I started writing a hobbyist blog about 2 years ago. I did it purely for fun and it contains posts about anything and everything with a loose connection to either local history or British history. I've written everything from a post about Henry VIII's love tokens to his queen, poor Anne Bolyen, to posts about men in my family who died fighting in the First World War. I've also written about the "adventures" of a year's home ed'ing of my SEN son, which involved a lot of site visits to historical places to give him a hands on approach to learning to love history. One of my most viewed pages is a post I wrote about how I was teaching my DS to understand the War of the Roses and explaining to him how the Tudors came to be kings and queens of England.
My DH doesn't understand why I write my blog and has never read any of my posts and was firmly of the belief that I was titting around. As well as home eding, on days when my DS was being tutored (at my expense) I had a very well paid job as a technologist in London which involved a 90 minute commute each way. But in the madness of home schooling and working whilst fighting my local education authority to provide an education my son could access, my blog was my lifesaver amidst a totally insane world involving Tribunals, Judges, and meetings with experts and barristers. (Anyone who has fought to get a Statement of Special Educational needs for their DC will understand exactly the insanity of it all.)
Just before Christmas last year, my blog was spotted by an editor of a well-known mainstream publisher of history books. They commissioned me to write three history books - including one book on the First World War (which is being timed to be published on the centenary of the Battle of the Somme). I delivered my first manuscript to them last week. Hopefully I will find out this week if they will be commissioning me to write an additional 2 books. So 5 books in total over a two year period. My first book will hit the bookshops sometime next month.
I have absolutely no idea how much each book will bring in by way of revenue. Given the fact that each book is extremely labour intensive because of the research that goes into each one, and then my time writing the books, I suspect that hour-for-hour I will "earn" less than the minimum wage.
My DS is now back in school, so I am free to go back full-time to my "day-job" in London. But, having commuted and worked in London for 32 years (sob, I'm old), this is now my time and, at least in the short-term, I will continue titting around writing my books and my blog. And hopefully will earn enough from it to keep the wolf from the door.