The First Steps To Monetizing Your Blog – Earn Money Your First Month Blogging
This post may contain affiliate links. That means we may make a small commission on items purchased through links in this post at no extra cost to you!
We’ve all seen those income reports from bloggers. The ones saying “I made $X my very first month of blogging”. These income reports are super inspiring and encouraging for new bloggers! And they may even be the reason you started your own blog. But now you’ve launched your blog and may have realized you have no idea how the heck to make money with it! In this post I’ll go through the first steps you can take to monetize your new blog from day one! Don’t worry it’s not as complicated as you think!
Before we get into this post I want to first say that there is no one universal way to make money from your blog or how to do it right. Which means that these are steps to start making money from your blog but not the only way to make money from your blog. Let’s get into it!
Here are a few ways to start earning money from your blog in your first month!
1. Google Adsense – Ads on your blog
Hosting ads on your site is one of the easiest ways to make an income when you are first starting out. And the easiest way to get these ads on your site is going through an ad network like Google Adsense.
To be honest, the payout for Google Adsense is pretty small when you don’t have a lot of traffic. But many other ad networks with larger payouts have a minimum traffic standard to get in. Google doesn’t, which is why it is the perfect place to start until you build up your traffic. It is also fairly easy to get into as long as you have a few key things on your blog:
- A Privacy policy (generate on for free here)
- About & Contact pages
- High Quality, original content
- An easy to navigate site and clean design
These are Google’s requirements to get accepted into their program and if you don’t have these items then they will most likely reject your application. You can apply here.
How many posts do I need to have on my blog before I apply?
There’s no confirmed number of posts to have but you may get rejected if you have 200 poorly written posts and you can get accepted for having 3 high-quality posts. So I would suggest having at least 5-10 well written, high-quality, valuable posts before you apply.
I know of a blogger who was accepted who had 3 posts and only 113 pageviews so it’s possible to get approved will very little traffic and posts as well. – Apply here.
What if I get rejected?
If you get rejected than first make sure you’re over 18. If you are over 18 then I would go back and work on your site design and your content then reapply as soon as Google allows.
On the other hand, you can also try Media.net which is Yahoo/Bing’s ad network which is also a great beginner ad network.
I got accepted, what now?
Once you get accepted to Google Adsense you are allowed to host 3 ads per page and you can decide where those ads go and Google will do the rest, automatically placing ads in your selected spots and you’ll start earning money!
Once you get your traffic up I suggest going with Mediavine (must have 25k monthly sessions) or Adthrive (must have 100k pageviews a month) for your ads as they have amazing payouts so you can make a lot more money! 
2. Amazon Associates – Affiliate Income
Another great way to monetize your new blog is to sign up to be an Amazon.com affiliate – sign up here.
When you become an affiliate, you earn a commision on any items purchased through an affiliate link on your site at no extra cost to your reader. So If I share a link to my favorite hair bleach and someone clicks through to purchase it on Amazon then I earn money on that item and it didn’t cost my reader anything extra!
The nice thing about this method of monetization is that Amazon is really easy to get into. Amazon doesn’t reject very many sites. So as long as you have good content on your site and your blog isn’t about something illegal or something you should be accepted without a second look. Amazon also has basically everything under the sun on their site. So whether your a food blogger, fashion blogger or crochet blogger you can find the products you love and earn commision from them.
How to get people to buy from your links:
Once you become an Amazon Associate (what Amazon calls its affiliates) you can start adding product links to your site, but you need people to purchase from those links to actually make money.
My best advice is to only promote the products you actually use and love, and only add those links were appropriate. Don’t blast your readers with a bunch of affiliate links in every post. And don’t promote random items just because you think you’ll make money off them.
The secret to making money with affiliates is to gain your reader’s trust! And you do this by being true to yourself and only promote things you know will help your reader. Promote the things you love and know your readers will too. So add the links where appropriate and you’ll start earning some money! – Apply to become an Amazon Associate here!
3. Your Own Services or Products
Google Adsense and Amazon Affiliates are what I used to make money when I first started my blog. But one more option to consider is offering your own services or products.
If you have an extensive knowledge or area of expertise you focus on, then you can start offering your products or services up on your blog. Maybe you’re a VA or you just wrote your first cookbook! Your own products and services can be a great way to start earning money immediately!
How do I make money from my blog?
You can check out how much money I make every month and where that money comes from by reading my monthly income reports here!
What platforms are you going to try out? Already making some money, what’s your favorite way to monetize your blog? Let me know and don’t forget to join my blogger community by signing up for my free monthly blog planner below!
