The cost of blogging or la délicate question de l’argent
This post is also available in: Bulgarian French
Blogging is a wonderful thing: since the beginning of Styleinspiratrice.com 3 years ago I’ve seen every day a dream growing and coming true. My long-time love for fashion and art made possible meeting lots of new people, finding out new things and new horizons and so many unexpected opportunities. Still, today’s post has a different focus, namely: what is the financial aspect of quality blogging?
Everything has a price – especially when delivering quality and in a professional way – and there is nothing wrong or shameful about it.
On one hand, speaking about the investment there is the intellectual work, idea shaping and concept, collecting information, constant following of trends, news, facts and events.
On the other hand there is also a purely material aspect which is rarely mentioned. Based on my three-years’ experience here are the most frequent expenses related to maintaining a blog and creating quality content:
Technical expenses
- Hosting subscription – I started with the basic pack but in the course of the blog was growing and I had to upgrade to higher plan
- Domain fee – regular cost on yearly basis
- Design and layout – it is a fact wordpress is offering numerous free design solutions, but selecting professional layout gives that special sense of unicity of each blog. This is an expense that arises within a certain period of time.In my case design has always been specially selected
- Design / layout implementation – when the blog has already accumulated history,photos, posts, and comments, this process is time-consuming and related to financial expenses (important ones)
- Purchase of plugins and other services associated with better functioning of the blog
Marketing investments
- Advertising & promotional activities (online and offline) – starting from the business cards, passing by different print materials for our special events, to social media promotion
- Events organization – over the past one year I had two special events in nice partnerships. They were really great but still – related to [personal] financing
- Networking
Content creation expenses
- Photo shooting for articles, events, etc
- Specific set-up (items) for photo shoots
- Elaboration of accessories/ clothes for special projects
- Location rent
- Transportation to events and photo shootings – in most of the cases via taxi or Uber
Other
- Over the past year I got invited and accredited for very prestigious international forums dedicated to fashion, luxury and innovation. These were great opportunities, with lots of added value. However, up to now travel expenses outside of the country are financed by me.
- Press card – I own an international press card delivered by the New media federation which is also linked to an annual participation fee.
It is the fact that from the outside blogging looks like an endless party: attending glamorous events, receiving gifts and living interesting experiences. I don’t deny this but it is important to emphasize this is also a world of dedication, perseverance, professional attitude and personal prioritization.
I wonder what is your opinion on that, what are the most frequent costs you have when creating blog content?
Photos: Victor Stoynov
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