Wondering how to monetize your blog from day one? Hell, is that even possible? Well, with the right expectations, it sure can be!
The word “expectations” most important word from that sentence you read up there. Anytime I unfold my laptop and casually slide onto Pinterest or YouTube, I see all sorts of click-baity posts and videos promising you the “easy” path to virality, fame, and six-figures on your first day.
This ain’t one of them!
On this blog, I prioritize reality. Anytime you read about other business owners garnering any of that instant money, honey…nine times out of 10, they’re simply an exception — not the rule when it comes to having an online business.
Although you might expect to be able to monetize your blog as a beginner on day one, I’ve committed to showing anyone who keeps up with my blog the facts of what it takes to grow a blog in 2022 from scratch without all the theatrics and stage tricks.
In these monthly small blog growth reports, I unveil nothing but the truth about growing my blog slowly, yet consistently. May 2022 had SOOO much growth for me, so keep reading to see what I did last month!
In this post, you’ll learn how to monetize your blog from day one.
How to Monetize Your Blog From Day One as a Total Beginner
I grew my blog earnings by 5040% in under one month! (Yes, as a complete beginner.) But to do that, I invested dozens of HOURS into an exhaustive marketing plan for the whole month of May.
I had a point to prove! Sure, you can see really exciting results as a new blogger in 2022 — at a high time and labor cost. Any minute I had free, I lurked in these Facebook groups for bloggers day and night. I had a point to prove!
SMALL BLOG GROWTH REPORT for May 2022 summary
Sure, you can see really exciting results as a new blogger in 2022 — though at a high time and labor cost. Any minute I had free, I lurked in these Facebook groups for bloggers day and night.
Hell, there were days I’d set ridiculous alarms at the early hours of the morning just to get in the daily threads early enough to see the massive turnout my posts garnered. I don’t want to bury this information for a number of reasons.
Primarily, it’s important for YOU to know upfront how much work it takes to grow your blog. Blogging, as I’ve quickly come to learn, is HARD. Very hard. And even though this is a labor of love for me, there are times when I just don’t see how I can make this into a profitable stream of income for my business.
Surprisingly, I didn’t really burn out through day-after-day of posting, reciprocating engagement/pageviews, and networking with other bloggers in those groups. I stop tracking time halfway through the month when I hit almost 30 hours. (Yep, you read that right.)
I really came to love my weird, demanding new routine. I got to connect with so many awesome bloggers and learn about their experiences and knowledge. It was just by luck that I had enough time to do this (not so) little experiment.
The Copy Sloth blogging stats
Every single stat (except for my Domain Authority) rose! I told you — May was a massive success for me all around. I basically made it the month of marketing!
So here’s what I’m working with this month as of May 31, 2022:
The Copy Sloth blog:
- Current Domain Authority (ahrefs) – 5
- Total Email List – 73 subscribers
- Total Blog Posts – 12 posts published
- Total Words Written – 25,146 words
- Total Keyword Ranking – 35 keywords
- Average Position – 57.5 pageviews
- Total Backlinks – 95 backlinks
- Total Page RPM – $2.74
- Total Pages Indexed – 17 pages
- Monthly Pageviews – 1,051 pageviews
Earnings & expenses (monthly):
- Ad Earnings – $2.57 USD
- Digital Product Earnings – $0.00 USD
- Affiliate Earnings – $0.00 USD
- Sponsorship Earnings – $0.00 USD
- Ad Expenses – $35.18 USD
Social media presence (in order of priority):
- Pinterest – 66 followers
- Twitter – 64 followers
- Instagram – 851 followers
- LinkedIn – 630 followers
- Facebook Page – 70 followers
Time management & productivity (Avg. Hours):
- Researching – 3 hours
- Planning – 6 hours
- Writing – 13 hours
- Email List – 1 hour
- Social Media – 5 hours
- Other Marketing – ~50-65 hours
Most popular posts:
My current blogging strategy
I think each month will help me nail down my own unique blogging process a bit better than the one before, naturally. However, I think I actually found a pretty good rhythm in May! And that’s a great first step in the journey of how to monetize your blog from day one.
Aside from the discovery that YES, you can monetize your blog as a beginner, I also managed to post 6 new blog posts in a single month. I’ll take it!
Blog post content plan
Right now, I post one blog post per week. Eventually, I’d love to bump this up to two per week, but I think I’ll need to outsource a few articles each month to make that possible.
Here’s my current blog content plan:
- Buyer intent post (to promote a couple of relevant affiliate links)
- Listicle post (or a round-up of tips, mistakes, or myths to break)
- Blog growth report post (to track my blogging journey)
- Deep dive/how-to post (to teach or educate my readers on something)
Monthly growth goals & expectations
Almost every category grew by more than I expected. Because I had a clear expiration date for my very exhaustive marketing strategy, I was able to go all in on making the most out of my newer accounts on Facebook groups, Twitter, & Pinterest.
I’ll talk about this a little later, but me and Instagram are going on a break Friends-style for now. (You know, except without the miscommunication.) But this was the direction I needed to fully realize what’s been consistently wrong with my marketing plan in years/months past.
I hope to continue to grow (by any amount) next month. No real number to target this time!
Marketing & advertising
For May, my big focus was social media; however, I DID invest just under $40 USD in two blog advertiser spots. I hope to talk more about this either in my June or July update in case you’re curious to try this out for yourself.
I’m trying to find the right balance for me between organic and paid-for marketing leads, but I just don’t have that information quite yet. Stay tuned!
Social media
Have I mentioned how much I’m loving Facebook groups, Twitter, & Pinterest? Last week, I posted about my exact plan to grow my Pinterest account — WITHOUT Tailwind! Check it out if you missed it.
I’ve finally “bent the knee” to my new introvert entrepreneur-oriented marketing strategy. Succumbing to it might have been an obvious “duh” (palm to forehead style) moment. But I evaded it like a cat with water for months.
The reason? I (still) feel obligated to use Instagram. But it’s just time to move on…
I might dive a bit deeper into this topic in a future blog post. There’s just no more interest for me in IG. I have big plans for it — eventually. That last word’s the very operative keyword!
I’m working on throwing consistent content on Twitter, but it’s kind of taking a backseat while I warm up my Pinterest account. Either way, social media is a crucial marketing tool if you want to learn how to monetize your blog from day one.
General action items
Here is the (mostly) complete list of items I focused on in May 2022 (strikethroughs mean I did not complete the item):
- Getting more consistent with my blog post schedule
Develop a sustainable, solid blogging process- Finalize my email list optin
- Find 1 podcast to guest for
- Work my introvert-friendly marketing plan
My current blogging strategy results
I completed almost every goal! It’s so exciting to break my progress up like this. In the future, I’ll be able to see exactly the moments that pivoted my blog in the right direction as well as all the newb mistakes I make along the way.
What’s working
My marketing plan is one of the things that’s clearly working. It’s true that when you spend your time working on your intentional strategy, you end up seeing results.
Also giving up Instagram for Twitter and Pinterest has already proven to be a smart decision. I’m actually impressed with my results. Before, how to monetize your blog from day one almost seemed like a pipe dream.
What’s not working
The amount of time I spent marketing my blog. That point I had to prove that I mentioned earlier? It was to show you (yes, you!) that it’s so possible to monetize your blog as a beginner. It just comes at a big cost…
My big takeaways for this small blog growth report include:
- Assign time during your week for marketing — Don’t stand on the sidelines waiting and hoping that Google will push your blog out for you. Throw your link in groups, forums, and on social media to help get the word out faster.
- Don’t expect to go viral — I’ve said it a thousand times by now, but celebrate the “small” wins when they come in!
- Join blogging Facebook groups — The only way I saw the amount of success as I did in May was because of these Facebook groups. Seriously, join them and the fun!
Steps for next month
Here are things I plan to focus on in June 2022:
- Develop a sustainable, solid blogging process
- Capture the results with advertising my blog
- Publish blog posts content weekly
- Stop the aggressive marketing plan (and see what happens for science)
- Grow my email list to at least 85 subscribers
- Try out Pinterest ads for my current lead magnet
Goals for growth
Growth doesn’t always happen organically. June is the month of paid advertising (on two bigger blogs as well as Pinterest). I might mention the two blogs currently I’m advertising on next month, but I only want to share strategies an tactics that actually work.
I’m very protective of exactly the kind of information I share on here. For now, just know that spent $40 in May to advertise my blog on two bigger ones as an experiment. I’m also running an ad for my evergreen content planner for $5 per day for about 5-7 days in a row for data.
Things I plan on testing
Like I mentioned already, I want this small blog growth report to have only information that is realistic, helpful, and practical. Nothing sketchy will ever go on here!
That being said, I need to see how much per month in advertising I want to be spending. That’s why I’m running a competitve ad on Pinterest an advertising on two different blogs.
Additionally, I’ve slowed down my organic marketing plan in those Facebook groups. Mostly, I don’t have much time for it this month. But that might be a good thing because it will allow me to see realistic results on a normal working month.
What I’m planning to change
Right now, I think it’s still too early to rule out anything specifically. I’m open to change, but the only major change is the amount of time I will spend in Facebook groups and on social media markeeting my blog.
How to monetize your blog from day one
If you want to know how to monetixxe your blog from day one as a complete beginner, know that it’s possible. It will just require a ton of work. Overall, I enjoy blogging, so none of this feels much like “work” to me.
Just take all of this into consideration when you’re marketing or starting your blog.
This post was all about how to monetize your blog from day one.
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I read this on the go, but I have to save it for later. I think I need to make some notes 😊 awesome post, thank you!
THANK YOU! Excellent and timely and I agree on Instagram completely. I’ve achieved weekly posts, but that’s about it. A long way to go… I will re-evaluate my plan with this post in mind. Thanks again!
It gives a better idea of what I’m not doing that might be worth starting doing. Thanks!
I’ll give this a try for one month and see the result. Well done Aubrey.
This is an excellent post. I’ve read sooo many posts that are filled with the same cookie cutter fluff, but this is so raw, honest and realistic. I really hope more people who are looking to start a blog and monetize it come across this post! Thanks for sharing!
Oof, it’s a lot of work. But I appreciate you breaking it up for us and for suggesting ways to grow our blogs organically instead of paying services to give us fake views and comments. Thank you for being generous with sharing your strategy!
Good job Aubrey. Keep up the inspired work.
creating a more intentional strategy is definitely something i wish i’d done much earlier down the line.
I loved reading about your blogging process and the plan you have built up! Your post ideas sound solid, and I also love seeing that you are running some experiments to gauge results. 🙂
I love this income report! It is so well written and includes everything you can think of! It is a huge motivation specially in the beginning. Thank you for sharing it with us.