Have you always dreamed of making a living through blogging, but feel overwhelmed by the journey ahead of you?
You are not alone. Many aspiring bloggers share the ambition of turning their passion into a full-time job, but the path to achieving this goal often seems daunting.
The dream of full-time blogging
Last night I was chatting with a blogger who was feeling completely overwhelmed by his goal of making a living from his blog.
I asked them how much they wanted to earn from blogging.
They responded that they wanted to become full-time bloggers.
I asked them for a number – what does “full time” mean to you?
They thought for a moment and said they could live on $30,000 a year (note: they wouldn’t mind making more, but they could quit their current job at that kind of rate).
$30,000 a year seems like a lot to make from a blog – especially when you’re just starting out and haven’t made a dollar yet. For this blogger, it seemed so overwhelming that she almost convinced herself it wasn’t possible.
Turning Overwhelm into Action
If you’re in a similar boat and feel like you’ve hit a wall in your blogging journey, here are three essential steps to help you navigate:
1. Don’t give up your day job…. Again
Making $30,000 a year from blogging is achievable, but it requires patience and realism. Overnight success is rare in the blogging world. Maintaining your current job while gradually building your blog ensures financial stability and allows you to invest in your blog without immediate pressure to return.
2. Set clear and specific goals
Saying you want to become a full-time blogger is a great goal, but it’s not really specific enough. That’s why I wanted the blogger I was speaking with to give me a number. For his full time it was $30,000 – for others it might be more or less – the amount is not the point, the point is that you need something more concrete to work on to be able to measure where you are.
For me, when I decided to become a full-time blogger, I decided that I wanted to aim for $50,000 (Australian dollars) per year as a benchmark (at the time $50,000 was about $36,000) . That’s about what I would have made at my current main job if I had done this full-time (I was actually working several part-time jobs at the time and studying part-time).
Knowing what I was aiming for helped me in many ways to achieve this goal.
3. Break down your goals into something more achievable
US$30,000 always seems like a lot when you’re a new blogger – and in some ways, it is. However, there are different ways of understanding this figure. Let’s break it down to how I looked at my target.
- $30,000 per year = $576.92 per week
- $30,000 per year = $82.19 per day
- $30,000 per year = $3.42 per hour
We could break it down on a monthly or minute-by-minute basis if we wanted (actually, I’ve done it minute-by-minute from time to time for fun) – but the exercise is really meant to help you see that maybe your big goal is a little more achievable if you want to break it down. Making $82.19 seems a little easier than making $30,000 (or is that just me?). Seeing your goal through these smaller lenses can make it more achievable and manageable.
OK – the other way I used to break down my goal that I found really helpful was to do it in terms of what I needed to achieve to achieve that goal. For me, I usually look at the daily figure – in this case, $82.19.
What should I do to earn $82.19 per day ($30,000 per year)?
Well, there are several ways to do it. Let’s look at some of them:
- CPC announcements – let’s say we primarily use AdSense on our blog and the average click earns 5 cents. This equates to 1,643 clicks on AdSense ads (note: AdSense also serves CPM ads, so it’s not as simple as saying you need 1,643 clicks… but to keep it simple, let’s go with it) .
- CPM ads – let’s say we run CPM ads on our blog and we get $2 CPM per ad unit and we had 3 ads on each page (which effectively equates to $6 CPM per page). This would mean we would need 13,000 page impressions.
- Monthly sponsorships – one way to sell ads directly to advertisers is to sell ads month by month as sponsorships. To make $30,000 per year, you need to sell $2,500 per month in ads. You could have 6 advertising spots on your blog, so that’s 6 advertisers at $416.66 per advertiser per month.
- Low Commission Affiliate Products – Let’s say we were promoting affiliate products from a site like Amazon and your commissions averaged about 40 cents per sale. To earn $82.19, you will need to sell 205 products.
- High Commission Affiliated Products – In this case, maybe you are promoting ebooks and making $8 per copy (that’s what you would make selling my 31 DBBB ebook per commission). The math is simple: you should have sold around 10 e-books per day.
- Really High Commission Affiliate Products – of course, eBooks are not the most important product to promote – there are products like training courses where you can earn hundreds per sale. Let’s take one that might pay $300 for an annual subscription on a bigger product. In this case, you must sell 8 per month.
- Sell your own eBook – do you have your own product, perhaps an e-book, to sell on your blog? At $19.95 a sale, you should sell a little over 4 per day. You can do the sums on cheaper or more expensive products.
Of course, there are many other ways to make money from blogging. Subscriptions, donations, paid reviews, selling yourself as a consultant…..etc. You can do the sums yourself using your own model.
I know some of the numbers above still seem out of reach for bloggers. – 1643 clicks on your AdSense ads, that seems huge for a new blogger…. and it is – but do keep in mind that you can combine some of the above (in fact, I would recommend diversifying your income).
You can run 2 ad networks on your site, promote Amazon affiliates, sell your own eBook, and promote someone’s membership course.
Thinking about income streams
When I first aimed for a full-time blogging income, I diversified my income through a mix of AdSense, Chitika, direct ad sales, Amazon affiliate sales, and other commissions. It took over two years of dedicated blogging to reach my goal of $50,000 AUD per year and for me at that time, my income breakdown looked like this (from memory here):
- AdSense: 35$
- Let’s go: 20$
- Private ad sales: 20$
- Amazon: 15$
- Other Affiliate Commissions: 10$
Note: I only reached this stage after blogging for over 2 years (I blogged for the first year without trying to make money).
Embrace the journey
This didn’t happen overnight (let me emphasize this – blogging for money isn’t quick or easy), but I really found that breaking things into smaller pieces helped me stay motivated but also helped me identify what I needed to focus on work to achieve my goals (and for me to stop my daily work). Remember that perseverance and a strategic approach are essential.
Again, don’t quit your day job just yet (in fact, you may not want to quit it even when you’ve reached your goal – it can be good to have a backup plan), but work hard to be specific about your blogging goals and try to break it down in a way that helps you move toward them.
Remember: Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. By setting clear goals, breaking them down into achievable goals, and diversifying your income sources, you can create a blog that not only fulfills your passion but also provides a sustainable income. Stay committed, stay focused, and let each small success bring you closer to your dream of full-time blogging.