How Much Can A Blog Earn Per Month
You want to earn an income from blogging but are wondering how much can a blog earn per month? We will look at how much you can earn and how to maximize your monthly income.
1508 new bloggers were surveyed by Pro Blogger. They found out that 65 bloggers (4%) were earning over $10k per month, 9% were earning $1k -$9,999 per month, 7% were earning $500 -$999 per month.
The remaining 80% were making less than $1k per month.
When you first start blogging, you want to earn money from it straight away but in reality, blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes time to bring traffic to your website and earn a comfortable income.
So, if you are serious about earning an income from your blog, keep reading as we will cover the key areas that you need to understand about making money from your blog.
According to Pro Blogger, a blog can earn over $10,000 per month however not all bloggers achieve this.
Blogging is a full-time job that requires a lot of hard work and a lot of time. Too many new bloggers give up too quickly (1st year) because they don’t see the big bucks.
Any blogger earning $10,000+ a month didn’t get there overnight, it took them years of hard work to achieve this.
To give you a rough idea of how a blog can earn over $10k per month we will look at the examples below
Monthly traffic: 25k
Income Resources: Ads / Affiliate Links / Digital Product
Displaying premium ads on your website.
| RPM(per 1k traffic) | You Earn | |
| Premium Ads | $15 | $375 |
Promoting 2 products through affiliate links
| Cost of Product | Commission Rate | Conversion Rate | You Earn | |
| Product 1 | $100 | 4% | 3% | $3,000 |
| Product 2 | $50 | 5% | 3% | $1,875 |
| $4,875 |
Selling 2 of your own digital products.
| Monthly Traffic | Product Type | Sell Price | Conversion Rate | Monthly Income |
| 25k | eBook 1 | $5.99 | 2% | $2,995 |
| 25k | eBook 2 | $50 | 0.5% | $6,250 |
| $9,245 |
TOTAL
| Premium Ads | $375 |
| Affiliate Links | $4,875 |
| Digital Product | $9,245 |
| Total | $14,495 |
These numbers give you a rough idea of how a blog can earn over 10k per month. Your monthly income will vary depending on traffic, niche, and other factors.
If you want to know how much a blog can earn, the simple answer is ‘It depends on how much work YOU are willing to put into it’ The more work you put into your blog, the more it will earn for you.
What Can Decrease Your Monthly Income From Your Blog?
There are many reasons why the monthly income of a blog could be low. Just making a few changes can increase your monthly income.
The following are just a few factors that can have an impact on your monthly income.
Low Monthly Traffic
Traffic is vital when it comes to your blog’s monthly income. If no one is visiting your blog, then you have no customers to sell your products and services.
If you look at traffic as customers, the more customers that come to your website the more likely they become paying customers.
New bloggers assume that once you have articles on your blog, it will be flooded with thousands of traffic (readers) overnight, but in reality, it can take months for the traffic to even begin to come in.
I’m not trying to bust your bubble, but blogging is a long-term game. A new blog can take up to 6-8 months for each article to start bringing in a reasonable amount of traffic.
But it’s not all gloom and doom. Once your blog has had time to mature it will continue to make an income for you for many years to come.
Only a few years ago you could write about 30 articles on a blog and then start a new blog and do the same and keep doing this until you had a large portfolio of blogs
But nowadays for search engines such as Google and Bing to send you the traffic you need to keep producing articles that are amazing, in other words, articles that answer the user’s question better than other websites you are competing with.
When a search engine sees that your blog content is helpful, not only will they continue to send traffic to your blog but they will rank you higher which means more traffic.
There is a myth going around amongst new bloggers that states the more articles you write per week the more traffic you will get. To a certain level, this is correct however it’s not about the quantity you are producing per week it’s about the quality of your articles.
Let’s say you are publishing 1 article per day, that’s 7 per week. How detailed do you think those articles will be compared to publishing 2-3 articles per week.
It’s better to write long and detailed articles instead of writing short articles that barely answer the user’s question.
Low Number Of Articles Written On Your Blog
Blogging is about creating blog content (articles). The more articles you have on your blog the more traffic you will attract over time.
For instance, let’s assume you have 10 articles on your blog which get 500 visits a month each. This means your monthly traffic is 5000.
However, if you had 100 articles published on your blog and each gets 500 visits a month, your monthly traffic would be 50,000.
So, as you can see. The more articles you have, the more traffic you will get, which means more monthly income.
Slow Loading Website
Google likes fast-loading websites. If your website loads slowly on the user’s screen the likelihood of the user pressing the back button is high.
We have all been there when we try to load a page, but because it takes too long to load, we press the back button and try another website.
Google keeps a close eye on how many people press the back button (bounce rate). If your website has a high bounce rate, it shows Google that the user did not find your website helpful. The higher the bounce rate the less likely Google will rank your articles high on their search engine.
It doesn’t mean you should have a 0 bounce rate however, you should aim to provide a good user experience to the user which will result in a lower bounce rate.
There are many reasons why a website would load slow. One of the most common reasons is that the images you are using are too big. You need to make sure all images are optimized and reduced in size.
Your In The Wrong Niche
The first step to starting a blog is to choose the correct niche that is best suited for you.
You’ll be surprised to find out how many bloggers choose the wrong niche and by the time they realize this, it’s too late and they end up having to start all over again.
Some niches are worth more than others. Here are some examples:
Profitable Blogging Niches
- Finance
- Travel
- Product Reviews
Less Profitable Blogging Niches
- News
- Music
When it comes to choosing a profitable niche and trying to figure out if you can make a good monthly income. You should ask yourself the following questions
- Are there any affiliate programs available to join in this niche?
- What is the price range of the popular products in this niche?
- Are there any digital products I can create in this niche?
- Is this an evergreen (long-term) niche or just a short-term trend?
Choosing the correct niche should not only be based on money.
There are many other factors to consider when choosing your niche. For a detailed article on how to choose the correct niche for your blog, please click here.
How To Increase Traffic To Your Website?
There are several ways you can increase the traffic to your website. But one of the most popular methods used by bloggers is to create an email list.
Email List
Have you ever come across a website that asks you to subscribe to their monthly newsletter or offer a free product such as an eBook if you sign up? Well, this is what an email list is.
They offer a service or a free product in return for your email address.
You can offer a sign-up option to your traffic by offering something free in return for their email address. This way you can build up your email list.
Why Having An Email List Is Important?
When someone comes to your website organically this tells us that that person is interested in the information that you’re offering in your article.
If you can get that person to sign up and get their email address, you can promote other articles and products on the same topic to them through emails.
For example, If the article they landed on was titled ‘how to make easy money as a student’ you can promote other articles and products that are relating to students making an income while they study.
Once you have built up an email list you could send out emails to your subscribers to promote new articles that you have published recently. Sending out emails to subscribers is a great way to get return traffic also it’s a great way to build trust with your readers by offering more helpful content.
How Do Blogs Make Money?
Now that you have an idea of how much a blog can make and how to increase your monthly traffic to your website. Let’s look at some income revenues that can be applied to your blog to increase your monthly income.
Below is a list of different types of income revenues that you can consider applying to your blog.
The more income revenues you add to your blog, the more you can earn. You don’t need to add every possible type of income revenue to your blog. Choose the relevant income revenue that suits your niche for your readers.
The most popular income revenues for bloggers include:
- Placing ads on your blog.
- Promoting affiliate products.
- Selling your own digital products.
- Accepting sponsored content.
- Displaying direct ads.
- Offering online services.
Placing Ads On Your Blog
As a blogger, you can earn an income by placing ads on your pages by joining an advertising network. How much you can earn from ads depends on the RPM (rate per thousand) you are receiving from these networks.
For every thousand visitors that come to your website where the ads are displayed, you will earn money.
The RPM can vary depending on many variables such as:
- Your niche.
- Time of the year.
- Which network you are with.
- World economy etc.
RPM can be anything from a few pennies to well over $100.
There are two types of blog advertising networks that you need to be aware of.
- Premium Blog Advertising Networks
- Premium advertising networks require a website to have a minimum amount of traffic per month. Usually starting from 10k all the way up to 100k visits per month.
- Some require a joining fee.
- Non-Premium Blog Advertising Networks
- This type of advertising network does not require minimum monthly traffic. However, they are known to pay out less. Another thing to keep in mind is that their ads can slow down your website and we all know that Google likes a fast-loading website.
Let’s look at the most popular advertising networks.
Google AdSense
Minimum traffic per month: 0
Type: Non-premium
Google AdSense lets you place ads on your website without a minimum requirement of monthly visits, for this reason, Google AdSense is popular amongst new bloggers who have small to zero traffic each month.
AdSense only offers Google inventory.
If you’re new to blogging and don’t have any traffic yet, Google AdSense can be added to your website straight away.
However, from personal experience, Google AdSense does not payout much and their ads are known to slow down websites.
So, you need to consider is it worth putting Google AdSense on your website.
Have you ever pressed the back button because a website took so long to load? I have and I am sure you have too.
If your website takes long to load you could have a higher bounce rate which basically means people come to your website and press the back button because your site takes too long to load.
I personally have not used Google AdSense for this reason.
From my research I found many bloggers claiming that the monthly income wasn’t worth the time it takes to set up Google AdSense.
Pros
- Sign-up with 0 traffic.
Cons
- Slows down websites,
- Low ad revenue.
Ezoic
Minimum traffic per month: 10k
Type: Premium
Ezoic is a popular premium advertising network amongst new bloggers who are beginning to get a good amount of monthly traffic to their website.
To join Ezoic you need a minimum of 10k visits per month. This may sound a lot but once your articles start to rank, you will be surprised how many pageviews you will start getting organically.
From personal experience, their ads don’t slow down your website as much as other networks. Keep in mind, if your website is slow, to begin with, it’s only going to get slower.
So, it is important to make sure your website has a fast load speed.
Ezoic offers an EPMV calculator (Earnings Per Thousand Visitors) on their website, which can be used to give you an estimated figure of how much you can earn per 10k visits to your website.
Pros
- The user interface is simple and easy to use,
- It boosts your earnings with its automated ad tester,
- Good customer service,
- Free to join, but you will not get paid for 1 ad on each page, however, they do have a paid membership that costs $39 per month.
Cons
- Requires DNS control,
- Takes some time to get your website fully optimized,
- Minimum of 10k visits per month,
- No more live chat support.
Mediavine
Minimum traffic month: 50k
Type: Premium
Mediavine was created by content creators. Their goal is to provide your readers the best user experience while we (the bloggers) earn a handsome income.
They have a great support team ready to help you, so if you need advice on how to place ads or where to place ads on your website, help is at hand.
You will find many helpful articles on their website to get you started. They also have a YouTube channel and Facebook group.
Mediavine increased their minimum joining requirement from 25k to 50k page views per month in 2020 but this hasn’t stopped bloggers aiming to join Mediavine.
Pros
- Good customer service,
- Access to a private Facebook group,
- Good ad revenue, however, like any other advertising network many factors determine how much you earn, such as niche, time of year, the total amount of traffic, etc.
Cons
- 50k monthly visits needed.
- If you ever decide to leave Mediavine, you need to be with them for at least 3 months.
- Can’t run ads from other Ad networks.
AdThrive
Minimum traffic per month: 100k
Type: Premium
Once your website hits the milestone of 100k visits per month then you have the option of applying to Adthrive. They have a rigorous quality assessment process for joining, which should be the case for any premium ad network.
They offer many tools that help content creators to maximize their revenue such as mobile ad optimization and even video monetization.
Like Ezoic and Mediavine they offer great customer service, so you can rest assured if you ever come across a problem, help is at hand.
Pros
- Good earning,
- Community engagement,
- Good customer service.
Cons
- Minimum requirement 100k monthly page views,
- Focused on certain niches such as food.
Comparison -Google AdSense / Ezoic / Mediavine & AdThrive
| Ad Network | Minimum Requirement | Cost To Join | Minimum Payout |
| Google AdSense | 0 | $0 | $100 |
| Ezoic | 10k | $0(you don’t get paid for 1 ad on each page), paid membership starts at $39 | $20 |
| Mediavine | 50k | $0 | from $25 |
| AdThrive | 100k | $0 | $25 |
Promoting Affiliate Products
After advertising networks, affiliate marketing is the second most popular method of income amongst bloggers. The earning potential is limitless. The more blog content you create the more you can earn.
Most niches have some sort of affiliate programs that you could join. If you have not yet started your niche website, it is important to research and find out what type of affiliate programs are available within the niche that you are considering working in.
What Is Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s products such as physical products, courses, eBooks to name a few.
The great thing about this type of revenue is that you can find products that you have a passion for. Promoting products that you actually like, makes it so much easier to create blog content around.
To promote affiliate products you need to place special links on your website using the URL given by the company that you are an affiliate for.
How Much Money Can You Make As An Affiliate Marketer?
According to Statista the affiliate marketing industry has been growing steadily over the years. If we look at the numbers in the US alone, we can see how fast it’s been growing.
| 2010 | $1.6 billion |
| 2017 | $5.4 billion |
| 2022 (estimated) | $8.2 billion |
So, what does this mean to the individual blogger?
It shows us that we are not too late to get a piece of the cake.
To have a rough idea of how much you can make from affiliate marketing let’s look at the below example.
If your monthly traffic is 25K and the product you are promoting gives you a 5% commission. Let us see how much you can earn for a conversion rate of 3%, 5%, and 10%.
(Conversion rate is the percentage of your traffic actually purchasing what you are promoting).
| Monthly traffic | Product Price | Commission rate | Conversion rate | How much you make. |
| 25k | $100 | 5% | 3% | $3,750 |
| 25k | $100 | 5% | 5% | $6,250 |
| 25k | $100 | 5% | 10% | $12,500 |
This gives you an idea of what you could earn. Remember there are many factors to consider such as:
- Conversion rate
- Commission rate
- Your monthly traffic
What are the benefits of Affiliate Marketing?
There are many benefits to affiliate marketing including:
- It is automatic once it has been set up.
- You don’t have any contact with the buyers, this is covered by the company whose product you are promoting.
- You can earn money while you sleep.
- You can promote products from more than 1 company on your website.
Even though there are many benefits, you still need to put in the hard work to bring in the traffic to your website. Without the traffic, this method will not work.
What Is The Downside Of Affiliate Marketing?
There is one major downside to affiliate marketing, and it is something that actually affected many bloggers in 2020.
And this is…
You have no control when it comes to the commission rate of the product you are promoting. This is a huge downside, let’s say you have been promoting a product for many years and out of the blue the commission rate is slashed from 5% to 2%, this would mean you would lose over half of your income from that product overnight.
This is what happened to many bloggers in 2020. Amazon decided to cut its commission rates and many bloggers lost more than 50% of their income overnight.
This is why you should never put all your eggs in the same basket. When it comes to income resources for your website, it’s good practice to have multiple incomes coming from many resources.
How Do I Become An Affiliate Marketer?
One of the easiest ways to find affiliate programs and join them is by looking at the products available in your niche and checking the manufacturers’ websites to see if they offer an affiliate program. You normally find this information in the footer of their website.
Another way is by joining an affiliate marketing network and checking what is available in your niche.
What Are Affiliate Marketing Networks?
In simple terms, this is similar to Amazon, which has many companies selling their products on their platform.
In the case of affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing networks consists only of affiliate programs.
Here are some of the most popular affiliate marketing networks
Can Anyone Become An Affiliate Marketer?
Technically yes, you need to have good knowledge of the products you are promoting.
But in some cases, you might need to meet a minimum requirement such as
- A minimum amount of traffic coming to your website.
- You have all the legal documents on your website such as terms & conditions, cookie policy, and disclaimer policy, etc.
What To Do Before You Start Promoting Affiliate Products?
There is one step you can’t afford to miss out and if you do, you can get yourself in trouble.
You need to display a disclaimer to your readers every time you use affiliate links on your pages.
Basically, this is informing the reader that you are promoting affiliate links on your page and that you will be making a commission if they were to purchase anything through your affiliate links.
To cover this, all you need to do is write a small paragraph at the beginning of your page to inform your readers that the page contains affiliate links and that you will make a commission.
Selling Your Own Digital Products
You find many bloggers on YouTube claiming to be making $5k, $10k, and $15k+ per month. If you were to look at their monthly income report, It would be likely they are achieving these monthly numbers because they’re selling their own products.
If they can do it so can we.
Selling your own product on your website is one method that can bring you a good monthly income however many bloggers choose not to apply this method to their websites for many reasons such as:
- Not knowing what to create within their niche.
- Not knowing how to create their own product.
- Don’t know how to promote their own product.
- Time and effort, it takes to launch a product.
Selling your own product seems like an impossible task but let me reassure you that all the hard work and time you put into creating your own product is worth it in the end.
What Type Of Products Can You Create For Your Blog?
There are many types of products to choose from, it all depends on the niche that you’re in.
Here is a list of the most popular products bloggers create to earn a monthly income.
- Step by step guides
- eBooks
- Courses
- Video tutorials
- Subscription service
- Printables
EBooks
The most popular product bloggers sell on their blogs is eBooks.
Writing an eBook is easy if you know your topic very well however if you choose to write an eBook on a topic that you are not too familiar with. This will make the whole process tougher and less fun.
Writing your first eBook is exciting and fun however there is a steep learning curve.
By the time you finish writing your first eBook, you will have picked up many new skills and improved some old skills such as:
- Graphic design
- Research
- Structure
- Photography
Ebook is just one product you could sell on your blog.
How To Decide Which Product To Create For Your Blog?
It all depends on the niche your blog is in.
You don’t want to be creating a product just for the sake of creating one.
You need to do research and find out what products sell well in the niche you are in.
There are many ways you can figure out what to sell. This is what I do to decide what products I should create to sell on my blog sites.
- Look at the products other bloggers are selling in the same niche as yourself. Don’t copy their products but create a similar product but make it better and bigger.
For example, if someone is selling an eBook on ‘Beginners guide to woodworking’. For you to make it better and bigger, don’t only create an eBook, also create short video tutorials and sell it as a package.
Not only will the reader feel they got good value for their hard-earned cash but they would be more likely to purchase another product from you.
- Another way you can figure out what to create is by putting yourself in your reader’s shoes. If you were the reader that came to your blog what products would you likely purchase.
Once you understand how the reader thinks you will have a better idea of the type of products they would happily purchase from your blog.
Why Create Your Own Product For Your Blog?
Creating your own product takes your blog to the next level.
Once you create and start selling your own product, not only will it increase your monthly income but also give you a sense of achievement and a boost in confidence in your abilities as a blogger.
The best part is you can create multiple products.
You don’t need to create multiple products all at the same time. Even if you were to create one product a year, even with one product, you will see your monthly income increase.
Success isn’t achieved overnight, it takes time and hard work.
So why should you create your own product?
In short, selling your own products gives you many benefits.
- Creating a product you are passionate about.
- you have 100% control of what you are selling.
- you set the price for your own product.
- you get to keep 100% of the profit.
Placing ads on your blog and doing affiliate marketing does not give you 100% control over your income.
Like I mentioned earlier, if affiliate marketing is your main income source, it only takes the commission rate to be cut down for your monthly income to drop also.
When it comes to advertising network, your monthly income will not be fixed each month. How much you earn from ads on your website depends on many factors. Some of these factors include:
- The marketing budget of the company whose product you are promoting.
- Time of the year.
- What’s going on around the world.
- The niche that you’re in and its interest at the time.
How Much Can You Earn From Selling Your Own Product On Your Blog?
So now that you are thinking of taking your blog to the next level.
How much can you earn by selling your own product?
Here is an example, so you can have an idea of what is possible:
| Monthly Traffic | Product Type | Sell Price | Conversion Rate | Monthly Income |
| 25k | eBook | $5.99 | 2% | $2,995 |
| 25k | course | $50 | 0.5% | $6,250 |
| 25k | Printable | $1.99 | 4% | $1,990 |
To some people, these figures might be farfetched, but they are achievable if you are willing to put the work into it.
When creating a product, take your time and make it the best you can. If it takes you twice as long as you expected, so be it. If your final product is of a high standard, then your customers are more likely to come back and purchase more and recommend you to their friends.
Accepting Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is when someone pays you to have their content published on your website. So, they can reach out to your traffic and get more traffic for their own website.
Sponsored content is very popular amongst bloggers but be careful about this method as it has many downsides.
The bigger your website grows, the more people will reach out to you to have their content published on your website. Some publishers are willing to pay anything up to $2000 per article to be published on your website.
The Downside Of Sponsored Content
Some experts say that Google is against this practice of sponsored content while others say it’s fine in Google’s eyes.
There are so many articles online with different views on this practice.
The last thing you want to do as a blogger is upset Google which can result in your website being penalized.
Google is known to penalize websites that don’t follow their strict guidelines. Many bloggers have lost their traffic by this and have never recovered.
Another downside to sponsored content is, your perspective on things could be different from the publisher who approached you.
Or even their writing style and approach could be completely different from yours. If this is the case, then you might end up having to rewrite the content which will not only cost you time but will take you away from your posting schedule.
Displaying Direct Ads
When you become more popular you will find that companies will start to approach you directly to have their advertisements placed on your website.
You will find that some companies will be willing to pay big bucks each month to have their ads placed on your most popular posts. Some are even willing to pay up to $2000 and more.
You can negotiate the price depending on where the ad is located on your blog. You could have a set price for the sidebar or another price for the home page.
When your website is noticed by a brand/company and you are approached directly this is a good sign that things are going well.
As I said earlier if you are willing to put the work in then it’s all worth it in the end.
Just last week I was approached by a local business to have their ad placed on one of my other websites which was great. This didn’t happen overnight; it takes time for your website to be noticed.
My best advice is to keep working hard and stay focus on creating great content.
If you are getting a good amount of traffic every month, you don’t need to wait to be approached by companies, instead, you can do the outreach.
You’ll be surprised how many companies will be willing to jump on the wagon if they knew you had a large amount of traffic coming in each month that could be interested in their product.
Offering Online Services
Offering a service is a great way to make an extra income each month. The service you offer your readers would depend on the niche that you are in.
One of the best service that you could offer your readers are courses. People are happy to pay for a course if they can learn the skill that they want to learn.
Many people choose to go to college & university because they want to learn something new. So, they can get the job of their dreams. They’re willing to pay because they know by the end of the course, they will have the necessary skills for their dream job.
Offering your readers an online course within your niche is not only a good way to increase your monthly income but also to build trust between yourself and your readers. Blogging isn’t all about making money but it’s about building a community based around your website.
Once you have created your course it’s time to promote it. The obvious choice will be to promote it on your website but that is not the only option available.
There are many platforms online where you can sell your courses such as:
But keep in mind you will have to pay fees to advertise your courses with them.
Final Thoughts
These are just a few of the ways you can make extra income for your blog. There are many more you can add to your blog.
Whichever method you choose, give it your best and you will get the results you want to achieve.
Running a blog is like any other physical business, the more work you put into it the more you can earn.
4% of bloggers earn more than $10K per month, even though 4% is small, it still gives us hope that it’s not impossible.
Many bloggers fail to make a decent monthly income, mainly because they either give up too quickly or they don’t put in the work needed to make their blog successful.
A blog can have multiple income resources as we covered earlier in this article, such as
- Placing ads on your blog.
- Promoting affiliate products.
- Selling your own digital products.
- Accepting sponsored content.
- Displaying direct ads.
- Offering online services.
These are the most common ways a blog can earn an income.
Blogging is becoming more and more popular amongst people of all ages and backgrounds.
Yes! there is a lot to learn but the reward is financial security for you and your loved ones. So all the hard work you have to put into making your blog successful is worth it in the end.
I hope you have found this article informative and have a better understanding of how much can a blog earn per month. But most importantly I hope you have found inspiration on reaching your desired monthly income.
Please share in the comments what your ideal monthly income is or if you have any tips and advice on the topic. Lets’s share and learn together.
Happy Blogging!
