After starting a new WordPress blog, I’ve been told stuff like-
New blogs can’t make money, and it’s wrong to expect more than a few pennies a month having a newbie WordPress blog and you have to work very very hard to make even $10 from your blog etc.
Bullsh*t!
Blogging is the first and easiest way I made more than $100 online doing what I actually enjoy. No kidding!
After receiving some traffic referrals from Pinterest I was very eager to join major Affiliate companies such as Flex offers, Viglink, Awin, Impact, Bluehost Affiliate Program etc because Hello? You need Affiliate programs to make a high blogging income.
Join the Major affiliate networks-
That was my first month so basically, I didn’t know what to expect. Moreover, I did not have any specific income or traffic goal to chase, so I just did the homework mentioned below and had my fingers crossed.
Income Breakdown:
Bluehost Affiliate Program: $130
Flex offers: $0.8
Ads: $0.0 (No ad networks joined yet)
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1: I actually Had a few Blogs Already Published
11 to be precise! When you’re pretty new to blogging, the idea of coming up with new blog posts can be a bit-
Overwhelming, I guess.
There is a constant train of questions about what to write, what topics to cover, how long it must be and so on. Among those things, it might frustrate you even more if you don’t see sales (or even clicks) on affiliate links.
Let me tell you one thing, people will not buy a $200 product just by looking at it once.
Your blog reader will NOT impulsively buy something you recommend, they need some trust factor about whatever you’re recommending is worth their money.
Of course, your readers might have to spend on products that you’ll be recommending in order for you to make money yourself (as an affiliate or a sole owner of the product)!
And for that, your reader needs to trust you! And trust comes from consistent quality deliverability.
Keep in mind that,
There is no blog income without blog posts, just like there is no fire without fuel.
Also, the more blogs are published in your website, the more exposure opportunities you get for your brand. The more blogs they read about you and the content you provide, the more you gain their trust.
But of course, that does not mean writing crazy amounts of articles with absolutely no value or context. Quality over quantity is the goal.
But yeah! Publishing a few blog posts before promoting your blogs on Pinterest or any other platform is always a good idea.
Hope you get the idea!
2: Bought a Premium WordPress blog theme (Yes! An actual paid one)
I know! I know! Why would someone buy a premium theme in their first-month blogging?
Who does that?
I myself was pretty skeptical at first. My initial thought was to buy a good theme ONLY and ONLY when I would start seeing substantial traffic and income. Thought it as something to invest in using the money I will make from this blog.
But honestly, the free theme I was using was putting a very bad impression of my blog, even for me. As a result, I was not seeing link clicks, let alone purchases and affiliate money.
The visitors who were coming to my site had a really high bounce rate. Meaning, people came and left my blog instantly without clicking or buying anything. I was really confused about the situation.
Sooooo…I bought A Studiopress Premium theme! (Oops!)
Did the bounce rate improve? Was I happy with it? Was the blog looking neat? Well ……Yeah!
But the thing is, the themes of Studiopress need to have a big flashing banner saying “For Advanced Users Only” in their homepage because it kind of got to my nerves! Customizing the colors and fonts and layouts and whatnots were pretty hard! Ugh!
That is why I always, ALWAYS recommend Divi Theme for new bloggers, Where when you make a change to any of your page, everything is updated instantly right before your eyes. Design instantly!
Studiopress lacked the total customizability which is kind of a basic need for a new blogger! But Divi has it all. You can even try DIVI theme for FREE before committing to it.
Despite all that, having a premium WordPress blog theme increased my click rates, site speed, and overall aesthetics. As a result, people started doubting the legitimacy of the site much less. And as I said above trust brings sales.
3: I Joined Multiple Pinterest Group Boards
That means tons of “Request to Join your Pinterest Board” emails was sent to bigger Pinterest Accounts. And let me tell you it was not always sparkles and rainbows!
I had a 3/4 rejection rate!
Get traffic from Pinterest is not very easy. It took me at least a week to figure out how to even use Pinterest. During the first month, I’ve managed to get 1300 page views from Pinterest. Thanks to all the board who accepted me in, and I was able to pin there like crazy!
For me, I guess this number was pretty good for a new account and was only possible because of my continuous requests to other pinners to let me join their “Group Boards”. But did it help though?
Yes, group boards Catapulted my reach exponentially and even my followers count started growing. If you are looking to join Group Boards, you can now get them in Pingroupie.com. You can find hundreds of group board relevant to your niche there.
After that, it took me a few more months to get decent traffic from Pinterest (i.e 25k per month).
Related:
You don’t need Big Account To Repin Your Pin
How To Force A Pin To Go Viral
4: Started An Email List From DAY 1
Even though before starting this blog I didn’t know what the heck an “Email List” was and what do I need it? I started collecting Emails anyway. I guess now its safe to say that I made the right decision.
Why, you might ask?
In one of my blogs, I’ve briefly explained Why You need to start an Email List if you own any online business. Having an email list can exponentially increase your sales rates.
As you can see one of my email autoresponders has a whopping 22.37% click-through rate (email was sent to 152 people and out of that 34 clicked the given link present within the email and that made me $65) which might not seem a lot but trust me, Its a lot.
The 2018 industrial average was 4.19%, which is actually a normal click-through rate. Therefore out of any other conversion methods present, email marketing seems to take the prize.
On the other hand, not having an email list increases the chances of Missing out on sales and can significantly decline your income stats despite having decent traffic on your blog.
Do you know?
The average return on $1 spent on email marketing is $44.25? (source: Capterra).
That might be a single greatest reason why most successful companies hold onto the email list.
For example– When you start a new Amazon account, what do they ask you before they process any transactions? Yup! Your email address to set up an account. And so that it could send you product deals and advertisements in the future.
The email service provider I recommend:
Without any second thought, Convertkit is my #1 recommendation as because, its creator Nathan Barry, who himself is an accomplished blogger specifically made it for bloggers and online entrepreneurs
That’s it, folks!
I guess all the points mentioned above were enough to clear the $100 threshold in my first-month blogging. But that might not be always the case, you can make anywhere from $0.1 to almost $1000 (if you have done your beforehand work properly).
And don’t worry if you don’t see any income in your first month, it is only going to get better from now onwards, I promise!
What were your first-month experiences( if you have a blog)? If you don’t have a blog, when are you going to start it?
Let me know in the comments!
This motivates me a lot to make some changes in my blog. Thanks for this informative article.
Change is good! Thanks for reading!
Great post 🙂 thanks for the motivation
Hope it’s motivating enough for you to start your own blog ?
I only start my blog a month an half ago and have been feeling hopeless, so thank you for the motivation!
Very motivational with your results, hopefully my blog makes this much this coming month.
Sure you can!
Great post! Glad you cross the $100 mark. Very encouraging, thanks!
never made any money from my blog, I like reading stories like this
This is super helpful!
Years later after writing this article, do you have a favorite affiliate program that you are a part of?
It has to be Bluehost, no doubt!
I only start my blog 6 month an ago and have been feeling hopeless so thanks you for the motivation.
Thanks for sharing these practical tips for a WordPress blog’s first month! The focus on setting realistic goals and optimizing for SEO is especially helpful for beginners. Excited to try some of these strategies. Keep up the great work!