I am selfishly trying to answer that question. So, how long does it take to make money blogging online?
The actual time to start making money depends on the following factors:
1 - Niche competition
2 - Keyword Research Skills
3 - Volume of content
4 - Quality of Content
5 - SEO Optimized Content
6 - Domain Authority (Backlinks)
If you don't know what to do in each of these 6 areas you could blog for a long time and get NO RESULTS. When I understood that, I changed my entire approach to blogging. My goal is to start making money as quickly as I can. To do that, I need to start ranking as fast as possible.
I built a simple system that has started to produce some results. I won't dive into my entire system, but I am using the following tools to get me ranked faster.
Blogging Tools I Can't Live Without
1 - Keyword Research - RANKIQ
2 - SEO Optimization - SurferSEO (I could use rank, but surfer let's you share the content editor via a link to content writers)
3 - For blog content - WriterAccess (I am writing the in depth pillar posts and updates, but most I am outsourcing to writers)
4 - Backlinks - I hired a podcast booking agency to place me on 4 podcasts a month. On top of my normal podcast and case study interviews, this should help increase my domain authority quicker.
I have a few other services I am testing out right now and will report back once the results come in.
Here is why I like the concept of a money-making blog
- No inventory
- No service to fulfill
- No employees (unless you want them)
- No expert skills are needed (other than keyword research)
- No podcast is required
- No webinars or courses need to be made
- Low cost to get started
Here is what I don't like about blogging income
Although making money blogging has a lot of positives, the time it can take to make money can cause many bloggers to quit. Search engine optimization and writing quality blog posts take time. On top of that, it can take a long time to rank to become a profitable blog and there is no guarantee you will actually make money blogging.
If you are looking to make a full-time income quickly, I am not sure starting a blog is the best business for you to start. Having a full-time income or job while you start your blog is a great way to take the pressure off making money now because you can't just earn money the next day from organic traffic. Google doesn't work that way.
No Inventory Or Capital Needed - Just Blog Post
Just keep blogging, just keep blogging. I think that is what is so unique about this business. You just need to put in the right type of work consistently and you can build a business that doesn't require inventory or a lot of people. Yes, you can outsource writers but you don't necessarily need in-house employees or a large payroll.
What is the best way to monetize your blog? (monetization methods)
1- Ads - Such as mediavine, Google Adsense (The challenge: you need high volume to make anything meaningful. For me, I am trying to build a blogging business that can drive 90% of its income from Google Adsense, Mediavine, or other ad networks. I believe this is the most stable way to build a profitable blog. It may not be the quickest or easiest because you need significant traffic, but I don't have to worry about the traffic converting on my offer or affiliate links.
2 - Affiliate offers - Any software, course, or product that I actually use to be successful I will offer to you as an affiliate offer. I think affiliate income is certainly quicker than ad income, but it seems less stable or guaranteed. You need to write blog posts that get your target audience to actually convert into a customer. I would rank this as more difficult to do, but can be quicker to make money blogging.
3 - Services - You can offer a service to your target audience. Such as consulting, writing blog posts, blogging strategy, or really any area you have expertise in. A service-based blog or business is the easiest and quickest to drive revenue, but it's harder to scale and can easily turn into a job.
What should you focus on to make money from your blog?
I am a simple guy, so I like to focus on big lever activities that will impact my businesses. For this blog, I believe the biggest things to focus on are the following. (it is a short list for a reason)
1 - Keyword research - My philosophy is to go after medium to low difficulty keywords in my specific niche. Write quality content from my unique perspective, this is a personal blog after all. My experience running an eCommerce brand and email marketing agency has top me that to be successful you need to have a strong position.
If you just a digital marketing blog, it will be really hard to get traction. That is one of the reasons that I wanted to make this blog personal.
2- Blog faster - Just write more blog posts, guest posts, and any posts. Just keep writing and posting. I believe it is a numbers game and you need to write quality content at scale. Make money from your blog but have enough keywords for google to rank you. I think a lot of blogging efforts are wasted on tactics and hacks that don't have an impact.
More blog visitors = more money blogging
3 - Gather emails - Email marketing has been at the core of both of my companies' success. My eCommerce brand drives 30-40% of income from our email marketing strategies. In addition to the revenue, it's truly the most valuable asset in that business. The same can be true for your own blog. Capture emails with one clear offer to build your list as your organic traffic grows. Not to mention, email is a great way to drive more traffic to your blog! Send a great email and see the traffic fly in, it's pretty awesome to watch. Check out my blog post on how I sold $238,790 in one day!
I am assuming that because it takes time and effort most bloggers quit because they don't get blog traffic fast enough. Or they focus on the wrong things like website design, their logo, or keep refreshing their Adsense account (I am guilty of that as well). Just keep blogging to increase google traffic to a level that it can produce enough cash flow to be considered a "success."
Why I would rather own a blog than have a job
If done properly, you can cash flow as you build it to be an actual asset you can sell. This is the big reason. Cash flow and you can sell it. After selling my last online business, it changed my perspective on everything. Anything you spend work time on should be something that can be valuable to someone else, unlike a job.
Being a professional blogger and doing that to make a full-time income is great, but why not build your own blog? Building your own blog will help you make the most money possible from your blog.
The best way to sell your business is to build a profitable business and build it so it doesn't rely on you. You can always build better systems and dial in your operations once you have traction and decent money come in. Create content, make money and keep doing that until you have serious search traffic. My goal is to start outsourcing my content creation once I hit a consistent income and have a clear path to grow the blog.
What would you consider "Real Income?" Let me know in the comments below.
So, you want to start a blog and make some money from it. But how long does it really take to start generating an income?