Blogging for a second income - does anyone else here do this?

Sixer

AshW wrote: »

One thing to keep in mind, and I haven't seen mentioned in the pages of this thread I've read, is that if this is a second income, or your main source of income and you're earning over the tax free threshold, you're going to need to start declaring these earnings.

To cut a long story short..... that's the main reason I was posting. Does anyone know of any resources or have any information about declaring this stuff and what is deductable. If you're making a few pounds a month HMRC aren't going to care but at some point they will. So if you are planning to build a small blogging empire you need to be keep track of this stuff from the start.

I haven't been, so I'm playing catch up now. I would have thought there were resources for this out there as a lot of people are doing it, but I haven't found any.

It's the same as any job working from home. I don't blog, but my business is partly online. Off the top of my head for allowable expenses:

Hosting - 100%
Internet connection - percentage corresponding to work v leisure use. I claim half, for example.
Printing ink, stationery - percentage corresponding to work v leisure use (bloggers wouldn't print much, though, I'm guessing?)
Phone bill - percentage corresponding to work v leisure use (bloggers wouldn't phone much, though, I'm guessing?)
Utility bills - use of home as office, will depend on time spent in work room working v leisure and number of rooms in house. I claim 8% based on 3 bed/3 reception house with 1 room used half for business half for leisure.

Capital expenses. These are separate from running expenses, but you can claim a percentage of purchase cost for a new computer, again depending on leisure/work use percentage. I usually say 50%.

You simply need to register as self-employed at HMRC and fill out a self assessment form each year. It's a simple form.

PazDeLaHuertaFan

Okay guys, I've found what I believe to be a good niche.

According to the Adwords tool it has low competition and an average global monthly search of 368,000.

I've set up a free blogger account as I don't want to spend any money until I have tested the waters.

I can't use adsense as my account is banned and if I try and set up a new email and adsense account they want an address for payments, so I've decided to use Amazon affiliates. I have six small ads relating to my niche on the side of my blog and an Amazon banner at the bottom of the page.

I have signed up for Google Alerts on my chosen niche so I get the latest info and am going to set up a Twitter devoted to my niche.

Is there anything more I can do?

Thank you.

geordie_joe

PazDeLaHuertaFan wrote: »

Okay guys, I've found what I believe to be a good niche.

According to the Adwords tool it has low competition and an average global monthly search of 368,000.

Well if you are going to believe that you might as well have a blog about sex, according to the tool it has 506,000,000 searches per month and low competition.

PazDeLaHuertaFan

geordie_joe wrote: »

Well if you are going to believe that you might as well have a blog about sex, according to the tool it has 506,000,000 searches per month and low competition.

I'm confused then.

I thought low competition was the most important thing with regards to niche.

geordie_joe

PazDeLaHuertaFan wrote: »

I'm confused then.

I thought low competition was the most important thing with regards to niche.

It is important, but you are missing the point, which is...............

The tool you are using is designed to make you spend money on addwords, you won't spend money if you will have a lot of competition, so it tells you there is low competition.

You'd be better off just going to google and doing a search for your niche, and all of the key words you will be using. Then you will really see what competition you have.

Ewaf

PazDeLaHuertaFan wrote: »

Okay guys, I've found what I believe to be a good niche.

According to the Adwords tool it has low competition and an average global monthly search of 368,000.

Using google keyword tool? Do you have "broad" ticked on the left? If so, that search volume is wrong. It should be ticked to exact.

Also a niche with 368k searches wont have low competition.

AppleChai

I've been writing my workplace's blog for about a year now. I don't have access to see the statistics for visitors, but I get hardly any comments. However people coming to work frequently mention the blog and how much they like it, usually to my boss. I was also approached by another company recently and asked to write for them, paid, because they think my blogs are that good.

I would like to explore this more as an option for earning. I'm not anticipating a lot of money or even regular money, I see it like surveys - something I enjoy doing, and can get a few quid for as a bonus.

I will certainly read through this thread when I have a spare hour, but for the moment I'm wondering who commissions people to write blogs for them. Website owners? Where can you advertise yourself as available for freelance/regular work?

durham_mim

Hi, thanks for this thread. I have just started blogging. I hope eventually to earn a little extra cash but I expect that to take a while as I have just started this week. Any help/tips would be appreciated. You can check out my blog which is listed in my profile. I have a debilitating illness so it will take a while to get all the content uploaded.

PazDeLaHuertaFan

I've put my new blog together.

I've signed up for an affiliate program aimed at my niche(weight loss)and will be providing links with each article I post. I've added a menu which will link back to my articles(not yet written)and added a couple of ad's.

I believe the site is easy to navigate and I have signed up for Twitter to promote my site and added Google Analytics tracking code as well making use of Googles webmaster tools.

Apart from the articles am I missing anything?

I'm unsure about my tagline, what do you think?

I'm also thinking of adding a price comparison widget to the site so I can earn revenue from other sources than the articles with the links included, would that be overkill? Currently I've 11 affiliates to promote. 2 through the ad's and 9 through articles with added links.

Any opinions would be very welcome.

Thank you.

p.s I don't think I'm allowed to post my blog url here so it is in my profile.

Dexters_Indignation

This thread is so interesting I have added a reply so i can find it easier!
Please thank me someone so it will be even easier.

Please find some hastily found funny pictures that may cause you to thank this and further posts...