You might already note the advertisements banners on my blog. You might also wonder, how much money do I earn with this blog? Well, I’m gonna answer to this question, frankly, with numbers.

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Before getting into details about how much I earn with the ads, I’d love to tell you the reasons why I put the ads on this blog, how I applied for Google Adsense program.

Why putting the ads on my blog?

Have you ever searched for “How to make money online”, or “How to create passive income” on Google? Me, I have. Everytime, I see people listing ideas like: create online courses, sell your Canva designs, write a book, create a Youtube channel to earn money. And also, write a blog.

So, I got curious!

Curious about this thing that seem so reachable, but not totally.

Reachable because so there are so many blogs about how to write a blog and make money with blogging, so many bloggers, besides Youtubers, talking about making money with Google Adsense. It seems so easy and popular.

But at the same time, it is still a mystery for me. I don’t have any (close) friends having a blog or youtube channel which brings them money. Well, actually, I know one, a famous YouTuber in Vietnam, but I’m not close enough to ask her about the behind-the-scene story.

Anyway, since I didn’t have my blog, didn’t get the Google Adsense approval, I wanted to get mine. It was for me a challenge, somehow.

Moreover, as I’m working in IT, and also studied Communications, topics like advertisements, digital marketing, website traffics are appealing for me. I want to learn about it. I wanted to know what is like to manage a blog, its traffics, how to optimize its content. I wanted to know what Google Adsense asks for, how do they pay for the bloggers. I wanted to see the analytics reports, graphs, try to understand the meaning of all these Marketing KPIs and concepts.

Well, maybe one day, it will be useful for my work. Maybe one day, I will get the job of managing a website, or to work with the Marketing department, who knows?

My Google Adsense application experience

To get the approval from Google Adsense to put ads on your blog, it was not obvious, I have to admit.

I spent hours on my blog and the Internet to deal with technical issues: to connect the blog the Google Adsense account, to put the ad code, etc.

Moreover, I got refused not once, but twice. They said they found “No content” on my blog, even when there were more than 30 articles in my blog by the first time I applied!

The third time was the good one. Finally, I received the Congratulation email!

I was very happy. Not because of the money promise, but because I felt proud of my perseverance. I felt the satisfaction of having resolved the question, of having figured out the answer! It was a little achievement, I would say.

Moreover, from now on, I have my own… graphs, I can discover the Google Adsense functionalities!

Some tips to get Google Adsense approval

There are some tips that I’ve learned from this experience. If you want to puts ads on your blog with Google Adsense, here are some advices:

• Your blog must have some contents. The Internet says that you should have around 30 posts at least. When I got the approval, I had 42 posts/pages on my blog. They also say that long post are preferable, like 1000 words and more. There are people who got accepted with less posts, like 5-10 posts but each one is long and of quality.
• Your content must be original and of high quality. No copy past from other sources.
• Your blog has to be professional at minimum: your own domaine, user-friendly, easy to read.

Now the tricky part:

• I didn’t know about some small but important requirements until recently. Indeed, when I applied the first and second time, I almost met all the common criteria: my blog had original content, looked nice, and had its own domaine, no copyrights issues for content, or pictures. But I didn’t have the Disclaimer & Privacy policy and Contact pages. I think that it was the main reason why they refused me. So, the lesson learned: some pages are a must, About me, Contact and Disclaimer&Privacy policy pages.

If you are interested in putting ads on your blog, there are many specialized blogs and articles on the Internet. For example, this one: How to Get your Google AdSense Approval Effortlessly?

If you tried and got a refuse, don’t give up. Try to figure out the reason, fix it and apply again!

But it’s just the very first step, it is still far away from getting money 🙂

How much do I make with this blog?

The short answer is…nada!

The long one: well, we will see. For now, I’ve got any payment. I am just accumulating my rights. So I am holding a hope to get paid one day, actually.

Do you want to get some numbers?

You have to accumulate a minimum of €70 (aka $100, aka about VND200K) to ask for a payment. For now, I’m still far away from this amount.

Do you know how much do I accumulate every time you click on an ad?

Well, actually, I don’t know yet, there are many factors, mainly the country where my clicks are from. For now, my CPC (cost per click) fluctuates from €0.003 to €0.18 (aka, from VND81 to VND4,860).

That means, every time you click on an ads, you give me a promise of getting 18 cents, at most. If you click 10 times on the ads, I will get potentially a simple coffee (the basic one, not the one from Starbucks, nor with cream) for free. Well it sounds good actually, don’t you think? 🙂

But only if you are from Europe or the US. The CPC for clicks from Vietnam is much lower. On the Internet, they talk about $0.03 (aka VND600), which means about 8 times less. So I need like 80 clicks to get a coffee to stay awake to write my blog 😀

Moreover, almost no one clicks on ads. You only click on the ads by accident, right?

So basically, if I get like 3 clicks/day, I will be happy!

Which means, let’s say, in a good scenario, I will earn potentially a free coffee every…27 days. But before receiving those coffees for free, I will need to wait for like…1111 days, which means more than…3 years to achieve the €70 threshold!

(Hum… did I do the maths correctly? There are too many figures, but unfortunately, not on the “right” side of the decimal point!)

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Furthermore, I don’t even know yet what they will ask next in order to see the money on my account: maybe other papers, maybe other requirements, etc.

Maybe I will never get paid, you never know.

So, what do I expect?

Well, in the real world, I need 3-4 coffees everyday. Not one very 27 days 🙂

In addition, I already paid €72.19 for this blog’s host and domain name. It’s the fee for 12 months. If in 10 months, I still want to continue this blog, I will have to pay more.

As you see, I put the ads on this blog not because I dream of being rich, or earning my living. It would be very unrealistic.

Besides, I have a (very) well paid job.

So, as I explained above, it’s about having something of my own, a blog of my mine, my personal corner, where I share with you my thoughts, where I test some ideas, learn about some new trends on the Internet.

Ideally, though, I would love this blog to be self-financed. Which means, the money that I will get from this blog will cover the technical costs. I already invest a lot of time in this blog. It would be nice if the hobby itself doesn’t cost more than time and non-financial investments.

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Final thoughts

There are many articles about how to earn money on the Internet, with Youtube, Blog, Google Adsense. It has become a trend, especially in this Covid time. It seems to be so easy to “make money” on the Internet, thanks to new online jobs.

But if you do some research and some calculations, you will see that “make money” might mean “earn some pennies, by doing a lot of work”. To gain an important amount of money requires serious work, (a long) time and (a lot of) patience.

Before dreaming of quitting your job to make money online, or being jealous of a famous blogger or youtuber, remind yourself that they are some exceptions, and there is a long journey behind there “overnight success stories”.

But if you want to try something, just do it. Everything starts from a little first step. If you dream of making (a lot of) money with your blog, give it a chance. And don’t hesitate to contact me if I can give a hand!

Have a nice day!

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Related though on Money : “Whoever said money can’t buy happiness isn’t spending it right”