How Much Money Can You Make From Blogging?

Posted on February 5, 2007

The Christian Science Monitor has an article that looks at what bloggers can make from their blogs.

A little more than $1 billion, or one-fourth of all advertising online, went to Google's AdSense program in the third quarter of 2006. Of that, Google shared $780 million with those running AdSense. Approximately 3 million blogs now use AdSense, according to the blog-tracking site Technorati.
What isn't known is how that $780 million was distributed over those roughly 3 million blogs. But anecdotal evidence suggests that there's a majority making nothing, a sizable minority bringing in at least $100 a month, and a few making serious money.

The article cites a recent survey from problogger.net that found a significant percentage (45%) of 625 bloggers using AdSense make over $100 a month from their blogs. The Monitor says the survey also found that 1/6 make over $1,000 a month from blogging -- so there are at least a hundred+ bloggers making $1,000 a month.

The survey is likely to be a little biased towards bloggers that are already somewhat successful but it does indicate that there are some bloggers making good money from their blogs with AdSense. The Monitor article didn't mention it but Problogger's survey also shows 23 people making over $10,000 a month from AdSense.

One of the blogs mentioned in the Monitor story is Kevin Vahey's Charlie on the MBTA blog. The Monitor says Vahey makes $1,000 a year from his blog. Bloggers looking for ideas about how much bloggers can make should read what John Chow says and read where he explains his January earnings of $3,440.66. Chow used multiple tools including AdSense, Vibrant IntelliTXT, FeedBurner, Affiliate programs, TTZ Media, Text Link Ads, ReviewMe and direct ad sales to get to that figure.

Eager bloggers should note that it takes a lot of hard work just to build up enough traffic to earn $1,000 a year and even more dedication to make $1,000 a month. A lot of bloggers also just blog for fun or blog for the soul so if they make some income in addition to enjoying what are they doing so much the better.