How Long Does it Take To Monetize a Blog?
You can monetize a blog the day you publish your first post.
People who say otherwise are waiting for ad revenue to kick in.
And that can take months and, more likely, years.
You don’t need to wait that long to build a profitable blog.
RELATED: 3 Simple Ideas On How To Repurpose Content (And Save Time!)
How long does it take to start making money from a blog?
In the beginning, figuring out how to make money as a blogger seems impossible. But over the years, I'm amazed at how much I didn't know.
There are really only 2 ways to make money as a blogger:
Actively
Passively
Have you ever wondered why YouTubers can take a break for an entire year while TikTokers are constantly churning out 3 videos a day to keep their status and income?
It’s because YouTube content is evergreen and uses SEO. It’s passive income.
Lucky for us bloggers, we have SEO at our disposal, too.
Whether it’s a blog, Etsy digital download listing, or a physical product, you need to understand SEO to get sales— and an audience.
I mean, you can depend on social media, but social media is exhausting.
Because it’s active marketing.
SEO is passive marketing.
Here’s what I mean by that:
The Easy Way To Monetize a Blog
We all want to work less and make more money, right?
Work smarter, not harder!
The trick: Create evergreen content that people can find organically.
Unfortunately, the only social media platforms that offer evergreen content (i.e., content that remains relevant and is recommended years after creation) are YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest.
Your social media posts only last about 48 hours before people scroll to the next thing.
So, instead of depending on the algorithm and posting on social media every single day, you want to focus on long-form, search-engine-optimized content.
The easiest way to monetize a blog is to have passive streams of income and promote it through passive marketing.
Here are your choices:
Active ways to make money:
Active = daily work you have to do to make that money, such as:
Offering a service
Consulting
Brand deals/User Generated Content (UGC)
Passive ways to get money:
Passive = making money while you sleep, like you do with:
Ads
Affiliate links
Digital downloads
Print-on-demand merch
Courses
Obviously, passive income sounds a hell of a lot more intriguing because it gives you an irreplaceable luxury: time.
Learning how to make money as a blogger is going to take some time— initially. And because there are so many options, I recommend picking 1 stream of active income and 1 stream of passive income to start.
But even if you do have passive income, you still need people to find it.
Which is where marketing comes in.
Marketing Your Blog
Marketing itself can be active or passive. As I mentioned, social media marketing is ctivea, but creative SEO content is passive.
Active Marketing:
Daily/Weekly social media posting
Paid ads (because you’re actively paying every day to get sales)
Email marketing
Passive Marketing:
SEO blogs
Pinterest Pins
YouTube videos
Below is a brief summary of the 8 passive and active ways you can make money as a blogger.
Pick 1-2 to start. From there, you can start adding streams of income to your blogging business as soon as you can passively market yourself
Passive marketing + passive income = all the time and money in the world.
8 Ways To Make Money as a Blogger
Just so you know— I’ve tried and successfully made money from every single one of these opportunities.
Here’s the catch: You can’t do it all at once. And you won’t do it all. Along your journey, you’ll find out which work you like to do and which you hate.
Here are some things I ended up loving: Anything to do with Canva (Amazon Journal, Digital Downloads, and Merch), Pinterest , Blogging
Here are some things I ended up hating: Client work, Memberspace, Amazon FBA, Etsy fees, Instagram Creator Program, YouTube
As a blogger, you need multiple strands of income. I recommend monetizing in this order (the last 3 can really be in any order):
Client work (Content writing, copywriting, email/social writing)
Consulting
Digital downloads
Affiliate income
Brand deals/sponsorships
Ads (blog, Pinterest, reels)
Courses or “pocket products”
Merch
You can make thousands on blog ads alone, so technically, you CAN get paid just by hitting publish.
But you’ll need at least 50k-100k+ monthly visitors on your blog to make thousands via MediaVine. Which means you need to know SEO!
Below, you’ll learn:
How to make money as a blogger
What you can expect to make from each stream of income
What you’ll need to learn, and
Examples of what the stream of income entails.
*Everything listed in “What you’ll need to learn” is explained in its entirety in my 1:1 program, SEO Your Success.
Client Work
Type of income: Active
Examples: SEO blog writer, freelance writer, copywriter, virtual assistant, social media manager
What you’ll need to learn: Target audience, creating a portfolio, skills of said service, creating contracts, invoicing
Potential income: $500 minimum per month per service
How long does it take to monetize? 1-3 months to get your first client
RELATED: Link To Your Other Blogs
2. Consulting
Type of income: Active
Examples: marketing consultant, writing Consultant, SEO consulting
What you’ll need to learn: How to provide social proof, case studies, how to set up calls (scheduling), create contracts, invoicing
Potential income: $100+/hour
How long does it take to monetize? 1-3 months to get your first client
3. Brand Deals/Sponsorships/UGC
Type of income: Active
Examples: Payment in Kind, No-Follow link in your blog, dedicated blog or video content, White listed content
What you’ll need to learn: How to analyze social/blog analytics, contracts, invoicing, create a media kit, how to pitch yourself
Potential income: $150 minimum per piece of content
How long does it take to monetize? 1-3 months to get your first client
4. Digital Downloads
Type of income: Passive
Examples: eBooks, planners, spreadsheets, templates
What you’ll need to learn: how to create on Canva, eBook formatting, Etsy/product SEO, bookkeeping
Potential income: $0-$1,000s per month
How long does it take to monetize? 1-3 months to get your first sale
5. Affiliate Marketing
Type of income: Passive
Examples: Share-a-Sale, Amazon Affiliates, Amazon Storefront, small business affiliates
What you’ll need to learn: The individual Terms of Service and qualifications for each affiliate platform, blog SEO
Potential income: $0-$1,000s per month
How long does it take to monetize? 1-3 months to get your first sale
6. Content Ads
Type of income: Passive
Examples: TikTok Creator Program, Pinterest Creators, Instagram Reels Program, YouTube ads, and blog ads from programs like Mediavine/Ezoic ads (just skip Google blog ads).
What you’ll need to learn: The individual Terms of Services and qualifications for each affiliate platform, as well as how they work, which platform you can earn the most on, and more!
Potential income: $0-$1,000s per month (most Mediavine bloggers make $2K per month)
How long does it take to monetize? 6-12+ months to get approved
7. Courses
Type of income: Passive
Examples: Kajabi, Skillshare, Squarespace Members Area, Member Mouse, Memberspace, Stan Store
What you’ll need to learn: Target audience, filming and editing, Canva presentations, landing page SEO and copywriting, information gaps, pricing, formatting your course, market research
Potential income: $0-$1,000s per month
How long does it take to monetize? 1-3 months to get your first sale
8. Print-on-Demand Merch
Type of income: Passive
Examples: Self-Hosted Merch stores (aka Shopify), Etsy, Amazon FBA, Storeenvy, Amazon Journals, etc
What you’ll need to learn: The difference between brand merch and community merch, pricing, bookkeeping, fees, profit margins, P&L, etc
Potential income: $0-$1,000s per month
How long does it take to monetize? 1-3 months to get your first sale
How To Make Money as a Blogger: 7 Steps to More Income
I can already hear people coming for me saying, “That’s not passive! It takes a lot of hard work!”
Yeah— at first.
But the point of passive income and passive marketing is that it’s working in the background 24/7.
A.K.A PASSIVELY.
It’s immensely less work than the active income streams I listed.
99% of the time, anyway (I made that statistic up).
So, where do you go from here? Here’s the order I recommend:
Pick 1-2 streams of income.
Learn SEO.
Set up your active income streams.
Set up your passive income streams.
Actively market yourself (social media, email marketing, word of mouth)
Passively market yourself (use SEO on your blogs, TikToks, Pinterest 1x per week).
Start adding on more streams of income.
And if you’re still lost on where to start, I’ll teach you everything I listed in this blog in my program: SEO Your Success!
TLDR;
FAQs about Monetizing Your Blog
How to make money as a blogger for beginners
Get the tools you need
Pick ONE stream on income to make money
Learn proper blog writing
Be active on social media
What tools do I need?
A content management system (WordPress, Squarespace, ShowIt, etc)
A design template (Tonic for ShowIt, Divi for WordPress)
This free blog template
SEO Keyword research tool. You can use:
Ubersuggest (paid version).
Google Search Console (free).
Google Analytics (needs professional setup because it’s confusing AF).
Canva
Can I make money with my blog for free?
For a website blog, I’m just gonna go ahead and say no.
Can you start an Instagram account and start to make money from brand deals and digital products if you start a Stan store and go viral and sell a bunch of products?
Sure. But it’ll take longer than getting monetized for Mediavine, and it’ll still cost you Stan Store fees.
What are common SEO mistakes to avoid?
Keyword stuffing. See this video for a visual representation of what NOT to do!
How long will it take for SEO to work?
Most SEOers will tell you 3-6 months. But depending on the keywords you use, it can actually take WAY less time (I’m talkin’ weeks).
Is social media important?
Social media is referred to as Off-page SEO. Your accounts can easily boost traffic to your SEO landing pages or blogs.
Now that TikTok and Instagram are implementing SEO practices directly on their platforms, you’ll get even more passive leverage by creating SEO content.
Questions? I have answers! 👇🏻
