Realistic Blog Income Plan: What to Actually Expect Your First Year

We deleted our income expectations spreadsheet about four months into blogging. You know the one – where we’d mapped out hitting $5,000/month by month six, complete with color-coded cells and overly optimistic projections based on some income report we’d read from a blogger who supposedly made bank in their first 90 days.

That spreadsheet was fiction. And honestly? Throwing it out was liberating.

Look, we’re not here to crush your dreams. We still believe blogging can absolutely change your financial situation and get you closer to that laptop lifestyle you’re daydreaming about during your commute. But we’ve also watched too many talented people quit because nobody gave them a realistic blog income plan from the start. They expected fireworks and got crickets, so they bounced.

We’re Aron and Sharon, and we’ve been in the blogging trenches long enough to know what actually happens in year one versus what the internet tells you will happen. Spoiler: the timeline is longer, the income is smaller at first, and that’s completely normal.

The $10K Month Lie (And Why It’s Wrecking New Bloggers)

Okay so we need to address this because it drives us absolutely crazy. Scroll through any blogging advice corner of the internet and you’ll find income reports boasting five-figure months within weeks of launching. Some of these are real. Most are outliers. A few are… let’s say creatively presented.

The problem isn’t that big income is impossible. It’s that presenting exceptions as the rule sets people up for disappointment.

When we started, we made maybe $47 in our first six months. Combined. From a single affiliate sale that honestly might have been Sharon’s mom clicking through. The average new blogger isn’t hitting $10K months right away – or even in year one. That’s not failure. That’s the actual timeline.

A realistic blog income plan accounts for the fact that you’re building something from nothing. You’re essentially opening a business where you need to attract customers (readers), build trust, and then figure out how to monetize that trust. None of that happens overnight, no matter what someone’s Pinterest pin promises you.

Months 1-6: You’re Building, Not Earning

Real talk – your first six months aren’t really about income. We know that’s not what you want to hear when you’re paying for hosting and carving out writing time at 6 AM before work. But hear us out.

This phase is about:

• Publishing consistently (we aimed for once a week, sometimes hit it, sometimes didn’t)
• Figuring out your voice and what resonates with readers
• Getting your technical stuff sorted – WordPress, plugins, basic SEO
• Starting to build an email list even when it feels pointless
• Setting up Pinterest because organic traffic from Google takes forever

We made exactly zero dollars months one through four. Month five brought in $12 from Google AdSense, which barely covered our coffee habit for a single day. Month six? Around $30.

Not life-changing. But something shifted. We were starting to see actual humans visiting our site – not just our moms.

The realistic expectation here: $0-$100 total. Maybe less. Your job isn’t to profit yet. Your job is to show up, publish, and build the foundation that will eventually support income.

That Awkward Middle Phase Nobody Talks About

Months six through twelve are weird. You’ve put in half a year of work, you’re probably tired, and the income still isn’t matching the effort. This is where most people quit.

We almost did.

Around month eight, we had this conversation where Sharon said something like, “Maybe we should just focus on something else” and honestly, we considered it. Traffic was growing but slowly. Our email list had maybe 200 people? Income was hovering around $50-75/month from ads and occasional affiliate sales.

But here’s what we didn’t realize at the time – that awkward middle phase is where the momentum builds. You can’t see it happening, but your posts are starting to rank. Your email list is growing. Your affiliate links are getting clicks even if they’re not converting yet.

By month twelve, we’d crossed into consistent $200-300 months. Still not quit-your-job money, but proof of concept. The realistic blog income plan was working, just on a realistic timeline.

Quick thing: if you’re in this phase right now and feeling discouraged, that’s normal. You’re not behind. You’re exactly where most successful bloggers were at this point.

After Year One: When Things Actually Start Happening

Year two is where we started seeing real movement. And by “real” we mean income that actually impacted our budget rather than just covering our Bluehost renewal.

A few things changed:

• We qualified for Mediavine (you need 50,000 sessions, which took us about 14 months)
• Our affiliate strategy got smarter – fewer random links, more intentional recommendations
• We launched our first small digital product (a $17 template that made us $340 the first month)
• Our email list hit 2,000 subscribers

The jump from year one income to year two was significant. We went from maybe $2,500 total in year one to clearing that in a single month by month eighteen.

That’s when it clicked – we weren’t just blogging anymore. We were running a business. The blog was the vehicle, but the income came from understanding our audience well enough to serve them with products and recommendations they actually wanted.

What a Realistic Blog Income Plan Actually Looks Like

So let’s get specific. If you’re starting from zero in 2025, here’s what we’d tell you to expect:

Months 1-6: $0-$100 total. Focus on publishing, building systems, growing Pinterest traffic. Don’t even think about income – seriously.

Months 6-12: $50-$300/month. You might qualify for Google AdSense. Start experimenting with affiliate links. Keep publishing. Keep building that email list even when it grows slowly.

Year 2: $300-$1,000+/month. This is when ad networks like Mediavine become possible. Your affiliate income should be growing. Consider launching a digital product – something small to start.

Year 3 and beyond: This is where things get interesting. If you’ve stayed consistent, you could be looking at full-time income potential. But – and this is important – you need to diversify. Ads alone won’t get you there unless you’re pulling massive traffic.

The bloggers making real money have multiple income streams: ads, affiliates, digital products, maybe coaching or services. Your blog is the hub, not the whole business.

Stop Comparing and Start Building

We still see those income reports. Someone claiming $50K months from their blog they started eighteen months ago. And sometimes we catch ourselves wondering what we’re doing wrong.

Then we remember: we don’t know their story. Maybe they had an existing audience. Maybe they invested heavily in paid ads. Maybe they’re in a super lucrative niche. Maybe they’re exaggerating.

Your realistic blog income plan needs to be based on YOUR situation. Your available time, your niche, your starting point. Comparing your month three to someone else’s highlight reel is a fast track to quitting.

We’re part of the Badass Network community, and one thing we love about it is the honesty. People share the real numbers – the slow months, the failures, the wins that took longer than expected. Find people who’ll tell you the truth about this journey.

So here’s what we want you to do today: throw out whatever unrealistic timeline you’ve got in your head. Replace it with patience and consistency. Commit to showing up for at least a year before you evaluate whether blogging “works.”

It works. It just takes longer than the internet wants you to believe. But when it clicks? Totally worth the wait.

Now go publish that next post.