet suggested me (thank you!).

However, newspapers being what they are, The Times obviously only added the one sentence that worked for their story, so I thought I’d finish the story.

 

How much is it possible to earn from being a Mummy Blogger?

 

In the article I say that I do 1 in 4 sponsored posts and earn £100 for them (I charge £50 for administering a competition).  The actual truth is that I limit myself to 1 in 4, because I have long term plans for my blog.

If however you just ran a review site or were happy to have loads of reviews, then you could of course do a lot more.  Also, you can earn more if you do ‘Follow’ links (check my pinterest boards for articles about NoFollow vs Follow).

So for me that is about 1/2 sponsored posts a month, but someone else could easily do 4 a month/week (if they were available).

Problem is that not everyone offers £100, some are offering just £20.  But if you do a real quicky and need the money then lots of £20’s can add up (I’m not getting into the ethics of wether you should do blogs for such a small sum here).

Bear this in mind:

You will have monthly costs for running your blog, plus potentially childcare costs (2 mornings per week at a nursery would be £350pm for me).

For each blog post (lets say they take an hour), you will need to do the same amount of networking/blog post pimping so 1hr of blogging is 2hrs of work.

If like me you limit your sponsored posts, then rather than it looking like you are earning £100ph, you are actually earning £12.50ph.

BUT it’s addictive!  You are likely to spend a lot more time on it than that and will therefore be earning below the minimum wage.

Plus it’s not reliable.  Last year I had lots of interesting campaigns that would bring me in £3-400 per time.  This year they have pretty much dried up.  Even the sponsored post opportunities disappeared for a while.

What I did get though was lots of lovely things to review which gave my family treats; like a holiday in normandy, muddy festival, magical festival, trip to see Andy and Mike, and the lovely Guinness World Records.  But treats come at a price, because each one needs a blog post, I try to make sure that each post is professional, there will be emails with the PR that take longer than a normal blog post, the normal pimping, and I also tend to check out other bloggers who have reviewed the same item.

 

Blogging is NOT something to do just to earn money or get freebies.

 

Why is it worth doing it then?

Because I LOVE writing.

Because it is cathartic for me.

Because I can reach more Mums with my writing than I can 1to1 with my coaching.

Because it helped me write my book on enjoying being a mum and is helping me brew my book on weight loss without diets and bootcamps.

Because I can give my family treats that in this recession are limited.

Because blogging often leads onto something else (check out my predictions for parent blogging that I wrote at the beginning of this year); that’s where people tend to make their money.

 

What do you think?

• Do you love blogging just for blogging sake?
• Or are you one of the few actually making lots of money from it?
• Or did blogging lead onto a new job for you?
• Have you noticed the change in type of paid work/reviews offered?