Kye Wood asked yesterday, in a comment to the spoof post: "I would like to turn this on its head. In all seriousness, I'm asking how much would it take for you to sell control and ownership of this blog, while remaining on staff? Seriously. Might you indulge me?"
The marker I used for many years to measure myself against was my last corporate salary, which was $55k in the year 2000. I figured out how much that was per day, and celebrated when TOP earned that much for just one day. Eventually I achieved it for a whole week, then across an entire month, then a whole year. Eventually I was making double that. I will say that it's awfully nice to earn enough money, and do it on your own bootstrappery. That's been a good life lesson of TOP, and I'm grateful I had that experience. I do wish I had planned better, though, and saved more when times were good. But you have to live sometime.
However, the blog is worth nothing. Because it's just me. My cousin Liz—who, last I knew, works for Intuit—owned a successful bakery in Lexington, Kentucky, for a number of years, and despite being a thriving business she could not sell it, for one simple reason. She wanted to sell so she didn't have to get up at two o'clock in the morning six days a week to bake the day's product any more—it was ruining her social life, and she was approaching 40 and wanted a family. But without her as the baker, the business wasn't one. Same here.
I started the blog in 2005; in 2009, I was able to leave my last outside job (columnist for the British Black & White Photography magazine) behind, and make my entire living from TOP. My two NewYorker.com articles last summer were the first outside jobs I've taken since 2009, and I'll have to be doing more outside work again in the future.
The unadorned reality is that TOP is in the process of failing, following the same larger trends that forced Olympus to sell its camera division and DPReview to shut down, etc., etc. My audience today is one-third of what it was at its peak. Jeff Keller owned a digicam website years ago called Digital Camera Resource. If my memory is correct, at some point he published a very honest post, which I wish I still had, charting the bell curve of his site's fortunes. He was forthright about the fact that it was on the downward slope, and that the handwriting was therefore on the wall, and that he had to start looking for his next job. I remember thinking at the time, whew, sure glad that isn't me. Well, now it is. The amount I earned from my various affiliations in all of 2022 was less than what I used to earn (sometimes) in one month! The reality is that now, I need help to keep TOP going.
...But, amazingly, I'm getting it. Patreon donations and a small cadre of voluntary contributors have moved the "Point of Failure" much further down on the down-slope of the bell curve. So I've survived the Pandemic, when otherwise I would not have. Even so, I'm making less than my old baseline now. I start taking Social Security this August, which will help.
Times are getting harder for a lot of people, not just me. I'm very grateful, and feel very complimented, that many Patreon supporters who need to tighten their own belts haven't simply cut me off, but, rather, have only reduced their contributions instead. That's incredibly nice of them, and I take it as a big compliment. However, many people have reduced their contributions, and from a high of 835 Patreon patrons, right now I have 707. So the trend is playing out there as well.
The axe—er, tax—lady
Wednesday was Taxageddon, the day I don all black and force myself to trudge down Dickensian alleyways, past the haunts of thieves, cutpurses, mountebanks and beggars, and wend my way to the lair of the tax preparer. She is cheerful and interesting but formidable and ruthless. She takes a double-bladed axe to my bank account and whacks away at it until a torrent of money that used to be mine comes gushing out and into the waiting maw of the Gub'mint. I paid 29.5% of my income in taxes last year. Here's a number that pertains: a whopping 57% of my income last year came from Patreon and direct support from kindly readers. Even so, it's less than that Y2K salary. Were it not for Patreon supporters and that small cadre of well-wishers who contribute cash from time to time, TOP would already not exist, and I would be off by a roadside somewhere, shivering in the whispering cold and selling pencils from a tin cup.
Perhaps I overdramatize. :-)
So the answer to your question: $55k in 2000 is a cool $98k now, adjusted for inflation. How much capital would yield that much income? Knowing nothing about finance, I don't know what that number might be. But I doubt there's much point in doing the research.
I am mulling over other moves (several posts in recent weeks have concerned my ponderings about what kind of writer I hope to be when I grow up, as you might have noticed), and hope I can come to clarity before my hand is forced. My main goal is to continue to be a writer, somehow, merely because that's what I like to do. Other options are to teach or tutor, among other things, and I'm looking into it. I'm taking a (10-hour!) test this week to become a literacy volunteer, to get a little experience tutoring. Whatever my next move turns out to be, it comes down to a favorite old joke, which might be funnier if it weren't so true: "my retirement plan is to keep working."
Mike
Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)
Featured Comments from:
darlene: "The check is in the mail. I hope everyone who can help Mike will. Let's keep the ink for his pen flowing and Butters' dish full. I appreciate Mike's writings greatly and always look forward to this site's classy, witty, and enlightening comments."
Simon: "I can't even dream of earning £55k. That is rather more than 2.5 times my current salary and nearly 4x what I was earning in IT back in 2000. I'm pretty sure that it's more than the CEO of our small company will be paid too, though he does get a car and other perks. Despite a very modest lifestyle, the UK cost of living hike is starting to bite. :-/ "
Mike replies: Yes, of course money is always relative, and I've generally been very fortunate with TOP, in many ways. Do note however that a pound in 2000 was exchanged at $1.52 on yearly average, so my chosen baseline was ~£36,200 in 2000. Of course, that is £63,700 now, adjusted for inflation according to the Bank of England.
The relative nature of money has always fascinated me. The site has readers who range from multimillionaires to retirees (pensioners) who have to think carefully about buying a new lens. One interesting thing I experienced was moving from an area in a big city where my salary was 3/5ths of the average household income, to a small rural town where I earned 1.5X the average. I went from being slightly poor-ish to mildly but distinctly prosperous, on the exact same paycheck. Learned a lesson there.
A friend of mine was a member of the retinue of a Saudi Prince years ago, for a period that lasted about three months, and he related this story: the Prince's father, the King, paid all of the Prince's expenses, down to food for him and his retinue. In addition to that, the Price had an American Express card for incidental personal expenses. My friend said that everyone in his retinue knew that the Prince would be a foul mood during the last few days of every month. The reason was that his father had tried to put a limit on his spending, and had capped his American Express card at the equivalent of US$1 million per month. And near the end of every month the Prince would suffer the indignity of having his card refused.
It would put anyone in a bad mood, right? ;-)
Ed Hawco: "Is this the Jeff Keller article you’re referring to Mike? One key difference between his blog and yours is that his was very specifically focused on camera reviews, whereas yours is more about photography in general (and life in general). The former can easily be usurped by an Amazon-like big gun (as was Keller’s) but the latter has more resilience and is harder to squash. Keeping it fed is still a challenge, of course."
Dan: "Video killed the radio star and it's doing the same for written content. YouTube, TikTok etc. are the mediums with growth potential. Are you ready for your closeup?"
Mike replies: I'm ready, Mr. DeMille.
Can you set up a TOPA (The Online Photographer Anonymous) 12-step program for the deeply and seriously addicted?
Posted by: Dan Khong | Friday, 24 March 2023 at 04:52 PM
Mike,
A serious question: would you be better set up if you were receiving 'gifts' from people rather than income through Patreon? I never considered the differences before--but I'd be happy to Venmo or write you a check for the same amount if it helped with your net income issues. Ask the tax lady and see what she says (and whether you would be interested in doing that).
[I guess I'd say Patreon is best, for the simple reason that I can count on it and plan on it. Of course Patreon takes a cut, and they decide what their cut is. But whatever is best for you is fine. Some people just don't like Patreon or monthly expenses and I understand that. --Mike]
Posted by: Jim Kofron | Friday, 24 March 2023 at 05:26 PM
I sometimes wonder if you are underpricing your writing, and if starting a subscription service like Substack might help. It's the same type of "hamster wheel business," but there might be a way to dedicate one post a week to Substack, for subscribers, and get a few more dollars that way. I do know of a writer who pays his rent with it, but like you, he has nutured an audience for years and years (Freddie deBoer). He was a rare writer who Substack paid upfront, like a book advance, but for a year of newsletter posts.
You could even "release" the Substack posts at some point, make them public, and share that on TOP.
Posted by: John Krumm | Friday, 24 March 2023 at 06:26 PM
Mike,
I don't claim to have any answers to a difficult situation for you as you approach your mid-60's and still need to generate income, but your reader base is one of your great assets, and I would think you'd be able to hold at least three print sales a year where you could team up with some of your talented photographer friends such as: Charles Cramer, Gordon Lewis, Ctein, Ken Tanaka, Carl Weese or go big and get another print sale with Peter Turnley.
The whole premise where we place our orders in advance and the photographer gets a guaranteed order, and you take your 20% should be a win/win for all parties involved.
There has to be a print house that can handle the proofing and order fulfillment if the individual photographers don't want the hassle.
Just a thought. I've purchased from your print sales, and even though I'm now on a fixed income, your past offerings have always been tempting.
Hoping you can find some viable options for some additional income.
Posted by: Craig C. - Minneapolis, MN | Friday, 24 March 2023 at 10:32 PM
If only Exxon, Amazon, Trump etc paid 29.5% of their income in taxes...
Posted by: Peter Barnes | Saturday, 25 March 2023 at 12:38 AM
The way I look at it, a blog is a one-person magazine, so the fact that you've been this successful in a mostly illiterate world is an outstanding achievement.
A few months ago, I listened to a podcast (Ezra Klein's maybe but I'm not sure anymore) about how many authors are able to make a living using Substack. I believe it works on an author by author subscription model, so no mass exposure is not necessary. It's not clear how one gets started but you might have a leg up on that. I may be talking through my hat here, I know nothing about this, really.
It's a weird world we live in. Uber masters are rich, even though the company is not reliably profitable, while the "self-employed" drivers often don't make enough to finance replacement vehicles, making their business unsustainable. Other than a car dispatching app, what value-added does Uber provide, I've often wondered, that could not be duplicated by hundreds of others. The bigger eBay becomes, the higher their fees, shouldn't it be the other way round?
The biggies, Facebook, Google, etc., rely on advertisement for income, just like commercial TV did, except what I'm hearing now is that the digital advertisement model is failing. That's going to cause some changes. Everyone wants everything to be free, maybe that's a mistake. Magazines weren't free.
Posted by: Robert Roaldi | Saturday, 25 March 2023 at 08:46 AM
Income certainly is relative. I just ran a few numbers for the UK. If you earned a gross salary of £62,100 in the UK today, you would be on the 91st percentile. If you were earning today in the UK, the equivalent of what you were earning at the height of blogging, your pay would be on the 98th percentile. By UK standards, at its height, TOP was doing astoundingly well as a way of making a living, you'd be closing in on the elite (at least as far as those earning an income rather than from investments is concerned). Shame things have gone down hill. You're an outstanding blog writer and I'd like to see you continue forever, but I guess you're going to have to stop one day. These things tend to come in cycles, perhaps blogging will come back into fashion and fund a proper retirement, rather than having to stagger on to when you can no long press a key.
Posted by: Dave Millier | Saturday, 25 March 2023 at 02:05 PM
E-Myth: The "e-myth" is that a single person (like your cousin) can run a business ad hoc, day to day, filling all roles, and doing everything all at once forever, being the sole source of value.
The original book ("The E-Myth", 1986) was great. I see that the author has expanded quite a bit: Michael Gerber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gerber_(non-fiction_writer)
You can find one or more of his books on either of the two pirate book sites below, read what you want, and then send him the money. Might be some relevant ideas there.
PDF Drive: https://www.pdfdrive.com/search?q=michael+e+gerber&pagecount=&pubyear=&searchin=&em=
Libgen: http://libgen.rs/search.php?req=michael+e+gerber&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def
Posted by: Richard (Dick) Head | Sunday, 26 March 2023 at 10:58 AM
I dislike Patreon and all such vulture apps. An alternative method of showing appreciation, when I'm reasonable solvent, on an ad hoc basis would suit me
Posted by: Thomas Mc Cann | Monday, 27 March 2023 at 04:34 AM