Or at least cover the cats’ food.
Can a small blog make money? That’s something we’ve started wondering since launching Six Blocks.
When we started Six Blocks, the idea was simple: to share our experiences of building a quieter life, living in a small space, travelling, and enjoying the little things along the way.
Some of those experiences began long before the website itself, back when we were still figuring out how to turn a piece of land into a place to call home. That’s part of the story we shared in Before the Dream House.
We wanted to document what this lifestyle actually looks like. Not just the beautiful photographs and quiet mornings, but also the work, unexpected problems, decisions, and expenses behind it.
Over time, another question started to emerge.
Could this little project eventually earn enough money to support itself?
Or perhaps, one day, even contribute to our living expenses?
For now, I’d be perfectly happy if it could cover the cats’ food.
And with our little feline community, that’s not exactly a small ambition.
Can a Small Blog Make Money? The Revenue Reality
There are countless stories online about people making money from blogs, social media, photography, and affiliate marketing.
It can all look surprisingly easy.
Start a website, write a few articles, share some photographs, add a few affiliate links, and wait for the money to arrive.
Except that’s not quite how it works.
At least not for us.
Here’s what Six Blocks has actually earned since the website launched.
| Income source | Earnings |
|---|---|
| Affiliate marketing | $0 |
| Paid Substack subscriptions | $0 |
| Other Six Blocks income | $0 |
| Photography sales | $2.50 |
Yes. Two dollars and fifty cents.
One photograph sold during this period.
I had actually been selling photographs before Six Blocks existed, although “selling” might be a slightly generous description.
About a year earlier, I’d earned approximately $5.
So there’s no hidden photography fortune waiting somewhere, at least not for us.
Now let’s look at the expenses.
| Expense | Cost |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | CZK 500/month |
| Website and hosting | CZK 1,745/year |
| CZK 850/year |
That’s approximately CZK 716 per month, or CZK 8,595 per year.
You might wonder why ChatGPT is one of our regular expenses.
English isn’t my native language, but Six Blocks is written in English because our topics appeal to a relatively niche, international audience.
I use ChatGPT to help refine my writing, improve clarity, and occasionally work through the technical side of running a website.
The experiences, photographs, opinions, and stories are still my own. It’s simply a tool that helps me communicate them more clearly in another language.
And those are just the basic running costs.
They don’t include cameras, lenses, travel expenses, other equipment, or the value of our time.
Financially speaking, Six Blocks is still very much an experiment.
What Hasn’t Worked — At Least Not Yet
Instagram was supposed to help people discover Six Blocks.
We’ve shared photographs, stories, and occasional videos. Some posts attracted attention, others disappeared almost immediately.
But attention doesn’t necessarily turn into website visitors, and website visitors don’t necessarily turn into income.
Affiliate marketing has been another experiment.
We’ve added links to services and products we’ve actually used, including travel bookings, car rentals, and eSIMs.
We don’t want to recommend something simply because it offers a commission.
So far, it hasn’t generated any income.
That doesn’t necessarily mean it never will. It may simply take more time, more readers, or a different approach.
We’re still learning what works and what doesn’t.
Meanwhile, Leninek Has Other Plans
While I’ve been trying to figure out how to grow Six Blocks, Leninek has been quietly building his own little audience on YouTube.
In just two months, he’s attracted almost 300 subscribers.
No complicated marketing strategy. No SEO research. No carefully planned content calendar.
Just a cat being a cat.
And somehow, he’s doing rather well.
Perhaps there’s a lesson in that.
And perhaps YouTube could eventually become another way for people to discover Six Blocks.
For now, though, Leninek seems perfectly happy with the arrangement.
He provides the entertainment. I do all the work.
Leninek is just one of the characters in our little world. You can meet the rest of the gang in Cats Who Live Here.
The Part Nobody Sees
There’s something else worth mentioning.
Creating content takes time.
A single article usually takes me two to three hours, sometimes considerably longer.
First comes the idea. Then selecting photographs, editing them, writing, checking facts, revising the text, formatting everything, adding links, and finally publishing.
And that’s just one article.
There are also website updates, SEO, social media, Substack, and the occasional technical problem that somehow consumes an entire afternoon.
Sometimes you spend hours working on something, publish it, and almost nobody reads it.
That’s part of the reality too.
Of course, nobody is forcing me to do any of this.
I genuinely enjoy creating Six Blocks. Writing, photography, and sharing our experiences are things I would probably do in some form anyway.
But when you spend hours every week working on something, it’s natural to hope that one day it might bring something back.
Not necessarily enough to make a living. Just enough to cover some of the costs and make the project a little more sustainable.
The internet makes creating content look effortless. What it rarely shows is how much unpaid work happens behind the scenes.
And I think it’s perfectly reasonable to hope that something you invest so much time and energy into might eventually give something back. Even if it’s only enough to pay for the cats’ food.
Six Months in Numbers: Is Anyone Actually Reading?
Six Blocks has been online for more than six months, but I only started actively working on growing it in August 2026.
Before that, the website was mostly sitting quietly on the internet.
And the difference is clearly visible in Google Analytics.
Once I started publishing more regularly, updating older articles, improving SEO, and sharing content on social media, visitors began to arrive.
Not thousands. Not even hundreds every day.
But actual people finding their way to our little corner of the internet.
Here’s what the numbers look like after six months.
Website Traffic
Google Analytics 4 | April 29 – October 28, 2026
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Active users | 198 |
| New users | 197 |
| Page views | 885 |
| Average engagement time per active user | 58 seconds |
For a website that’s only been actively promoted since August, these numbers are a starting point.
But they also show something important.
Simply creating a website doesn’t mean people will find it.
The website may be online 24 hours a day, but growing it is anything but passive.
Where Do Our Visitors Come From?
Social media has played an important role in bringing people to Six Blocks.
Here’s how our users first discovered the website.
| Acquisition channel | Users |
|---|---|
| Organic social media | 76 |
| Direct | 57 |
| Other | 45 |
| Organic Google search | 17 |
| Referrals from other websites | 3 |
| Total | 198 |
Instagram and other social platforms have helped people discover the website, even though they haven’t generated any direct income.
Google search is beginning to contribute too, although organic traffic remains small.
An International Audience
Six Blocks is written in English, even though English isn’t my native language.
Our subjects — tiny houses, slow living, independent travel, and everyday experiences — appeal to a relatively niche audience.
Writing in English gives us the opportunity to reach readers beyond the Czech Republic.
And the numbers suggest that’s already happening.
| Country | Active users |
|---|---|
| United States | 61 |
| Czech Republic | 53 |
| United Kingdom | 14 |
| Canada | 7 |
| Sweden | 6 |
| China | 5 |
| Germany | 5 |
These are the seven countries with the highest recorded user counts, not the complete list.
Interestingly, the United States has brought more recorded users than the Czech Republic.
Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve built a loyal international audience yet. But it does show that Six Blocks is reaching people outside our home country.
What Are People Actually Reading?
Not every page receives the same attention.
Some visitors arrive on the homepage, others browse categories, and some find individual articles.
Here are a few of the most viewed pages and stories.
| Page or article | Views |
|---|---|
| Homepage | 218 |
| Living | 85 |
| Explore | 52 |
| How We Build a Green Roof Again | 31 |
| Slow Days | 28 |
| Cats | 24 |
| Moser Glassworks Karlovy Vary | 23 |
| Les Bains de Marrakech Review | 18 |
Living, Explore, Slow Days, and Cats are category pages rather than individual articles.
What’s interesting is that the individual stories attracting attention cover quite different subjects.
Building a green roof, traditional glassmaking, and a Moroccan spa experience don’t exactly belong to the same category.
One example is our Les Bains de Marrakech review, where we shared what the experience was actually like, including the price, treatments, and practical details.
Perhaps that’s part of what Six Blocks is about.
Not following one narrow formula, but sharing experiences from the life we’re actually living.
What Have I Learned?
The biggest lesson isn’t about which country brings the most visitors or which article receives the most views.
It’s about consistency.
When I actively work on Six Blocks, publish articles, improve older content, and promote the website, the traffic tends to increase.
When I have less time to devote to it, things often become much quieter.
The analytics show a clear increase in activity from late August, although they can’t tell us exactly which individual efforts caused it.
And there’s another reality.
Visitors don’t automatically become subscribers. They don’t necessarily click affiliate links, and even if they do, they may never buy anything.
So after six months, we have a small but growing collection of stories, some international visitors, a little traffic from Google, and almost no revenue.
Is that a success?
Financially, certainly not yet.
But considering that I only started actively developing the website in August, I wouldn’t call it a failure either.
It’s simply where we are.
And perhaps that’s worth sharing, especially when so many stories about making money online make the whole process look effortless.
Thinking About Starting Your Own Blog?
If you’re considering starting a blog, a website, or any other small online project, there’s one thing I’d like to share after these first six months.
Don’t underestimate how much time it takes.
It’s not just about writing a few articles, uploading some photographs, and waiting for visitors to arrive.
There’s website maintenance, editing, SEO, social media, technical problems, and the constant question of what to do next.
And even after all that work, there’s no guarantee anyone will read what you’ve created, let alone pay for it.
It’s not necessarily a full-time job in terms of hours, but it can certainly feel like one when you consider everything involved.
Of course, you can do it purely for pleasure. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But if you’re hoping to turn it into something that eventually earns a little money, be prepared to invest a lot of time before you see any return.
Six months in, I’m still learning.
And I don’t regret starting.
I just know now that creating a small website is one thing.
Building something that people actually want to read — and perhaps one day support — is quite another.
We’ll see where the next three months take us.
The Next Three Months
Rather than expecting overnight success, I’ve decided to set a few modest goals for the next three months.
- One genuine collaboration with a company or brand that fits Six Blocks.
- One product partnership that makes sense for our readers.
- And perhaps our first paid Substack subscriber 🙂
Nothing spectacular.
Just a few small steps towards making the project more sustainable.
In three months, I’d like to look at the numbers again and share what actually happened.
What worked, what didn’t, and whether anything changed.
Even if the financial results are still modest.
A Cup of Coffee, a Few Cats, and One Small Website
Most of Six Blocks is free to read, and I’d like to keep it that way. Occasionally, some additional content is available to paid subscribers on Substack.
If you enjoy our stories, photographs, or simply have a soft spot for our little feline community, there’s an option to support Six Blocks through a paid Substack subscription.
It’s €5 a month — the minimum subscription price Substack allows us to set.
Roughly the price of a good cup of coffee, depending on where you live.
It’s a small way to support an independent project and the time that goes into creating it.
And perhaps you’re not particularly interested in supporting a website at all.
Maybe you just like the cats.
That’s a perfectly good reason too.
Have you ever tried turning something you love into a small business? Did it work out, or was the reality rather different from what you expected? I’d love to hear your experience.