Last weekend I was given an award by the Outdoor Writers & Photographers Guild. It was a great honour and I am delighted that my blog has been recognised as something which promotes the outdoors and inspires others to get outside.
That is after all, one thing I would like it to do.
It has been just over a year since I started to write this thing in earnest and any form of encouragement, from awards to a friendly comment from wife, is very welcome.
Yes, but do you make any money?
The other day on Twitter someone asked me if I make money from the Armchair Mountaineer. Although I have been asked to write a couple of articles and I make a little trickle of cash from affiliate links, any revenue this web site brings me is very much in the "beer money” category.
But I am ok with this. For now. It doesn't mean I am not serious about it but I recognise that I must earn my stripes, I must grow my following and I must build something that can be monetised through a receptive and engaged audience, gear reviews or perhaps simply volume of traffic.
I didn’t start out with a curated plan as to how I would earn from it, but I always had an idea to write a book about my love of the outdoors and its role in my life re-design. It is a blessing that I am not in a hurry. It is a blessing that I have other means of income and it is also a blessing that this blog is as much about inspiring myself, and others like me, as it might one day be about making money.
The outdoor industry; this "business sector”, for want of a better phrase, is not renowned for its millionaires. But I have been struck, in this year of re-designing my life, that I have seldom come across a fellowship of friendlier, more helpful people. The outdoor community is by far the richest I have known in terms of health and spirit.
Here's to another few months of blogging, for love, not money.