How Long Does It Take to Make Money Blogging?

It can seem to outsiders like bloggers are all overnight successes. But that's usually not the case, though there are exceptions.

So how long does it realistically take to make money blogging?

No gimmicks or scams. Real, solid money from your blog.

Consider a case study: how long it took me.

When I Started Blogging

I started my first blog in the fall of 2013 as a freshman in college. It started as more of a personal, online journal (something that I wouldn't recommend now).

For the first year or so, I didn't even post on the blog consistently. I'd share a post here or there but with no real strategy. I didn't even share about my blog on my Facebook or Twitter accounts.

So it took quite a while to get any sort of traffic to my blog. Making money from it took even longer. Blogging is definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme.

The First Affiliate Deposit

After reviewing my Amazon Associates account, I can see that my first deposit from affiliate links was in July of 2016. $0.48. I was rich! And it only took…almost three years for this to happen.

You might get lucky and make a sale within your first month. But your audience needs to trust you. Only then will they click on your affiliate links and buy what you recommend.

Even then, you may not get that paycheck right away. Some programs, including Amazon Associates, don't pay anything less than $10. So you'll have to add to that balance to cash out.

Hitting the Payout Threshold

I finally hit the payout threshold in March of 2019. It was my largest affiliate commission to date, probably because it resulted in the sale of a musical instrument.

But because of how Amazon Associates works, that money didn't hit my unpaid balance until May of 2019. Now, had I not been so lazy, the money would have made it to my bank account at that time.

However, I was lazy and hadn't entered my tax information and account details. I didn't do that until the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020.

Actually Getting Paid

Because of my laziness, I didn't actually receive the money from my prior affiliate commissions until the end of January 2020. Once you hit the payout threshold, Amazon will hold that money until the end of the month.

Then, you'll finally get the money. But if you aren't lazy and you set everything up at first, you'll still have to wait two months between making the commission and receiving the payment.

It's kind of annoying, but that's how Amazon works. And it's (relatively) passive income, so who can really complain?

The First Product Sale

Starting in the summer of 2018, I decided to create some small digital products to sell on my blog. My first product was an eBook that has still garnered a massive 0 sales.

But a year later, I created another eBook on a different topic. I promoted it a bit, but it still sat there, un-purchased for over a year.

It took from the launch in June 2019 to October 2020 to make a sale. Even then, it was one sale, and I thought something was wrong. I came pretty close to refunding the person until I realized what the transaction was in my PayPal account.

Making Money Off My Blog

While I'd love to make the majority of my income through affiliate marketing and digital products, that's just not the case (yet). The way I've made most of my blog-related income is through freelancing.

I got started with a one-off gig in January of 2016 during my junior year of college. Using Upwork, I found a gig looking for someone to write emails for a music publishing company to promote a piano book.

But, for whatever reason, I didn't work to get more freelance gigs. It was only in September of 2018 that I started to take freelancing more seriously. I started looking for gigs and applying to as many as I could. And I landed one.

Does It Have to Take That Long?

As you can tell, it took over two years to make anything from my blog. It took another two and a half to three years to make a decent income. And two more years passed before I could call it my main, full-time job.

Now, you may be able to get to this point much sooner than I did. But you shouldn't go into blogging just to make money.

You need to love writing, and you need to choose a topic you like writing about. As a music school graduate, I love blogging about music. And I've come to like writing about freelancing and online business.

But that doesn't mean you should blog about those topics. Find something you love, and see where your blogging journey can take you.