<b>Ch. 9: What 100 Posts Actually Cost Me</b>

<b>Ch. 9: What 100 Posts Actually Cost Me</b>

People ask what a niche site costs to build. Here's the real reef-site ledger through 100 published posts (Jan 2024-Feb 2025):

— Writing: 100 posts averaging $16 (mix of $11 quick posts and $28 long pillars) = $1,600
— Editing/fact-check pass by me: ~80 hours, unpaid but real
— Images (stock + a few commissioned diagrams): $190
— Domain + hosting (13 months): $214
— Tools (Ahrefs share, GA, a rank tracker): $384
— A botched batch of 9 AI posts I had to bin: $40 wasted

Total cash out: $2,428. Total time: roughly 240 hours including the 80 editing.

At month 13 the site did $434 profit. So my cumulative cash was JUST breaking even around month 14-15 — not the 'profitable in 90 days' fantasy.

The $40 of binned AI posts taught the real lesson: cheap content that you delete costs more than expensive content you keep.

Lesson banked: budget a niche site to break even at month 14, not month 4. If your runway can't survive a year of net-negative, you'll quit right before the inflection — which is exactly where most people fold.