In October of last year, I reached a huge milestone in my 6 year blogging journey: I made $4,032.18 using WordPress with Google AdSense.
This great achievement wasn’t an overnight success. But the result of years of dedication and learning. I want to share my story with you, hoping that it might guide you on your own path to blogging success.
My blogging career began in 2015. Like many other beginners, I started with Google Blogger, It is a free blogging platform from Google.
It is a straightforward and user-friendly platform. It is an excellent choice to get started in the blogging career in those days. I am interested in technology, so I decided to create a tech blog where I could share news, reviews, and insights.
I started my blogging journey with Blogger. It was simple and easy to use, a perfect starting point, especially back then. Since I love technology, I created a tech blog to share news, reviews, and my thoughts.
As I learned more about blogging, I discovered that Blogger, while beginner-friendly, wasn’t very powerful. It didn’t have the advanced features, plugins, or design options I needed to make my blog truly unique. The basic SEO tools also made it hard to get my blog noticed by search engines.
Around this time, I tried to make money from my blog with Google AdSense. I applied multiple times, but they kept rejecting me. It was discouraging, but I decided to figure out what I was doing wrong and get better.
In 2018, I knew I needed a better blogging platform. After looking at different options, I chose WordPress because it’s what serious bloggers use.
WordPress had tons of features, design templates (called themes), and add-ons (called plugins) that could make my blog much better.
Moving to WordPress was a big change. It gave me lots of control over how my site looked and worked.
I could pick from thousands of themes to make my blog look professional. I could also use plugins to add things like contact forms, tools to help with search engine optimization (SEO), and easy sharing to social media.
One of the first things I did on WordPress was upgrade to a paid theme. The free theme was okay to start, but the paid one had more features and better support. It saved me a lot of time and effort because it already did a lot of things I would have had to do myself.
My new WordPress site was ready to go, and I wanted to start making money from it. But because Google AdSense had rejected me before, I knew I had to be more careful. I spent time reading all of Google’s AdSense rules.
I learned that having original, good quality content and a website that’s easy to use is really important. I added essential pages like “About Us,” “Contact,” and “Privacy Policy” to my site, which are necessary for AdSense approval. I also made sure my content followed Google’s rules.
After putting all of this into practice, I applied to AdSense again. This time, I was approved in just three days! I was so happy that all my hard work had finally paid off.
Once AdSense approved my site, I focused on creating content and getting more people to visit my blog. I started posting tech news and articles regularly.
Every day, I searched the internet for the latest tech information, read a lot about it, and then wrote my own blog posts. I made sure my writing was original and authentic.
At first, I only had about 50 to 100 visitors each day from Google Search. I knew I needed more visitors to make more money.
Here is a dashboard of Google Search Console, showing how it might look when traffic starts to generate from Google Search.
I focused on:
- SEO Optimization: I used SEO plugins like Yoast SEO to optimize my posts for keywords, improve meta descriptions, and ensure better visibility on search engines.
- Quality Content: I prioritized providing value to my readers with informative and engaging content.
- Consistency: I maintained a regular posting schedule, which helped in retaining readers and attracting new ones.
Gradually, my efforts began to bear fruit. My daily visitors increased to 500-600 users.
After six months, my website traffic grew to 1,500-2,000 visitors per day, mostly from countries with higher advertising rates. This increase in traffic meant more people saw my ads, and the amount I earned per click (CPC) also went up, resulting in higher overall earnings.
Even though Google Search was sending me a lot of traffic, I knew it was important to not rely on just one source. Depending only on Google could be risky.
So, I spent time making sure my website also showed up in search results on other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex.
Each search engine works differently and has its own users. By showing up on these other platforms, I could reach more people.
I also used social media to get more visitors to my blog. I created profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where I shared my blog posts and talked with other users.
Social media not only brought in more visitors but also helped me build a group of loyal readers and made more people aware of my blog.
In 2019, Google announced they would allow blogs in any language, including Tamil, to make money with ads.
I speak Tamil fluently, so I saw this as a great opportunity. I started a Tamil tech blog, publishing the same high-quality tech news, but now in Tamil.
The response was fantastic! Many people wanted tech content in Tamil, and my blog provided exactly that. Just like my English blog, I got visitors from search engines and social media. The Tamil blog helped me reach a wider audience and earn even more money.
By 2023, I had five different blogs, all approved by Google AdSense. Each blog focused on a different area of technology, and I managed all of them myself.
Managing so many blogs was a lot of work, especially since blogging wasn’t my main job. I worked part-time and spent my evenings and weekends writing, editing, and taking care of my websites.
To handle all my blogs, I had to get really organized. I created a schedule to plan my blog posts ahead of time. I also used tools to automatically share my posts on social media and other tools to track how my blogs were doing so I could make smart decisions based on real data.
Last October, I earned $4,032.18 in a single month! That’s about 1.2 million Sri Lankan Rupees or 338,000 Indian Rupees. Reaching this level of success took years of hard work, learning, and never giving up.
Several factors contributed to this success:
- High-Quality Content: Consistently providing valuable content kept readers coming back.
- SEO Mastery: Understanding and applying SEO best practices increased my visibility on search engines.
- Diverse Traffic Sources: Using multiple search engines and social media reduced dependence on a single source.
- Audience Engagement: Interacting with readers through comments and social media built a loyal community.
- Ad Optimization: Experimenting with ad placements and formats improved click-through rates and earnings.
I firmly believe that with the right approach and dedication, anyone can achieve similar success in blogging. Over the years, I’ve accumulated a wealth of knowledge about WordPress, SEO, content creation, and monetization strategies.
That’s why my team and I are planning to launch a comprehensive course that covers everything we’ve learned over six years of using WordPress and Google AdSense.
The course will include:
- Setting Up a WordPress Blog: From choosing a hosting provider to installing WordPress and selecting themes.
- Content Creation Strategies: Tips on finding trending topics, writing engaging posts, and maintaining consistency.
- SEO Techniques: In-depth guidance on optimizing your site and content for search engines.
- Monetization Methods: Beyond AdSense, exploring other ways to earn from your blog.
- Traffic Generation: Strategies for increasing your site’s visibility on search engines and social media.
- Time Management: Balancing blogging with other commitments, especially if you’re working part-time.
We aim to provide actionable insights and practical steps that you can implement immediately. The course will be available soon, and we hope it will help aspiring bloggers shorten their learning curve and achieve success faster.
