Earlier this year I was able to ‘meet’ fellow former expat, Maria Foley, for an interview on blog monetization published at Expat Women. Maria is the blogger behind I Was an Expat Wife, and like me, although she’s not currently overseas she has a lot to say about living abroad. She reached out to several expat women bloggers to find out how and why we’ve taken the step of blog monetization.

You can read Maria’s article here: Expat Bloggers are Going Pro

Considering my responses were, uh, too verbose to be published in full in the article, I’ve published my full responses below.

Why do you blog?

When I first started blogging from overseas my intention was to share my experiences with friends and family and have an online ‘storage space’ for my thoughts. This resulted in a collection of long, rambling posts that my mother would print out and read to other family members who hadn’t quite figured out how to navigate the internet; I’m not sure if anyone else was reading!

When I started writing professionally in 2008, I changed the way I blogged drastically by focusing on informative, evergreen posts that would help other expats thinking of moving to Pakistan – where I was living at the time.

More people started reading, and more people started emailing me with specific questions about where to find the best pizza, how to get clothes made at the tailor or how to navigate the complicated visa procedures. Instead of writing dozens of individual emails with the same information over and over, I put the info on my blog.

In June 2010 I launched ExpatHeather.com, a site that focuses on expat life, international teaching and travel writing. The purpose of this blog was to complement my work as a travel writer and editor, provide informative posts about expat life and travel, and to connect expats, teachers and writers in an interactive online community.

Why do you monetize your blog?

The main goal of my blog is not to make money, but rather to create a sort of online brand for myself and a place where I can ‘meet’ other people. I’d be happy if the blog ended up consistently paying for itself (hosting fees, WordPress theme, domain name, etc), but I don’t intend for it to provide a steady income at this point.

While I do offer advertising, I’ve made more money from freelance contracts and other projects that I’ve been able to get involved with after potential clients found me through the blog. This has included consulting, writing, and editing work. That said, I do obsessively monitor my site traffic and my Alexa ranking, and now I know that since it’s not only my mother who is reading, there’s a lot more potential for future monetization!

Read about the other expat women bloggers interviewed by Maria: Expat Bloggers are Going Pro

Do you have any ideas or strategies that have helped make your blog profitable, or at least pay for itself? Please share in the comments.