Not everyone who posts up their monthly earnings is making money in their thousands. I’m such an example. Sharing or not sharing that info is a personal choice.

One of the things you mentioned here is that you were taught that talking about money was tacky – you’re responding from that place. I was taught that there’s never enough money, that you need to work yourself silly over 3 low-paid jobs rather than get one well-paid job. The realisation of what I’ve learnt from my parents is one thing – whether I choose to do something about it (unlearn it), or whether I feel I need to do something about it, is another.

take care and thanks for broaching the topic…

When someone asks my father a question that he thinks is too personal, he just says, “Well if anyone asks you, you just tell them that you don’t know…” This might work for you, too.

My partner’s aunt is CONSTANTLY asking us how much money we have for income. And I am not talking about questions such as ” do you make good money at your job?”! No, I am talking about direct questions such as ” how much money do you make an hour?” or ” how much money do you bring home every month?”! To me, it is appalling that they ask! They are much older than us, and have much more money than we do, so what concern is it of their’s? The only thing I can think of as to why they ask is because we rent from them, and they want to know if they can charge us more in rent! Of course, when they do ask, I always answer with my famous line of “I make enough to pay my bills”! I just do NOT understand where people feel so comfortable enough to ask another individual, related or not, how much money they make! I have never cared to know how much others make at their job, and I wish that others would feel the same way about mine!

I didn’t look at the blog at first because it was down. I saw the post at WAHM at it was very vague.

The writer did say her income was from 21 writing projects. I don’t know what types of projects or the rates though.

With Carson, he issued a challenge to himself (with much fanfare) to earn $100,000 in a year and posted updates. His rates were also listed at his website so we could see what he charged. We knew what kind of writing he took on and how much time he spent on different projects. He didn’t just go to different forums and say “I made $7500 last mont.”

Please don’t read into this that I’m not supportive, because I am. I applaud the writer for surpassing her goals. I just feel if a someone is going to post income as a motivator for others, they’re going to have to tell how they came about that total. Are these academic papers? Does she sell PLR? Is she a journalist? Do all her clients pay the same fee…and who set the fee?

Lots of considerations..and support.

I would also like to enter the playing field and I need the rulebook-rates etc.

I am in the economically depressed midwest; I have one weekly gig I can count on, my part-time job crashed with the housing bust and this person making how much needs me to pay for their blog. I’m on Google because I don’t have money to throw away on blogging but I love the blog world so I would rather blog on Google than not at all.

Sorry, this isn’t a very good first impression. I forgot how much energy was linked to this topic.

Lots of considerations.

Vague blog posts don’t impress me. Details do.”

There is a post at the blog you’re referring to that states the writer works about 40 hours per week. I think there also is a breakdown of how many projects were completed each month.

In all fairness, how is what this person is doing any different from what Carson (Content Done Better) did a few years ago? Weren’t you very supportive of him back then?

I love reading about what other people are paid. I’m morbidly curious.

And yet, I don’t feel that anyone should know what I make. I feel it’s not right.

Double standard? Nope. Just natural human curiosity and natural human need for privacy.

I believe we all start somewhere, even those who work for pennies. Some end up earning tons of money. Some go for middle range. Some can’t get higher rates. That’s fine.

If it’s not a matter of ethics, what you earn is no one’s damned business. If you’re doing something morally or ethically questionable, then your rates are up for question.

We’ve mentioned a few times on our blog what our yearly income is. When we have, it’s been for relevant reasons, in the comment section only and NEVER to make anyone else feel small. We’ve never blogged about our earnings and never will.

When we do mention writers rates, we point readers to http://www.writers.ca, the Professional Writers Association of Canada, which is the industry I look to for suggested rates. That’s all. What I charge or bring in is my affairs.

I did grow up in a generation where that was the worst question you could ask someone, now it seems that everyone is talking about it.

That being said, though, I think you have to take many people´s earnings with a grain of salt. I would trust someone who shows proof and also people who are obviously expert writers, but if someone says they earn thousands of dollars and yet they have just started a blog and have spelling mistakes all over . . . well, I´m inclined to doubt!

John Chow and ShoeMoney shows people the proof. When someone throws out a vague figure, with no breakdown whatsoever, how do I know what’s true? There are a lot of considerations when it comes to a salary comparison.

Did anyone else help with the project and if so, what is that person’s pay? Do you work 20 hours or five? Was this a whole bunch of small projects or a couple of huge projects needing skilled research? Were you paid for web content or a medical journal entry?

Would I want to work 17 hours a day for $7500 per month or 8 hours a day for $5,000 per month? Is more money necessarily worth the time away from family or the stress?

Lots of considerations.

Vague blog posts don’t impress me. Details do.

I realized a long time ago that there is a lot of inflation of actual income going on. Not always, but often enough to be cynical about it. It’s sad.

When I read this post, it sounds like there is disbelief that a writer can make thousands of dollars a month. Why? Lots of us do. I’m not ashamed to say that in the first quarter of 2008, I earned almost as much as I did in a full year at my last office job 3 years ago.

I look at writing as my full-time job. I don’t have to worry about child care. I’ve never been comfortable having big chunks of free time during the day. So yeah, I put in a 40-hour work week, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. But that’s what MY goals are.

One thing that really helped me this year was putting together a business plan. I picked a monthly income goal, even though I thought it would be a real stretch, but here I am, hitting it regularly. Perhaps the topic of a business plan can be a post for another day.

Why? Because there are a lot of people out there who think that blogs can never make money. They look down on blogging as something that’s not a true job or they want to get started but don’t believe in themselves. Millionaire Blogger is all about showing people that they CAN do it if they put in the work. I don’t think that it is tacky at all to post that kind of information.

For the record, I don’t make thousands of dollars blogging…yet. Someday, I hope to, and I hope my readers are there to see that – to see how over time, if you work at it, your earnings will grow.

Also for the record, blogging isn’t all I do, so this isn’t exactly the same as sharing my income – it is just a piece of my income. I wouldn’t feel comfortable posting my entire income online, but I would be more than happy to talk about it with any aspiring writers and college students. Good writers need to believe in themselves!

That should be mid to high FOUR figures per month.. part time.

Like the other part time freelancer who commented, I tend to make $10K-$15K/yr part time… except that I’m a full time mom instead of a full time worker. This past year, I made a bit more than that, but I also worked a good bit more than I really wanted to.

Go figure.

Like many here, it’s outside my comfort zone to talk numbers, but I think it is helpful for freelancers to share ranges and the work involved to earn that kind of money.

I do know this, when people don’t talk about how much money they are making, the ONLY entity that really benefits is the employer/client. Most people undervalue themselves.