Hi guys today I will show you every Single thing that I spend money on to Run my six figure blogging business I'll Show you my expenses now on the fifth Year of blogging and will also compare It to what I spent in my first year when I just started the Vlog of course in the First year I spent way less money on my Blog because I wasn't really making Money until the end of the first year And now my blog is a real business that Has expenses and I think you should Spend money on a growing business and I Have some notes Here on my laptop for a Full list of expenses that I have right Now but we should start with the first Year so I started the blog as a side Hustle while I was still working full Time and when you start a blog it's very Common to Think Through very carefully Think through everything that you need To purchase even if it's just ten Dollars it's something that you spend Before you made anything from that blog So I totally get it when people hesitate Before buying anything so in the first Year of vlogging I spent money on the Three main things that you cannot Skip It's your blog hosting and the main name And a WordPress theme and you know when I look back I think that's one thing That I've done right and if my friends Or relatives come to me these days and They ask me what should I do to start a
Blog I just send them straight away to This page I can actually do after I edit The videos screen share so you can see What I mean it's a page with Step-by-step guide on how I started my Blog so I'll give you a link to that Post in the description below and if you Are new to all of this you can sign up To my free seven day course I will send You a new lesson with a video every day To your inbox the link to the course Will be down there in the description as Well so check this once we're done with This today's video there are many things That you can do wrong on those first Steps that will cost you a lot of money And maybe effort to fix it later like You could start a blog on weeks or on a Free platform and you would have Something like Anastasia.blogspot.com and it might seem Like it's cheaper or maybe sometimes It's easier to start this way but the Problem is that you cannot really make Money with it or grow a Blog if you Started it this wrong way eventually you Will have to move it and pay even more For some technical help because it is Harder to move an existing blog with Content than to start a self-hosted WordPress site from scratch so that's What I did I started a Blog on Bluehost The free plan included a free domain Name for the first year they have a 24 7
Chat support and if you just use my link Anastasiablobber.com Bluehost you will Even get a special discount for it and All the links from my list of expenses Or the tools that I will mention here They will be as well in the description Below the video so you can start with This free WordPress theme for example as Store has a free theme but you can also Upgrade it a switch to a paid version Later I I've used on my blogs Astra Theme and X theme these two things so Far so in the first year it was just Hosting and my website theme also in That very first year of blogging it was Important to take some courses on Blogging I took a course as my actually Is my birthday gift in the first year But I think it does help you to make More money your first money with it Faster because you just avoid some Mistakes you can spend your time and Effort only on the things that can Really help you grow faster and if your Blog requires a lot of photos then maybe Even in the first year you could go with One of the stock photo sites but there Is actually there's plenty of free photo Stock sites I used as a less expensive Option in the first year pre-pick.com But there is also deposit photos that One is more expensive you can use it Later just a quick tip for you that Could save you a lot of money if you use
Canva it's a free graphic design tool They have a stock Library even on that Forever free plan you can start it at Anastasiablobby.com canva so I use canva To create all my pins for Pinterest and If you use their Pro Plan which is like About 12 dollars a month you will get Access to the full library of their Stock photos and videos so that's like You you're getting two different Software in in one package for One Price It's a graphic design tool and it's a Photo stock inside I think I probably Spend about 400 in that first year of Blogging and it did feel like a lot to Me too because I didn't make any money With the blog initially but these Expenses were spread over the 12 months The first 12 months and if you think About it it's your investment to start a Business now if you know any other Businesses you can start and run for the Whole year with just a few hundred Dollars let me know know in the comments I want to know what kind of business is On your mind the honest truth about Blogging is that your expenses will Always be very low compared to any other Businesses because I've been doing this For five years and even now the expenses Are still low when you look at the Income and compare these numbers okay Now let's get into what I am spending on The blog now and I'll try to go through
This list as fast as possible so that You don't get bored so the first thing Is salaries and expenses on the Part-time workers as well so we have Basically two people on a salary in my Company it's my husband and I we both Work on this full-time but I also have Two more people who work with me Part-time then I also spend money on a Managed WordPress hosting so I don't use Any more glucose that was just for the Beginners and once your site starts Getting a lot of traffic you need to Think about a managed WordPress costing And for this I'm I'm now using a Campaign when you use a cold stand web And they they promised a really high Google site speed and they delivered 90 Plus score for my sites so I'm really Happy with them and I used to have on my Side some paid plugins that also helped With the site speed but I now I don't Have to use them anymore because this Managed WordPress hosting is replacing All these additional plugins for me now For my email provider I use convertkit For over four years now it's pretty Costly when your list gets bigger but When you start you can even use it on The pre-plan they even have a forever Free plan but when your list is Relatively small once it starts growing It can become costly but again I like Convertkit because you get Integrations
With all the different other tools which I will mention a little bit later and Also very very reliable and they keep Growing and improving the tools so I've Been staying with them and I don't think That I'm gonna switch to any other Provider anytime soon the next thing I Use canva Pro it's as I mentioned for Creating pins and creating any kind of Graphics that I need for my Pinterest Account but also for the blog itself as Well then I use Tailwind scheduler to Schedule all my pins on Pinterest and Also Taiwan includes in their plans Scheduler for Instagram and Facebook so You can also take advantage of that now The next thing I use Adobe Creative Cloud we need it for editing videos Adobe Premiere but we also use other Applications for editing images Photoshop illustrator so we use them From time to time as well the next thing I use constantly thinkific it's a Platform I use to host my courses a Quick disclaimer that maybe if you're Just a blogger who doesn't plan to run Any courses as part of your business you Don't need any of these tools like thing To pick or the other tools that I will Mention now like easy webinar where I Host my it's an evergreen webinar Software then deadline funnel all you Might not need that but I use it for Promotions on my products when I need to
Show some expiring bonuses or expiring Discounts then I also need a zapier Because I need to make Integrations Between the tools when there is no Integration between these different Software tools then the next thing that I used to use it's the checkout solution For my small products like ebooks and Printables I used sandal for many years Because they had a relatively low Monthly fee and so I found that it was An attractive tool for that but later I Decided to switch to thrive card that is Also another checkout software not just Checkout in general like Sales software it also tracks the Conversion rate and everything I decided To switch to thrive card for a couple of Reasons first their checkout Pages were More I'd say more flexible and they can Ensure that your conversion rate is Higher plus they actually track the Conversion rates the other reason is That with Thrive card you are just Paying a one-time fee and you get a Lifetime license at least that's how Thrivecart works right now it might Change in the future the next thing I Use Google Drive for storage and for Hosting my bigger files I also started Using Google email for hosting my Business emails I also use or test Different SEO tools from time to time so Some months I've used one tool than the
Other ones another currently I'm using Neuron writer it's a it's an also an AI SEO tool that helps you find out which Keywords are missing in your existing Content or when you're writing it also Gives you ideas on the sub headings that Are missing on the article compared to To the other sites that are ranking for That keyword so I find this tool very Helpful and I even got it on appsumo With a lifetime deal it might not be Available on appsumo when you're Watching this video but then you you can Still go and check out the neuron writer Because they're very affordable compared To other similar aisu tools another Thing that you might need even in the First year but definitely I'm using it Now is stock image sites so I started With pre-pick because it had more Affordable plans now I'm using deposit Photos for that obviously I also have as A business I have to pay a monthly fee To my accountant I also run some ads From time to time in on Google Facebook And Pinterest I do that to promote my Own products but the budgets to be Honest are pretty low and this is almost Like in a constant experiment and Testing mode because I've never gone Really all in with the paid traffic so a Lot of big companies that used to spend Millions on ads in the past years They're now turning more to organic
Traffic generation and that's what I've Been doing pretty much all the time I've Been focusing on free traffic from Pinterest Google and YouTube now the Next expense that I have is with a Company that's editing my videos I used to do this all video editing Stuff with my husband with the help of My husband so it was like 50 50 between Us but nowadays I just realized that it Sometimes takes but some videos takes More time to edit the video than to Actually record it so it's a it's a big Thing that if you if you plan to include YouTube as a one of the traffic sources And make it part of your business you Also need to think about it it's one of The first things that you might want to Outsource as part of your YouTube Efforts the next thing that we we spent Sometimes money on consultations we with Lawyers but that's not like on a monthly Basis whenever we need something then It's a rent and utilities and this part You might want to discuss with your Accountant in your country because it Can be different from one country to Another but obviously even if you work From home as a business owner you can Take part of your home utilities and put It as your expenses because you work From home you use internet you use you Use electricity you use even the space Where you are so you can discuss that
With your accountant what what kind of Expenses can be declared there in in Your country the next thing is Technology because obviously as a tech Based company we often need to buy Things like microphones new camera maybe Some lights for YouTube things like a Hard drive because we need to store a Lot of information a lot of videos and This is heavy files so obviously when You're just blogging for the first year You might not need to buy any of these Things but as your business grows you Will need all of this technology and Definitely you need to take advantage And buy them as a business expense or For your company so the next thing is Buying some courses to get better at What I do in blogging and on YouTube so I will mention some of my favorite Courses that I took throughout all these Years from other bloggers and they will Be in the description below this video And I also took this here and more like A one-on-one coaching program for three Months and it was one of the big Expenses for this year and I'm I'm a big Believer that if you don't keep learning And in this business it will reach a Plateau and it can even start losing Some traction because the competitors Are not waiting for you again if you're Interested in the full list of tools That I use go ahead and check them in
The description below and I hope it was Interesting for you to have a look at The expenses that a blogging business Can have in the first year versus where It can grow let's say in a couple of Years and I think you probably can learn A thing or two about how this business Works even just based on the expenses And different software tools that I use Just keep in mind that you don't need All of these tools probably like most of Them you don't need in the first year of Blogging but they will help you grow the Business and save you some time as the Time goes now if you have any questions You want to ask me the best place to ask Is in the comments below and if you're Just about to start a blog you should Watch that video up there with a Step-by-step guide from me I'll see you There