How Much Money Do Bloggers Make? (+ How I Made My First 10k)

Written by acuncic@gmail.com in Blogging,Export

How Do Bloggers Make Money?

Are you wondering: how much money do bloggers make? It’s one of those things that isn’t really mainstream, and so it can seem almost fictitious.

If you go to a regular social gathering and ask around, how many people there will be a blogger or even really know what blogging is?

I’ll admit I only had a foggy notion up until about 2018.

Sure, I’d read blogs, but I didn’t know what they were. I was a huge fan of Pat Flynn going way back, but I still didn’t really know what he had was a blog.

I’d been writing on the Internet since 2007, and part of what I wrote was a blog, but it was on a large health site. My view of what a blog was, was completely different.

Not only that, but when I first started this site back in 2017, I didn’t think it was a blog.

I was intent on creating the #1 resource for social anxiety on the Internet. To rank in the top spots in Google and help as many people as possible.

(That’s still kind of my goal, but I digress).

It wasn’t until I got hooked into the whole world of “blogging education” that I came to understand what blogging is.

And the truth is, I fell in love with the idea. It’s the kind of writing that I love to do (informal).

I love all the intricacies of it. I love learning new things every day. I love coming up with compelling offers for my audience. I love crafting emails and making products.

I love it all.

All that is to say, if you don’t really know much about blogging, but want to make money on the Internet, there’s a whole world out there for you to explore.

If you’d like to know more about how to get started, I have a whole post dedicated to how to get started.

And also, why am I writing about blogging on a social anxiety blog?

Well, I’ve been writing about working from home long before the pandemic started. I’ve worked from home full-time since 2012, and have made money online since 2007.

It’s just something I know a lot about. And, it’s something I think anyone who struggles to maintain employment (perhaps because of social anxiety) should consider as a side gig.

It’s certainly not a get rich quick scheme, and requires determination and investment. But if you are tenacious and don’t give up, it can be well worth it.

How Much Money Can You Make Blogging

Okay, so how much money can you make blogging? The truth is that there is no upper limit on your earnings as a blogger.

Most bloggers don’t hit the upper echelons, but there are plenty of them making $5-$10,000 a month. There are also some superstars like Rosemarie Groner and Jennifer Maker who make much more than that.

However, for those of us with much more humble aspirations, making a full-time income of $3500 a month is within reach if you work hard and stick around long enough.

Some people will have a stroke of luck and something will take off, doubling, tripling, or quadrupling their earnings overnight.

But for the rest of us, it’s a slow plod. A long haul. But we’ll get there. This blog right now earns an average of $1000 per month. I started it in 2017 but did not really take it seriously until 2019.

How Much Do Bloggers Make on Average

I’m not sure if those statistics exist, but if they did, my guess is that the answer would be a big fat zero.

The truth is that there are many more bloggers making nothing than there are those making a living.

It’s a tough business because you have to work a long time making very little until you start to see the rewards.

As an example, this blog made no money from September 2017 until September 2019. That’s right folks, no money for two years.

Now, that’s mostly my own fault because I had not invested in education. If I were to do it over, I would have done that right from the start.

How Do Blogs Make Money

How exactly do you make money blogging? Well, there are lots of different ways, but I can tell you the way that I am doing it.

My income comes from three main streams: ad revenue, product sales, and affiliate earnings.

So for this blog, I qualified for a managed ad network (Mediavine), which pays much better than Google Adsense.

I also sell printables and workbooks/courses that I create myself on topics related to social and performance anxiety.

Finally, I promote affiliate offers to my audience that I think they will find helpful. In exchange, I receive a commission for making the referral. Amazon is one example of this, but I also promote other affiliates, such as online therapy.

This is exactly how I have made my first $10k blogging. It’s been a fairly even three-way split between my ad revenue, product sales, and affiliate sales.

How to Make Money Blogging

How can YOU make money blogging? If I were to do it all over again, here is my advice to you.

There are really two ways to go about this. I went about it the hard way, because I didn’t want to invest a lot upfront.

So, the hard way is that you bootstrap your way there. It takes two years before you start making money. You start out with free tools and eventually move to better (paid) tools when you can afford them. You take courses slowly as you can afford them.

It’s totally possible to do it this way. It’s just really slow. Keep your day job for at least two years while you do this. Probably more like 3-4 years.

I’m lucky my day job is freelance, and I can set my own hours.

The second way, if I were to do it again, is this.

Save up $5000 to invest in courses, platforms, tools, etc. so that you can get the best of everything when you start.

Dedicate 40 hours per week for one year and give it everything you’ve got. (I have done 10 hours per week for three years).

Quite honestly, this route is for people who are already swimming in money and time, and just want a hobby (which could become lucrative) or for those who are ready to go all-in and put everything else in their life on hold.

If that’s you, that’s what I’d do.

For the rest of us, it’s the long haul. It takes time. But it’s worth it.

Someday, when I have more of it figured out, I hope to pay back to the community of bloggers by creating a beginner’s course that is reasonably priced. There aren’t enough of those around (if you ask me).

There’s an argument in blogging circles that you need to pay a lot of money to have skin in the game and feel invested. While this is true to an extent, I don’t think it always needs to be that way.

For example, I’ve been binge-watching a $2000 course that I got access to for a short period (that I paid nothing for). By that logic, I should have no motivation to complete it, but I’m extremely motivated.

You can impart value while still offering products at a reasonable price (just my two cents).

How Do Bloggers Get Paid

How do bloggers get paid? I see this is a highly searched topic but it’s a little funny to me. How do we get paid?

Well, let’s see. Mediavine pays me for ad revenue. Teachable pays me when I sell courses. Amazon pays me commissions. Other affiliates pay me.

There are multiple streams of money coming from a bunch of different places. So if I were you, I’d try to get a handle on your business organization systems as quickly as possible. (Take it from me, queen of disorganization).

That’s truly one thing that you can do right, right from the start, and if I were to do it over again that’s what I’d do.

That’s all I got to say about how bloggers make money. I hope my story is a tiny bit inspiring, even though I haven’t “made it.”

Maybe it’s silly that I post income reports. Maybe I will never be the Web MD of social anxiety (who knows).

This blog is my baby, and I’ll keep working on it. Maybe someday, you can say you knew me when.

Cheers to 2021 and a Happy New Year!

P.S. – If you’re wondering why the income reports don’t add up to $10,000 that’s because I haven’t done one for December 2020 yet. But I can see in my Mediavine dashboard that I’ll be earning enough in December to have made my first $10k.

My Blog Income Reports

How much money do bloggers make? I can only tell you how much I make. In case you are interested in looking back over how I made my first $10k, I’m including my income reports below.

2019 Income Reports

2020 Income Reports

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