How long does it take to make money blogging?
I wish I could give you a short answer, but the real question is how committed are you?
To make money blogging, you must know your options to monetize your blog, you need an audience and you must find ways to convert your traffic.
If I lost you there – don’t worry. I’m going to walk you through the steps with real-life examples to show you how you can make money blogging and give you an achievable timeline.
If you’re after a short answer, I mean – there you go: I made my first $20 on my second month of blogging.
But, I’m guessing that if you’re here, you’re after higher numbers, aren’t you?
Keep reading to learn how you can monetize your blog, how much you can expect to make, and how long it may take you to make money blogging.
Do people really make money blogging?
Yes. People do make money blogging. Unless they are blogging just for fun, which is basically an expensive hobby.
I make money blogging. How much?
Well – again – it depends. I own 6 websites. So far, only two of them are monetized and the others are growing slowly. (The others are less than 12 months old.)
It takes time to grow a blog.
As I’m using SEO as my main strategy to grow my website’s traffic, I need to be patient. SEO takes time.
My most successful blog is A Broken Backpack – a travel blog. I can make anything between $3,000 to $6,000 per month depending on the seasons.
Nomad Life 101 (this blog) is also monetized, but at the moment I make about $300 per month, which is still low. Although, I’m using this website as a platform to sell a product and services too which I did not include in the monthly revenue.
I know many bloggers. Some of them are super successful, some others struggle. It depends on several factors – like whether or not they are working on their blog full-time or if they have a full-time job.
If you wish to make money blogging, ask yourself the following questions, and let’s make an action plan for you to step up your blogging game.
Are you blogging full-time or part-time?
Bloggers who make money are treating their blog as a business. They are committed to their project.
Although most of us started working on our blog part-time, and eventually, started blogging full-time.
When I made the switch, I had a mindset shift – I needed to make sure to be able to support myself, so I had to make it work.
It’s quite simple, the more you work towards your project, the more you will eventually see the results.
Are you set for success?
Many new bloggers do the mistake of signing up on WordPress.com – a free blogging platform that is going to be hard to monetize later on. Being set for success means that you’re going to have to invest a bit at first.
Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll need (if you don’t have it all already):
- Domain
- Hosting provider
- Theme
If you’re new in the blogging industry, you may be lost here. If that’s the case, let me help you out.
A domain is basically your own URL.
Example: yournewwebsite.com
You can buy a domain in different marketplaces, such as Namecheap or directly with your hosting provider (which I would recommend since it’s easier).
Once you have your own domain, you need to get a hosting plan. In simpler words, you’re picking a server to host your website on so it can show on the Internet.
There are several hosting providers out there – some are super cheap, some are expensive. Usually, the cheap ones may load your website slowly – which could affect your website performance eventually.
It is recommended to do a bit of research at first, but many people choose Siteground. It’s cheap at first, but the renewal fee is somehow more expensive.
I did pick Bluehost. Bluehost is one of the cheapest, not the fastest, and can be controversial but there are two reasons why I like it so much. I can host all my websites under the same plan (which means I don’t have to pay for multiple hosting providers). You can still use a CDN for free using Bluehost.
Okay – in case you don’t know what a CDN is – imagine it as a tool that makes your slow website faster. Bluehost is considered a slow host, but with their free Cloudflare CDN, my website isn’t slow anymore.
Usually, your hosting provider provides its own version of WordPress – so you can start blogging in one click!
Finally, you must create a website for which you can get a theme (a design template). There are free themes, but they are pretty hard to customize, so you may have to pay for a theme if you wish to customize your site.
You’re going to have SO MANY options. So, you can browse the internet and see what kind of websites you like. Usually, in the footer, you may be able to see what theme was used.
My websites are all designed with Divi Elegant Themes – which is a drag and drop theme. Again, Divi is considered a “slow theme”, but I got a license that I can use on all my websites, so I did go for it and it’s been 5 years. They also have excellent client support which was important to me.
Do you have a business plan?
Remember that thing I said about treating your blog like a business? Ah!
While you may not have a proper business plan, you may want to keep these key elements in mind:
- How do you generate website traffic?
- How do you monetize your website?
- How do you structure your content strategy?
Keep reading to see how to plan for these three important questions.
How do you generate your traffic?
There are several ways to generate traffic for your blog.
If you already have an audience on social media, it’s a great starting point. But if your blog is brand new and there you are… looking at your stats and the only traffic comes from you… you must do something about it.
Here are some great ways to generate traffic to your website:
- SEO (search engine optimization): Your website is optimized for Google queries so people can find your articles when they are searching for something.
- Pinterest: You create beautiful images to promote your articles on Pinterest (which is basically a visual search engine).
- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & other social media: You promote your articles on social media and invite people to read them.
- Paid traffic: You run ads on Google or on social media to increase the clicks to your website.
- Referrals: You write articles for popular websites to get a link to your website and therefore, more traffic.
How do you monetize your website?
Again – there are so many ways to monetize your website. I’ll focus on my favorites – the ones I use myself.
Note: You could also sell services or digital products to monetize your website.
Advertising
Running ads on your website is an excellent way to monetize your traffic. I personally only run ads from Mediavine on my main website. Mediavine requires a minimum of 50,000 monthly sessions. You could also try Monumetrics which accepts websites with a minimum of 10,000 monthly sessions.
You could also go for Adsense, but the ads aren’t pretty and won’t make much money, so I think they are pointless. At the end of the day – it’s your decision.
Affiliate marketing
If you’ve never heard of affiliate marketing, let me give you an example quickly.
In my article about portable laptop stands, I discuss the different stands you can buy on Amazon. When clicking on the button, the user goes to Amazon. If the user buys a laptop stand, I receive a commission.
Affiliate marketing is my favorite way to monetize a blog because it’s easy, and you don’t need to do anything once the content is published. You just need to make sure to have traffic to convert.
In short, more traffic = more clicks on affiliate links = more sales.
One of the affiliate programs I like the most is SafetyWing. I’ve been generating money every month since I joined in 2018. This program is one of my favorites because you make a commission on the original sale. Still, if a nomad uses the Nomad Insurance for multiple months, I also get recurring revenue. Take a look at the program here.
Sponsors
Another way to monetize your blog is by being sponsored by a brand or by publishing sponsored content.
You should note that this strategy is very controversial in the blogging industry so I won’t get into the details.
We can also see this with influencers working with brands on Instagram.
How do you structure your content strategy?
Finally, you need to think about your content strategy.
The most important thing for me is diversification.
Why?
I don’t like having all my eggs in one basket.
This is why I’m using a mix of the three strategies mentioned above – advertising, affiliate marketing, and sponsors.
These strategies alone won’t work – they must make sense with your content strategy.
Here are 4 examples to show you how you use your content strategy to monetize your blog:
Advertising only: The content strategy should be around personal stories and/or information pieces.
Affiliate marketing only: The content strategy should include reviews, product comparisons, etc.
Sponsors: The content strategy would be around your sponsors who pay you to promote them.
All-in: The content strategy includes a mix of personal stories, information pieces, affiliate posts, and sponsors.
Obviously, the last option is my favorite for the following reasons:
- You build trust with your reader
- You monetize your personal stories or information pieces with ads
- You make sales with your affiliate posts
- You can earn extra income from sponsors
PSST. Read more about how to monetize your blog with the right keywords.
Real-life example with a timeline
This example is based on my main website A Broken Backpack. In the first few years, I did combine the amount of money from blogging + freelancing, but eventually, I separated them so you’ll get more precise data.
2015: I started the blog in July – I made about $100 that year. I still had a full-time job.
2016: That year, I quit my full-time job and I started freelancing. With the blog AND the freelance, I made $4,200. (Still not a lot!)
2017: I made $11,793 again, combining the blog and many freelance jobs. I would work for free accommodation (get $10 off on Worldpackers for volunteer opportunities) so I wasn’t always working on my blog full-time. At the end of 2017, I moved to Bali.
2018: I started blogging full-time and would still freelance, but part-time. This time, with the blog only, I made $17,603.
2019: With the blog only, I made $39,126.
2020: With my blogs, I made $36,570. (The pandemic hit my revenue). Although, with my SEO gig, I made an extra $50,000.
There are several factors and lessons to keep in mind here:
- I quit my full-time job in 2016, but at the time, I was still freelancing a lot – so my time was split between blogging and freelancing. I only went full-time on this website in 2018 which explains the slow growth.
- I started learning about SEO in 2016, but at the time I did not understand how to implement good SEO strategies. It’s only in 2017 that I started implementing SEO the right way.
- I joined Mediavine in 2018, and it made a big difference in my blogging revenue.
- SEO resulted in more traffic, more affiliate sales, and eventually, more ad revenue.
If you want this for your blog too, get started with SEO. If you’re like me, you may think it’s too complicated and if that’s the case, join my online course SEO from Scratch. My SEO strategies work and I’d be happy to help you reach the same results.
Final Thoughts
So, curious to see how long it will take you to monetize your blog?
Well – get to work! To grow a successful blog, you must work a lot to achieve results. Start working on your business plan, implement SEO strategies, and diversify your income streams.
Traffic won’t come to you magically. You must find ways to increase your traffic… to increase your revenue.
Related Questions
How do beginner bloggers make money?
Be patient; amateur bloggers must create content first to grow their audience. You should not throw your content out without a clear strategy. Bloggers make money with ads, affiliate marketing, sponsors, or by selling their own products/services.
How do bloggers get paid?
They can be paid by their chosen advertising platform, brands, or affiliate programs. Obviously, if you choose to sell a service or a digital product, you will make money with your sales.
How many views do you need to make money on a blog?
It depends on how competitive your niche is. You could make more money in a low-competition niche with profitable affiliate programs. Nomad Life 101 does make sales for several months now and the pageviews are much lower than A Broken Backpack (Nomad Life 101 has around 14,000 monthly pageviews in 2021). Why? Well, the niche is more specific and less competitive, and the volumes for search are lower than on my other website!
