Monetizing your blog is no easy task. It can take a long time to reach that sweet spot where you have a decent amount of traffic and can actually start capitalizing on it — and turn it into a good revenue stream.
Ads are one of the easiest, most accessible ways to monetize the traffic on your blog. Sure, nobody likes ads and, in all honesty, the internet would be such a lovelier place if we weren’t bombarded with ads at every turn.
But the truth of the matter is: creators deserve to be compensated for the effort they put into their websites. And since most of us don’t ask for any other type of compensation for the information we provide to our readers, it only makes sense to run ads as a way to earn money from our blogging.
When should you start running ads on your website?
Once you’ve reached a sweet spot and your website is attracting a decent amount of visitors every month, you’re bound to start asking yourself: Should I run ads to monetize this traffic?
Well, the answer is: it depends.
For me, it always boils down to the amount of page views the blog gets on the monthly basis, as well as the overall potential for growth the site has. Why? Because often times, it’s worth holding off on running ads in favor of faster growth.
Based on past experience with smaller and larger blogs, I usually recommend waiting until your blog has at least 50,000 page views/month before adding ads to the mix. For sites with smaller amounts of traffic, it makes more sense to bring those traffic numbers up before jumping into the ads game — especially since the revenue potential simply isn’t worth it (but we’ve included some calculations below, so that you can decide for yourself).
Consider waiting until your blog has at least 50,000 page views/month before adding ads to the mix.
Why waiting could be a good idea
Put simply: you can sometimes grow your website faster if you don’t have any ads on it. There are quite a few reasons for this, and here are some of the biggest ones:
- Ad-free websites load faster
Ads will make your blog posts load slower, hurting your page speed scores — which are crucial ranking factors. So if you’re trying to outrank bigger websites and get your articles higher in search results (which, of course, will bring in more traffic), having a fast-loading website will help you get there faster. - You’re likelier to gain a following
If you have a clean website with a great on-page user experience and no nasty ads to distract users from your content, it will be a lot easier for you to grow your audience. With no third-party ads to break your content and to compete for your readers’ attention, you have more space to convert them into recurring readers. Engage them with email opt-in forms, add CTAs encouraging them to read other relevant articles, ask them to follow you on social networks. - More traffic will get you into the best-paying ad networks
Not all ad providers pay good rates. When you do start showing ads to your website visitors, you’ll want to get the best possible RPM (revenue per thousand impressions). Some of the best ad networks out there have top brands working with them, and they can offer RPMs of up to $40 or $50 — as opposed to the $5 to $10 range Google’s AdSense network would bring you. Which leads us right into the math part of this blog post.
What’s the revenue potential if you run ads on your blog?
Now, onto the fun part: let’s do the math and see how much money your blog can bring you.
Of course, these are just estimates and not guarantees, but they’re good benchmarks to give you an idea of when (and if) it’s worth it to start running ads — or hold off until you manage to grow your traffic numbers.
To give you a good idea of the revenue potential you’d be looking at, we made some estimates for websites at different traffic marks (10,000 monthly page views, 25,000, as well as 50,000 — which is usually the starting point when you can join some of the best ad networks out there, like AdThrive or Mediavine).
Before we start: it’s important to note that, despite the fact that RPM (revenue per thousand impressions) is the standard metric across all ad networks, its values vary wildly from website to website. It often depends on the quality of your website’s traffic, the niche you’re in, the content you publish, and many, many other factors. Even two websites that are with the same ad provider, have the same niche, and similar traffic numbers will report very different RPM numbers.
A website with 10,000 page views
Serving AdSense ads
Estimated RPM (mid-range): $5
10 x $5 = $50/month
A website with 10,000 page views
Serving AdSense ads
Estimated RPM (high-range): $10
10 x $10 = $100/month
A website with 25,000 page views
Serving AdSense ads
Estimated RPM (mid-range): $5
25 x $5 = $125/month
A website with 25,000 page views
Serving AdSense ads
Estimated RPM (high-range): $10
25 x $10 = $250/month
A website with 50,000 page views
Serving AdSense ads
Estimated RPM (mid-range): $5
50 x $5 = $250/month
A website with 50,000 page views
Serving AdSense ads
Estimated RPM (high-range): $10
50 x $10 = $500/month
A website with 50,000 page views
Serving ads via a top ad network
Estimated RPM (mid-range): $18
50 x $18 = $900/month
A website with 50,000 page views
Serving ads via a top ad network
Estimated RPM (high-range): $40
50 x $40 = $2,000/month
Again, the above examples are taking a over-simplified approach to revenue calculations. Your blog might do extraordinarily well with AdSense ads, and command considerably higher RPMs (maybe your niche is very attractive to advertisers or your audience consists of high spenders that attract brands like flies), so feel free to inflate the above RPMs a little to figure out the best case scenario before making the decision.
But I’m hoping that these raw calculations help answer your question on how much money your blog can get you if you have around or a little over 10,000 visits each month. And if you’re in a different traffic range, multiply that based on your numbers and you’ll get a good ball park estimate of your ad revenue potential.
And if your potential earnings won’t make that big of a difference for you, consider holding off a little longer before jumping into the ads game. A little patience might translate into way more $$$ sooner rather than later.
Lead image credit: Photo by Le Buzz on Unsplash
