Well it sounds like you've got the potential to up that to a couple of hundred dollars which is well worth it.
If you're going to set up you're own blog I'd recommend making it very focused, say on one academic area - or subject rather and stick with that, Google likes concentrated topics.
I uses WP.com and just pay the annual subscription which is around $250 a year, worth it for me.
I sell my own resources off the back of it.