I was taking a virtual session with my students and one of them asked me about how long it usually takes to make $500 a month with blogging!
Now, that’s a pretty exciting question for beginners because it’s not about the amount, it’s about the first confidence and motivation that pushes you forward!
And maybe, for some of you who just want to run a blog as an extra source of passive income, five hundred dollars isn’t a bad number at all.
So, I decided to answer this question to all of you amazing people. In this post, you are going to learn how long it actually takes to make $500 blogging, why it’s taking you longer than usual, how to make $500 a month with a blog fast, and answer some other interesting questions.
So, let’s just get right into the post and figure out what the blogging industry looks like to a beginner (and intermediates as well).
How Long Does It Take To Make $500 A Month Blogging?
So, this is one of the most asked questions and a lot of people will bluntly answer this question by writing/saying – ‘it depends,’ but I’m going to way deeper and help you understand how long it typically takes to start seeing results from your blog.
First, I’ll answer this question in simple words and then we’ll move on to the other vital information you should be knowing:
Considering that you will receive traffic from search engines and social media, it usually takes anywhere from 20-48 weeks to start making $500 a month with a blog. The time period, however, is dependent on a number of factors such as the niche, search analysis, consistency, monetization strategies, etc.
No blog and blog owner are the same in this industry but according to my own experience and a lot of fellow bloggers’ journeys, twenty to forty-eight weeks is a considerable time frame for a blog to start taking off.
Okay…that’s cool but why the number isn’t 2-4 weeks instead of what it is? Well, the reason behind this is that usually when someone starts a blog, the first objective to achieve is traffic (visitors)…and those visitors either come from search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, or social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Now, we all know that building a traffic source isn’t a one-day task. It takes time and a significant amount of work/effort.
According to an article by cognitiveSEO, it takes about six months to start seeing some serious traffic from Google (being the biggest search traffic driver) and it will take you no less than a couple of months to see traction from your social media campaigns as well!
Let’s face it – you won’t be making $500 from your very first month unless you get some viral traffic (which rarely happens). Blogging is a marathon and not a sprint, it’s the first thing you should understand while tapping into the industry.
Before we jump on to the next subheadings, let’s do some math:
- If you can write 30 blog posts per month on low-competitive keywords and you do that for three months, you will have 90 blog posts in total.
- Now, if those 90 blog posts start getting 400 visitors a month each after four to six months, your blog will get around 36,000 visitors a month.
- Considersing a conservative EPMV (earnings per thousand visits) of $14, you will be making $504 ($14*36) a month!
This is just a very random example but this is very similar to what bloggers usually get to see in the beginning. Later, your traffic may increase and so may your revenue!
Why Is It Taking You So Long To Earn Money From Your Blog?
If you started your blog a long time ago with hopes of making money and you still aren’t seeing the numbers you expected, there can be a lot of reasons for that.
That’s what we’re going to be talking about now. Let’s first quickly go through the topics and then we’ll move ahead with explanations:
- You haven’t added enough content
- Wrong search analysis
- False expectations
- Low topical autority of your site
- Poor promotional techniques
- You are demotivated/unsure
1. You Haven’t Added Enough Content
One of the very common reasons why you haven’t reached that five hundred bucks a month mark is simply because you haven’t added enough content (blog posts) to your website/blog yet.
According to a case study we did, it takes around 25 in-depth blog posts to get around ten thousand visitors a month when the posts are aged.
So, you will have to write a minimum of 80-90 posts before you expect some serious results. I’m not saying that you will only be making a few hundred dollars for eight to ninety posts but things are always uncertain in this industry and you have to pick a safe side.
So, if you have written 20 posts and now you are expecting to see that hockey-stick growth, it’s not going to happen. Even if it happened to somebody else you know, it rarely happens.
2. Wrong Search Analysis
Search analysis is something that can make or break your blog. Search analysis is another fancy name for keyword research.
If you have written about stuff that’s very competitive (for example – how to make money online, keto diet for beginners, etc.), you won’t be seeing any big traffic numbers at all because these topics are covered by the biggest websites on the planet.
You have to be very careful with picking/choosing topics to write about for your blog. Try to find low-competitive keywords that are easy to rank and have search volume.
You can feel free to check out this amazing article from Brian Dean and learn more about keyword research.
3. False Expectations
At the end of the day, blogging is also a business and not a ‘money-making scheme’ that’s going to make you rich within nights.
You won’t be making thousands from your blog right away. It’s going to take time, effort, and investment to get to a good stage.
You can’t be setting false expectations from your blog because that’s going to make things even more miserable.
Be realistic and focus on producing more content if you are only getting a couple of thousand visitors after publishing tens of posts. Use good marketing strategies and things will eventually start taking off.
4. Low Topical Authority
One of the biggest differentiators in blogging is topical authority. If you have a blog where you write about anything and everything (even if you are blogging in one specific niche), things will start moving slowly because you won’t reflect yourself as an authority to search engines and social platforms, and it can take longer than usual to get results.
If that’s happening to you, try being specific and I’m more than sure that you will see some fast-growing numbers.
5. Poor Promotional Techniques
Another reason why you aren’t seeing success as a blogger is that you aren’t using effective promotional techniques to drive traffic.
By poor promotional techniques, I mean things like:
- Spamming your blog post links to everyone in your network
- Commenting and leaving links to other people’s blogs
- Begging people to visit your website/blog
6. You Are Demotivated/Unsure
The next big reason is that you are not sure and confident about the business you have chosen. This doubt generally stops people from producing content as bloggers and they finally end up not getting results because that’s what they have been thinking about for the whole time.
If you are still not sure about blogs, be sure to check out this post where I have shared whether or not blogging is dead.
How To Make $500 A Month Blogging Fast
Now that we have discussed some common reasons and problems bloggers struggle with through their journeys, let me share some tips for you to start making five hundred dollars or more with blogging fast:
1. Pick A Niche You Like
A lot of beginners or new bloggers get excited by the numbers and pick niches that they think will earn them the most amount of money and end up giving up because they find it very hard to produce content.
All of the niches in this industry are high-paying and you can make decent money as long as there is something to sell in the niche!
So, pick something that you are really passionate about as it will help you become more productive and productivity is the key to success in blogging.
2. Publish More Content
There are a lot of not-so-important tasks that new bloggers are engaged in such as fixing logos of the site, the theme, the designs, the colors, and a dozen other things!
This makes them feel like they are working on their blog but the reality is – blogging is all about content! Quality content!
To be able to reach where you want to be, you should hit that ‘publish’ button more often than publishing those ‘customization’ buttons. As Bill Gates once said, Content is King!
3. Search Analysis & Backlinks
The next pivotal thing you can do to boost your traffic and revenue is to get search analysis right and build backlinks!
Okay, but how do you perform search analysis strategically?
Well, here’s an example:
Let’s say I’m writing about Italian food and I have to find a low-competitive keyword to write about…
What I will do is head over to a tool called Semrush (because it’s my favorite):
Now, in this tool that helps people with keyword research, if I type in ‘Italian food,’ you can see that’s is very difficult to rank for!
But on the other side of the table, if I type in ‘why is Italian food so popular,’ you can see it’s pretty easy to rank for and has search volume (search volume isn’t always a hundred percent accurate so try to ignore the numbers):
This is how you go about finding great keywords to write about. You can find tons and tons of them in most niches!
Coming to backlinks, backlinks are ‘votes’ from other websites that you have to get, and in return for that, search engines like Google will reward you with high rankings and loads of visitors.
You can check out this detailed guide by MOZ to learn more about backlinks and how they can change your blogging journey.
4. Advanced Monetization Strategies
Blogging isn’t just limited to AdSense! You can make ten times the money you make with display advertisements from your blog if you tweak your monetization strategies a bit.
You can try switching to premium ad networks like Ezoic, Mediavine, and AdThrive to earn more revenue with your blog!
You can use strategies like Pay Per Sale affiliate marketing, where you can promote other people’s/companies’ products on your blog and earn commissions for doing that.
You can try Pay Per Lead affiliate marketing and get paid for lead generation! In this case, you won’t even have to get people to buy something but still, get paid!
And last but not least – you can try selling your own info products/services like e-books, online courses, or coaching and consulting services!
You can watch this video from Income School where they interviewed a blogger who generates over ten grand with just fifteen thousand pageviews a month to learn more about monetization:
5. Try Pinterest
Pinterest can be a huge game-changer for you if have chosen a niche that appeals to women and girls!
Even if it’s a business niche, Pinterest can still bring in a lot of traffic and do wonders for you. There are hundreds of free videos available on YouTube, that are going to teach you Pinterest strategies for blogs and if you constantly keep adding new Pins, you will start seeing a lot of traffic and revenue.
There are thousands of bloggers who are killing it with Pinterest and I’m sure you can too! It’s also a search engine that offers visual content!
6. Forum Marketing
Forum marketing is a great way to see those initial dollars from your blog to keep you motivated.
In this strategy, you will first write the articles you want to write and then you will go to forums like Quora and Reddit and help people by providing insightful answers, and leave a link to your articles for them to learn more.
If you use this strategy consistently, you will see that a lot of targeted people will start checking out your website and make you money by seeing your ads or buying the products/services you have recommended.
7. Stay Consistent
As said earlier, consistency and productivity are the keys to succeeding as a blogger. If you show up every single day and create one piece of content, that’s going to add up over time and even if you don’t get a lot of visitors per article, the total traffic numbers will impact your revenue for sure!
Make sure to add new blog posts to your blog on a consistent basis and treat your blog like a real business. This small strategy itself will be very helpful and will get you to the point from where you will see that snowball effect!
Can You Still Make Money With Blogging In 2022?
The answer to this question is a big YES! You can still make money with blogging and there are a lot of bloggers who are doing six figures every single year!
You just have to follow the right strategies mentioned below and things will definitely go in the right direction:
- Proper keyword research
- SEO
- Quality content creation
- Social media marketing
- Selling info products
In Conclusion
So, there you have it! It will take some time before you start seeing those five hundred bucks coming to your bank account every single month.
Blogging is a long and slow process. Have patience and continue working on the necessary stuff…things will definitely get better for you!
I’ll take your leave with this…in case you have got something to share or ask, please use the comments section down below.
