How to Make Money Blogging: How I Made My First $100 (2024)

After five months of blogging, I finally made my first $100! I’ve shared before how I didn’t start this blog strictly as a hobby, I started it because I eventually do want to generate an income from it. Some blogs make money right away, some blogs take years to start generating an income – mine seemed to take an average amount of time. My goal was to start making money within six months of starting my blog.

I started blogging at the very end of September 2014 and made my first $100 at the end of February 2015. That’s five full months of consistent posting, sharing, commenting, switching themes and the like for $100. If you’re looking to “get rich quick” from your blog, you’re in the wrong place. In order to make money blogging, you have to really love writing or else the fun factor is going to fizzle out and your blog most likely will, too.

So how did I make my first $100 blogging? It could not have been easier…

Google Adsense!

There’s a lotof debate out there on whether or not you should put ads on your blog immediately (or at all) or wait until you develop consistent readers before trying to monetize your blog. I decided to post ads from day one. I had a few reasons for this:

I wanted to make money. Even if I was only making $0.01 per day. that’s better than nothing! I started my blog to meet like-minded people, grow my freelancing business and make money. Placing ads on your blog is one of the easiest ways to make money since it’s completely passive once your ads are up and running.

I wanted my readers to know my blog had ads. Some people never put ads on their blog and there are a lot of readers who prefer that. I didn’t want to not have ads and then put them up a couple months later and lose readers. I wanted to be honest from the start and by placing ads on my blog right away, my readers know I’m trying to make money from my blog and they can expect to see ads every time they visit my page. No surprises.

I wanted to learn about Google Adsense. Putting ads on your blog isn’t rocket science, but it does take some time to figure out. I use three ad networks – Google Adsense is my main one, Media.net is my second one and Sovrn is my third one. Before I started focusing on content, I wanted to know how to monetize my blog. I read about ads, affiliates, sponsor posts and more and signed up for everything I could. I researched Google Adsense and got tips on the best places to put your ads, how big the ads should be, etc. Now, I’m focusing on content and growing my readership. Once I have more readers and more valuable content, I’ll look into affiliate advertising and sponsorship programs.

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When I first started this blog, I actually had about $10 sitting in my Google Adsense account from an older blog of mine that is no longer active. For the first five months of this blog, I generated anywhere from $15-$30 each month. Google Adsense doesn’t release a check to you until you hit $100, which I finally did at the end of February.

There truly is, in my opinion, no “easier” way to make money blogging than with ads!

Ready to up your blogging income?! Take a look at these 6 steps to profitable blogging!

Update: I now use The Blogger Network for all of my ads. Instead of making $15-$30/month, I’m averaging $200+/month and growing!

Tips on How to Make Money Blogging

I’m definitely no expert, but I do hope to one day bring in a full-time income from this blog. Going back to the beginning, I named my blog “the frugal millionaire” with the hopes of sharing my journey to becoming a millionaire. I’m no where near millionaire status now, but when I do get there, it will be interesting to look back and see the entire journey here on this blog from day one. Here are a few of my tips on how to make money blogging:

Ads. I honestly do not think ads are the best way to make money blogging, but it’s certainly one of the easiest. If I ever generate more income from other sources, I would highly consider getting rid of my ads as I know they can be annoying.

Affiliates. There are thousands of affiliate programs out there. Amazon Affiliates is probably one of the largest and easiest to get started with. If you mention a product or a book on your blog, use your affiliate link so readers can purchase the product themselves if they wish to, and you’ll get a small commission from their purchase. I’ve only done this with books and my Valentine’s Day guide so far, but I do plan on using more affiliate advertising in the future. Again, right now my goal is to focus on content and growing my blog.

Check out these 6 steps to profitable blogging! >>

Write an ebook. Lots of bloggers write their own ebooks and sell them on their blogs. I absolutely hope to do this in the future, but again I want to have more of an audience before I release my first book.

Update: I wrote my very first ebook that was released in January 2016! It’s called The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging and was created to help out newbie bloggers with getting their blogs up and running! If you use my Bluehost tutorial to start your own blog, I will give you my book for FREE!

Get freelance writing jobs. This is how I’ve been generating most (well, all, except that $100) of my income. I’ve been freelance writing for almost fouryears now and have gained a good amount of clients. Want to know the best thing I’ve done for my freelancing career? Started a blog! I’ve always wanted to write about personal finance (my degree is in finance and I LOVE talking income, budgets, spending, saving, retirement and the like) and this blog has gotten me a good amount of jobs in my chosen field.

If you are wanting to start your own blog, head over here for a step-by-step guide on how to get started!

UPDATE!! I run my blog through Bluehost, the #1 recommended hosting provider on WordPress. If you want to start a blog, I highly recommend signing up through my link to receive your hosting service for a special discount! And, your domain name (ie www.thefrugalmillionaireblog.com) is FREE!!! Start a blog and send me an email or comment on this post!

Ready to make money blogging?! Check out my 5 post ideas that will make you money!

Do you make money blogging? Have any tips to share?!