How to Make Your First $100 Blogging

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How to Make Your First $100 Blogging

Are you a beginner blogger? Then you might be wondering how to make your first $100 blogging.

There are three things you need to know:

  • The first $100 are the hardest to make. After you see you can do that with your blog, it gets easier and easier to scale that to a full time income one day.
  • There are several ways in which you can make that first $100 with your blog. We’ll cover them in this post, keep on reading!
  • You don’t need to wait until you reach a certain number of page views in order to monetise your content.

What you’ll learn in this post:

  • My first income report as a beginner blogger years ago
  • How much do bloggers make per 1000 views?
  • How long does it take for a blog to start making money?
  • How quickly can you monetise your blog?
  • The exact strategies for you to make your first $100 blogging

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I started this blog years ago as a hobby. I just figured I would dabble in it here and there and IF it ever grew, I would finally start monetising it. I couldn’t be more wrong with that approach!

I actually had no idea how you can make money with a blog. I just thought: I’ll get more traffic at some point and that will automatically lead to more money. Is that true?

Yes and no!

Yes, once you get more traffic and pageviews you will have more options to monetise your blog.

But no, you don’t need to wait until you get more blog traffic to start monetising.

In fact, it is a smart move to have a monetisation strategy in place before you get loads of traffic to your blog. Why? Because there are two scenarios that could play out here.

Scenario One:

  • You don’t have a monetising strategy in place, you just post randomly hoping something will go viral.
  • One of your posts picks up traffic and you have great traffic one month, so now you think: Ok, let’s get monetising my blog now that I have more views.
  • You lose the opportunity to monetise on the traffic that month that had passed, because you didn’t already have a strategy set up.

Scenario Two:

  • You set up a few monetising strategies on your blog, even when you don’t have any traffic yet.
  • One of your posts picks up traffic and you have great traffic one month.
  • Since you already have your monetisation strategy in place, you’ve just made quite a bit from that traffic boost.

Which one of these two scenarios would you prefer?

I wish I had known this when I first started my blog. I still learned a lot from my mistakes along the way, but if there’s one thing I wish I had: a way to monetise my blog before my traffic even picked up.

The one thing that has truly helped me and opened my eyes to opportunities out there for my blog was reading other bloggers’ monthly income reports. They have helped me figure out my own strategy. They gave me ideas on what I could try for my own blog.

While I now make my full time income blogging, I wanted to share the beginning steps with you. Because I truly think the beginning part is the hardest.

And if you can find the motivation to keep going and keep blogging, you WILL get there.

Again, the first $100 are the hardest to make.

Why?

Because you’re not sure yet of what’s possible for your blog. Once you start making even a bit of income you will gain so much more confidence in yourself and your blog.

And you will be able to scale it bit by bit every month.

So let’s dive into my very first monthly income report as a beginner blogger.


How I made my first $100 blogging

How I Made My First $100 Blogging

This income report is from years ago and it’s how I first started making money with my blog.

And while $100 is definitely not much, it is a great start that gave me the motivation to keep going and made me realise what’s possible with my blog.

I truly hope this motivates you to do the same!

Now I am a UK based blogger, so I usually get paid in pounds rather than dollars, but I’ve converted the amounts to dollars as well so you get a better idea in case you’re not from the UK.

My First Monthly Income Report

On this particular month I had roughly 20,000 monthly pageviews. Disclaimer: you don’t need that amount of pageviews to make your first $100.

The reason why I was making very little money even though my traffic was consistently growing was because I didn’t have a solid monetisation strategy in place.

I did apply to a few sponsored post opportunities and I got one for my blog this month. I was over the moon, as it was my very first one!

I did make $96.81 from this sponsored post and I was so happy I was finally getting a bit of something from my blog, even though it was nothing major yet.

I also had Google Adsense set up for my blog – but badly, haha! Meaning I did not have a lot of ads in my posts, because I was finding it quite tricky setting them up in every single blog post.

I didn’t like the ads Google Adsense automatically put in if I chose that option, so I decided to place them myself manually in a few popular posts. But it was tedious and overall not a great experience for me.

And it was very little pay even as my blog traffic was growing.

To be honest, if was starting again now, I wouldn’t really bother with it.

Or perhaps I would spend more time learning how to properly implement those ads on my blog, because clearly I was not doing it right, haha!

Now, as my blog had grown a lot since then, I have moved on to a more serious ad network that I love (Mediavine).

On this month I also had a few sales of baby and toddler products for which I included affiliate links in my posts, so I made a bit of commission from that with Amazon affiliates.


In Dollars:

  • Sponsored posts: $96.81
  • Ads (Google Adsense): $39.07
  • Amazon affiliates: $20.21

Total: $156.09


In Pounds:

  • Sponsored posts: £70.00
  • Ads (Google Adsense): £28.25
  • Amazon affiliates: £14.61

Total: £112.86


So even though that wasn’t a lot, it was the push I needed to keep going with my blog.

And it was an eye-opener that I needed to plan my monetising strategy a bit better, because clearly just waiting to get views in order to make money is not the way to go.

Don’t get me wrong, traffic is important. But it’s not everything!

However, I do have some more tips for you if you want to know how to get more blog traffic. I have shared my monthly journey on exactly what I did to get more pageviews each month here:

How much do bloggers make per 1000 views?

This is something a lot of beginner bloggers wonder about. You probably won’t like the answer, but: it depends.

It highly depends on what you strategy to make money is.

Some strategies, such as ads require high traffic in order to make good money. And by ads I mean display ads that you place on your blog (for example the ones in between paragraphs of a blog post or sidebar ads).

Other monetising strategies don’t really require such a high number of pageviews, such as selling your own digital products on your blog. The conversion rate of those page views is much more important. Meaning: how interested and engaged that audience is.

But if we look strictly at number of pageviews for ad revenue, the amount of money you can make per 1000 views depends on something called RPM.

RPM stands for Rate Per Mille. Or rate per 1000 sessions on your blog.

Bear in mind that it is usually calculated based on unique sessions, not pageviews. What is the difference?

Unique session is when one person comes across your blog. That person can go on and read 3 blog posts while they’re on your blog – meaning 3 pageviews. So for ad revenue purposes, only those unique sessions or visitors count.

How much you would make from ads with 1000 views?

Let’s take a look at how much you would make with 1000 views based on your RPM from ads displayed on your blog.

Again, for the purpose of this calculation I’m referring to unique sessions rather than page views.

RPM varies so much depending on a lot of factors such as: your niche, how long a reader spends on your website reading posts, what your audience’s location is, how long your blog posts are etc.

An average RPM for Google Adsense is around $5, again depending wildly on a lot of factors.

Keep in mind that Google Adsense is on the lower end of pay when it comes to ads. Different programs such as Mediavine, AdThrive pay much more.

For example, for Mediavine you can easily expect RPMs of $15, $20, $30 – again depending on your niche and other factors.

So how much would you make with that? Let’s take a few examples:

If you had an average Google Adsense RPM of $5:

  • 1000 sessions / month = 1 x RPM = 1 x $5 = $5 per month
  • 10000 sessions / month = 10 x RPM = 10 x $5 = $50 per month

So you can see that if you solely rely on Google Adsense, you would need massive amounts of traffic in order to make a serious income.

Which is why I recommend all my students to look into other monetising strategies that are more lucrative.

And I’ll share what those strategies are in a bit.

How quickly can you monetise a blog?

You can start monetising your blog right away. You do not need to wait for page views or ranking in Google or anything else.

Yes, getting more traffic will help. But it will only help if you already have your money making plan set in place.

Regardless of what stage you are in with your blog right now, start thinking about how you want to make money. Whether you’re literally just starting your blog today or have had it for a while and don’t know how to grow it – think about your monetisation now.

So that when you do get traffic, you already have money making systems set up.

How can you start monetising?

  • Start placing affiliate links in your posts when they are related.
  • Start creating some freebies to get people on your email list. If you don’t have one yet, you do need one!
  • Start creating some paid digital products that offer a lot of value and that are in the same niche as your blog posts.
  • Start creating a portfolio of your work (products photos, blog posts where you promote some affiliate products etc.), so that you can leverage that when you want to apply for sponsored post opportunities.

How Long does it take for a blog to start making money?

How long it takes to make your first $100 depends on YOU.

It depends on:

  • How much time you can allow each week for growing your blog.
  • How effective you are in creating those monetising strategies we’ve mentioned before.
  • How well you align with your blog audience and their pain points that you solve with your products or content.

It took me months to make those first $100, but that was simply because I had no idea what I was doing.

You are already one step ahead by reading this blog post!

If you take what you’ve learned here and start implementing it for your own blog, you will start to see results much faster than I did in the beginning.

You can start making money even with little traffic, as long as you are focused and offer a lot of value in your products.

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5 Strategies for you to make your first $100 blogging

The first strategy that is the easiest to implement as a beginner blogger: start using affiliate links.

There are so many affiliate networks or programs you can join these days. Nearly any product that you use in your life or business probably has an affiliate program linked to it.

Some of the most popular affiliate programs are:

  • Amazon Associates
  • RewardStyle
  • Skimlinks
  • Viglink
  • ShareAsale
  • CJ Affiliate

Learn How to Get Accepted Fast to LiketoKnow.It and RewardStyle here.

The way you make money with this is you will place affiliate links whenever you mention products in your blog posts.

I recommend doing this form the very beginning, so that when you do get traffic over to your blog, you will start making money from all those links you previously placed.

2. Sell your own digital products

This has become my favourite way of making money with my blog for sure. I wish I did this from the very beginning, but it took me a while to figure out how I can best serve my audience.

You can sell small digital products, you don’t need to start with anything big.

Think:

  • E-books
  • Online courses
  • Workbooks
  • Worksheets
  • Recipe books
  • Meal planners
  • Printables
  • Stock photos
  • Templates

For example, if you create your own digital product and sell it on – say – Etsy or your own website, you can start making money right away. Here’s how much you could make depending on your pricing:

  • $7 product x 15 sales = $105 / month
  • $17 product x 6 sales = $102 / month
  • $27 product x 4 sales = $108 / month
  • $57 product x 2 sales = $114 / month

You can start small. You can create a little product in your niche that’s super helpful to your audience, that solves a problem for them – and start making money right away.

It is also an amazing way to make passive income. Because once you’ve created the product, you will make money from selling it again and again with minimum or no effort on your side.

3. Offer coaching services

You can offer coaching or consulting services in nearly any niche as well. Your services can look something like a 30-min coaching call or a 1 hour long session.

Or you can also offer customised help in certain areas your audience needs help with.

For example, I sometimes offer personalised blog audits to give my students a really personal and unique strategy for their own blog and business.

You can do this for niches like: fitness, accounting, psychology, social media training, mindset, anything really.

4. Write sponsored posts

Brands who are willing to pay for sponsored posts will look at things like your number of pageviews and the domain authority of your blog.

However, this does not mean you need millions of pageviews to get sponsored deals.

I was able to get my first one for my blog when I had only 20,000 pageviews. I didn’t really have much experience and looking back, I way undercharged for my post.

But it was a good learning experience, so I don’t regret it.

We all start somewhere.

5. Display ads

I’ve put display ads last because I find them a bit more tricky to make money with as a beginner blogger.

If I were starting my blog again today, I would probably only use display ads once I had quite a bit of traffic and I qualified for one of the higher end networks, such as Mediavine, AdThrive etc.

I am now with Mediavine and it’s done wonders for my blog and income. So if I had to start again, I would completely skip the Google Adsense step and only use ads once I had a bigger view count.


You can see how many options you have in making money from your blog even as a beginner blogger.

I truly believe that the one thing that helped me the most is I stayed consistent. Even when I wasn’t seeing results, I kept going, I tried different strategies and kept working until something worked.

I hope the story of how I made my first $100 blogging has helped you see what’s possible.

I am so grateful to now be able to make my full time income blogging, while spending more time at home with my son.

I was able to ditch my previous 9-5 job and focus on my passion, while being more present in our family life – and that is my dream life.

Whatever you dream life looks like to you, blogging is truly a great way to reach it.

Need more tips?

Don’t have a blog but want to start one?

OR take my 7-Day Challenge to Kickstart Your Blog here:

How to Make Money Blogging as a Beginner Blogger

7 thoughts on “How to Make Your First $100 Blogging”

  1. Hi Madeline! Thank you for this post! I thought it was a very inspiring and insightful read. I’ve been hard at work blogging myself and it’s all been very difficult and exhausting work, to be honest. But I’m not giving up. I’m in this for the long haul. I’m doubling, tripling my efforts now as I’m hustling towards a full-time income. I know I can reach that in just a couple of months. So I’m out here doing a lot of reading and researching, hoping to learn a thing or two – info, insight, inspiration, anything to get me closer to my goal – from people who have made it big in the blogging world, people like you. Thank you.

    1. Hi Jared! You’re so right, it is a lot of work. Making blogging a full time thing is definitely not something that happens overnight. But you can do this! I can tell you’re determined to make it work 🙂 Keep going!

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