Are you thinking about starting a blog and wondering how much bloggers actually make?
Maybe you already have a blog and want to know what you can realistically expect to earn from your blog.
I’ve gone out and asked some fellow bloggers to provide details of their earnings – and how many hours they put in to their blog – to give you an idea of how much bloggers make!
This survey focused on bloggers with websites, although some of their earnings also come from their social media channels, based in the UK.
This post contains affiliate links.
How much do UK bloggers make?
Most bloggers who responded to our survey (25%) reported earning £1,000 to £1,500 a month – that’s a decent chunk of cash made working for yourself!
The top earners were on £3,000 to £5,000 (16%), while there were also 16% on £2,000 to £3,000 per month.
We found 16% of bloggers were earning less than £200 a month, while 8% earned £1,500 to £2,000 a month.
The rest earned between £200 and £1,000 a month.
Now this survey should not make you think it’s not possible to earn more than £5,000 a month with your blog. I know people earning £10,000 a month and more!
When it comes to answering the question “how much can you make blogging” the answer is very much a case of “how long is a piece of string”.
How much you make can depend on a multitude of factors, which are interchangeable, including:
- Being laser focused on a particular niche
- What your niche is – some can be more profitable than others in terms of advertising income, affiliate income and product sales, as well as sponsored income
- Checking all the boxes when it comes to SEO
- Writing helpful, comprehensive content that attracts an audience
- Growing an engaged social media following
- Putting the time in to creating great content and building a successful brand
- Reaching out to brands to get sponsored work
- How many hours a week you can spend on your blog
Our survey also found 45% of bloggers considered their blog to make them a full-time income, while 55% said it didn’t quite make them a full-time income.
How long do bloggers spend blogging?
A chunk of our bloggers who responded to our survey (25%) reported spending two to five hours a week on their blog.
The same amount (25%) said they spend 20 to 30 hours a week on their blog. That’s quite an interested divide.
This shows that for some blogging is a side hustle, while for others it’s being treated as at least a part-time job.
8% reported spending more than 30 hours per week on their blog.
What type of blogs make money?
The bloggers who responded to our survey came from a variety of niches, which is encouraging!
There is most definitely a niche out there for everyone.
Bloggers making money from their site had blogs in the lifestyle, parenting, finance, travel, eco, crafting, and business niches.
It’s also worth noting that most bloggers who responded to our survey saying they earned money with their blog had more than one website!
Results show 41% of bloggers had two blogs, while 16% had three or more blogs!
How much do I make blogging?
My blog now makes me a wonderful £3,500 to £4,500 a month (my earnings vary as ad revenue is not stable throughout the year).
It has taken me four years to get to this stage and it has been a steep learning curve.
The one thing I would do differently if I were starting at the beginning all over again – and I did this with my second site – is to pick a niche, stick to it, concentrate on SEO and write, write, write. Building up a site of high quality content is really important, especially when starting out.
How can you start a money-making blog?
So what’s the winning formula to making money from blogging?
The interesting answer to this one is there is no precise formula to getting your blog to a stage where it’s making you a decent side hustle income, or even a full-time income.
People go about it in different ways and their blog income comes in from slightly different places.
Some bloggers make most of their money from sponsored posts on the their blog, or from sponsored content on their social media channels. Their actual website is secondary to their social media.
Others focus solely on their website, making money from advertising and/or affiliate marketing, as well as possibly selling their own products.
If you want to make money blogging I personally prefer focusing on my websites first and foremost. It’s these that bring me in most of my blogging income, however I know of others who are more successful focusing on social media.
My one issue with trying to utilise social media is it’s a bit like trying to become famous – you need a big following to bring in big money. By focusing on Google traffic it’s less of a popularity contest.
Most of my blogging earnings come from my partnership with Mediavine, which places adverts on my websites. You can read all about how you join Mediavine here.
In terms of my preferred route to making money blogging (and this is just my preference, others have done very well by another route), I suggest:
- Pick a niche (it could be parenting, gardening, baking, succulents, you name it)
- Choose a blog name
- Go self-hosted right away (this means you pay a company such as Blue Host to host your website for you)
- Write an about me page that talks about your background and connection to your niche
- Focus on writing at least 80 really awesome pieces of content
- Build backlinks (links to your site from other, older websites) by writing guest posts or responding to blogger roundup queries in blogging Facebook groups. This will help to increase your DA
- Build an email list right away (you can do this for free for the first 1000 subscribers with companies like Mailerlite)
- Learn from others – I love Mike’s Stupid Simple SEO course, it totally changed the way I blogged for the better, and I also love this SEO ebook by Angela from Stray Curls.
In order to learn more about starting a blog you can check out my guide to launching your own blog plus my SEO tips.
If you’re frustrated by your blog earnings then check out this post explaining why your blog isn’t making any money.
