Archive for September, 2011
Blogiversary IV: Time, Money, And Pies
Like previous blogiversaries, we’re gonna use this week as an excuse to take a look at the business side of blogging (at least as we know it). As you’ve probably gathered by now, we never intended to start a business when we wrote our first post back in Sept 2007, nor did we ever construct a formal business plan. So this whole adventure has been a learn as we go / roll with the punches / adjust along the way / insert more cliches here kind of deal. And just like we don’t claim to be DIY experts or trained interior designers (we’re just two people with a chihuahua and a baby), we’re not about to pretend that we’re the savviest business people out there either. But like everything else we do, we’re just gonna share our experiences in an effort to help someone out there who might be trying to grow their blog… or is just curious about what we do all day. We’ve lightly touched on some of this info in past blogiversary posts, but this year we’ve added a lot more details along with some new visuals: PIE CHARTS. Oh yeah, you read that right. Sherry’s math-teacher dad is about to do the happy dance. So get your fork out and prepare to dig in.
Let’s start with a look at how we spend our time… a slice (har-har) of which was somewhat encapsulated in yesterday’s day in the life post. But this is a more global look at all the things we do as opposed to the somewhat random and always-changing things that we do in a day. Oh and to be clear, this is a look at when goes into running Young House Love (so it excludes things like parenting a sixteen month old and other general I’m-an-adult duties like cooking and cleaning). Behold, a very simplified / approximated breakdown (all the pie charts in this post are very general guesses, btw):
The main thing that might surprise you here is that we actually spend a very pretty small sliver of our time actually doing projects (aka “DIYing”). In fact, some weeks it feels like we barely have any more time to tackle our to-do list than we did back when we both had full-time jobs in advertising (that was pre-Clara too, so we might have had more energy, haha). Our weekends (along with weeknights after 7:30 when Clara’s in bed) are still our most productive days in terms of making house progress because the blog is “quieter” (as we say around here). So we can focus more on tasks and less on answering comments and proofing & posting posts. But that pie chart isn’t complicated enough, so…
Here’s a further breakdown of the breakdown above (yup, we broke down a breakdown) to give you a better sense of what we really do within those general categories:
INTERACTING:
- Comments: Our philosophy is that if you take the time to read what we write, the least we can do is return the favor. So we manually moderate all comments so that one of us – usually Sherry – can read it before it risks getting lost in the count and so that we can answer any questions that come up (the only exception to this is giveaway entries, which get approved in bulk since they routinely top 3K and actually topped 10K yesterday, and stopped loading, so we had to start a second giveaway post). Yes, it’s time consuming. And no, it’s probably not the most efficient system. But being part of the conversation on our blog is very important to us and we hate leaving any question unanswered. Farming that duty out to someone like an intern just feels too “answering service” to us, so we’re happy to stay grass roots and hands on.
- Twitter, Facebook & Email: Similarly, we try to be as responsive as possible on other social media. We don’t hover on our Facebook page as much as we used to, but we still try to poke in to respond where needed. And Hootsuite helps us track @mentions on Twitter so we can do our best not to let a tweet question or comment flutter by unnoticed.
WRITING:
- Posts: Well duh, a blog has to have posts right? We’re wordy and we know it (clap your hands!), so this is another major chunk of blogging. And we write around 35 a month, so it keeps us busy. But we’re not sure how you can be a good blogger without spending a good portion of time on your posts. Plus it’s our first love, along with DIY. Writing posts is what we used to do on nights and weekends after long days of working in advertising just for fun. And we still feel that way – it’s a good time.
- BabyCenter & Do It Yourself Magazine: We’ve been lucky enough that writing our blog has spawned other writing gigs, like our weekly post on BabyCenter’s Momformation blog and a regular column in BHG’s Do It Yourself Magazine. So between coordinating those with our bosses over there, coming up with ideas, writing them, taking photos (or briefing an illustrator or photographer in the case of DIY), and answering comments (on BabyCenter), they’re sort of a part time job on their own.
- Book: We’re writing a 260+ page book (due out in Fall of 2012) full of hundreds of projects and photos (more on that here). Some weeks this slice of pie should be muuuch bigger, and some a little smaller. Now that we have 90% of our manuscript turned in (whew!), this slice may actually get permanently larger since it’s time to actually do all of the projects that we talked about and have them photographed at our house by a pro before Christmas (yes, hundreds of them). Should be interesting…
DIY-ING:
- Projects: This is the actual doing of stuff to our house, which we then blog about. Most of these projects might have gotten done even if we didn’t have a blog (DIY is just something we love)… but we definitely take on projects sooner, faster, more thoroughly, and with more gusto than we may have if we didn’t have an audience. The fact that you guys are watching adds pressure, but it’s the good kind that keeps us going. Promise. You guys = momentum.
- Gathering Supplies: This is the part that makes us best friends with the employees at our local thrift stores, home improvement stores, craft stores, fabric stores, lighting outlets, etc. Sometimes running errands (aka: gathering supplies) can take less than an hour. Sweet. And sometimes it can take more than a day to track down something we need. Hunting stuff is always kind of a wild card item on the to-do list. But you know what they say about the thrill of the chase…
PHOTOGRAPHING:
- Photo Taking: Sometimes this is just taking a few moments during each step of a project to snap a few shots. Sometimes it’s cleaning up and styling rooms for “after shots” or “house tour” pictures (Hurricane Clara can leave quite a mess before we swoop in and straighten up so you guys don’t have to stare at a giant stack of books in front of the new desk that we built). This also includes the technical aspects of photography that still take us more time than we’d like (using the tripod, adjusting the aperture, waiting for different times of day to see which light is better, etc), which is why we have…
- Photo Editing: These are things like adjusting the color, exposure, size, and the way that our photos are cropped (sometimes even after thinking we’ve mastered the camera things are too blue or too yellow or too wide or off-center, so we try to adjust them so they look as true to life as possible). This also includes uploading and sorting through the hundreds of pics that we take each week. Wish I were kidding about the “hundreds” part, but we usually average 50-200 photos per post (which can tip the scales at 1,200 photos snapped each week). We then boil them down to under 20 per post and size & upload ‘em).
BUSINESS RUNNING:
- Sponsors: This is where most of our money comes from (more on that later) so it involves a lot of fielding advertising requests, notifying sponsors about renewals, sending invoices, and uploading ads to our sidebar. (FYI, we use Google AdManager to serve our sponsors’ ads to our site, which takes a bit of “supervision” but not too much beyond the whole client-relations thing that we do via email).
- Giveaways: We make no money doing this, but it’s our way of “giving back” to our readers (and a way to deflect the free products that we’re offered but no longer accept). Coordinating each week’s giveaway involves a bunch of emails to confirm the prize details, notify the winners, and facilitate the prize delivery. There’s also the task of being the bearer of bad news to folks since we just don’t have room for every prize that we’re emailed about (and sometimes they don’t feel like the right fit for you guys). Which leads me to our next point…
- Saying “No Thank You”: We’re people pleasers, so this is a hard one for us, but we get so many requests each week that we 1) just don’t have enough hours in the day for (i.e. attending a local – or not so local – event), 2) don’t really blog about (i.e. “could you pretty please write about my dog walking service?”) or 3) have a policy against doing (i.e. reviewing a product, adding paid text link ads to posts) that we find ourselves having to decline a lot. Sorry if you’ve been on the receiving end of this. We’ve learned that saying no is difficult, but sometimes it’s necessary for reasons of principle and/or sanity.
- Bookkeeping: Ugh, this bores me too much to talk about. Just pretend I said something interesting about paying bills, filing quarterly taxes, renewing our business license, paying for our own health insurance, managing our site-hosting fees, and organizing receipts. Wish it was less yawn inducing, but it’s a necessary evil when it comes to running your own business (more on that here).
- Technical Stuff: On a good week this slice could all but disappear, but on a busy week we may be installing updates, dealing with server glitches, craaaaaashing entirely (which gives us approximately 50 gray hairs each time), or even doing a whole blog redesign like the one we did a few weeks back (we probably spent 40 hours total on that over the course of about four weeks). Since we’re not technically trained I’m sure all of this takes longer than it should.
So now that we’ve taken a general look at the time aspect of running our blog, let’s talk money. Before you get your hopes up, we’re not gonna detail how much we earn. Call us old fashioned, but we feel like “how much do you make?” joins “who’d you vote for?” and “are those real???” in a our list of conversations not to be had with the entire planet (anything we don’t talk about with friends at dinner usually = off limits here in blog world). In a general sense, we like to say that we make a modest living (we’re not rolling in cheddar, especially after we pay our business-related expenses like hosting fees – which we outline at the end of this post). But we actually think is a good thing because we blog about living modestly, so it all goes hand in hand. But we’re happy to talk about where our money comes from and how that has changed over the last four years. Let’s do it.
Waaay back in 2009 we spoke on a local panel about making money blogging. At the time we sung the praises of a “multi-channel” approach to earning income from your blog. Because, at the time, we (though mainly Sherry, since she was the only full timer then) got money something like this (again, this is a very general guestimate):
We’ll breakdown some of those terms further under the next pie chart, but let’s talk generally for a second. A few years back, despite our best efforts, money from advertising just wasn’t cutting it. So Sherry branched out and started selling inexpensive art prints that she had printed locally and shipped herself (she’s got a fine arts degree). It was sort of like being an Etsy vendor (but she created a shop page on our site to vend them instead). At that time Sherry also began offering custom mood boards to help readers with their “Design Dilemmas” (and briefly even offered smaller services like paint color advice and even short phone consultations).
When it came to pricing those mood boards out, Sherry did some for free first, just to get interest up and a few under her belt. Then she slowly raised her rate using supply & demand as the guide. After being free for a while they were $30, then $60, then $100, and slowly built up to $250 when supply/demand increased over the years (Sherry refused to sell them for more than that, even when the two per week that she would offer up would sell out within two minutes). Oh, we were also writing for Do It Yourself Magazine and our local R Home design magazine, so that’s where we got the whole multi-channel method thing from. We were doing lots of stuff to make a small income. Which was necessary because ad income alone just wasn’t cutting it (I should mentioned here that Sherry took a huge pay cut to go from advertising to blogging, but she just wanted to see it through, and looking back it was a risk that we’re so glad we took).
But now let’s look at a new pie chart. Times have changed, and luckily for the better. As our traffic grew, so did our ad revenue, which meant that we were able to spend less time on services and selling prints (both of which we discontinued after Clara’s birth in May 2010 out of sheer no-time-at-all necessity). The elimination of these services allowed for more time that we could spend focusing on blogging. In fact, while baking making these pie charts I noticed that our currently weekly Google Ad income is larger than what we pulled in our entire first year via Google. This is not to indicate that we’re making an enormous amount now, but rather that what we started at was so laughably small. Hopefully this encourages anyone who is currently earning a few cents a day to stick with it for four years and 2,000+ posts (if you love it I guess, haha, don’t stick with it for the uncertain years-down-the-line dividends). So now our income sources look more like this (this chart might be completely inaccurate since we didn’t really calculate things so it’s not made up of actual percentages – it’s just representative of the general shift in our income sources):
It’s still “multi-channeled” in a way, but the majority of the channels are advertising-based. We still keep our income split across different sources so that if one falters, we aren’t sent into a panic. And in case you’re scratching your head at any of those labels, here’s a quick breakdown:
- Google Ads: These are labelled as such on our sidebar or at the bottom of a post (they’re by the geniuses at Google who take words from our page – or hints from your browsing history – to show you ads that they feel are most relevant to you). We have little say in what’s shown here, except for blocking inappropriate ads. But we love that they’re pretty self-sufficient, which means more time for projects and writing posts.
- Ad Networks: Lots of blogs substitute or supplement Google with ads from a network, which allow for more home improvement specific ads that can also pay more (since they don’t usually have enough “inventory” to fill all slots, we usually use a back-up method that shows Google-Ads when they’re not running). Our ad network is Haven Home Media for anyone wondering, now owned by Reader’s Digest. And they came to us, so we’re not sure how you sleuth an ad network out (in general we believe in focusing on keeping projects/posts great and sponsors/networks will hopefully come to you).
- Sponsors: These are the ads that you see on our sidebar marked as such (as well as folks who get shouted out in a thank you post once a month). These are people/companies that we work with directly, who come to us because they think we’d be a good fit. If we agree (and have room for them, since sometimes we’re “full”) they come on as YHL sponsors and we send them lots of virtual wet kisses. We have a lot of love for them because unlike the random ads that come through an ad network and Google, these folks choose to work with us directly, which is pretty cool of them.
- Amazon Affiliate: There are lots of affiliate programs out there where basically bloggers earn a very small cut (usually around 4-7%) when someone purchases a product that you recommend. The only affiliate links you’ll find are in our “We’re Digging” sidebar column with a label under them that says “links contain affiliates”(we’re sticklers for labeling ads, sponsors, and affiliates to try to keep things 100% transparent). They’re all items on amazon.com that we love (some of which are things that we’ve actually bought ourselves – like a specific book, camera accessory, decor item, or toy for Clara).
- Writing Gigs: These are the aforementioned BabyCenter and Do It Yourself columns that we write, as well as random things that come our way once in a blue moon (like an opportunity to write an article for another publication).
- Book: Yup, they’re actually paying us to write a book. We can’t believe it either.
But of course, no business is without expenses. And it easy to assume that blogging is a free endeavor (after all, it was when we started in ’07, we even had one of those free urls with wordpress.com at the end of it). But as our traffic and business grew, so did our costs – such as:
- Hosting: Between paying for our site (on LiquidWeb) and our images (on Amazon S3) we’re headed towards a five figure year when it comes to hosting expenses alone. Yes, that’s tens of thousands of dollars just to host our site so you guys can read posts and see pics. Totally worth it though. Blank blog page = no readers. And we like having you guys around.
- Taxes: Not that anyone is immune to these, but since no employer is taking out taxes for us upfront, it takes some extra planning on our part (i.e. remembering that about a third of every paycheck needs to be squirreled away because it’s going right back to the government in the form of quarterly tax payments).
- Insurance: When I left my advertising job last May we were suddenly on our own when it came to securing and paying for our own health insurance. And it’s not exactly cheap, but with a little one, good coverage is definitely worth the peace of mind.
- Retirement: Without an employer automatically socking away bits of a paycheck into a 401k (or doing any sort of matching for us), Sherry and I each opened a SEP on our own, which we’re responsible for contributing to regularly.
- Business License/ LLC Fees: Since we’re a legit LLC in Virginia, we pay annual license fees and taxes.
- Professional Help: I know that sounds like a therapist, but what we mainly mean is that we pay our accountant (who does our taxes) and the occasional programmer to help us navigate technical issues (ex: we crash four times in a week and feel like throwing our computers out the window). Though maybe we should consider the therapist sometimes…
- Equipment: If it weren’t for blogging, we probably wouldn’t own a second laptop, a DSLR camera, an HD Flip video camera, an external hard drive, or an iPhone (among other items that I’m probably forgetting right now). But it definitely helps to have some decent “tools” for blogging as efficiently as possible, so we’re glad to invest in them (and yes they’re write offs, which doesn’t make them free, but it takes away a bit of the sting).
- Project Costs: Arguably a lot of these costs would probably have been incurred eventually since we were DIY junkies even before we started our blog (so we would do most of this stuff anyway). But as I mentioned earlier – some of our projects happen (or at least happen at the pace and scale that they do) because of this blog. So we might have done all the things that we did to our current house in two years instead of in nine months if we weren’t home bloggers. Oh and since we get asked this a lot: none of our projects are write-offs since we’re doing them to our primary residence (our house isn’t zoned as an office building, which is a good thing because if it was – and we wrote projects off – we’d owe a big chunk of money to the government if we ever sold it).
If you want more info on the expense side of blogging, we actually wrote about it in more detail last year. But that’s enough out of me for now. Hopefully “peeling back the curtain” helped – whether it’s to use this info as you plan your own blogging business (or other somehow-related venture), or to just help you better understand what goes on behind the scenes around here. It’s certainly a lot more than just doing projects and writing about them, but there’s nothing else we’d rather be doing. Seriously, we’re completely amazed that we ended up “here” and our cup runneth over with gratitude. In fact a pie chart of our gratitude would be 101% full. And now as anything with charts should end – who else is hungry for pie?
Psst- The lady wife did a fun little interview about how our blog has grown and revealed a lot of behind the scenes blogging and book-writing info for anyone interested right here (it’s long, but full of tons of juicy stuff, at least in my humble husband opinion). Some of you may have already listened to this, but we figured it was a good thing to add for anyone who hasn’t since it’s on the same subject.
Fab Freebie: West In Show (Continued)
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!***
Well, after a blog-busting (literally) 18,018 entries across two posts (the first one got overloaded after reaching 10,680 entries so we had to start a second one) we finally have one lucky winner in what has become our biggest giveaway to date. In case anyone was worried about how this would all be tallied, we used random.org to generate a random number between 1 and 18,018 and located the comment that correlated with that number across both posts (although you guys can no longer access the comments on the first post, they’re all visible to us in our WordPress dashboard, so we were also able to confirm that our winner did not have any duplicate entries as we always do). So let’s get to the good news: the winner of a $500 West Elm gift card is… CATHERINE (who must be a Richmonder because she, like us, is sad that our local Short Pump West Elm store is no longer open). Congrats Catherine – and happy shopping! Not that we’re jealous. Wait, we are.
Wow, so apparently we hit comment capacity on our big $500 blogiversary giveaway from West Elm. We didn’t even know that could happen! It appears that the original post is too overloaded to accept any more comments, but the ones that were entered will still be counted (so please don’t enter again on this one if you already entered that one or your entries will be invalidated).
We’ve created this post to continue accepting new entries (from folks who didn’t enter the first one) until the giveaway ends at 8pm EST on Wednesday, September 21st OR when this post reaches 10,000 comments, whichever comes first. To recap, we’ve included the entry instructions and details below.
- PRIZE: A $500 gift card to West Elm (!!) courtesy of their new blog Front & Main
- TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “WEST ME” and…
- BONUS QUESTION: …since we’re celebrating starting our blog four years ago, tell us how your world is different than it was in 2007. Do you live in a new place? Have a new job? Are you in a new relationship? Or maybe you just have a new hairdo or tattoo?
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, September 21st at 8pm EST
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
- PRIZE SHIPS: The 50 United States (although we do try to wrangle as many international giveaways as possible)
- USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday as an update to this post. That’s right, come right back here on Thursday for the announcement of our winner. Good luck…
Note: We weren’t paid or perked for hosting this giveaway, we just do ‘em to thank you awesome folks for stopping in. See our Giveaway FAQ page for more info. Pics courtesy of West Elm.
Fab Freebie: West In Show
***Uh oh – looks like we like we hit capacity on this post with over 10,000 comments! But this giveaway is closed anyways, so I guess it’s okay.***
It’s no secret that we love West Elm (we own two daybeds and a desk among other things from their store). So let’s just say that we’ll be mighty jealous of the person who wins this week’s FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR gift card there (four year blogiversaries are for big prizes, after all). And not that you asked, but if you need any help picking out what to buy – might we suggest some of these lurvely items below (Sherry had trouble picking just six things, so we added an extra row and went with nine):
Not only is West Elm helping us celebrate four years of blogging, they’re also celebrating the launch of their new blog Front & Main (named for the Brooklyn street corner where their original brick-and-mortar store sits). Front & Main actually officially launches next week, but they’re giving all of us a sneak peek today. Oh and if you scroll down a bit while you’re there, you might recognize some familiar faces…
- PRIZE: A $500 gift card to West Elm (!!)
- TO ENTER: Comment on THIS OTHER POST with the words “WEST ME” and…
- BONUS QUESTION: …since we’re celebrating starting our blog four years ago, tell us how your world is different than it was in 2007. Do you live in a new place? Have a new job? Are you in a new relationship? Or maybe you just have a new hairdo or tattoo?
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, September 21st at 8pm EST
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
- PRIZE SHIPS: The 50 United States (although we do try to wrangle as many international giveaways as possible)
- USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday as an update to this post. That’s right, come right back here on Thursday for the announcement of our winner. Good luck…
Note: We weren’t paid or perked for hosting this giveaway, we just do ‘em to thank you awesome folks for stopping in. See our Giveaway FAQ page for more info. Pics courtesy of West Elm.
Blogiversary IV: Day In Da Life
As we mentioned yesterday, it’s Blogiversary Week, baby (still can’t believe it’s been four whole years). And since we shared a day in the life during our last annual celebration (and about a year before that too) it’s time for this year’s breakdown (similarities: no day is ever the same, differences: now we have a toddler running around and a 260+ page book we’re writing on the side). This year we had fun recording a full day from both of our perspectives so you can see what each of us (and even Clara and Burger) may be doing at any given time. Woop, here it is:
7:30 am – 8:00 am
JOHN: Clara’s awake early enough (7:30) and the weather’s good enough (and I have enough energy) to take Clara on a run in the ol’ jogging stroller around the neighborhood. After changing her diaper, filling up her milk, and grabbing some goldfish for her to snack on we hit the road. I manage to squeeze in four miles and return home within about 40 minutes.
SHERRY: I wake up around 7:45 and the house is too quiet so I know John and Clara are on a run. Burger stays in bed, but I drag my butt up and walk straight to the office and sit down in front of the computer. I’m not ready to make major decisions like which t-shirt I’ll wear today or what I’ll have for breakfast, so I check blog comments and answer a few questions instead. I also glance at my planner which always looks like this. I know it’s crazy, but it makes sense to me (I use it to write notes about post ideas, appointments/calls we have, book stuff that’s due, deadlines for our BabyCenter & Do It Yourself magazine columns, etc). I check what’s going on for the day and notice that I have a call with USA Today at 2pm for a furniture painting article they’re writing (they just want a quick quote) so I set my phone alarm to go off at 1:58 so I don’t forget.
8:00 am – 9:00 am
JOHN: After returning from my run around 8:30 I take a quick shower and make breakfast for everyone (yogurt for Clara, two scrambled eggs for Sherry, and a bowl of cereal for me).
SHERRY: I continue answering comments and Facebook questions until John gets home from his run with Clara and I get to smooch that face. Well, both faces actually. I play with Clara a little bit while John takes a shower and makes breakfast (we read books and do some highly coordinated dancing). Yes, this is a picture of me in my pjs answering comments. Gotta keep it real. I’m still not dressed.
9:00 am – 10:00 am
JOHN: I watch Clara while Sherry does blog stuff. We read books, play with a ball and a car, and she helps me put in a load of laundry. She loves laundry.
SHERRY: This whole hour feels like it’s a minute. I spend it proofing the morning’s post which usually goes up between 9:30 and 10:00. On this specific morning it goes up right at ten because I need the whole hour to proof read. Proofing usually involves previewing what we wrote to make sure photos are centered and reading it through at least two times (sometimes three times if it’s a detailed tutorial- just to make sure things make sense and are in order and I haven’t written “somebody punch me” when I mean “somebody pinch me”). I also add links to things that I reference and additional info if I think something needs more explaining. We still average about two typos a post so I can’t imagine how bad it would be if I didn’t read things through beforehand.
10:00 am- 11:00 am
JOHN: I continue to hang out with Clara while Sherry does more blog stuff (we do more reading, play outside with a ball, and read even more books). Most mornings involve the me-with-Clara ritual since Sherry usually answers comment questions, which roll in furiously in the morning (she has better recall for the “where did you get X” and the “how much did that cost” queries). Although sometimes we switch. Every day really is different (so I might have more Clara time or more project time one day and Sherry may have more of it the next day).
SHERRY: I’m on comment duty the whole hour. Over two hundred of them roll in over the course of an hour, so I furiously try to keep up and answer every single question we get (and delete the occasional spam message that sneaks in there). Here’s a screen grab that I snapped when I got it down to 30 pending comments, which is usually when I can breathe again.
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
JOHN: I start measuring and planning for our next project, which is to add trim/molding to the bottom of our wall to wall desk to make it look more built-in. After taking measurements, pow-wowing with Sherry about ideas, and drawing a quick sketch to keep things straight, I head off to Lowe’s to grab the trim that I need. (NOTE: This is what happens after Sherry says I don’t look “dynamic enough” taking trim out of the car).
SHERRY: Eleven o’ clock means it’s time for Clara’s morning nap, so I take a break from the computer to change her diaper and “tuck her in” (which really just involves turning off the light, closing her blinds, turning on her sound machine, and saying “sweet dreams”). While John is measuring and running his errand I toss on real clothes (jeans and a black t-shirt) and hop back on comment duty since around 80 more have rolled in before noon.
I also glance at my email but it’s too overwhelming so I just skim the page and delete the junk mail so the number in my inbox gets slightly less intimidating…because seeing 76 new emails at 11am (!!!) when there were none the night before can make ya crazy. A lot of it is sponsor and giveaway stuff that we have to manage along with book stuff or column stuff for DIY mag/Babycenter. Mixed in there are sweet reader letters that we love. I star those and read them out loud to John a few evenings a week so he can share the warm fuzzies with me.
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
JOHN: Clara’s still napping (she usually gives us about an hour to an hour and a half) so Sherry and I meet up to chat about what we think about a few trim options/methods for the base of our new desk and I go down to the basement to make some cuts to see how trim looks around one cabinet before cutting the rest of it. I also quickly check email and coordinate the next week’s giveaway and send a few sponsor renewal notices.
Sherry – I have a little meeting with John about the trim, answer more blog comments, get through a few emails and am just about to begin writing a post for the next day when Clara wakes up at 12:30. So I change her diaper and hang out with her while John finishes the rest of his trim project. The bean waits for no one.
1:00 – 2:00 pm
JOHN: Trim project is finished, so I turn my attention to lunch. Usually it’s sandwiches, but today we’ve got quiche leftover from last night’s dinner along with some other random leftovers (some spaghetti, corn, and beans). With everything reheated and Clara in her seat, we finally have a moment for all three of us to spend some time together (Burger is still sleeping). But about fifteen minutes later we’re done and I take Clara to go play and read some more. Note: ignore the crazy furniture placement in the kitchen- we are perpetually moving things around and it makes no sense.
SHERRY: I try to proofread as much of the afternoon post as I can (which usually goes up between 2 and 3:30) before lunch is ready, but I don’t make it all of the way through. I finish up after lunch by adding some links, catching some more typos, fixing a few unclear parts and it’s finally ready for posting at two.
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
JOHN: Clara and I hang out while Sherry tends the afternoon post. She “helps” me fold laundry and we play ball with Burger outside (who is finally out of bed- yes he moseys out of bed around 2pm).
SHERRY: I have a quick call with USA Today (they want that speedy quote for an article they’re writing about painting a chair). It takes fifteen minutes tops (maybe twelve if I’m being exact?). Then I answer comment questions for the rest of the hour.
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
JOHN: Time to trade with Sherry (she takes Clara, I head back to the computer). I do a bunch of emails involving more giveaway and sponsor stuff along with exchanging a few messages with some guys at our blog hosting place (they’re doing some back-up server work and we want to make sure the site doesn’t crash). I also catch up on Twitter messages that I need to reply to.
SHERRY: I hang out with the bean. We put things on our heads, sing songs, chase the dog, and Clara looks tired again around 3:45 so I change her diaper and put her down for an afternoon nap. Sometimes we get one and sometimes we don’t, but she actually falls asleep right away today. Sweet girl.
4:00 – 5:00 pm
JOHN: I edit and size photos that we’ve already taken and begin writing a post for tomorrow afternoon. I also set up the tripod and shoot the wall-to-wall desk trim project that I did this morning for a future post about that (the thing about sharing 8 in a 5 day period means you always have to be working on future ones while proofing/publishing/answering questions on the ones that are already written).
SHERRY: I had big plans to spray prime the office chairs (the first step in painting/reupholstering them) but it’s already four and I haven’t written the next morning’s post (a project that we already shot, but I still have to write it and edit the pics). So that takes priority. Those chairs and my can of primer might have to wait until tomorrow. By 4:30 Clara is awake, so I don’t get to finish my photo editing/post writing, but at least it’s a start.
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
JOHN: The bean is restless so we decide we should go for our evening walk now because it’s supposed to rain a little later. Burger’s psyched and ready to go.
SHERRY: We walk around the neighborhood for about an hour and brainstorm post ideas for the following week. We also briefly talk about the kitchen floor plan and toss out a few more potential layout ideas. Who the heck knows where we’ll end up with that- we just believe in talking things to death until we land on something we both can’t wait to do.
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
JOHN: I cook a recipe that I tore out of Everyday with Rachel Ray (chicken with apples, raisins, and olives). It takes about 25 minutes to make, so Clara plays on the floor of the kitchen while I cook and we chat whenever I’m not furiously trying to make sure nothing burns.
SHERRY: I’m back doing blog comments, finishing up that post I started for the next morning, and editing some photos. Dinner is on the table around 6:45. And it’s awesome. John even gave me extra olives. I’m a lucky lady.
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
JOHN: Time to clock some quality family time together before Clara’s conked out for the night. We three, er, four (Burger decides to join us) hang out, read more books, and generally try to tire Clara out.
SHERRY: Burger is full of energy, so he’s zooming around the room and Clara finds it hilarious. But 7:45 is here before we know it and its time to put that baby to bed. After brushing her teeth and saying goodnight to her grandparents (well, a photo of them) she’s out like a light.
8:00 pm – 9:00 pm
JOHN: Now that Clara’s in bed for the night we can do most of our work. It’s normal for us to both have laptops going until midnight or later, but we try to sit in front of the television and occasionally chat so it feels more casual. Some nights we do major DIY stuff together instead of sofa-computer stuff (since during the day it’s hard to get anything other than very small projects done with a one year old around), but not tonight.
SHERRY: We sit in front of the TV (Project Runway’s on) and I finally finish the post for the next day that I’ve been writing on and off. It’s normal for a post to take us around 2-3 hours to write since we have to edit/size/upload photos along with writing detailed steps (that doesn’t include the time it actually takes to buy materials and do the project). Unless it’s fast like a giveaway – those only take around 30 minutes to write (but probably take an hour or two to coordinate via email beforehand).
9:00 pm – 10:00 pm
JOHN: Then I realize that we need to record our Q & A video since that will take me a few days to edit so I’d like the weekend to work on it. I set up the tripod & Flip cam in the office and quickly organize the 80-ish questions that people submitted on Facebook (removing any duplicates so we can just read the rest off as we go on camera).
SHERRY: I get ready for the video, including a very important outfit change from a t-shirt to a sweater (I’m a wild woman, what can I say). It’s finally time to sit down, turn on the camera, and answer things in a one-shot-only-no-do-overs way (we hate feeling scripted, so having the one-take rule is nice because it keeps it real). Hopefully we can knock it out in about 30 minutes.
10:00 pm – 11:00 pm
JOHN: General weirdness and chattiness ensues as we film our answers to a variety of questions. Gosh we’re dorks. And boy is this taking longer than we thought.
SHERRY: What he said. The thirty minute goal of completion is shot, but we’re having fun talking to no one (aka: the Flip cam).
11:00 pm – 12:00 am
JOHN: We’re finally done with the video and I get the uploading process started while I respond to a few more tweets and emails. Then I turn my attention to Google Sketch-Up, which I’m teaching myself to use so we can render a few kitchen layout ideas in 3D. There’s a bit of a learning curve here, but not the kind that prevents me from eating some ice cream (with whipped cream) in the process.
SHERRY: I begin writing another post, but realize I haven’t updated our House Tour page with new photos since sharing some bedroom and office updates, so I add the “progress” label to those pics and update those. Five minutes later I realize that I need to update them in the Paint Colors and Where We Got It pages too, so I do that. Then it’s back to comments and emails.
12:00 am – 1:00 am
John – We talk about going to bed, but I pull a “give me ten more minutes” so I can try to finish my Google Sketch-Up rendering. But it’s nearly a half hour ’til it’s done (we like it, but not enough to make any decisions or anything – we’ll keep ya posted whenever we decide to stop flip-flopping). I go around the house and turn off lights, turn the alarm to our “night” setting, and do one last check on Clara, our sweet little sleeper.
Sherry – While waiting “ten more minutes” for John I start writing a BabyCenter post. Don’t quite finish it though. Still need to add pics. But for now I just want to get my contacts out and myself into bed. Can’t believe it’s nearly 1 am already.
1:00 am – 1:30ish?
JOHN & SHERRY: All three of us are finally snuggled in bed (the third “person” being Burger). We recap some of the highlights / issues of the day and do a quick run-through of any important plans for tomorrow (gotta write ten book intro chapters, spray prime those chairs, proof and publish the two almost-finished posts from yesterday, try to get our inboxes back down, etc). It doesn’t take long for our conversation to turn into sleep. But not before making an out-loud wish that Clara miraculously sleeps until at least 8am. (Spoiler alert: she made it to about 7:45).
Psst- You can check out how things have changed over the years by peeping this Day In The Life Breakdown from last year and this one from the year before.
Blogiversary IV: It’s On Like Donkey Kong
It’s kind of unbelievable to us that it was four whole years ago that we started this little ol’ blog (just for friends and family members to drop in on our first home’s kitchen makeover).
In the words of Gwen Stefani, that shhhh is bananas. So much has happened since then. And since we’re nothing but creatures of habit, we’re psyched to celebrate a week of blogiversary madness and behind the scenes hullabaloo as usual. Starting right now. Well tomorrow (Monday) to be exact. So raise the roof, y’all. It’s about to get festive up in here. These are a few of the things that we have on the agenda for this week:
- a day in the life post from both of our perspectives (Burger & Clara will get in there too)
- a whopper of a giveaway: a $500 (holla!) shopping spree to one of our favorite places
- a giant post full of pie charts that detail exactly how we make money doing this
- a numbers post full of stats about traffic, comments, and John’s soda-themed wardrobe
- a big ol’ Q&A (we answered the personal q’s on video & added bonus business info)
- our annual “who-reads-this-blog-anyway?” survey (we love hearing about you guys)
- our year five blogiversary goals (and a recap on how we did with last year’s)
- the anatomy of a post, from start to finish (it can actually be quite the process)
- the post full of hosting/coding info than many of you have requested
- ten things we’ve learned about blogging over the past four years (holy cow, has it really been four years?!)
So that means we’ll be serving up two posts a day for the next five days in a row (oh yeah, we know how to cram stuff in there). We went into this week thinking about how we could share even more behind the scenes and real-life stuff with you and came up with the idea of just chatting about all the info we would talk about if we were ever to do one of those blogging seminars or web classes (you know, in our spare time). So we’re excited to put it all out there. I mean we’ve always loved over-sharing the goods with you guys. Is it Monday yet?
Pssst- The framed number four pictured above was a gift from sweet Katie B. She actually looped our names: “JohnSherryClaraBurger” to make up the number four (which represents our little family of four – and is perfect for our blogiversary too).
