How Much Money Can You Realistically Make From Blogging? (Blogger Income Survey Data)

The popularity of blogging has been on the rise.

In 2020, there were an estimated 31.7 million bloggers in the United States, up from 27.4m in 2014 ^[1].

A major reason why blogging is so popular is that many people believe that they can earn good money from blogging. They also want to leverage the many advantages that blogging offers.

Can you really make a full-time income from blogging?

Yes. There are three major ways you can make money from blogging.

• Get employed as a blogger. According to Payscale, employed bloggers earn an average salary of $38,000 a year although this can go as high as $50,000 a year. ^[2]
• Become a freelance blogger. You can write blog articles for others and get paid at an hourly rate or per article. Payscale estimates that freelance bloggers earn an hourly rate of $15.13 an hour. ^[2] Freelance bloggers on Fiverr charge anywhere from $0.08 to $0.2 a word.
• Start your own blog. Bloggers running their own blogs earn a wide range of incomes from $0 to over $200,000 a month.

This article will focus on blog earnings from people running their own blogs. This is where the real money is made in blogging.

When you look at blog income reports, you will see examples of bloggers like Melyssa Griffin, Adam Enfroy, or Heather Delaney Reese who earn over $200,000 a month. Others regularly earn 5k, 10k, or 50k+ every month from diverse niches.

While these income reports are inspiring, do they reflect what the typical blogger can earn from blogging?

How blogger income was estimated

To estimate how much a typical blogger earns from blogging, I looked at results from 7 blogger income surveys from 2007 to 2020. The surveys captured responses from a combined total of 7,038 bloggers. I also looked at three additional surveys (ConvertKit,  First Site Guide and The Blog Millionaire) for comparison but these were not used in calculating blogger incomes.

If you are a blogger or you want to get into blogging, this article will help you answer questions like:

• How much you can expect to earn from blogging if you have your own blog.
• The main factors that determine how much money you can make with blogging.
• How long it will take for you to start earning from your blog.
• How many hours of blogging you need to do per week to make money.
• The best ways to make money with your blog.

The results of the study are quite surprising and will provide food for thought for anyone thinking of starting a blog to make money.

Read More: How to start a blog that is optimized for making money

1. How much money can an average blogger earn from blogging?

A majority of bloggers (53%) earn less than $100 a month from blogging. Only 15% make a full-time income ($2,500+ a month) from blogging.

Here is a summary of the breakdown of blogger earnings from 7 blogger surveys

• About 15% of bloggers make a full-time income from blogging  (over $2,500 a month or $30, 000 a year). ^[3]
• About 8% of bloggers make enough income to be categorized as upper-middle class or higher  (over $10,000 a month or $120,000 a year). ^[4]
• About 12% of bloggers earn just below the median household income(over $5,000 a month or $60,000 a year). ^[5]
• About 19% of bloggers earn above the minimum wage (over $1,500 a month or $18,000 a year). ^[6]
• About 31% of bloggers make a decent side income from blogging (over $500 a month or $6,000 a year).
• Nearly half of bloggers (47%) make more than $100 a month ($1,200 a year).

Some surveys give a more optimistic of blogger earnings. For example, a survey by ConvertKit, the average blogger earned an income of $38,016 annually in 2016 ($3,168 a month) (from 835 bloggers surveyed).

2. How much do top-earning bloggers make?

From the surveys analyzed, about 6-10% of bloggers make over $10,000 a month (over $120,000 a year). Below is a summary taken from these surveys.

• My Work from Home Money survey: 8.3% of bloggers earned over $10,000 a month.
• Problogger surveys (2007): 10 % of bloggers earned over $10,000 a month.
• First Site Guide Survey: 5.8 % of bloggers earned over $10,000 a month.
• Problogger survey (2006): 8 % of bloggers earned over $10,000 a month.

This is not bad considering that the average salary of a doctor/GP in the US is $154,000 a year ^[7]. It’s great that some bloggers earn close to that amount without:

• Spending years in medical school.
• Accumulating huge student loans.
• Having long and stressful working hours with little time for family.
• Getting blamed or sued for the loss of loved ones.

If you get really good at blogging, you can make some crazy amounts of money. If you look at my list of blogger income reports, several bloggers make over $100,000 a month from blogging. For example:

• Melyssa Griffin (Melyssa Griffin): $283,680 per month in the online business niche.
• Adam Enfroy (Adam Enfroy): $281,776 per month in the online business niche.
• Heather Delaney Reese (It’s a Lovely Life): $222,857 per month in the travel niche.
• Michelle Schroeder-Gardner (Making Sense of Cents) : $139,233 per month in the personal finance niche.
• Kristin Larsen (Believe in a Budget): $109,879 per month in the personal finance niche.

3. Putting Blogging earnings in Perspective

These surveys show that it is possible to make a full-time income from blogging. The number of bloggers making full-time income is however quite low.

Only 15% of bloggers earn over $30,000 a year and 19% of bloggers earn above the minimum wage (over $18,000 a year).

Considering that 50% of the US workforce earns more than $34,248 a year (the median income in 2019) ^[3], wouldn’t it be smarter to go get a job?

Here are some major points you should consider.

• Many of the established bloggers in the surveys earned a full-time income while working less than 20 hours a week. Some of the pros worked less than 5 hours a week.
• Many people get into blogging to avoid the rigidity of most workplaces. You may want the freedom to earn while taking care of your kids, sick loved ones, or elderly parents.
• Your income has no ceiling. The better you get at blogging, the more you can earn. This is how some bloggers can earn 10k, 50k, or even 200k a month.
• You can do blogging part-time. You don’t have to quit your job to blog. You only quit once your blogs earns an income that can sustain your expenses.

For more on why blogging is a great way for making money online, check out my article: Is blogging worth it for making money online?

It takes time to start consistently earning from blogging but with hard work and perseverance, it is possible to make good money from blogging.

4. What factors determine how much you will earn from blogging?

Why do 53% of bloggers earn nothing or less than $100 a month? Why is this number so high? When you look deeper into the surveys, you will find that:

• Many do blogging as a hobby and have no interest in monetizing their site.
• Some sites are still new and many of their articles have not had a chance to get decent traffic.
• Some bloggers don’t blog consistently.

When account for this, you will find that the number of bloggers who can make more than $100 a month from blogging will probably be much higher.

With that said, there are many factors that can lead to a failed blog. I have discussed them in detail in my article on amateur mistakes that cause blogs to fail.

In this section, I want to touch on a few of the factors (based on analysis of the blogger surveys). These are:

#1. Your Traffic and RPM

Your earnings are affected by how many visitors you get to your blog and how much money you can make per visitor.

If you want to increase your blogging income, you either have to increase your traffic by getting good at SEO or by increasing your RPM.

Your RPM is largely determined by factors like your niche and your target audience.

You can estimate how much money you can make per visitor by calculating your RPM.

How to calculate RPM

RPM (Revenue per mille) means revenue per 1,000 pageviews. (Mille means thousand in Latin). The formula for calculating RPM is:

RPM= Your Monthly Income / (Number of pageviews/1,000)

For example, if you make $2,000 a month from your blog and you get 50,000 pageviews every month, your RPM is $40. This is how you calculate it.

• Your RPM= $2,000/(50,000/1000)= $40

It is important to calculate RPM for blogs because it can help you to:

• Compare blogs with different levels of  traffic.
• Gauge performance of your blog in comparison to other blogs.

If you want to increase your blogging income, you either have to increase your traffic by getting good at SEO or by increasing your RPM.

Your RPM is largely determined by factors like your niche and your target audience.

How much money can you make from 1,000 views?

What is the average RPM you can expect from your blog?

If you target a variety of monetization methods, you can reasonably expect an RPM of between $30 and $50. An RPM of $30 ($15 from Ads and $15 from Affiliate marketing) is achievable for bloggers in most niches.

Some niches might have a higher RPM while others will have lower (see list of blogger income reports to compare RPMs).

How to calculate your potential earnings from blogging using RPM

If you want to estimate how much you can earn from your blog, you need to divide the number of visitors you get by the average RPM for your niche.

For example:

• If you get a million visitors to your blog every month at an RPM of $30, you can expect to earn $33,000 a month.
• If your blog brings in 50,000 visitors a month at an RPM of $30, you can expect to earn $1,666 a month.

#2. Your Blogging niche

Some blogging niches will typically have higher RPMs than others and are therefore popular with successful bloggers.

Which are the most popular blogging niches for making money?

According to the survey data, the most popular niches for making money are personal development, entrepreneurship/online business/marketing, personal finance, lifestyle and food.

• In the ConvertKit survey, the most popular niche with bloggers is Personal Development (with 42% of bloggers). Other popular niches are Entrepreneurship (33.5%), Small Business (29.3%), Online Business (26.6%), and Productivity (26%).
• In the First Site Guide Survey, the top niches for bloggers are Lifestyle (11.4%), Personal development (9.6%). Entrepreneurship (7.9%), Small business (7.3%), and Online Business (5.6%)
• In The Blog Millionaire Survey (2018), the highest-earning bloggers are in the Personal Finance Niche (with 24% of bloggers). Other popular niches are Marketing (21%), Food (17%), Lifestyle (15%), and Travel (11%). Food and Personal finance bloggers have the highest monthly income.

#3. Age of the blog

Usually, new blogs tend to earn less than established blogs. However, this depends on a variety of factors, for example.

• Rate of writing content. Someone who has been blogging for one year but has 100 articles will outperform someone who has been blogging for 4 years but has 30 articles.
• SEO skills. If you are good at bringing in SEO traffic, you can make money faster than someone who does not use SEO tactics.
• Time to gain authority. If you consistently create great content over time, you will gain credibility with your readers and search engines. This will enable you to get more traffic to your blog.

How long does it take before you start earning a full-time income in blogging?

It can take anywhere between 2-4 years to earn a full-time income from blogging. Here is what the data from blogger surveys show.

• In the iBlog survey, 55% of the bloggers making money had been blogging for more than 3 years.
• In the 2012 ProBlogger survey, 85% of bloggers in the top income bracket had been blogging for four years or more.
• In the Digital Nomad Wannabe (DNW) survey, bloggers making $20,000 a month had been blogging for an average of 3.45 years.

How much money can you earn in your first year of blogging?

It is possible to make at least $200 a month in less than a year. A survey by Digital Nomad Wannabe (DNW) found that 43% of bloggers who had been blogging for 6-12 months were making at least $200 a month.

There are ways you can speed up the process of earning an income. These include:

• Getting good at SEO techniques.
• Starting your blog with aged domains that already have backlinks.
• Targeting social traffic.
• Targeting high ticket items.

#4. Amount of time spent on the blog

One of the great benefits of blogging is that you can earn a full-time income while working very few hours. Initially, when you start your blog, you may have to put in a lot of work but once your blog gets established, you don’t need to work a lot of hours to keep it going.

The more hours you spend working on your blog, the higher the probability that you will make more from it as long as you do things the correct way. There are several reasons for this.

• You have more time for creating content.
• You can spend more time learning how to improve your blog.

How much time do bloggers spend working on their blog?

Results from different surveys that show it is possible to earn a full-time income while working less than 20 hours a week.

• In the ConvertKit survey, 42% of professional bloggers worked less than 5 hours a week on their blog but made more money than the average American.
• In the ConvertKit survey, roughly 78% of the bloggers spent less than 20 hours a week on their blog but earned an average income of $38,016 annually.
• In the First Site Guide survey,the majority of bloggers (84.5%) spent less than 20 hours a week on their blog yet 33 % of them were made a full-time income from blogging (over $3,000 a month).
• In the My Work From Home Money (MWFHM) survey, bloggers spent an average of 8 hours a week working on their blog yet 36% of them earned over $3,000 a month.

If bloggers can achieve these results working a few hours a week, you can accomplish a lot if you take blogging seriously and work the standard 40-hour workweek.

#5. Amount of content on your blog

The larger the amount of content on your blog, the higher the chances of making a large income in blogging. Every post you write contributes to the overall earning of the blog.

To make good money from blogging, you need to accumulate a critical mass of high-quality SEO-optimized posts in niches with high RPMs.

How much money can you make per blog post?

I have not seen reliable estimates (from actual data) of how much money each blog post can bring, however, we can try and reverse engineer from survey data that is already available.

Here is data from the various surveys on bloggers making money from blogging.

• In the First Site Guide survey,  50% of bloggers make over $1,000 a month
• In the First Site Guide survey, 74% of bloggers blog at least once a week
• In the  iBlog survey, 55% of bloggers have been blogging for 3 or more years

Going by these figures, if you blog at least once a week for 3 years, chances are high that you can earn at least $1,000 a month.

If you write at least one post a week, at the end of 3 years you will have accumulated 150 posts blog posts. If you are earning $1,000 every month, then each post is potentially earning you an average of 6.6 dollars a month ($1,000/150 posts).

This estimate is not perfect and the amount of money you can make from a single post can vary considerably. Several factors can affect how much money each post can bring, for example, amount of traffic to each post, the RPM per post and the engagement for each post.

How many posts should you write?

If you are able to get an estimate of how much each post can bring you, then you can decide how many posts you need to write based on how much you want to earn.

For example, if you want to earn $3,000 a month within 3 years, then you need 450 posts on your blog ($3,000/$6.6). This means that you have to write 150 posts a year or 3 posts a week.

#6. Your blogging expenses

When calculating how much you earn from blogging, it is important to focus on profit rather than revenue. The more expenses you have, the less your profit.

Blogging expenses are generally low and it is possible to have profit margins of over 90%. In a traditional brick-and-mortar business, you are lucky if you get a profit margin of 30%. This explains why some bloggers can consistently get high incomes.

With that said, blogging expenses can vary considerably depending on how you monetize your blog. For example, if you offer courses, you may need to spend on ads, video editing, and support staff.

How much money do bloggers spend on their blogs?

If you have a hobby blog, you could get away with spending less than $5 a month on blogging (mostly for hosting and domain). However, if you want to make money from your blog, your expenses could range from $80 to over $3,000 a month. Here is data from blogger surveys.

• According to the ConvertKit (2017) survey, pro bloggers spent an average of $1,324 a month ($15,895 a year in expenses while bloggers who were not making money from their blogs spent $79 a month ($953 a year) in expenses.
• According to the First Site Guide Survey, 57.6% of bloggers spent $500 or less on their blogs per month. 13.9 % spent $500 to $1,000 while 28.4% spent over $3,000 a month.
• In the My Work From Home Money survey, most bloggers (68%) spent less than $200 a month on their blogs.

If you want your blog to grow, you have to treat it as a business and re-invest your earnings into it. However, you need to be smart about how you spend your money to avoid running an unprofitable blog.

#7. Your blog monetization strategies

How you choose to monetize your blog can determine how much money you eventually make.

If you want to make money from blogging, need to avoid mistakes that other bloggers make when monetizing their sites. Some of the monetization mistakes include:

• Choosing not to monetize your site.
• Targeting one or two monetization methods.
• Sticking with monetization methods that don’t give a return on investment.

If you want to go deeper into mistakes that beginner bloggers make (including monetization mistakes), check out my article on amateur blogging mistakes.

5. How do bloggers make money from their blogs?

There are many ways of making money through blogging but some are more popular than others for various reasons.

According to a survey by First Site Guide, the most common ways that bloggers make money are ads (banners, AdSense) (25.5% of bloggers use this), affiliate marketing (18.7%), selling products and services (16.8%), sponsorships/donations (9.4%).

Some of these methods are easier than others to implement but bring in less money. Others are harder to implement but bring in considerably more money. Let us look at them in detail.

#1. Display ads

Display ads are the easiest and most passive way to monetize a site. Beginner bloggers love display ads because you don’t need a lot of skill to make money from them. However, professional bloggers tend to focus on other forms of making money.

According to a survey by The Blog Millionaire (2018)

• Bloggers earning over $25,000 a month made 3% of their income from display ads.
• Bloggers earning between $7,500 and $25,000 a month made 30% of their income from display ads.
• Bloggers earning between $2,000 and $7,500 a month made 35% of their income from display ads

Earnings from display ads tend to be low compared to other methods especially if you are relying on Ad Sense.

However, with the entry of premium ad networks like Ezoic, Mediavine or Ad Thrive, display ads are now quite profitable. This has been driven mainly by the increased spending on digital ads globally.

In 2021, total digital ad spending was expected to reach $419 billion globally (Blogging Statistics).

In some of these premium networks, you can get RPMs of up to 40 or 50. If you check blogger income reports, you will see that many bloggers make a full-time income with income from premium ad networks.

If you are a beginner, Ezoic is the easiest premium ad network to get into because they don’t have minimum traffic requirements like the others. See the Ezoic program for beginners here.

#2. Affiliate marketing

In affiliate marketing, you make money by recommending other people’s products and services in return for a commission.

Affiliate marketing is an easy and profitable way to monetize your blog. You simply share affiliate links on your blog and if someone buys from that link, you get a small commission.

The affiliate marketing industry is exploding as more businesses shift online. In 2021, affiliate marketing spending was estimated at $7.4 billion in the US. 81% of large US programs now use affiliate marketing to get customers (Blogging Statistics).

Affiliate income makes a significant portion of blogger earnings. According to a survey by The Blog Millionaire (2018)

• Bloggers earning over $25,000 a month made 12% of their income from affiliate marketing.
• Bloggers earning between $7,500 and $25,000 a month made 38% of their income from affiliate marketing.
• Bloggers earning between $2,000 and $7,500 a month made 27% of their income from affiliate marketing.

In some niches like personal finance and entrepreneurship, affiliate income can be very high.

The easiest way to get started with affiliate marketing is to join an affiliate program like Amazon Associates or an affiliate network like Shareasale. When you sign up to Shareasale, you can get access to over 16,000 affiliate programs including Etsy, Honey, and RewardStyle.

#3. Selling products and Services

Selling products and services is a popular monetization method among bloggers, especially the more established bloggers. Selling products, especially digital products can be highly lucrative because of the high profit margins.

According to the ConvertKit (2017) survey, 65% of bloggers had a product or service for sale. 74% of bloggers sold digital products (books, courses, etc) while 52% of all bloggers offered a service.

Courses are especially popular with more established bloggers. Course platforms like Thinkific have made it easier than ever to create and deliver courses. If you have a large and engaged audience, this is a monetization method you should definitely target.

According to a survey by The Blog Millionaire (2018)

• Bloggers earning over $25,000 a month made 80% of their income from courses and none from services/consulting.
• Bloggers earning between $7,500 and $25,000 a month made 10% of their income from courses and 1% from services/consulting.
• Bloggers earning between $2,000 and $7,500 a month made 3% of their income from courses and 7% from services/consulting.

Some of the products you can sell include digital products (ebooks, printable), courses, print-on-demand products (t-shirts, posters), and physical products.

You can get started with selling digital products for free using a service like Payhip.

Some of the services you can offer include web design, SEO, graphic design, and social media management.

#4. Sponsored content

If you are a beginner or mid-level blogger with low traffic, you should consider sponsored posts. To make money from sponsored content, you have to get a brand to pay you to write a post to market their products.

According to a survey by The Blog Millionaire (2018)

• Bloggers earning over $25,000 a month made 3% of their income from sponsored posts.
• Bloggers earning between $7,500 and $25,000 a month made 11% of their income from sponsored posts.
• Bloggers earning between $2,000 and $7,500 a month made 14% of their income from sponsored posts.

There are many platforms such as Tapinfluence where you can register as an influencer and connect with brands.

Sponsored posts are great if your blog is still new because you can earn money even with a small blog. The downside of sponsored posts is that the income is not guaranteed and you need to do a lot of work to get sponsors.

6. Blogger Income Surveys Roundup

In this section, you will find quick summaries from the surveys featured in this article. If you want more detailed information, you can go to the websites and look at the original surveys.

#1. My Work From Home Money Blogger Income Survey in 2020 (MWFHM)

Joseph Hogue at My Work From Home Money surveyed 150 bloggers in 2020.

Quick Insights from the Survey

• Over 50% of the bloggers made over $1,500 a month.
• The bloggers spent an average of 8 hours a week working on their blogs.
• The majority of bloggers made their money from affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and pay-per-click ads.
• Most of the bloggers (68%) spent less than $200 a month on their blogs.

Summary Results from the Survey

Here is a detailed summary of blogger incomes from the survey.

• 8.3% of bloggers earned over $10,000 a month.
• 23.1% of bloggers earned over $5,000 a month.
• 36.1% of bloggers earned over $3,000 a month.
• 50% of bloggers earned over $1,500 a month.
• 61.1% of bloggers earned over $500 a month.
• 75.9% of bloggers earned over $100 a month.

If you want to read the article from the actual survey, click here.

#2. Digital Nomad Wannabe Blogger Income Survey in 2019 (DNW)

Digital Nomad Wannabe surveyed 600 bloggers in 2019.

Quick Insights from the Survey

• About 16% of bloggers earned a full-time income from blogging (over $2,500 a month).
• 40% of bloggers were able to earn a decent side-income or full-time income from blogging (over $500 a month).
• 27% of the bloggers earned nothing. Why is this? Some bloggers (11%) did not monetize their blogs while others (26.7%) had been monetizing for less than a year.
• The average amount of time that bloggers making $20,000 a month have been blogging is 3.45 years.
• 43% of bloggers who have been blogging for 6-12 months were making at least $200 a month. 
• The majority of bloggers (21%) spent 5-10 hours a week on their blogs while only 5% of bloggers put in more than 40 hours a week.
• The majority of bloggers made their income from affiliate marketing (80%), display ads (56.4%), and sponsorships (38.9%).

Summary results from the survey

Here is a detailed summary of blogger incomes from the survey.

• 1.9% of bloggers earned over $20,000 a month.
• 14.5% of bloggers earned over $5,000 a month.
• 15.9% of bloggers earned over $2,500 a month.
• 39.3% of the bloggers earned over $500 a month.
• 33.7% of bloggers earned between $1 and $500 a month.
• 23% of the bloggers earned between $1 and $200 a month.
• 27% of the bloggers earned nothing.

If you want to read the article from the actual survey, click here.

#3. ProBlogger Income Survey in 2007 (PB 07)

ProBlogger surveyed 3,054 bloggers to find out how much they earned in October 2007.

Quick Insights from the Survey

• 16% of bloggers earned a full-time income from blogging (over $2,500 a month).
• 31% of bloggers were able to earn a decent side-income or full-time income from blogging (over $500 a month).
• 28% of the bloggers earned nothing.

Summary results from the survey

Here is a detailed summary of blogger incomes from the survey.

• 9% of bloggers earned over $15,000 a month.
• 10% of bloggers earned over $10,000 a month.
• 12% of bloggers earned over $5,000 a month.
• 16% of bloggers earned over $2,500 a month.
• 19% of bloggers earned over $1,500 a month.
• 31% of bloggers earned over $500 a month.
• 49% of bloggers earned over $100 a month.
• 28% of the bloggers earned nothing from their blog.

If you want to read the article from the actual survey, click here.

#4. ProBlogger Blogger Income Survey in 2006 (PB 06)

ProBlogger surveyed 1,504 bloggers to find out how much they earned in April 2006.

Quick Insights from the Survey

• 13% of bloggers earned a full-time income from blogging (over $2,500 a month).
• 27% of bloggers were able to earn a decent side-income or full-time income from blogging (over $500 a month).
• 38% of the bloggers earned nothing.

Summary results from the survey

Here is a detailed summary of blogger incomes from the survey.

• 7% of bloggers earned over $15,000 a month.
• 8% of bloggers earned over $10,000 a month.
• 9% of bloggers earned over $5,000 a month.
• 13% of bloggers earned over $2,500 a month.
• 13% of bloggers earned over $1,500 a month.
• 27% of bloggers earned over $500 a month.
• 43% of bloggers earned over $100 a month.
• 38% earned nothing from their blog.

If you want to read the article from the actual survey, click here.

#5. ProBlogger Blogger Income Survey in 2012 (PB 12)

ProBlogger surveyed 1,500 bloggers to find out how much they earned in 2012.

Quick Insights from the Survey

• 20% of the bloggers were able to earn a part-time or full-time income from blogging (earned over $500 a month).
• 10% earned nothing from their blogs.
• About half of the bloggers surveyed had been blogging for less than two years.
• 85% of bloggers in the top income bracket had been blogging for four years or more.

Summary results from the survey

Here is a detailed summary of blogger incomes from the survey.

• 4% of bloggers earned over $10,000 a month.
• 13% of bloggers earned over $1,000 a month.
• 20% of bloggers earned over $500 a month.
• 37% of bloggers earned over $100 a month.
• 28% of the bloggers earned less than $10 a month.
• 10% of bloggers earned nothing from their blog.

If you want to read the article from the actual survey, click here.

#6. IBlog Women in Blogging Blogger Income Survey in 2015 (WIB)

IBlog magazine surveyed thousands of women bloggers in 2015 to find out about their income and blogging habits.

Quick Insights from the Survey

• 11% of the bloggers were able to make a full-time income from blogging (over $2,500 a month).
• About 32% of bloggers were able to make a decent side income or full-time income from blogging (over $416 a month).
• 44% of bloggers worked on their blog for less than 15 hours a week while only 22% worked for 30-35 hours or more weekly.
• 45% of the bloggers had been blogging for less than 3 years while the rest had been blogging for more than 3 years.
• 69% have bachelor’s degrees or higher level of education.

Summary results from the survey

Here is a detailed summary of blogger incomes from the survey.

• 6% of bloggers earned over $5,000 a month.
• 11% of bloggers earned over $2,500 a month.
• 32% of bloggers earned over $500 a month.
• 43% of bloggers earned over $200 a month.

Here is a table with the actual values from the survey

# Bloggers Surveyed	50
Year	2015
Monthly Income
>$5,000 ($60,000 annually)	6 %
$2,500- 5,000 ($30,000-$60,000)	5 %
$416- 833 ($5,000- 10,000 annually)	7 %
$208 – 416 ($2,500- 5,000 annually)	11 %
<$208 ($2,500 annually)	57 %

If you want to read the article from the actual survey, click here.

#7. Medium Blogger Income Survey (2020)

In this survey, 180 bloggers in the Medium Partner Program were surveyed in April 2020.

Quick Insights from the Survey

• 21.6% of the bloggers earned a part-time or full-time income from their blog (i.e. earned over $500 a month).
• 52.8% of the bloggers earned less than $100.
• The highest amount earned by a single author was $28,622.
• The highest amount earned for a single story was $12,797.

Summary results from the survey

Here is a detailed summary of blogger incomes from the survey.

• 7.2% of bloggers earned over $1,000 a month.
• 14.4% of bloggers earned over $500 a month.
• 47.2% of bloggers earned over $100 a month.
• 36.1%  of bloggers earned less than $25 a month.

If you want to read the article from the actual survey, click here.

#8. Other Surveys

The following two surveys were not included in the calculation of blogger earnings but they provide valuable information on various aspects of blogger incomes.

First Site Guide Survey

In this survey, First Site Guide surveyed 1,030 bloggers in 2020.

Quick Insights from the Survey

• 33% of the bloggers were able to make a full-time income from blogging (over $3,000 a month).
• About 50% of bloggers were able to make a decent side income from blogging (over $1,000 a month).
• 49.3% of bloggers do it as a full-time job while 14.8% do it as a hobby.
• 84.5% of the bloggers spent less than 20 hours a week on their blog while 50% spent less than 5 hours. Only 6% spent more than 40 hours a week.
• 75% have some form of a college degree (bachelors, associate, masters, or doctorate).
• The top niches for bloggers were Lifestyle (11.4%), Personal development (9.6%). Entrepreneurship (7.9%), Small business (7.3%), and online business (5.6%).
• Tops ways bloggers make money were ads (banners, AdSense) (25.5%), affiliate marketing (18.7%), selling products and services (16.8%), sponsorships/donations (9.4%).

Summary results from the survey

Here is a detailed summary of blogger incomes from the survey.

• 3% of bloggers earned over $20,000 a month.
• 5.8% of bloggers earned over $10,000 a month.
• 18.8% of bloggers earned over $5,000 a month.
• 33.1%  of bloggers earned over $3,000 a month.
• 50.5%  of bloggers earned over $1,000 a month.

If you want to read the article from the actual survey, click here.

ConvertKit Survey

In this survey, ConvertKit surveyed 835 bloggers in 2016.

Quick Insights from the Survey

• 14% of the bloggers considered themselves professional bloggers while 86% considered themselves not-yet professional bloggers.
• The average blogger earned an income of $38,016 annually ($3,168 a month)[Gross income of $54,108 minus $15,895 expenses].
• Professional bloggers earned an income of $138,046 annually ($11,503 a month) [Gross income of $185,975 minus $47,912 expenses].
• Not-yet professional bloggers earned an income of $9,497 annually ($791 a month) [Gross income $16,267 minus $6,769 expenses].
• 91% of bloggers had education qualifications beyond high school. 30% of bloggers had a master’s, doctorate, or professional degree.
• Roughly 78% of the bloggers spent less than 20 hours a week on their blogs. About 44% of bloggers spent less than 5 hours a week on their blogs while 7% spent more than 40 hours a week.
• 42% of professional bloggers worked less than 5 hours a week on their blog but made more money than the median US household income.
• The most popular niches with bloggers were Personal Development (42%), Entrepreneurship (33.5%), Small Business (29.3%), Online Business (26.6%), and Productivity (26%).

Summary results from the survey

The results below show household income which is a combination of income from blogging and any other income-generating activity from anyone in the household.

This shows that the income bloggers make can contribute greatly to household income.

Here is a detailed summary of blogger incomes from the survey.

• 16% of bloggers earned over $12,500 a month (>$150,000 annually).
• 61% of bloggers earned over $4,000 a month. ($50,000 annually).
• 75%  of bloggers earned over $2,000 a month ($25,000 annually).
• 13%  of bloggers earned less than $2,000 a month ($25,000 annually).
• 12% of bloggers preferred not to reveal their income.

If you want to read the article from the actual survey, click here.

The Blog Millionaire Survey (2018)

In this survey, Brandon Gaille from The Blog Millionaire analyzed blogs earning over $2,000 a month and came up with some interesting findings.

Quick Insights from the Survey

• Food and personal finance bloggers had the highest median monthly income (at $9,169 and $9,100 respectively). Other niches had almost similar levels of income. Lifestyle ($5,199), Mommy ($5,150), Travel ($5,000), Marketing ($4,269).
• The highest-earning bloggers were in the Personal Finance Niche (with 24% of bloggers). Other popular niches are Marketing (21%), Food (17%), Lifestyle (15%), and Travel (11%).
• Bloggers earning over $25,000 a month made most of their money from courses (80%), affiliates (12%), ads (3%), and sponsored posts (3%).
• Bloggers earning between $7,500 and $25,000 a month made most of their money from affiliates (38%), ads (30%), sponsored posts (11%), online courses (10%), and services/consulting (1%).
• Bloggers earning between $2,000 and $7,500 a month made most of their money from ads (35%), affiliates (27%), sponsored posts (14%), services/consulting (7%), and online courses (3%).

If you want to read the article from the actual survey, click here.

Final Thoughts

Blogging is not a get-rich-quick opportunity. However, with careful planning and consistent execution, blogging can be a reliable and even highly profitable source of income.

Can you become one of the 12% of bloggers that make 5k, 10k, 50k, or even 100k a month from blogging? Yes. Many of these top-earning bloggers are ordinary people like you and me who took the time to do things the right way and then worked hard to grow their blogs.

Hopefully, this article has given you ideas that you can use to increase how much money you can make from your blog.

Further reading

The following articles will also help you along your blogging journey

• Blogging mistakes that will cause your blog to fail
• Is blogging dead? Why blogging is still relevant

Appendix

Table Summarizing Data from All 7 Surveys

	MWFHM	DNW	PB 07	PB 06	PB 12	WIB	Medium	Median %	Average %
Year	2020	2019	2007	2006	2012	2015	2020
#Bloggers	150	600	3,054	1,504	1,500	50	180
Monthly	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
>10,000	8.3	n/a	10	8	4		n/a	8	8
>5,000	23.1	14.5	12	9	n/a	6	n/a	12	13
>2,500	36.1	n/a	16	13	n/a	11	n/a	15	19
>1,500	50	n/a	19	13	n/a	n/a	n/a	19	27
>500	61.1	39.3	31	27	20	32	14.4	31	32
>100	75.9	n/a	49	43	37		47.2	47	50

n/a- not available