How a blog with no advertisements makes its money
Designer Joy Cho’s blog “Oh Joy!” gets about 550,000 page views a month. When it launched nine years ago, Cho says she wasn’t quite sure what a blog was. She had always considered it to be an online diary.
“I had left New York and moved to Philadelphia with no job, and while I was interviewing, I had to start freelancing as a designer to make ends meet,” says Cho. “In the meantime, a friend of mine had suggested starting a blog… I really didn’t think anybody would care about what I had to say. But as somebody who is very visual, who’s always collecting things for future reference, I thought ‘OK, well at least I can put them online and I can share them with people if they decide they want to view them with me.'”
That was nine years ago. Since then, Cho’s blog “Oh Joy!” has blown up. And recently, she decided to stop putting advertisements on her site – the usual means of revenue for bloggers.
“I had ads on my site for a very long time. However, in the last several years, brands and bloggers have been partnering together a little bit more on sponsored content,” says Cho. “I find it to be much more meaningful, much more interesting and much more creative. It’s a way to work with a brand in a way that benefits everybody.”
One example? The Whimsy Pop desk:
Cho has also found success in her line at Target and various collaborations with companies, including Land of Nod and Microsoft.
Listen to the full interview in the audio player above.
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