I'll keep you my dirty little secret (The Economics of Blogging, 2012 Summary)

this is Peanut's House and we're just living in it

Since my original post about the economics of my blog was well-received, I figured I'd post a wrap-up of 2012.  On the bright side, I made the most money ever here in 2012. Which really just amounts to paying for the domain name, a few cups of Starbucks chai, and *maybe* a craft supply or two.

My Amazon affiliate earnings were finally enough to earn me a gift card (yay!), and totaled a surprising $151. What's even more amazing was that people using my links bought $2750 worth of stuff, most of which was in December (holiday shopping, I guess).  I can see the items, but not who purchased them, so if you're reading this, thank you :)

Project Wonderful, which had worked so well for me in the past, was a bit of a dud in 2012.  I made about $7, and since it costs $1 to withdraw money from my account, it's not worth doing yet.

I love working with BlogHer - they're just really nice people and sometimes they feature my posts, so that makes me happy too.  I earned $58 from the sidebar ad the entire year. It's not a lot, but it's nonzero, so yay.  I also earned $120 for book reviews, plus 6 free books including The Fault in our Stars, which was amazing, and which I never would have found on my own.  Not even sure how I'd put a value on how much I loved that book.  I also "sold out" my social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter) for $100 to do a few sponsored posts for them.

So my total earnings for 2012 (estimating the books at $10 each) was just under $500.  Certainly not "Quit Your Day Job"-worthy, but surprising to me nonetheless.

You've probably already figured out that I have no problem using my blog to make money - I don't have guilt about selling out, or feel like it's a conflict between my art (or writing or whatever) and the almighty dollar.  It's an experiment for me on how monetization works, though I'm still fairly certain I don't want to put in the huge effort it would require to have a truly lucrative blog (if I could even come up with THE idea that would work).

So I'll just carry on, writing what I want, when I want, and reading a few good books along the way. What's not to love?