Small win, big brag

Notes on the business of blogging and the yoga of being still

Last week I mentioned I got into an ad network. I didn’t go into it because, well, I didn’t want to make a big deal out of something so small. But then I realized: I never make a big deal out of anything I do.

So this is me doing that. Logging the win.

It’s been two years of figuring things out on the fly - search engine optimization, marketing, designing a website, writing, tweaking, pretending I had a strategy. Of working for hours on something that earned nothing. Until now. This month, I got accepted into an ad network which means, starting next month, I can finally start making money from my blog.

Back in 2023, Dani and I decided we’d try the digital nomad thing for a year. But I never called myself one - it felt like a title you had to earn. I went with “taking a break” or “unemployed” while quietly working full days on something no one was paying me for.

We moved to Canada, I applied for jobs for a few months, and then decided I didn’t want to give up on the dream just because year one was a flop.

So here I am.

Still nowhere close to delivering the DINK lifestyle I have promised my husband. But I’m closer than I was six months ago. And tonight, I’m ordering sushi and watching a rerun of Schitt’s Creek - because this thing I built might actually work.

Guys, I earn from this!!!

But let’s do business talk

I want to take you with me as I figure out how to build this - the blog, the yoga thing, the whole weird patchwork life I’m trying to create. So here’s some business talk.

There are two main ways people monetize blogs: display ads and affiliate marketing.

Display ads are what you see on every other website: banners, pop-ups, boxes floating over content. They’re annoying. I know. But they pay. Not well. But enough to justify the hours I’ve spent wrestling with Wordpress.

To qualify for a mid-tier ad network, you need 10,000 sessions a month. I finally hit that. I expect my RPM (revenue per thousand views) to be around $20. So depending on traffic, I could make anywhere from $100 to $200 a month. About the cost of a half-decent grocery run. Or two overpriced yoga mats.

Ideally, I wouldn’t use ads. They slow the site down and make it feel a little spammy. But for now, it’s the easiest way to start.

Eventually, I’d love for affiliate income to take over - recommending things I actually use, writing the kind of nerdy breakdowns I wish more travel blogs had. That’s the plan for next year.

For now, it’s small. But it’s a start. And for the first time, I can say: I earn from this.

I still catch myself rounding down. Downplaying. Adding caveats. “Oh, it’s not real money.” But it is. And I’m slowly unlearning the need to prove that I deserve it.

And a little stillness

The mat was never really about movement. We talk a lot about asana in yoga, but the goal was always meditation. Stillness.

Building anything - or even trying to figure out what you want to build takes more mental space than most of us get. And sure, I have privileges to be able to do it - a supportive partner, a friendly immigration pathway, and a stubborn refusal to re-enter corporate life, even when my bank account strongly disagreed.

But our lack of privilege isn’t always the only thing standing in the way.

Sometimes it’s fear. Or the awkwardness of wanting something and not knowing how to say it out loud. Or not even knowing what you want, just that something feels missing.

That’s what the mat offers. A small, consistent way to get a read on what’s going on in your own head. A chance to let things settle, to recalibrate, to focus on the bigger goal.

The breath is what anchors that stillness. It’s repetitive and hard - especially when your brain wants to do literally anything else.

So if you haven’t sat still this week - like actually still, no podcasts, no scrolling, no replaying tasks in your head or flaws in your skillset - maybe the mat can be that place.

A little stillness can go a long way.