Making Money from Blogging? Here's What You Need to Know

For most, blogging is a hobby. A place where you can have a creative outlet, a way to keep memories captured for future reference, but for some it can become a way of making money, a business. If you're new to making an income through blogging then keep reading.

Now before I get into the nitty-gritty, I want to be clear, this post will not cover how to making money from blogging, this is a post for those people who have just had their first (few) paid collaborations and are wondering what to do next.

Register with HMRC 

This is something you must do immediately, even if you're employed elsewhere, you must register as self-employed. When I first went on the website, I was completely overwhelmed and I really didn't have a clue what I was doing. This is a really good guide to help you set up an account with HMRC and talks you through the process far better then I can. The one thing that I have to stress is that this is something you must do.

Record all your earnings

Filling out your tax return will be a pretty straightforward process if you've kept good records. You should keep track of all of your earnings. This can be done in a number of ways, accounts book, spreadsheet - go with whatever you're comfortable with and works for you.

Record all of your expenses

As well as your earnings you should keep track of your expenses also, personally, this is something I need to improve on as sometimes I forget to keep track of everything. Expenses for bloggers can include;

• Everything to run your site: hosting fees, domain fee, editing software, stock images, social media marketing etc.

• Any ebooks or e-courses you’ve bought to help grow your blog. A handy tip would be to go back through your Amazon orders where you can easily download your receipts. HMRC states that courses for career changes can’t be expensed, but a course to enhance and develop your career can).

• Equipment purchased (even if purchased before April 2016) to get your blog up and running-e.g buying the domain, buying a laptop or camera. 

• A percentage of your phone bills (you’ll need to decide on a rate of which you use this for blogging and be able to justify it) particularly useful if you use your phone for social media, blogging and emails.

• Travel to events and tickets for blogger events. You can claim for mileage and a really useful mileage tracker app completely takes this stress away for you and then can easily be used for your returns.

How much will I have to pay in Tax?

This really all depends on how much you earn. From your blog and any other earnings from other employment. The current personal allowance is Up to £11,850 tax-free (2018), you then must pay 20% of anything over £11,850. 

I hope this has been helpful, it's the unglamorous side to blogging and something everyone hates working through but it's essential to running your own professional blog. 

Let me know if you've found any useful ways to organise your blogs finances.

K Elizabeth xoxox

*In collaboration with Microsoft