“How long does it take to make money blogging?”
That’s the big question that everybody wants the answer to.
Unfortunately, there’s no straight answer.
If you’ve ever googled this question, you’ll see that everybody says something different. This is because we all have different experiences with our own blogs.
Some people have more of a learning curve while others have previous blogging experience. Some people hardly have any time to be working on their blogs while others have hours a day. Etc…
However, people generally like to say it takes anywhere from 6 months to a year or more to make your first dollar from your blog.
That sounds pretty discouraging, right? At least 6 months of work to earn a dollar?! You’ve gotta be kidding me.
But the truth is that it doesn’t need to take that long and you don’t have to have 50-100+ posts on your blog to make your first dollar.
Heck, there are even some bloggers who have replaced their full-time income in less than 6 months on their blogs!
The key to earn money blogging with few posts in a short amount of time is to work smart.
So, I have a blog in a health niche. I started that blog in March of 2018 and earned my first dollar in May of 2018.
At that point, I only had 7 posts published and my blog was up for about 2.5 months, yet I was able to make some money! Here’s a screen shot from my Amazon Associates account:
As you can see, my results weren’t exactly spectacular. I made $3.55 in the month of May, a little over 2 months after starting my blog. But I didn’t put very much work into it anyway. More on that later…
Regardless, I have some tips that can help you make your first dollar with a few blog posts in a short amount of time.
Here’s how I made money blogging after 2 months with only 7 blog posts (and how you can too):
1. Write high quality blog posts
The saying “quality over quantity” really applies here.
All 7 of the blog posts I wrote were researched, well-written and at least 1,000+ words (one of them being over 3,000 words!).
I also made sure that I wasn’t writing for or about myself too much. I was writing for the reader!
Writing for the reader is very important if you’re wanting to make money from your blog. You have to think as if everyone who lands on your blog is searching for something that’s going to benefit them, and you have to give it to them!
Of course, it looks best if you have a decent amount of blog posts published. Having multiple blog posts helps to build credibility while giving your readers more to look at.
But in the end, quality is what’s most important!
2. Monetize your blog posts
If you don’t monetize your blog posts, you can’t make money!
I chose to monetize my blog with affiliate marketing using Amazon Associates in the beginning.
P.S. I will be focusing primarily on affiliate marketing as the method to earning money quickly from your blog in this post!
Personally, I think that affiliate marketing is the best way for a new blogger to monetize their blog posts.
Affiliate marketing is when you link to certain products, services, etc. with your own personalized “affiliate link”. If someone makes a purchase after clicking your affiliate link, you get paid a commission of what they bought!
Affiliate marketing is a good way for a beginner to monetize their blog because it’s usually pretty easy to get accepted into affiliate programs.
When it comes to Amazon’s affiliate program, you just have to have a few good quality blog posts up along with a disclaimer on your blog stating that you are a part of their program.
Like I said before, it’s important to write for the reader. So when it comes to affiliate marketing, you don’t want to slap a bunch of random affiliate links on your posts in hopes that someone will buy something. You should promote products that will truly benefit the reader!
Example: If you have a blog about sewing and you’re writing a blog post on how to start sewing for beginners, you can promote beginner, budget-friendly sewing machines.
3. Promote products that you know people are purchasing
It’ll be much more difficult to make sales if you’re promoting products or services that no one has ever heard of before.
Now, I’m not saying that there isn’t a place for talking about more obscure products or services that you like while blogging. But if you’re hoping to get your income growing fast, promoting things that people already buy will get it going!
When I wrote my blog posts, I made sure to talk about products that both I and many other people were already using in relation to my niche.
Example: If your blog is about weight loss and you want to promote a weight loss program, make sure you promote one that many people like and have seen results with.
4. Advertise your blog to people who would find it useful
I knew nobody was going to know that my little blog existed when it was hardly 2.5 months old.
So I sought out my readers.
I headed off to forums where people were discussing the topic that I was writing about and politely mentioned that I had a blog specifically on that topic.
This helped get readers that would actually benefit from my blog posts over to my blog.
One of my favorite places that I used to promote my blog was Quora. Quora is a website where people can post questions, and anyone with an account can answer them.
I would use Quora’s search bar to find people asking questions that were related to my blog’s niche, then I would write out a thoughtful answer and link to my blog at the bottom of my answer!
I also created nice pins related to my blog posts to post on Pinterest. In the description of my pins, I made sure to add keywords related to my blog post so people who were interested in the topics I wrote about could find my pins.
I’ve been super into Pinterest lately thanks to an online course called Pinteresting Strategies. I used this course to bring my Pinterest views up from hardly anything to the thousands in just a couple of weeks! If you’re interested in using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog, I highly recommend checking Pinteresting Strategies out.
6. Solve a problem for people
This is the most important tip!
The reason why I was able to make money from my blog so quickly was because I wrote thorough blog posts that solved an annoying problem for people.
Within my blog posts, I promoted products that HELPED solve that problem!
People were more likely to purchase the items I promoted because they read my blog posts that told them how they can use those products to help themselves.
With all that being said, it’s important to be genuine on your blog. I wrote my blog posts and promoted specific products because I had personally used them and truly thought they would be helpful. First and foremost, you should want to help others and provide good information.
Why I didn’t make MORE money…
So, those are the steps that I took to quickly make my first dollar off of my health blog. But why didn’t I make MORE than just $3.55 in May?
Well, the truth is that I really didn’t put a whole lot of effort into my blog in those first couple of months. As I said earlier in this post, I only had 7 blog posts published in the first 3 months!
I probably worked a total of 10 hours on that blog by the time I made those 3 dollars. If I had put in a little more effort, I’m sure my results would have been better.
Since then, I’ve published more blog posts and my income has consistently grown every month.
Do you want to start a blog and make your first dollar?
Disclosure: I am an affiliate for Bluehost, which means I will receive a commission if you sign up through my referral link at no additional cost to you.
Here are my quick tips for starting a blog:
- Decide on your niche. What are you going to blog about? Recipes? Personal finance? Dogs? The list of possible niches are endless. If you’re not sure what to write about, I have a blog post on the 10 best niches that may inspire you.
- Pick a name for your blog. Think of something simple and “brandable”. Here’s a quick example: If you want to start a blog about dogs, a simple, “brandable” name could be “RuffHouse.com”.
- Sign up for hosting. I would highly recommend signing up for hosting instead of using a free website. It’s essential if you want to turn your blog into a money-making business. There are many reasons why, but to make a long story short: You don’t own a free blog, but you ARE the owner of your hosted blog. My top recommendation for hosting is Bluehost. It’s inexpensive and easy to use. Plus you get a free domain name when you sign up!
- Write and publish some blog posts. The more, the better. But I would recommend starting out with at least 5-10 blog posts.
- Monetize your blog posts. Affiliate marketing is my top recommended method for monetizing a new blog. Search for some affiliate programs that match your niche and include affiliate links where appropriate in your blog posts.
- Promote your blog. Post about it on social media and get the word out!
These tips are very short and sweet, but it should give you an idea of what goes into starting a blog that will eventually make money. If you want a detailed, step-by-step tutorial, check out my blog post on how to start your first blog!
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How To Start Your First Blog! Step-By-Step Tutorial