The cost of a blog

Disclaimer: This is all totally approximate and based on my assumptions. It’s also totally just for fun. And also for everyone who has been told a blog is not work. …And for those who think making, running and owning a blog is not work and/or is super easy, and that we can cough these babies up in a snap.

Money

Cost to register domain: $1.98 – $488.88 (and counting) per year

Cost to purchase hosting: $47.40 – $840 (and counting) per year

Cost to hire designer/purchase premium theme: $20 – $2000 (and counting) per theme/design/service

Cost to trademark (if desired): $275+ (US)

Time

Time to research name, think of a name, register a name: ~1 day to a few weeks

Time to research and purchase hosting: ~1 day to a few weeks

Time spent waiting on DNS to propagate: 24-48 hours, longer if issues occur

Time spent waiting on designer/service (if needed): ~1 day to a few weeks to several months

Time spent setting up website: a few weeks to a few months

Time spent writing posts, making pages, etc.: ~1-4/post or page; depends highly on whether research is needed, etc. Sometimes money goes into these as well.

Time spent networking: ~1+ hours

Time spent commenting other blogs: ~1+ hours

Time spent making friends: several hours, days, weeks, months, and years

Time spent attending events: ~1 day to a few days per event

Time spent hating blog: ~1 minute to several months, if not years, per occasion

Time spent loving blog: ~1 minute to several years per occasion

Time spent on blogger’s block: ~1 day to several months per block

Time spent reading other blogs: several hours/days a week

 

…any that I missed?

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Comments on this post

The only time I paid for something blog-related was a few weeks back when I purchased a theme. It helps the fact that I’m hosted under a free private hosting provider. For that, I am eternally grateful. Though if I want to move onto more monetized blog, I should perhaps invest more $$ and time to build it. In the meantime, I’ll be a complacent little blogger. 😛

This is a really awesome, thought-provoking list. I have to admit, during tax time I definitely look into the costs of domain registrations and hosting – tax deductions! 😀

SOOOO true! I just started a new blog at mamabytes.com.au, and do you think the name came to me easily?!
And then I got it all set up, domain purchased (.com.au, because the .com was registered but not leading anywhere) and everything, to find there’s another site with a similar name! GAH! Anyway, I’m sticking with it and if an issue arises I’ll deal with it then 😛

Aw. 🙁 It expires in 2015 or else I’d suggest watching it to see if it gets renewed. Maybe it won’t be a problem, though. 🙂

Yeah I’m going to keep an eye on it and see what happens 🙂 The other site is mUmabytes, with a u, so hopefully it’s different enough. But again I’ll just deal with it if an issue comes up.

This should be seen by anyone who wants to start a blog. It can be a bit costly with money and time so the person has to consider their commitments. I’m puzzled at how hiring a designer for a blog can cost up to $2000! If it’s for a really big blog thousands of people view each day, it makes sense. You pretty much summed everything that is needed for the cost 🙂

Even for those wanting a personal blog, people charge — and get paid for — the $2k startup/design/etc. price. It’s pretty crazy. 😐

A lot of the ones that charge up in the thousands also use and rely on Genesis, so it’s not even fully their own work… meh.

This is so awesome. I think everyone should read this before starting a blog, because it’s not something that just magically happens in five minutes. -.-

I love this! There’s so much more that goes into a blog than just typing and thinking here and there. I used to think having a blog for fun was going to be easy… so wrong!

Oh man, keeping up a blog for fun already takes a lot of work. Imagine if you had to do it for a living. You have to market it, pimp it out on social media, and watch your page ranking on Google. I don’t know how people do it.

They usually have a system in place that helps them manage it. 😉

I need a system!! x.x

I love this post! It really shows how much time goes into creating quality blog posts AND the work it takes interacting in the community. Commenting, emailing companies, updating your blog, etc…are all things that people don’t take into account. I hate when people say to me, “Awww you run a beauty blog? That’s cute!” Cute? It’s research, time, and sometimes money!

The cost part is not applicable to be since I am hosted on wordpress.com… but I totally agree with the time part, especially commenting! The list covers up all the aspects of buying and building up a blog.

I guess not everyone would pay the money or time for all these things, depending on how big their blog is or how dedicated they are to it. But this adds up, even if you are picking a free theme or using free resources.

I don’t think you’re missing much from this list. I think the most time for me goes into writing the actual post. I write them up pretty quickly, but adding images and my pedantic nature makes me proofread (and I still make mistakes). It takes a couple of hours sometimes. Dx

No, but I was just including all the possible ones that did include the extra costly things. :p