Today I’m starting a business experiment and I welcome you to join me.
If you’re in the same position as me then you’ve built a blog audience but haven’t yet made much money out of it.
So far it’s been a hobby. Something you’ve done for fun but now you’re at a crossroads. If the blog can’t earn enough money to justify the time you take away from family or other business ventures, you’ll have to drop it.
It’s a sad place to be but it seems to be common based on the number of blogs that aren’t kept up to date.
First, you’ll have to answer this question for yourself.
How much money is enough to justify the time?
Everyone has their own number. Maybe it’s enough to pay for the hosting and email list, or maybe you want to replace your salary.
I’m lucky enough to love the job I do and enjoy where I’m working. It wasn’t always the case, but it is now. So I’m in no hurry to replace my salary.
But I’d like my hobby to earn enough money to support itself and achieve my goal. Which would let me learn new skills (such as managing a team of writers).
Here’s the goal I want to achieve:
To turn the Worldbuilding School (WBS) into a business so the website supports itself and a team of writers. The writers can then create content to help the worldbuilding community. While I put my time into editing and distributing the content.
The big dream is a staff of 5 freelance writers each producing 1 to 2 articles a month. But for the first stepping stone I’d be happy with supporting 1 freelance writer creating 1 article per month. Plus the costs of running the website.
Is that possible? I really don’t know.
My hobby blog (worldbuilding) isn’t in one of the ‘wealth’ niches; it’s mainly done by people for fun to run a role playing campaign or write a novel. But there is a growing industry of self published authors and indie game designers.
So here are the experiments:
Experiment 1: Increase the monthly sales for Vancano’s Map Generator
Vancano’s Map Generator is a photoshop plugin I created to help authors and role players create maps for their world. It’s the most successful product WBS has, but it only sells about 1.4 units per month. Can I increase the number of sales?