Today I’m sharing some tips on things to do before monetising a blog. If you’re new here, hi. I’m Tina and I’ve been blogging since 2011. It has paid the bills since 2018, and I figured it was finally time I told my readers how to get to that point… So keep reading to find out what you need to do before monetising blogs.

Setting Up A Blog

First things first, you need to make sure your blog itself is eligible for monetisation. If you have a private domain (like mothergeek.co.uk), that you pay for, you’ll be able to monetise your blog. If your blog ends with something like .wordpress.com or .blogspot.com, you can’t monetise it, as the domain belongs to someone else.

If this is completely new to you and you’re setting up a blog from scratch, you’re best off getting your domain and hosting from the same place. I buy all of my urls from Lyrical Host, which is where I host it. Use the code MotherGeek10 to get 10% off at the checkout. They have an amazing team of support agents who have helped me with so many things over the years – nothing is too much trouble for them.

Once you’ve bought your domain, you need to set it up and get it online. I am team wordpress, and highly recommend this guide for setting up a blog if you’ve never set one up before. I was super overwhelmed the first time I did it, but the guide made it relatively painless.

Creating Content is Essential When Considering Monetising a Blog

Once you’ve got your blog online, it’s time to create content! This part can seem tedious. You need to create plenty of content before you can expect people to find your blog or read your ramblings. I blogged for 4 years before I earned a penny in actual cash on this blog. The first goals should be about growing your readership, Domain Authority and Domain Ranking.

Whether you’re hoping to earn money blogging via affiliate links, in-page ads, paid reviews, content creation for brands or via social media, you need a blog that’s getting traffic first. To get traffic, you’ll need to rank on google. This means creating good quality, well written articles. These will also help to attract the attention of businesses looking to place links and ask for paid content.

For context, I published a step-by-step guide to setting parental controls on Snapchat a few years ago, and that’s brought in paid collabs from several online safety companies. It also got me on the radio when BBC Radio Manchester invited me to their Manchester studio, to discuss online safety for teens.

I’ve been blogging for 15 years now, and it’s paid the bills for the past eight years, but for the seven years before that, it was a hobby that occasionally came with some financial reward. (Which was obviously declared as taxable income). So if you’re hoping to set up a blog and be earning money within a month, you’re likely to be bitterly disappointed.

SEO is Essential

In order for your blog traffic to grow, your content needs to be found and shared by search engines like google. The first thing you need to do to make sure this happens is set up your blog on google search console. This will ensure google scans your blog regularly, finds your new content, and shares it accordingly. If you want to track your traffic, set up google analytics, too.

Many people use AI to create blog posts, but I don’t use AI at all. I wrote about what happened when I did, here. Cliffnotes: My traffic tanked, my rankings and earnings dropped massively, and it took me almost a year to fix everything. I personally recommend you install the free wordpress plugin called Rank Math to help ensure your posts will rank well on google. I’ve been using it for 5+ years now, and it’s made a massive difference to my traffic and google ranking overall.

Watch Things Grow Before Monetising a Blog

I track my blog’s performance using a spreadsheet. You can view a blank copy here. I find it helpful to be able to look back and see when things changed, if things go wrong. It’s also a great way to track your progress, too. Growing your blog’s authority to the point it’s ready to generate revenue can be a lengthy process. There’s a few things you can do to speed things up though as you work towards monetising a blog…

1. Comment on as many blogs as you can, leaving your blog’s url in the website box. (Don’t add it to the comment itself – this is super spammy).
2. List your blog in your bio on as many websites as possible – social media accounts, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest etc. Speaking of Pinterest, create and post pins to your content. Focus on the SEO of the blurb – that can drive lots of traffic to your blog. The same applies to Facebook, instagram, threads, bluesky and tiktok too.
3. Reach out to other bloggers in the same niche as you, and ask if they are offering guest post slots – these often include a backlink in the byline.
4. Ensure all of the images on your blog have alt text to help them appear in searches too.
5. Reddit can be your best friend, but don’t be spammy. Only link to relevant posts. (If someone’s asking about a product you’ve reviewed, the link to your review will likely be accepted, but spamming your links will get you banned).
6. Keep creating blog posts. Even when it feels like nobody is reading them, good quality SEO’d blog posts should rank eventually.
7. Set up a blog mailing list. This will send subscribers a round-up of your content to their inbox, so it’s a good way to get subscribers back on your website, to read your new content.
8. Consider hosting a blog giveaway. If you’re in a position to purchase a prize to boost your blog traffic, it’s worth looking at this blog post to find out where to share it, to get the best possible amount of traffic.
9.  Create a media kit or “work with me” page for your blog, so potential clients can see that you’re open to collaborations.
10. Be patient. It was well over a year of almost-daily blogging before I got anything back from my effort, and even then it was product reviews, not money. As I’ve already said, this isn’t going to be paying your mortgage within weeks or months… But if you put in the work consistently, it could be paying the bills within a few years.

Ready for Monetising Blogs?

As a rule of thumb, I find that your blog needs to have a minimum of 50 published blog posts, plus a domain authority of 20+ or traffic over 1000 views per month, before any company will consider working with you on a paid basis – other than affiliate or in-page ads. (These will earn you pennies at best, which is why I refuse to clutter my blog with ads), but I do use affiliate links to generate some additional income.

At the level my blog is now, I was only earning £20-£30/m for in-page ads, so it wasn’t worth the ugly look in my opinion. My traffic also dipped massively when I did try using them, as the user experience deteriorated massively.

When you feel like you’re ready to monetise a blog, this post is packed with ways to do that, and websites to register on. My right-hand banner has a few of the networks I use as well. Get Blogged is definitely the best place for newbies to register themselves, to get their blog “out there”, in my opinion. My small blog had ops from them when the DA was under 15.

Declare Your Income

Before you generate your first income from your blog, it’s worth remembering you’ll need to declare the income. Here in the uk, you declare everything you earn to the HMRC, but you only pay tax if you earn over £1000 in one tax year, from your blog business.

Final Thoughts on Monetising Blogs

So there you have it – a step by step guide to help you get from procrastination to monetising blogs. Let me know in the comments if you can think of anything else to add to this guide, or if it helps you start monetising a blog.

*This post contains affiliate links but is not sponsored.