I ask folks to be honest and brave about money in my interviews. How did you price your sausage? Did you do a business plan? How are you supporting yourself right now?

But I realized I’m not be honest about my own expenses for these very interviews. So it’s time for me to do what I’ve asked of others.

1. Website. I pay$26/year to WordPress for “Domain Mapping, Domain Registration, and Private Registration.”

2. Transcription. I could just send my interviewees a list of questions and ask them to reply via email. But I enjoy the conversations themselves. And I find an article based on a real conversation more engaging and readable. So I record my interviews and use Rev to transcribe the audio. At $1/minute, it’s not exactly cheap. But I’ve been exceedingly happy with the quality of the transcriptions, and it saves tons of time. Since the interview usually takes 30-45 minutes, I spend an average of $38 per post.3. Phone charges. I still just have a pay-as-you-go phone. Stop laughing. So I spend a few bucks in phone charges each time I talk to someone.

4. Time. The whole thing takes a lot of time. Time to set up the interview, time to conduct the interview, lots and lots of time editing, time to create the post and fiddle with the photos. Probably 3-5 hours per interview, time I’m not doing something else.

To date … $280. I have four published interviews and two in the works, so about $47 per interview.