Talking About Advertising On The Blog & How I Earn My Living

So I've decided that after 11 years I'm going to add a few Google Adsense adverts on the blog for a while. I'm not sure about the whole thing myself so I will see how it goes and how readers feel. 

Currently I earn my small income in four different ways - 

I make and sell items on Etsy - This started small and steadily increased to become the main way I earn my money. It's great as I can build stuff around being the main childcare for our children and doing the running around after them (of that there is lots) as I can just do hours here and there. The hours add up though and I spend a lot of time making things. 

I write for magazines - I have a few regular magazines I write for, Woodcarving magazine and Woodworking crafts being my staples, plus occasionally in others (like Country Smallholding, Furniture and Cabinet making, Woodturning Magazine). I enjoy this work, it builds my "authority" in the woodworking world (hopefully), but the money isn't great by the time I've built a project and written about it some projects are less than minimum wage, some are better, but depends on the project. It does allow me to be creative and try new things though which I adore. I also love writing and have started filming each project in the hope it adds to my YouTube channel.  

I do talks - I talk mainly for garden clubs, but also WI's, U3A and any other clubs that will have me. I enjoy this work, the pay is okay but it does take a huge chunk of a day. I currently feel like one a week "in the season" (autumn, winter & spring) is enough though. I find myself pretty tired the day after. 

Regular carpentry work - I still do a bit of paying carpentry work. It's good to keep my hand in, and I have a friend in the village with a number of properties that always need something doing to them. If I have spare days then we will often book up time this way. Although as Etsy has increased this has got less and less. 

I'm not the bread winner, and I never set out to be rich, I certainly wouldn't be a carpenter making trays and baskets if I was, but I like my working time to earn me a sensible hourly wage. I want to work hard and set a good example for my children. It's good for them to see me earning a living as a self employed person, relying on sales and diversification, but also good to see their mother earn a regular wage as a teacher and how being on a salary can also mean a lot of extra work. 

If I wanted to earn a better wage I could go back to being a regular carpenter, there's plenty of work out there and the wages are good at the moment. That would mean wrap around care for the children and less support for my wife and it's not something we want to do at the moment. 

The blog has been a big thing in my life for the last 11 years. I'm fairly sure that some of these opportunities above have only come about because of the blog and the associated social media, the woodworking magazines came about after a picture of my carved workbench got sent to the editor from twitter, the talks because of my Facebook page and a local festival, Etsy sales are really driven by social media sites.  

In those 11 years the blog has cost me more than I've earnt directly from it though. I've done a few sponsored posts, and received a few freebies, but other than that nothing really comes in. 

It was in the last week or so that my YouTube channel finally got monetised (it was a long slog to get there) and I know I'm not going to earn much from it. But I see it as part of the "ecosystem" of social media that shows I'm a real person, making items and doing talks. The earnings have been more than I expected. So far about 60p a day. Not a huge amount, but I'll save the money and invest it back into my channel and equipment or music royalty fees (currently £15 a month).

This was about 4 days into turning on the monetisation on YouTube

So while I was messing around with Ads for that, I looked at what my blog was doing. The blog has over 1600 posts on a lot of subjects so has a good number of page views a month. So I've turned on the annoying Ads to see what will happen and whether it will help us pay off some bills, maybe pay for our web hosting and some chicken feed bills. 

Ideally I'd love to find someone that would want to advertise with a product I've used and recommend (Festool if you're listening... Lol), but for now I'll let Google do it's thing. 

If you find it offensive and it puts you off reading my blog then please let me know. I don't want people to stop reading and would prefer to take the hit in money than that. I've built some good friendships through this blog and don't like the idea of cheapening it. 

But as bills rise I keep thinking I need to earn a bit more and only have so many hours in the day! 

If anyone would prefer to sponsor the blog then I'd happily do that instead. I'm still not sure the earning from Adsense are going to be worth it. 

Please let me know your thoughts on the subject. 

How To Make A Harvest Basket

 So I got asked to write an autumnal project for Woodcarving magazine. My mind went straight to harvesting and a harvest basket. I make many of these already for sale, but I didn't have one that you could carve the sides on, not really anyway. 

I decided to make a new design, more like a traditional trug in shape, that would have a wide side that I could carve. 

This is a video of two parts, this first part I'm making the new basket, bending the ash for the handle and just dialling in the design. I was really pleased with it. The handle looked great. I ended up listing it on Etsy as a one off and sold it within a few hours, so I guess others agreed as well! 

If you want to support me and what we do here you can buy one of my other harvest baskets here -

I put a lot of effort into my baskets and other products and I really love it when people buy them, but even more when they send me pictures of them in use! It really makes me smile.

I keep wondering what the next step with my products is. Do I list them with more online stores like Notonthehighstreet, or do I approach physical shops? I've had a few contact me lately. Or do I start doing shows?

No MiLK TODAY - A Channel You Really Have To Watch!

Hugh from English Country Life recommended a channel to me the other day and I have to say I'm completely hooked. 

 It's about a guy who is going to try to be self sufficient for a year just living on what he can produce on his smallholding. He's allowing himself tap water and salt, not much (although I can't completely get why he is having salt!)! 

How To Build A ToolBox With Simple Tools

On Twitter I asked people what they'd like to see in a video and a few said a toolbox, but using just a few tools rather than my usual array of every tool going (I'm certainly guilty of that, but it is my job!). 

So last week I made up a toolbox using just a few hand tools and a cordless drill and filmed the process. 

What To Watch Over Christmas?

With a forced slow down ahead of me (baby due 8th of January) I'm wondering what I'll watch. I've been doing a lot of late night lately (11 O'clock last night on a job in Malvern - I must be mad) and I do plan on taking some actual time off between Christmas and New Year (finishing the porch is time off right?) and when the baby comes. 

I don't watch huge amounts of TV but as I've posted before when I do I tend to lean more towards YouTube than what's on the actual TV, so I thought I'd share what I've watched over the last few months whilst I've been cooking tea in the evenings and then maybe you guys could give me some good ideas what to add to my playlist afterwards.

Jas Townsend And Son Inc - This channel is about 18th century cooking and I find it really interesting as they use many cooking methods and recipes. I particularly like how they cook with wood fired ovens and the different cooking vessels they use.

Colin Furze - This guy was paid by Sky to do what he'd do if there was an upcoming apocalypse. He built a bunker in his back garden. The videos are quite good fun, with rock music playing, good editing and he doesn't do things by half! They will make you smile!

American Homestead - I'll forgive them for sounding like my blog name because their videos are so good. Based in the Ozarks these guys are proper off grid homesteaders. They do them as episodes over the summer months and each one is really interesting and you can pick up many tips from them by watching. Their aquaphonic system is a really impressive set up. all the videos have a good level of humour in them as well, I'm surprised they haven't been picked up by a TV company yet as I've been watching them for two years.

The Market Gardener - I know I've mentioned these videos and his book on here before but I think they're so good I'll mention them again. this guy does organic gardening with a scientific approach. I hope this is the future of how our veg are grown but I doubt it will be.

Ray Mears - I don't need to say much more other than that really, this guy is a legend and I particularly like his series on how the wild west was won, seeing it from the view of all sides and hwo hard it was for them to survive.

Chicken Moat -This video has given me an idea that I might be doing next year if I ever find the time. It could be the solution to the messy edges around my veg garden!

Rich Hall - This is an American comic who does well over here. A few years ago he did a series of documentary on the way we Brits see America. The one about native Americans is particularly good and done in a style that I find really entertaining, serious with a very dry humour.

So what does everyone have to recommend to me? I had some great recommendations last time I asked about this so I look forward to hearing what you say.