What a blog costs you when you write it yourself
Writing a blog seems free because there is no invoice. A worked example of what it really costs, and where the costs come from.
Doing it yourself feels free. No money leaves the business, so it never shows up in the books. Yet it is usually the most expensive option, and a simple sum shows why.
The amounts below are an example, with the assumptions written out. Fill in your own hourly rate and you have your own number.
Where the time goes
People underestimate a blog because they think of the typing. The typing is the smallest part.
| Step | Time |
|---|---|
| Choosing a topic and checking people search for it | 10 min |
| Finding out what competitors write about it | 10 min |
| Writing | 20 min |
| Headings, internal links and meta description | 10 min |
| Publishing and checking it on the site | 5 min |
Altogether about three quarters of an hour per blog, and that is with experience. The first few take twice as long.
The worked example
Say you manage ten blogs a month in practice. That is realistic for an owner doing it on the side, and it is more than most manage.
- Ten blogs × 45 minutes is 7.5 hours a month.
- If you value your own time at 60 euros an hour, that is 450 euros a month.
- At 90 euros an hour it is 675 euros a month.
And then you have ten blogs. Not forty. The difference is not in the price per blog, but in what you get back: at ten a month you cover your market in two years, at forty in six months.
The costs you do not see
Besides the hours there are two costs that never make it into the sum.
The first is that the research is the first thing to go when you are busy. Then you write about what you find interesting instead of what people type in, and the blog brings in nothing. That time was not spent cheaply, it was thrown away.
The second is the time you do not put in. Every week you do not publish, your competitor does. Those search terms are not gone afterwards, but they are more expensive to win.
When doing it yourself does make sense
To be honest, there are situations where you are better off doing it yourself. If you work in a very specialist field that hardly anyone knows about, your knowledge is the product and outsourcing is hard. If you like writing and it is a part of your work you enjoy, it is not a cost.
And if your market has five search terms in total, you do not need forty blogs a month. Then none of this applies to you, and we would rather say so now than after three months.
