In case you don’t know that about me already, I am self employed since 2008. Back then, I decided that I will do my best not to ever work for anybody and especially never be part of the corporate hell after I realized that I waste the biggest chunk of my life (11 hours per day in my case, including commute time) working hard to put a ton of money in somebody else’s pockets.
Five years later I’m still holding strong and even though not doing as good as many bloggers who started 5 years ago, I am satisfied with how things are going.
One of the joys of self employment in my case (apart from the obvious “working in my pajamas, sometimes while laying in bed, sometimes taking a shower a 1 PM”) is the fact that hard work pays off… eventually.
In my case, there was a gradual growth and every year I managed to make more money than the past year – and this should be considered the golden rule of thumb in the case of self employment: as time goes, you’ll make more money.
However, if 2012 was for me an amazing year and I managed a couple of times to break the $2,000 in income generated by my blogs, 2013 is already better than anything I could’ve imagined or predicted. The truth is that by now I have already earned more than five times more the amount I made during the entire year of 2012. How amazing is that?
So let’s get to checking out some numbers, because that is what matters:
In 2012 I made from blogging $23,070 or an average of $1922 per month. This clearly doesn’t sound like much for many, but for somebody living in Romania is enough to provide for their whole family and do it well!
In 2013, by the end of July, my blogging revenue stands at a whooping $78,331 or $11,190 per month. I simply can’t believe it by looking at these numbers, they are absolutely amazing and it was all made by me and through my powers alone!
100% of my revenue comes from my own blogs. I have never freelanced, offered paid advice or coached anybody else – all the revenue in these 5 years came from my blogs alone.
Of course, before I get too excited, there’s an important thing to note: a big chunk of my revenue this year came from selling one of my blogs, the best performing one, so the numbers don’t really reflect my monthly income from advertising deals (but it’s still MY money!).
I will surely not be able to make over $10,000 per month by the end of the year and probably it will be a long while until I will get again at five figures per month. However, I am confident that if I managed to get here once, I will manage to do it the second time too and hopefully do it better!
And if I managed to do this, you can do it too! This is the only reason why I am posting this: to let everybody know that self employment, even though risky and even though much more demanding than what people would expect, can be extremely rewarding.
Not just financially, even though this reason alone makes me jump with joy, but time-wise: you get the chance to spend more time with your family, you are closer to home and you can find some amazing friends online and meet other successfully self employed people from all around the world.
So if you have any doubts about self employment, no matter if you’re thinking about quitting your job or just started this long trip and things don’t seem to be working that good, I have one advice for you: be patient and get ready. Get ready for your success, because it will come!
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I’m so inspired by your story. I’d imagine that $78,331 gives you a pretty good life in Romania. Maybe you’ve already done a post like this, but I’d be curious to see some cost of living type things (what average cost of housing is, schooling etc.).
Well, having in mind that the average salary in Romania is of about $640 per month, it is pretty good. And I can only imagine how a salary of $640 per month sounds for people in other countries…
Regarding the cost of living in Romania, I wrote an article about it here: https://www.romaniaexperience.com/cost-of-living-in-romania-and-bucharest-in-2013/
To sum things up, two people could make it work with $1,000 per month in a decent apartment outside the city center.
WOW! That is amazing!! Thanks for sharing your story; like KK said, it really is inspiring and gives hope to people like us who are working hard at this to get out of debt. Excellent work, C. Good for you for kicking your corporate job to the curb and doing it well. We hope for my husband to be able to dump his corporate job someday soon too!
Thank you! The first step is always the most difficult one to take, but as long as you have a good plan, you are motivated and you don’t give up, anything is possible. So good luck to your quest of having your husband dump the corporate job!
Those are some unreal numbers, great work. I’m not making anywhere close to that, but I know that with more time and hard work then the rewards will come.
Well, I did start in 2008 so definitely it takes time to get there. There are even people who manage to do it a lot faster, so anything is possible.
You should work on a post on how to earn income with a blog…I’d love to learn! Thanks for sharing your experiences, very inspired by it! It is something for me to strive for.
I will consider writing a piece on that, Andrew. Glad you liked it and glad it gives you a boost to push harder!
Wow, that’s amazing man. Over 10k/month. That’s the holy grail for bloggers. 🙂
I just hope one day I can make that much. I feel like it’s going to be a long road though.
Congratulation!
Thanks, Joe! I am sure that you will get there very soon, you have a pretty amazing blog that I love reading and I am sure that I’m just one of the few who like it.
Great job C! You really know how to make money online. From what I hear once youve done it once you find it easier and easier to replicate. Are you finding that to be the case? I would guess that you also have multiple sites, are they all in the same niche? Hope the second half of the year is even better than the first.
Yes, I do have more sites and they are not in the same niche. Actually, things are pretty varied. However, this year’s income comes from two sites only – just now I have started to expand a little bit after selling the big money maker and I hope that my experience will help me to easier replicate what I did. I hope it will be like that 🙂
That’s awesome. Go, you!
There is so much money to be made on the internet for those who work hard finding the opportunities.
Great job!
Thank you Holly!
Ah the good life! Some day I look forward to waking up knowing that the last boss I’ll ever have to report to is me. Also the new site design is looking good!
Thanks, Adam! Things started to look good this year only, but for somebody living in Romania it was always a good revenue even the small amount that I used to make.
Glad you like the new design!
I think this post is going to be very inspiring for many people thinking of going the self-employment route. Congrats on your success! 🙂
Thank you! I really hope it will encourage more to take the big step and make it happen!
Wow, that’s amazing! I had no idea that so much money could be made from a blog. I’m currently self employed but doing something else which doesn’t pay that much to be honest. But… I am my own boss at least and I have the flexibility to try other things, such as work on my own blog on the side.
Thanks so much for sharing this. I would love know how you made your blogs so successful in terms of attracting traffic. Perhaps you could post on this in the future?
Exactly, one of the most important things here is being your own boss and doing what you like, however you like it. I am sure if you keep doing it, your blog can become a great source of income for you.
You are doing amazing!! I would love to hear more about your different blogs and how you go about building them. I just switched to self employment and am making about 2k per month right now. I’d love to gradually increase that number by doing more blogging and less writing for others.