3 Ways to Support Your Favorite Bloggers

(This post was originally published in 2012. Any edits reflect site changes made since then).

Let’s say you have a favorite blog (or two or three of four) that you read on a regular basis. Maybe that blog is this one (if so, great!). Maybe it’s another one (how dare you!). There’s a good chance your favorite blogs are run not by corporations or even small companies with multiple staffers, but by one person. Take this site, for example. I’m responsible for everything myself, from domain and hosting fees (which run close to $3500 a year) to content creation, editing, marketing, site design, some ad sales (last month, I joined an ad network that has taken over the bulk of my ad management and in one month also doubled my ad revenue!), and all that jazz. My mom, an English teacher, pitches in with copy editing, and Drew helps with random other stuff (he even does dictation for the Dear Miles columns since Miles is unable to type them himself).

I love what I do and I plan to keep doing it even if I stop making money. But money is good. For one thing, it means I can hire a part-time nanny, which frees time in my schedule to invest in this site. And if I can contribute financially to my family while staying home with my kid, that sweetens the deal even more.

That’s where you come in. I know I’ve asked for your help before, and I will continue to remind you from time to time how important your support is and how much I appreciate it. Here are a few ways you can lend your support to DW or whatever blog(s) you hope to see stick around for a very long time.

1. SHARE THE CONTENT. This one is huge. The main way for many sites, including this one, to make money is through ad revenue. I don’t make ad revenue unless I have readers. I don’t get new readers unless they know this site exists. The very best way for people to learn about this site is by people like you sharing content with your friends, co-workers, blog readers, and fellow internetters. So if you like what you read here and want to see the site grow and succeed, share stuff on Facebook (like DW [and my posts!] on Facebook; more likes mean more people see the posts, which increases traffic, which increases revenue, which enables me to keep the site going), Tweet my posts, pin stuff on Pinterest, submit content to Reddit and Digg and Fark and whatever other aggregator site you like.

2. Purchase stuff through affiliate links. I am an Amazon affiliate, which means I get a commission on any Amazon purchase you make through my affiliate link, which you can find in the sidebar. It doesn’t matter what you buy: As long as you go through my affiliate link, I get a commission on whatever sale is made. In a typical month, I make around $200 through Amazon affiliate commissions, which pays for a week — or 14 hours — of babysitting and helps in a big way (thank you!!).

3. Hit the “support” button. Many bloggers, like me, make it easy to send a small donation to keep the site going (you can find my support tab in the top menu bar). If you’re someone who might offer to buy me a drink in a bar if we happened to meet some time, consider sending five bucks to my Paypal account and I’ll have a drink on you the next time I’m out (and not pregnant…). I haven’t done a donation drive this year, but I still receive monthly donations from those who have signed up for auto payments, and it is very appreciated (and you don’t have to wait for a drive to donate!). There have been a few months this year when those donations meant being able to pay for unexpected tech support and other surprise bills. (Now that ad revenue has increased, I’m hoping a little cushion will help me pay for a mobile site upgrade in the coming months; your donations will also help with that).

Again, thank you so much to everyone who has and continues to support this site in ways big and small. It means more than you know. I hope to be doing this for a very long time and your support keeps me going, both financially and emotionally. Thank you!!!