Earning from blogging is very easy. All you need is a blog website and a bunch of published articles, and you’ll generate thousands of dollars a month.
It’s time to break out of those myths.
Blogging is still thriving and a great way to make passive income. However, it has undergone significant changes over the last few years. According to Luisa Zhou, 80% of bloggers fail within the first 18 months of launching their blog.
There are a series of myths and untold truths behind these failures. We’ll go over some truths we must adhere to if you’re trying to make it big as a blogger.
9 Truths You Must Know To Ensure Earnings From Blogging
Blogging offers the potential for passive income, but it requires a significant amount of active effort upfront. But this effort, too, faces challenges along the way. There are larger influences like algorithm changes and shifts in industry.
However, fortunately, there are ways to combat them and grow. We have shared some learning from bloggers who make money without stressing too much. Because they have a few things figured out and processes tailored to bloggers.
Here is a clear picture of blog monetization reality and nine truths to back them up.
1. It’s Not Passive Income (Initially)
If you’re starting a blog in 2025 in hopes of earning easy passive money, then this is a tough truth to swallow.
Yes, blogging gives you access to a passive income source, but you must pave the way, which demands a significant level of upfront work.
It starts with building a stable audience, a recognizable brand, and authoritative and expert content. Then it paves the way for passive earning.
Here’s What The Initial Effort Looks Like:
- You’ll need to invest a significant amount of time in establishing a brand, writing and publishing content, and building your audience.
- The first six months to a year would be about building every aspect of your blog, and that’s not an effortless process.
- Even after establishing your blog and enhancing its metrics, you’ll need to regularly put in effort to promote and sustain blog traffic.
2. Google Can Impact Your Blog
Google is a big factor to consider if you want to ensure earning from blogging. While your content is for the audience and helps them with relevant information, authentic insights, and data, the result always reflects in terms of SERP ranking and organic traffic.
Even if your website is compliant with the search algorithms, website traffic may fluctuate and impact your revenue. Putting your own hard work aside, search traffic is something that fluctuates from time to time, affecting your revenue.
Here Are A Few Things To Keep In Mind:
- The Google algorithm is constantly evolving, and it can impact your overall search ranking.
- Even with a strong following on your website, changes in Google algorithms can affect your ranking and revenue.
It’s crucial to stay informed about the recent changes in Google’s algorithm. As long as you adapt your strategies accordingly, you’ll be able to maintain your blog’s visibility. According to OptinMonster, 38% of bloggers are updating their articles as per changes in the algorithm.
3. Writing Is Just One Piece Of The Puzzle
Blogging depends on solid writing skills – if you see it from a generic point of view. But at the heart of it, it requires strong marketing, research, budgeting, SEO, and strategy-building capability.
Think of it as a type of entrepreneurship where you handle everything, and the first few months require you to do everything with close attention to detail.
With new search algorithm updates coming up, you can’t just think of a random topic and publish whatever is on your mind. It takes a planned and well-strategised approach that builds your blog through a step-by-step process.
| Research | Budgeting | Content Creation | SEO & Analytics | Promotion & Engagement | Monetization & Accounting |
| Initially, you’ll start by researching your niche and planning content pillars and topic ideas you can write for about a year. | The content creation part involves preparing both the written and visual content. You may need to create infographics, eBooks, or video content that you want to embed into your blog. | The content creation part involves preparing both the written and visual content. You may need to create infographics, eBooks, or video content that u want to embed into your blog. | The content creation part involves preparing both the written and visual content. You may need to create infographics, eBooks, or video content that you want to embed into your blog. | It’s best to have a multi-channel exposure for your blog. This helps secure traffic from different sources while also promoting your blog to build awareness. | Finally, when your blog generates traffic, you’re ready to monetize it through affiliate programs, guest posts, or AdSense. You’ll also have to take care of the accounting and money management when your blog is monetized. |
Here Are Three Gospels From Pro Bloggers:
| 1st: Writing is an essential part of blogging, but it’s not everything. Strategy, SEO, marketing, and management skills are just as important to turn your blog into a passive income stream. |
| 2nd: Overreliance on direct search engine traffic alone can make your blog outdated. In fact, it can affect your earnings from blogging. A significant portion of your work must go on promoting your blog through guest posting, email marketing, engaging in forums, and social media promotions. |
| 3rd: Prioritize giving value over only earning through your blog. The value-added content of your blog is what keeps your audience engaged in the long run. So, create content that adds value. Additionally, prioritize marketing to increase traffic, engage with readers, and foster a community. |
4. Not All Niches Are Profitable
Source: RankIQ
High-quality content is the backbone of successful blogging. If you want to earn from Blogging, you must have High-quality content as the backbone of your strategy.
However, even high-quality content may fail if you aren’t creating content around a profitable niche.
After all, you want your blog to help you generate income, and that’s not possible unless you have a profitable niche to work with.
Here Are A Few Things To Keep In Mind:
- Your niche selection has a heavy impact on your earnings. Some niches are oversaturated, while some offer very minimum earning potential.
- Choose a niche that aligns with your passion and interests and check its potential for monetization and profitability.
5. Building A Successful Blog Takes Time
Here’s one of the untold truths about blogging. You’ll have to spend time on your blog before it starts generating revenue. It’s essential to have patience to earn consistently.
In fact, successful bloggers keep working for years to develop their websites, content, and assets to earn from blogging.
- You must invest time in your blog, and this could take months or a year.
- Patience is one of the Blogging income secrets.
- Slow progress is ok, and don’t get discouraged by how much you achieve from your blog.
6. There’s No Guaranteed Income
When starting your blog religiously, first break all the blogging income myths you’ve heard. Blogging doesn’t guarantee a specific amount of income. Even consistent bloggers with a significant base of followers can’t predict their earnings from blogging. However, this means that you must see both sides of the coin.
On one side, you may see an inconsistent level of income. You may struggle to get aligned with the right affiliate program. Fluctuating traffic can affect your revenue as well.
But on the flip side, your earnings can go exponentially high through multiple channels like Affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and Google AdSense. This is possible when your website consistently provides value to readers through helpful content.
The best way to beat the odds of fluctuating income is through a diversified monetization strategy.
7. Perfectionism Will Hold You Back
If you think that every single piece of content will bring in the targeted amount of traffic, you’re mistaken. You must know how to leave the work to the best of your efforts and be done with it.
Here Are A Few Things You Must Keep In Mind:
- Perfectionism can prevent you from putting your work out there, which means missing out on a lot of opportunities.
- Stop refining that one blog post or getting stuck in analysis paralysis before hitting the ‘publish’ button.
- Set realistic goals for achievements from your blog. You can’t expect every piece you write to rank or show on the Google Discovery page.
- It’s fine if some of the blogs don’t match the quality standard you think you can adhere to. You can always go back and improvise them later.
- Prioritize being the best editor. This will give you the chance to refine and improve your writing.
8. Hard Work Doesn’t Always Equal Success
Let me guess: you’re writing ten blog posts a week, and there’s no movement as far as your traffic’s concerned. This means you’re only working hard without a proper direction. It requires a blend of strategy and hard work to succeed in blogging and earn a living from it.
- According to HubSpot, most blogs fail because they don’t follow the right SEO strategy or do not promote their content enough.
- Working hard on your blog without an efficient content strategy and calendar preparation can lead to burnout. It can also demotivate you to leave blogging altogether.
- Ignoring market trends and shifts in algorithms can also affect your blog and prevent it from being monetized.
- Your blogging strategy shouldn’t be set in stone. It must be dynamic so that you can improve and upgrade when necessary.
9. You Will Want To Quit—More Than Once
Whether you are full-time or part-time, you’ll want to quit more than once. You must acknowledge that it’s a process if you want to make money blogging in the long haul, and it’s common among bloggers to think of quitting blogging.
| Why You May Want to Quit | How to Motivate Yourself |
| ‣ Burnout: blogging can burn you out if you’re trying too hard and hardly seeing any results. ‣ Lack of Result: bloggers struggle with very minimal traffic, low engagement, and a lack of revenue. ‣ Comparison to Others: You may start to compare your blog with others, which can demotivate you. | ‣ Take a break: It’s best to take some time off from blogging and do it when you’re fully energized. ‣ Rethink Your Strategy: This could involve reevaluating your content and monetization strategy. ‣ Positive Comparison: Prioritize positive things. Compare your blog to how it was a few months ago, rather than comparing it to someone else who’s making it to the top. They might have worked for longer to be where you are right now. |
Blogging Growth Isn’t Linear
Blogging doesn’t provide linear growth. It depends on content quality, SEO efforts, and publishing consistently while taking the latest SEO practices into account.
Global shifts in industries, changes in algorithms, and new technological innovations have an effect on blogging. For example, recently, there’s a new AI overview feature on Google search affecting the search ranking of various blogs.
If you are thinking of earning from blogging, don’t consider yourself working inside a cocoon. It’s important to keep learning, improving, and staying aligned with what is happening out there.
As long as you’re ready to face challenges, adapt to changes, and improvise, blogging can help you generate passive income.