Posts Tagged ‘money’

Blogging for money

Friday, November 20th, 2009

I often come across people claiming to make their living from a blog or advocating others to start a blog for the purpose of making money. While I don’t doubt a blog CAN make money, I don’t think it is as easy as starting a blog nor do I think ‘everyone’ can do it.

Raivyn (who apparently does make money from her blogs) wrote a blog post about the realities of blogs and money. I like the fact she starts with suggesting the need to know why you are blogging and what you want to achieve. If you love writing online and want to make enough for a weekly cup of coffee, then blogs may be the income stream you need; if you hate your job and want a full time income, then blogging needs a lot of thought before believing it is the solution.

Which leads, of course, to why do I write this blog? There are a few reasons, but my aim has never been to make money directly or to be a pro-blogger.

Having a blog attached to my business website allows me to promote my business indirectly – it lets customers know who I am, it is an easy way to add content to my site frequently which gives people a reason to return and search engines a reason to find me, and it is related to my business anyway.

I also enjoy helping people and sharing knowledge which is what most of my blog posts are aimed at.

Of course, if anyone wants to pay me riches for reading my blog, I’m open to new ideas! But making money is not my priority from the blog.

So why do you have a blog ? Is your reason for continuing it the same reason you started it? Does blogging bring you an income? An income worth the time and effort it takes to run a blog?

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What is profit?

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

I have seen a lot of businesses recently offering a proportion of sales or profits to the bushfire appeal, and seen/heard various discussions about this. What thing that has stood out to me is that not everyone understands what a profit actually is, so I think it’s time to discuss it!

The concise Oxford dictionary gives the following definition…

profit: 1. advantage, benefit 2. pecuniary gain, excess of returns over outlay.

Or as a verb, it defines it as bringing or being of advantage.

Profit is different to proceeds or turnover which is the total amount of money coming into your business from customers. If you sell 10 items at $50 each, your turnover is $500 but your profit could be a lot less.

Simply put, profit is the money left over once you have paid all your business expenses. Or you can view it as profit = turnover – expenses.

So continuing from the above example, if each item costs you $20 to make and your overheads are $10 per item, your expenses are $30 and you will make $20 profit on each item. So from a turnover of $500 you will make $200 profit.

Expenses are everything your business spends money on to conduct business. As well as obvious costs such as materials and equipment to make products or products from a supplier, it includes what are known as overheads – the cost of electricity, marketing and promotions, staff, office/shop space, insurance, registrations, legal fees and so on.

Getting back to making donations as a business, ’100% of profits’ would mean a $200 donation from the sale of 10 items whereas a ’100% of proceeds’ would mean a $500 donation.

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Posted in business info | 2 Comments »

Generosity isn’t just money

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

Last week I wrote about generosity killing mediocrity and  I wanted to add that I don’t think generosity only involves money and things.

Generosity also doesn’t have to be about sacrifice or ‘doing without’ on your part either. I believe it is about contributing and benefiting someone else – the focus is on who you are helping rather than on you. Obviously, the more you give, the more generous you are being but we all have to work within our own constraints.

You can be generous in many ways, even as a business. Here are some examples of non-monetary generosity:

  • by giving someone your time – for example help at a working bee
  • by sharing your expertise – for example I share tips in this blog and in my articles and speak at workshops & conferences
  • by providing a free service – for example, I want to find a Victorian business and help them rebuild their documents after the bushfires
  • giving a smile and nice messages when dealing with people – it takes little effort but can mean a lot
  • arranging something, such as a fundraising event or a networking function
  • sharing resources
  • by promoting something. For instance, referring someone to your client’s website, linking to a charity or reviewing a book
  • networking – I don’t mean just going to networking events but helping people you know connect with each other as relevant and forwarding useful/interesting things to those in your network.

With the bushfire appeal high on the minds of many Australians at the moment, thinking of ways to be generous may mean we can give more than our finances alone will allow.

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Sharing salaries…

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

It’s one of those questions we don’t usually ask, or answer – how much do you get paid? I’m not going to discuss whether that’s good or bad, or even why it may be the case, but something on the news last night made me think of it.

Apparently, a 16 year old boy was offered a job in the USA for $400,000 a year, which he turned down as he wants to stay here with family and friends. What I find interesting is how everyone found out about it.

I find it hard to believe that the company contacted the media and said “we offered him $400,000″ I mean, that sort of announcement can’t be good for them – it shows them being rejected (even if through no fault of theirs) and may cause problems between staff who aren’t being paid $400,000!

I know I’ve had jobs where I didn’t want others knowing my salary – largely because I didn’t want them to get into ‘why does she get that much?’ or ‘but I should get more than him!’

A 16 year old earning so much also makes me wonder about his expectations. I am not making comment on his ability in any way or whether or not he deserves such a salary, but $400,000 is such a lot of money to start a working career with! Where does he go from there?

I see some value in young people starting with small jobs so they learn the value of earning money and getting a realistic view of the working life. It’s not so much the $10 an hour as learning their time is worth something and that it takes time and hard work to increase their pay rate. And learning how to use and  manage that money is also important.

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Choosing a charity

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

For a long time I have thought about having a specific charity to support through Word Constructions’ profits, but have just been too busy to select one. Not good, but that’s the way it is.

I have now found some possible donations and wondered which people would prefer?

If you were my client (or are my client, of course!), which of the following would you prefer me to contribute towards? Which is the most relevant/best suited to Word Constructions?

1. Money towards starting a business (yes, I know there are other places offering this, but if I wait to research them all it will take longer!)

2. School fees for a year in southern Africa

3. Literacy classes for adults in Cambodia

4. general donations to a specific charity (relating to starting a business or literacy) every 6 or 12 months (all of the above ones are individual gifts of $40 or less so I would make a number of them over a year)

I would really appreciate knowing what you think to help me make a decision! I might do another post soon to discuss the value of a charity associated with your business, so hold those thoughts, too!

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Posted in About Word Constructions, bit off track | 2 Comments »