Hello Jake and Dannie readers. It’s about time for me (Jake) to discuss what’s been going on here on the blog over the last couple months. Since we had a slowdown on blog activity over the last couple of months I’ve once again opted for a double dose of blog report rather than publish two shorter posts. Of course a slowdown doesn’t mean there wasn’t any excitement.
If you haven’t read one of my blog reports before, we have been executing an experiment in blog monetization. Our goal is to one day create a blog that will be useful enough on it’s own that it will become a secondary source of income and not just a tool for enticing clients (though hopefully it will still be enticing). In these monthly - and sometimes semimonthly - posts I catch you up on how much money our blog has made through ads or other income sources, what hurdles we are facing (making time for writing blog posts), and how we are overcoming them (or not). And since we donate 10% of our blog’s income to Operation Smile, we tell you how much they made as well. Well, here’s how we did over the last couple of months…
In November and December we spent a lot of time planning and photographing some shots we wanted for our portfolio, though admittedly some of those shots have not yet been published. We did get some of them up there though, and we’re pretty proud of them. Dannie loves lifestyle photography, so we did a day long photo shoot with our model Susie in her hometown of Gainesville, Florida. We published the photos in three separate posts, Crossing, Last Stop, and a tutorial on how to tie a scarf in an uptown knot. We did a boho fashion shoot with Melissa and also published a tutorial on how her makeup was done with a little help from makeup artist Joan Allen. We also invited our client Amy to model for us in Tampa for an Indian styled shoot.
We were also thrilled to publish some of our favorite work we did with clients including an engagement shoot with Kristin and Travis, some holiday photos we took for Allyson and Austin, and some snapshots from our venue walkthrough with Marlene and Raul. I also wrote a little piece about how our insurance helped us out when I fell into the Gulf of Mexico with some expensive gear.
So here’s what came of all that:
November
Total Income: $2.55
Total Donation to Operation Smile: $0.26
December
Total Income: $4.17
Total Donation to Operation Smile: $0.42
I think we could have done better during those months had we produced more blog post. I could make excuses like “We did some traveling” or “I had appendicitis,” but really it’s just a matter of setting priorities. Our blog is in it’s beginning stages right now, and it’s hard to focus on a project when the return on investment is distant and uncertain. But I am unflappably confident as always! We really enjoy what we are doing and we think that others will enjoy seeing our work and reading about our process. Thanks to all of you who read these reports and check in on a regular basis to see what we’ve been up to.
If there is anything related to us or our business that you wish we wrote about more, please comment below and we’ll do our best to make you a happy reader!