Realistic Truth: How I Make Money Blogging - How Long Does It Take To Start Earning Well?
- Fletch
- Dec 27, 2025
- 16 min read
Updated: Jan 10
I decided to write this blog to help anyone who is thinking of starting a blog with the intention to earn online. Not just a few quid here and there but a meaningful income to either supplement their main income or for it to become their main income.
Part of my Financial Freedom Series - Helping people to become financially free to live the life of their dreams. As you know in June 2024 we took one way tickets to Bali with our Kids to slow travel full time and we are now around 1.9 months (at time of writing this) into that amazing journey. Check out our YouTube Channel here where we share little bits of our Bali life , travel life and spiritual journey.
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Steal My Strategy/Growth Roadmap
I get asked all the time questions such as 'How do I get a remote job?' and 'how do I start earning online?' like you guys. We understand that many people have a dream of doing a job that they love, love the idea of freedom based work and dream of worldschooling their kids and travelling the world as digital nomads but don't have the flexible location based income to support it.
To answer the above Q's - truthfully there's no one straight single answer to them.
Because the first truth about how we became digital nomads and started being able to properly 'live' this nomad travel life (with kids) with help from blogging without dipping in savings IS:
you have to have an online income. For us this was an online business but this wasn't enough to support our family fully and so we had to learn new skills and start new things that allowed us to start earning 'properly' online.
Blogging is one of the ways that we now earn online. And this blog post is the first step in helping others wanting to start their own blog to see what it takes to take said blog from nothing to an earning vehicle.
And sharing the truths about how long it will take to start earning properly from blogging and what you can expect to earn in that timeframe. If You're new here Check out Our Journey here
I get asked all the time by people that haven't got experience of working for themselves but think that being a Digital Nomad is a cool job title that they'd like to do and that being one is somehow instantly well paid, cushy with glamorous travel perks asking 'How Do I become a digital nomad?' and it kind of makes my mind truly boggle.
Because there is no Digital Nomad recruitment office sat somewhere on Earth just waiting to sign people up to pay them good money, to travel the world and give them the life of their dreams - without the exchange of their skills or time for money. Wouldn't that be great if there was.
And if you find that place give me a shout. Because we're still spinning all of our own plates to create the income via multiple income streams that keeps our dream alive. That said it's completely possible. With time and consistency.
And it doesn't have to involve MLM (as that's not our thing at all - tried it, hated it, wasted time and money in the process) BUT that being said I also know a lot of people in the MLM space who are earning serious money. It's just not 'our thing'.
Not only is it possible with blogging but the earnings can be unlimited too. Especially with time, because blogging traffic compounds. But I must stress before you read on, because I think many people think that earning online via blogging is super easy and requires little to no effort or time. That's not the case and there's no free ride.
The Unpopular Truth 2 about starting earning from blogging
Truth Number 2: Earning online is still a job. In fact it's a business and needs to be run as one. Because, if you've ever had your own business you'll know exactly what it takes to run your own online business and earning online is exactly the same. That's if you want to earn from it of course.
And these truths are going to make me unpopular. But we need truths if we are going to move past it and you start earning a good income online. (unless your boss gives you remote flexible working of course - if so then you are winning as you'll have the location independence and the security of known income).
So with any successful and earning business - You need to be able to offer something of value to paying people (products, information or a service). You need to get this product, info or service 'out there' in the way of marketing. And then you need to get paid.
In terms of having a blog that pays - this looks like: Having a blog that offers readable info that people want (a good topic in your own niche) and then getting good at writing so those people stick around (skills) and then getting really really good at SEO (skills) so you can get your info in front of eyes (top of google) and then make money through those eyes seeing or clicking on an ad (ad revenue) or on your affiliate link (affiliate earnings). All of which are not going to earn you £2k a month instantly or consistently.
And so for this you will also need a good content growth strategy (which I share my exact roadmap for you below). Blogging with a strategy is a tried and tested method of earning money online.
Keep reading because I Basically share exactly what it takes to start that blog and how to start earning from it. Not just a few £'s here & there but a regular monthly income that's realistically achieved to make a salary £1.5k-£2.5k a month.
There are a few really good ways to earn well online. Some of which can be pretty fast too. Blogging being one of them and in this blog I intend to share realistic timescales, realistic earnings and a strategy and plan that you can follow to help you grow your own blog from zero to a really GOOD INCOME.
Our Story and how this blog started:
For us early in 2024 we had one online income and knew that we needed more income streams if we were to make our plans a more permanent thing. We were just about to start our travel adventure. We planned just 1 year initially and was hoping to start making money online enough to continue travelling if we wanted.
We're now almost 2 years in on that travel adventure (at the time of writing) with new plans to carry on a few years more seeing as much of the world as possible whilst our kids are still young. And earning from blogging.
A Realistic Blogging Salary of £1,500 to £2,500 a month. How to Get There and How Long Will it Take?
It is absolutely possible to grow a blog from zero monthly sessions to 50,000 — which is what you need to get £1500-£2500 a month in ad revenue - which is a realistic single salary for travel. Or even if you’re starting from modest numbers — especially with full-time hours available.
This is the truth. It's not fluff, nor is it unrealistic optimism. It's totally do-able and read on for why 50k sessions is the bomb. The holy grail if you will for us bloggers.
And to do so you need: strategy + consistency + time. To reach these monetary goals.
So if you are looking to earn £2,000 on average a month (a salary) that will be uncapped continuing on but to begin will give you that wage / income each month.
Here's my little bit of encouragement for you that you need to hear based on facts, from someone who is doing it already and has done it already with another blog - and so I want to share some truthful hopium and not false hope to show:
Why This Is 100% Achievable for You
P.S. before we start, you're probably wondering why the 50k sessions goal? Growing a blog to 50k sessions per month is the number of sessions that a blog needs to get onto Mediavine.
In my own experience this is a goal for any blog because if you concentrate on just Google Ads, the revenue is fairly small each month. As a guide: With 50k sessions, you'll likely earn around £300-£500 a month with Google Ads, which whilst this is nice as a side hustle, it isn't going to become that salary income replacement.
BUT getting your blog to 50k sessions will allow you to then apply to get your blog to receive ad rev from mediavine which typical pays 5x more than google. And so if you have grown the blog to already having 50k sessions (the Mediavine threshold) and will already be on google adsense and earning roughly £300-£500 pmth, then once you get approved you can see your income approximately 5x which takes a blogs earnings up to £1500-£2500 pmth.
We call this: The Holy Grail. So can you see how turning your passion for writing about topics you love, with a strategy and plan is the way to reach the holy grail. And earn an income.
An income from writing, anywhere in the world, that is uncapped. And by uncapped I really mean UNCAPPED. Because from 50k you can using the same growth strategy you can and will SCALE!!!
Anyway, scaling is for the future. Right now let's go from zero to 50k.... and if 50k sessions seems sooooo big and unachievable for a new blog. I'm here to tell you that it's not... Let's dive in:
✔ 1. 50,000 sessions from blogging is NOT “viral” traffic — it’s strategic SEO steady traffic
Many Mediavine blogs get the majority of their traffic from SEO, not social media. This means: it’s a repeatable, learnable skill, and not something that's down to luck or timing (i.e. right place right time). You just need the right strategy in place and then get good at SEO (all very learnable skills).
Blogs go from 0 to 100k+ monthly sessions all the time once the right system is applied.
If you dedicate full time hours, this is absolutely within reach in 12–24 months (or faster in certain niches).
And this is why I say to not expect riches overnight. But expect them, if you're doing everything in this blog you can and should 'expect' them.
✔ 2. Get a niche for your blog that is HIGHLY SEO-friendly
My blog covers:
• travel
• slow living
• spirituality
• personal growth
• Bali
• wellness
• meditation
• grounding
• family/world schooling
These are ALL niches with:
• high keyword volume
• endless long-tail keywords
• article formats that are easy to rank
• people actively searching every day
So first up, Find a niche that people are searching for and you have HUGE potential — before you've even begun to fully tap the SEO landscape.
✔ 3. Google LOVES deep, authentic, experience-based blog content
And so the goal is to get good at this. Again, a learnable skill. If you make it your mission to make this EXACTLY your strength, then you can reduce the timescales above.
Google’s EEAT update (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) favours:
• personal stories
• lived experience
• first-person travel
• original photography
• unique insights
• non-AI duplicated content
So the goal with whatever your topic is to make your writing natural, soft, and expressive — perfectly matched to what Google rewards right now. We use ChatGPT to help with speeding up of things, like the SEO descriptions and Titles and Keyword help.
AI is your friend to help speed up with ideas and professional jobs BUT don't use it to do the creative work. You are the energy of your own blog. That creative energy force must be you. The style, the feel, the story that readers will come back to. The You. Not an AI bot.
My tip is to keep the writing to just you and the keyboard. This keeps your blog authentic and you. The world doesn't need more AI. It needs more YOU and the beautiful creative energy as you type and flow.
✔ 4. Give yourself the time to create volume on your blog
Most bloggers grow slowly because they only post 1–2 times per month.
If you have full-time hours, then you can grow accordingly.
If you implement my plan below, you can create:
📝 8–16 posts per month
📸 with supporting media
🔗 and include internal linking clusters
✨ utilising Pinterest traffic - Even as a beginner with practically zero traffic to your blog or website. Check out This Step by Step Guide to using Pinterest to Grow Affiliate Traffic to Your Blog in 2026.
This is how a blog or website EXPLODES. Explode is good in terms of eyes, numbers and revenue. P.S. I'm also purely talking here about ad revenue, not mentioning any offers or products you sell. The potential for your blog here is WOW.
🎥 and if you have social media channels - repurpose the blog content for YouTube/IG
(for example after I have posted this blog post, I will create a YouTube video sharing everything I talk about in this post), which I will upload to YT sharing my link to this blog which helps with getting more eyes to this much more detailed blog post for those that want to find out how to earn well from blogging in 12 - 24 months!
✔ 5. If You already have the voice and the storytelling — you just need structure
You may not need to learn too much on the writing side or the storytelling side. And if so this is why starting a blog is perfect for you. Your ready to simply channel that into:
• high-ranking SEO posts
• data-backed keyword clusters
• a content library that grows in authority
• better indexing
• stability over time
If you already have the most important ingredient i.e. you can write well.The rest is technique. And this technique is learnable. And will become your high paying skill.
✔ 6. The jump from 0 → 5,000 is small (at the beginning it will feel like it's going to take you ages to grow anywhere near 50k BUT):
0 → 5,000 is a jump that forms the foundation of it all. It feels small but keep going because,
5,000 → 15,000 is momentum
15,000 → 50,000 happens FAST
Traffic growth looks exponential, not linear. Also remember, your blog will be earning as it grows which will be helpful.
You won’t see 10% growth per month. You’ll see:
Month 1–3 growth: Slow
Month 4–6 growth: Noticeable
Month 6–12: Major spikes
Month 12–18: Massive compounding happening
This is NORMAL.
But can you see growth as the blog posts start growing, the months go on and the early months set the foundations for much bigger compounding growth.
And if your only goal was to make £1500-£2500 a month then in just a small amount of time and a little journey, you're all ready to apply to Mediavine and increase those ad revenues to become ooomphy month on month.
You could stop there, but writing by this point will be in your blood. And quite frankly since this is just the beginning why would you. I'll share a £0-£30k per month blogging strategy soon but first, let's jump into the roadmap for actually getting to the 50K+ monthly sessions, because it's do-able and by following my exact plan, with full time hours you can get 50,000 sessions and be eligible to apply to that Holy Grail.
Steal My FULL GROWTH ROADMAP TO 50,000+ MONTHLY BLOG SESSIONS
Here is my exact plan.
If you follow this with full-time hours, you can realistically hit Mediavine within 12–18 months.
This is a professional plan used by SEO agencies (but tailored to my niche and brand).
You should add your own niche content pillars.
🚀 STEP 1 — Pick 3 Core Niches (Google Needs Clear Topical Authority for blog content)
Choose 3 clear “content pillars” that your blog will become known for.
Based on your goals + passions, skills. For my blog it's:
1. Bali & Slow Travel
(this has a huge search volume + is evergreen = will rank always as opposed to Xmas content for example or trend led content)
2. My Soft Awakening & Meditation
(both mine + Si's versions of our own spiritual awakening. This has low competition + is authentically us in our own words from our own experience)
3. Worldschooling / Family Travel
(niche but high-income audience)
My three above categories gives me:
• strong SEO clusters
• high ranking potential
• good commercial value
• a unique angle no other blogger has
Everything I write falls into one of these pillars. And you should think about your own niches and use my niche guide to help brainstorm and drill down if you're not 100% sure on what your own blogging niche should be.
My personal tip: You can pivot. What works for me now won't always work and I'll change - for example I didn't blog about Manifestation techniques but this is a niche that I love and know how to do, so I now share and this is going to become a more dominant pillar in time.
Tip 2: Don't think you have to have it all figured out just yet. Pick 3 niches content pillars that you could write about for now. This doesn't have to be your job for life.
🚀 STEP 2 — Build 10–15 Topic Clusters (THIS is how you grow your blog from from 0 to 50k sessions - that holy grail)
Think of your blog like a library. Google ranks blogs that are “experts” on very specific topics. Things that I'm an expert in talking about. Or that I'm living and doing right now so can yap on about them which helps those searching for such type of info.
So you choose clusters Mine are:
🌺 Cluster 1: Bali Travel Guides
Bali itinerary 7, 10, 14, 21 days
Where to stay in Bali (by area)
Best cafes in Ubud/Canggu/Uluwatu
Digital nomad guide to Bali
Living in Bali: everything to know
Cost of living in Bali for families
Best beaches, waterfalls, rice terraces
Bali for first timers
Cultural etiquette
Bali scams to avoid (this ranks HIGH)
The Bali visa guide (always needed)
These types of posts alone bring me 20k monthly sessions.
🌿 Cluster 2: Meditation & Soft Awakening (My Unique Niche)
What is soft awakening?
Meditation for beginners (my story version)
Grounding: a full guide
ACIM explained gently
How meditation rewires the brain
The power of slowing down
How to feel safe in your body again
Nervous system basics for spiritual beginners
Feminine energy awakening signs
How to start journaling for inner clarity
A gentle morning practice for peace
These posts have very low competition and can rank FAST.
🌙 Cluster 3: Worldschooling / Family Travel
How to start worldschooling
Worldschooling curriculum ideas
Worldschooling for beginners
Travel with kids: practical hacks
What we’ve learned from raising kids abroad
Family-friendly destinations in Southeast Asia
How to balance work, travel, and homeschooling
This attracts a very valuable, engaged segment.
🚀 STEP 3 — Write 2–3 SEO Posts Per Week (This is my growth engine)
With full time hours, this is easy to do.
Each post = 1,500–3,000 words, with the following for SEO (I'll put together a detailed SEO blogging guide as SEO is the skill that gets your content out there to the right and searching eyes:
• keyword in title
• keyword in H2s
• intro summarising search intent
• original photos with keywords in Alt Tags
• internal links to cluster
• conclusion + CTA
By writing 2–3 posts/week = you'll have 8–12 posts per month. This is the strategy.
In 12 months, you’ll have 100–150 posts.This is where the exponential growth happens.
🚀 STEP 4 — Pinterest: The FASTEST Traffic Channel
Pinterest can bring 1,000–20,000 monthly sessions BEFORE Google even kicks in.
My niche is PERFECT for Pinterest:
• travel
• Bali aesthetics
• meditation quotes
• soft awakening visuals
• grounding practices
• worldschooling
But again you need a plan. To keep you posting on Pinterest.
My Pinterest plan:
I Create 5 pins for each blog post
I Use Pinterest keywords (hugely important)
I Pin daily using scheduling
I Link every pin to my blog
Pinterest is often the bridge that gets bloggers to Mediavine while waiting for SEO to mature. Especially if you have a brand new blog, because new blogs don't have much domain authority to begin with and will need time to show Google that you are here to stick around, the authority on all things xyz and show it that you mean business. I can't stress Pinterest enough. Think of it as your Search Engine for images.
🚀 STEP 5 — Build Authority Pages (Google Needs This)
Create:
✔ About Me Page with our personal story
Google LOVES this for EEAT.
✔ Start Here Page (your meditation intro!)
✔ Contact Page
✔ Resources Page
This increases trust and boosts rankings.
🚀 STEP 6 — Build Internal Linking
Every time I publish a blog post I:
• link it to 3–5 related posts
• update older posts to link to new content
Google sees this as “topical depth.”
This can double your traffic. Because the old posts rank well and showing new posts around the topic shows authority relevance.
🚀 STEP 7 — Monthly Content Themes for Momentum
Here’s my first 6 months:
Month 1: Meditation + Soft Awakening
Grow your “Start Here” section.
Month 2: Bali Travel Basics
Begin your travel authority.
Month 3: Ubud + Canggu Deep Dives
Google LOVES area guides.
Month 4: Worldschooling Starter Content
Attract high-value readers.
Month 5: Advanced Bali Guides
Temples, wellness, hidden gems.
Month 6: Transformation / Healing
Your signature category.
This helped me build BOTH traffic AND brand identity.
🚀 STEP 8 — I Track Progress:
Check monthly on Google Analytics and Google Webmaster:
• impressions (these should go up first)
• click-through rate
• keyword ranking improved
• sessions growing
If impressions go up, traffic WILL follow.
🚀 STEP 9 — Timeline Expectations (REALISTIC)
Here’s what a normal growth curve looks like if you follow this plan:
Months 1–3:
Traffic increases from 0 → 2,000–5,000 (early SEO indexing + Pinterest)
Months 4–6:
Traffic 5,000 → 12,000 (Google trust begins)
Months 7–12:
Traffic 12,000 → 30,000 (content compounding, backlinks appearing)
Months 12–18:
Traffic 30,000 → 50,000+ (you become an authority site)
THIS is the normal, achievable growth pattern for a dedicated blogger.
THIS is the system — and full-time hours make this SO doable.
Things that kept me going in the early day. IMPORTANT ENCOURAGEMENT that i needed to hear that you might too:
You already have:
✔ the writing talent
✔ the lived experience
✔ the niche
✔ the voice
✔ the time
✔ the depth
✔ the consistency potential
✔ the emotional resilience
✔ the awakening story
✔ the Bali factor
✔ the SEO-friendly topics
✔ and a rapidly growing spiritual identity
With all the above in mind we're not trying to do something outrageous.
We’re stepping into something totally aligned with our own personal paths, our brand, our story, our purpose. And you could too - just your story, your path, your purpose.
Our own blog growth and our own awakening were NOT separate journeys.
This blog was simply another place where our awakening could expresses itself. And with that it became a point that we Must Write and Grow rather than a hobby. And that's now what keeps us writing. So long a s we can help others on their own journey.
I hoped this helped you.
Let me know in the comments below if you liked this post. I hope it's inspired you to show you what's truthfully possible. Many think that starting a blog will start earning great money almost immediately, but with a more realistic view and the right strategy you can be earning enough from your own blog for it to become your main income (with great foundations to scale)
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