How Much Traffic Do You Need to Make Money

Have you ever wondered, “how much traffic do you need to make money?” Most new bloggers ask themselves this question on a regular basis.

How Much Traffic Do You Need to Make Money

We’ve all heard that saying, “traffic is the lifeline of any successful blog.” It’s true if your blog is NOT getting any traffic, you’ll never make any money.

No two blogs are the same. The amount of money that you make will depend on how you choose to monetize your blog as well as how much traffic they get. It is going to be different for everyone. But you can make money at any level with your blog, you just need to know what it takes.

I’ve had blogs in the past that got quite a bit of traffic and then I’ve failed with others because I could never get enough traffic.

Let me tell you, it’s nice when your blog is getting traffic and the sales are coming in. If you’re not getting many views right now, it’s okay.

It takes time to attract readers to your weblog. Whatever you do, don’t expect it to happen overnight, otherwise, you’ll throw in the towel before you start seeing the results you want.

How Many Page Views Is Good For A Blog?

I wish I could tell you that if you get to 10,000 visitors per month, you can start making some money. But the truth is that I can only share what is working for me.

This doesn’t mean that you’re going to make the same amount of money, because you could actually earn more than me. As I mentioned it all depends on how you choose to monetize your blog.

My Page Views

I’m averaging around 11,000 – 13,000 pageviews per month. I’ve still haven’t managed to reach my first 25,000 pageviews because I made a ton of mistakes in the first year with this blog.

However, I’ve been managing to make a few hundred per month from this blog. (thanks to my email list)

I’m nowhere near where I want to be with this blog, but as I said, I made a ton of mistakes when I started this blog, so you could be further along than I currently am if you do it right from the get-go.

Do You Need 1 Million Page Views Per Day?

Just because you’re getting 1 million page views month, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be making six or seven figures. I have no doubt that you’d be making good money, but monetizing a blog has a lot more to do than just getting traffic to your blog.

Earning good money from a blog all comes down to what you’re doing with those page views. Yes, you can throw Google Adsense on a high traffic blog and earn some passive income.

However, I am a true believer that there are much better ways to profit from your blog than just relying on ads. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use ads on your blog.

It can be a great way to diversify your income. We all know the importance of relying on multiple sources of income.

If you do decide to add it to your blog, make sure that you know how to optimize your ads for the best ROI. (return on investment)

The Confusion With Pageviews and Income

New bloggers always want to know how much traffic they need to make money. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how much traffic you need to actually start making money.

What I can tell you is that if you learn how to use those page views to your advantage, you will start making money. So let’s take a look at the different ways you can monetize a blog.

But first, let’s take a look at what type of foundation you set up?

Did You Set Up A Good Blog Foundation?

Did you start on a self-hosted blog and invest in a premium theme? (It’s not as expensive as you think)
Are you taking the time to write helpful content that helps your readers?
Have you spent time writing titles that get people to click using CoSchedule Headline Analyzer?
Are you using a punctuation checker to make sure you don’t have a ton of errors (it’s okay to have a few)
Have you been treating your blog as a business?
Do people know what your blog is about?
Are you building an email list and keeping in touch with them?

If you didn’t do it properly from the get-go, you can still pivot and tweak your blog once you see what type of content people enjoy reading.

How Do Bloggers Make Money?

There are tons of different ways to monetize a blog and earn money from home. Let’s take a look at some of the methods you can get started with.

Sponsored Posts: Get paid to host sponsored posts on your blog
Ads: Sign up with Google Adsense, Media.net or other blog ad networks to display ads on your blog
Affiliate Marketing: You join affiliate programs related to your niche to earn profits
Your Own Products: This is where a blogger creates their own online courses, eBooks or digital products
Offer Services: Set up a “hire me” page to let people know about the services you provide

There are several other ways to monetize a blog, but these are the most common ways. Now let’s take a look at which methods that I believe are best for new bloggers to get started with.

The Best Method to Get Started With

If you’re not getting 1000 unique visitors per day or more, it’s going to be extremely hard to make money with Google Adsense. Ads are completely reliant on how much traffic you get.

One of the mistakes that I’ve seen new bloggers make is signing up for Google Adsense when they only have 10 posts and aren’t getting any traffic. Then they find themselves wondering why they aren’t making money.

Trust me, I’ve been there. When this blog was a year old, I added Google Adsense to it, but have since removed it because I wasn’t willing to lose visitors for the pennies I was making.

I’ve decided not to add ads to my blog until I can qualify for some better ad networks that pay a lot better than Adsense.

Adsense didn’t work for me, maybe it will work for you? Their CPM rates sucked for me and I finally decided to remove it from my blog.

Check out this Google Adsense calculator to get a rough estimate of what you’ll make with your current traffic.

Affiliate Marketing Works Better

If you haven’t qualified for the best paying ad networks yet like (Mediavine or AdThrive) I’d suggest monetizing your blog with affiliate marketing.

I’ve been able to make money on a regular basis thanks to the affiliate links that I have spread in my blog posts. You don’t want to spam your blog posts with links. If you’re completely new to affiliate marketing, I’d suggest signing up with an affiliate marketing course to show you the ropes.

You’ll be surprised that a blog doesn’t have to be getting a ton of visitors to actually make some money. The great thing is that the more you work on your blog and it continues to grow, the income will continue to grow as well.

Don’t Forget to Cloak Your Affiliate Links

Make sure that you’re cloaking your affiliate links so you don’t get in trouble from Google. I personally use ThirstyAffiliates to cloak my links, but you can use Pretty Links if you choose to.

Both plugins make it easy to change out your affiliate links quickly.

How Many Blog Posts Do I Need Before Monetizing?

Depending on who you ask, the answer will vary. Some people will say that you shouldn’t monetize a blog from day one, others will say monetize right out of the gate.

When I started this blog, I started monetizing from day one. I figured I started this blog because I wanted to turn it into a profitable venture that supports me and my family.

There was no reason to wait.

If you do decide to monetize from day one, just know that you probably won’t make any sales right away. Make sure that you set some realistic expectations with your blog.

What If I Haven’t Reached 10,000 Page Views Yet?

It took me a lot longer to reach 10,000 pageviews than it should’ve. One of the biggest mistakes that I made was NOT paying enough for the keywords that I chose for my blog posts.

I have over 100 blog posts on this post that are targeting keywords that are too competitive. This means that they will NEVER be able to rank on Google.

Don’t do what I did. Make sure that you’re paying attention to the keywords that you’re using in your posts. Start learning as much as you can about SEO because this is going to be a part of your traffic as your blog ages.

I’ve been using KWFinder to help me find low competition keywords. You can sign up here for 5 free searches daily.

Here is a great Beginners Blogging course that will teach you everything you need to know. It will cut down on your learning curve.

Write Content and Promote It

You won’t have a successful blog if you’re not publishing and promoting content on a regular basis. How many blog posts do you need?

It doesn’t matter if you write one post per week or you write 3x per week. The important thing is to find a blogging schedule that works for you and stick with it.

It’s not set in stone, so if you want to change up, you can. If your blog is brand new, you’ll want to sit down and write as many blog posts as you can as quickly as possible.

If you already have an archive of blog posts, then it’s time to update your old posts and work more on promotion. I’d suggest learning how to use Pinterest and signing up with Tailwind to automate the pinning process.

It’s going to take a while for Google to send you traffic, especially, if you didn’t do your SEO properly from the start.

How To Get Your First 100 Visitors Per Day

Blogging can be challenging, especially, if you’re not getting any visitors. However, I’m going to give you some tips on how to reach your first 100 visitors per day.

Then you can keep rinsing and repeating these tips to keep growing your blog. This traffic guide will give you some more tips that you can test out to see what actually grows your blog.

Steps to Increase Daily Page Impressions

#1 Write Content

I’ve been on a writing spree for the past few months and this alone has been helping me grow my blog. The more blog posts you write means the more doorways that people can enter your blog.

Make it a point to write new content on a daily or weekly basis.

#2 Jump On Pinterest

I have to admit that Pinterest hasn’t been a huge part of my success. I do manage to get some traffic from them. There are niches that do great on Pinterest and blogging isn’t one of them.

However, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t ignore it. Imagine if you can get 100 visitors per day from Pinterest, this is 100 people who may click on your affiliate links or sign up for your email list.

#3 Facebook Groups

Join some Facebook groups to network and meet other bloggers who are working towards a similar goal like you. It’s always nice to have some blogging friends that you can reach out to when you’re struggling with something.

#4 Guest Posting

One of the best things that you can do if you’re struggling to get traffic, is to get your post in front of someone else’s audience.

If you do use this method, make sure that you’re giving your content away to a blogger that is bigger than you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard crickets from my guest posts because the blogger was at the same place I was.

Don’t Stretch Yourself Too Thin

I know you want to get 1000 unique visitors per day, you’ll want to try every free traffic method online. But the truth is that you’ll just end up spreading yourself too thin and you won’t accomplish anything.

Choose 1-2 traffic strategies and master those techniques before you move on to another method. Otherwise, you’ll be half-assing everything and it will take you too long to grow.

If you’re in a popular Pinterest niche, I’d recommend learning the ins and outs of Pinterest marketing. Pinning Perfect can help you understand how to use Pinterest to promote your blog. It’s recently been updated after the latest Pinterest algorithm change.

Pay Attention

If something isn’t working then don’t be afraid to stop doing it. If you’re a solopreneur or still have a day job, then you need to use your time wisely.

Install Google Analytics right away and pay attention to which methods are actually sending you traffic. Focus your attention on what’s working and drop everything else.

Final Take Away

It takes time to build a profitable blog. Yes, it’s possible to earn money quickly, if you get lucky. But the truth is that it is not the norm.

There’s a learning curve that comes with blogging. Be gentle with yourself and keep putting one foot in front of the other and one day, you’ll look back and notice the profitable business you’ve created for yourself.

If you’re not getting a lot of visitors right now, don’t put ads on your blog. You’re not going to make a lot of money and you’ll do a lot better with affiliate marketing.

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Hopefully, you realized that every blog is different, but you can make money if you don’t have a lot of traffic. Just make sure to pick a method that earns you more than just a few cents per click.