When I first started blogging – over 15 years ago – no one was “making money blogging”. People kept online journals and got excited if a stranger left a comment. But over the last few years, the blogging industry has changed a lot.
Blogging is no longer simply keeping a public journal, but it’s part of an internet social marketing strategy that can provide a full time income and provides a career for many online entrepreneurs.
Since blogging is still a relatively new branch of the marketing industry, there are lots of misconceptions about how it works and how long it can take to make a living with a blog.
Opinions range from “you can make a living without working hard at all” to “you should get a real job, because blogging isn’t going to last”.
Yikes! Lots of opinions – but where is the truth?
I’ve been making money blogging since 2012. And a fulltime income for my family since 2014. Today, I’ll share about one of the biggest questions people have about the blogging and social marketing industry – how much time does it take to start making money?
Anyone who has ever started a business knows, you could work 24/7 on the business. That’s not viable, but it’s certainly possible.
But what is the minimum? How much time and effort do you need to put into a site to start seeing (financial) results.
Related: How to Start a Blog in 2020
As you get started, here is what you would need to do in a typical blogging work-week.
But what is the minimum? How much time and effort do you need to put into a site to start seeing (financial) results.
Here’s what we’ve seen to be the starting point to business blogging. Of course, you can work harder to see more results. Becky and I both work full time on blogs and earn more money working from our homes than our husbands were making working outside the house. But to do this, we were working almost as many hours at home as they were working outside the house! That is a huge time commitment, but it also yields huge results!
As you get started, here is what you would need to do in a typical blogging work-week.
– Write 2-3 blog posts(minimum) – The time per post depends on your own speed but let’s give 1 hour writing per post for a beginning blogger. The rest of this time should be spent doing SEO research, and planning a good post. – 5 hours
– Create Images For Blog posts – For three posts you will need a minimum of 6 images, though 3 per post allows for one image to be optimized for each social media share site. Square for facebook, vertical for Pinterest and a 560×292 size for link shares. 3 hours
– Social Media Promotion – hours a week 3.5 hours – 5.5 hours a week
- 5+ minutes a day pinning – your content and others = 35 minutes/week
- 4 tweets a day (links and non links) = 25 minutes/week
- 1 Instagram post a day + interacting on other Instagram accounts = 35 minutes/week
- 5-10 Facebook shares a day = 2-4 hours a week
I won’t go into a lot of detail about social media strategy here because how much time you spend on each platform will depend on if you already have an established audience or if you are trying to build and grow your accounts, which does take more time.
– Blogger Education – This one is often overlooked, but so important! Spend at least 1 hour a week investing in your biggest asset for your business…yourself. Commit to learning something new about blogging each week. Take a blogging course or even schedule a coaching session to get a wealth of tips specifically for you about how to optimize your site!
Minimum total – 15 hours a week
If you are looking to make a business out of your blog, then expect to start spending a minimum of 15 hours a week on your blog. Some of these times will get faster as you go, for example I can write a post in much less time than an hour these days.
After you have an established site with lots of content, you can also shift your focus to optimizing older content, and publish fewer new posts.
After you grow your blog and have 50,000-100,000 pageviews a month and you are ready to focus on making money blogging. At this point, you’ll also need to add the following to your blogging schedule
– Applying for sponsored posts – Search out sites that will connect you with brands and pitch brands yourself. You can contact brands directly or work with one of these networks that connects brands with bloggers – 1 hour week
– Writing Sponsored Content & Affiliate Posts – Your sponsored posts should be in addition to your minimum of 3 non-sponsored posts a week, whenever possible. 2 hours a week
– Networking & Education – Working and brainstorming with other bloggers is absolutely invaluable! Also, the more advanced your blog gets, the more you have to learn! So make sure you spend more time learning and even helping/teaching smaller bloggers. 2 hours a week
– Newsletter focus – While creating a mailing list is important for even a beginning blogger, it becomes an essential piece of the puzzle when you start monetizing. Create a great newsletter freebie, and begin sending weekly updates to your followers. 1 hour a week (for the newsletter creation, 5 hours to create a good freebie and set up the newsletter account itself).
We are again dealing with minimum hours spent, but you can expect to tack on at least 5 hours a week when you shift your focus to monetization. You are now at 20 hours a week.
Truthfully, the more you work the more your blog can grow.
If you increase the number of strategic posts you put out each week your pageviews can grow substantially, but that costs more in time to the tune of 4+ hours for an extra 2 posts a week.
If you’ve been blogging awhile and have old posts that need updating then you can tack on an additional 2 hours a week to work on optimizing old posts for SEO and updating images.
If you get your regular posting schedule up to 5 posts a week, then that means you are opened up to more sponsored post opportunities and can increase your time spent there as well.
Yes, you will get faster at writing and learn ways to maximize your time spent in each place (like listening to podcasts while editing photos or working on a good blogging schedule. Even as you implement these tips you will learn how to maximize every hour spent on your blog which will help you grow!
This might seem like a lot of time spent blogging, and it is, but the rewards are amazing if you stick with it and work hard to build your business.
The truth is many of those hours will be “working for free” before you begin to make a good income on your site. Some people are able to start making money within a few months, while others take years. It really depends on if you are being strategic with what you are doing, and learning as much about the industry as you can as you work to build your business.
Do you have any questions about starting a blog?
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