Look around our site, Technomadia.com, and you’ll see very little evidence of monetizing our blog. There’s a reason for that – we never set a goal of blogging for dollars. Many folks adopting mobile lifestyles do plan to utilize their blogs as a source of income to fund their travels by affiliate sales, ads, sponsorships and more. In our case, between a reduction of expenses and already having a mobile ready career to take on the road, needing to make an income off our blog has never been needed.
That’s not to say it wasn’t tempting, and that we don’t have the occasional sponsored item, affiliate link to products we adore or occasional link ads. But we don’t seek them out, and only take those that seem to be an easy fit and are unobtrusive.
After researching what it’d take to build up a blog to be generating sustainable income – I greatly respect those who have been successful at it. It’s a lot of work. So if you’re thinking of going that path to fund your own location independence, don’t think it’s an easy and always profitable path.
I continue to learn a lot from sites like Problogger.net, ThinkTraffic.net and NomadicMatt’s How to Make Money with your Travel Blog ebook (affiliate link) by adapting their advice to simply maximize our efforts to find our people (instead of generating cash income).
Why do we blog?
Chris and I were both active social bloggers long before we met. The Prius forum that we met on over 4 years ago was on a blogging platform that we both utilized for our personal blog space. Sharing our lives via blogging is a natural part of who we are, and it’s the social part that keeps us blogging. When we decided to merge our paths in 2007 and share our travel adventures outside of our personal spaces, we opened up Technomadia.com. However the blog portion of it was just a republishing of our personal blog entries.
It wasn’t until March 2009 that we launched Technomadia.com as its own independent blog on WordPress, and we were absolutely astounded to find out how many folks had been following along, and how many more have since joined in. What started as merely a way to keep family and friends up to date on where we were has turned in several hundred RSS subscribers and over 10,000 unique visitors a month – WOW.
We are joyously thankful for each and every one of you who continues to subscribe and check in on what we’re up to.
One of the reasons we made a conscious decision to not build Technomadia.com to be an income generator is that we never wanted to feel an obligation to produce content or have an adventurous day just to have something to write about. It’s been a huge relief these past few weeks with dealing with my father’s surgery (he’s home from the hospital now, by the way), to know that by taking a break from our blog, Twitter and Facebook pages and refocusing our attentions – we weren’t jeopardizing an income source.
We also wanted to make sure there was never temptation to be anything but completely authentic, and felt that building Technomadia up to be a business could put a barrier up. We never wanted to feel we had to sell anyone on mobile lifestyles to fund our own choices. Not to say that you can’t make money from blogging and be authentic at the same time – it’s just a different motivation for us.
Even though we don’t make bundles of cash directly off our site – we feel we have been paid tenfold in the efforts we’ve put into this blog and networking under the Technomadia banner. And that’s through the connections we’ve made – new friends and opportunities for experiences. That has been absolutely priceless. And the stories we’ve had reflected back to us of how folks have been inspired by something we’ve said have literally taken our breath away at times.
And that is why we blog. We are passionately inspired to share, as we have been inspired by the sharing of others.
Excellent food for thought and much appreciated! Like Monica, I do plan to earn revenue from our blog when my wife and I begin traveling fulltime in our motorhome later this year. And your Technomad experiences and wisdom have been a huge help. But making money from online ads is not our focus. Instead I view it as a supplement, like interest on a savings account. The blog will be a creative outlet and a chance to share with others our ideas and the fruits of living more fully.
I think that as long as the focus is on it being a creative outlet and sharing, then all else just falls into place 🙂 We do make a few passive dollars off our blogging efforts, and I love the way you put it into terms as being more like interest off a savings accounts. That just about sums it up for us.
I’ve been reading for about a year, considering my own semi-nomadic potential. There’s so much badly-written, poorly-researched, dollar-inspired garbage on the ‘net with regard to reviews and how-tos generated through pay-per-click writing sites…it’s nice to feel I have “friends” on the road who aren’t afraid to crow about their tech one day, and get all sailor-mouthed about it the next. Makes you a more credible resource for information, in my opinion. I’ve forwarded quite a few of your posts to friends interested in full-time sailing, decluttering, simplifying, or hitting the road.
And more power to you for having a few Amazon ads here or there, or perhaps a sponsored banner or two!
Glad to hear Cherie’s dad is on the bounce. I’ll be stopping by your camp on the Playa this year–maybe might have my own fiberglass “egg” by then!
*giggle* You must have been following our Twitter feed on iPhone 4 pre-order day 😀
Cherie and Chris, Your authenticity and genuine kindness is I think what draws so many people to your blog. Your interview with us continues to be our most commented upon post and I think it’s because your followers so genuinely love you. Whether a person eventually wants to monetize their blog or not I think the true love of the activity of blogging has got to be present because it is work to keep content coming out and if you aren’t drawn to it on a very deep level it would be hard to sustain it.
Recently my husband has been questioning whether I should continue to spend so much time blogging because there isn’t financial reward in it for us – at least not now. Each time he brings it up I think “Could I really stop?” I love it so much I would hate giving it up.
I absolutely agree, Carmen. If the love of sharing in this medium is there, monetization or not, it will be genuine.
And sometimes, the rewards are far greater than financial. I so look forward to when our paths finally cross in person!
Agreed wholeheartedly. As you noted, it’s not about monetizing your blog, it’s about finding your people and connecting with them. There’s real value in that.
“it’s about finding your people and connecting with them.”
Exactly!!
I have met SO MANY amazing people through blogging, at first via my personal blog on LiveJournal, and now here.
I actually never would have met Cherie if we hadn’t both been active on LiveJournal, and connected via mutual friends.
And I’ve discovered that people are more likely to connect when they don’t feel that you are out to sell them something. It is hard to come across as genuine when you have an agenda, and something to sell.
I absolutely loved your “Not For Sale” post – I couldn’t agree more.
For sure.. connections and friendships are priceless. So honored to have crossed paths with you.
Hi Cherie,
I’ve been following your blog for a couple months now. This post has given me pause for thought.
As a reader I enjoy your authenticity. Though I plan to monetize my blog, my goal is to be as genuine as possible while still providing value for people. I think there are lots of people today who are doing that well, although I see your point about feeling obligated to keep pumping out work.
Best wishes for your father’s recovery.
Monica
I think the balance can be struck if the intention is there.. and I look forward to seeing how you achieve that, I know you’ll be brilliant at it!
Hi there. We’ve followed your blog from the beginning. You two are an inspiration for us to live in an RV down the road when we return to the US. We’ve been thinking along the same line it seems. So refreshing to see another travel, LIP blogger who feel the same way. Keep writing.
Still hoping to cross paths one of these days!
It is refreshing to be amongst like minds. We too look forward to when our paths finally cross!
Great post. I had to take my blog down temporarily due to some work-related requirements, but I hope to be back blogging, and purely for the joy, by August. 🙂
Awesome.. looking forward to catching up.. and meeting you guys finally on the playa!
What a nice sentiment to hear. I usually sigh when I see new 4HWW / travel / lifestyle design blogs that are from the start looking to monetize as a way to fund their desires.
Some of them can be sigh worthy indeed. However, after meeting some of them in person, we’ve come to appreciate those that can find a nice blend of personality and monetization.