If your goal is to monetize your blog, you’ll want to get as many eyes on it as possible. Studying your site’s traffic will help you analyze what your audience is most interested in, where to invest more time, and how to engage them to increase your pageviews. Increased pageviews DO lead to making more money blogging. Let’s break it down.
How Do I Monitor My Site’s Traffic?
If you haven’t set up Google Analytics for your site yet, you’ll want to do that asap. Installing it isn’t difficult or time-consuming and will bring you a wealth of information.
After Analytics is installed, it will begin tracking the number of people that visit your blog.
You’ll also be able to view additional information, including:
- demographics of your audience
- which blog posts are getting the most traffic
- how long people are spending on your site
- how people are finding your site
What’s the Difference Between Sessions, Pageviews, and Users?
As Google Analytics tracks your site’s traffic, you’ll see a few metrics being measured, including the number of sessions, pageviews, and users. Here’s what you need to know about the difference between them:
Users are the number of unique people who are visiting your site.
Sessions are the number of instances people come to your site.
Pageviews are the number of pages on your site that were viewed in one session.
You’ll often see a larger number of sessions than users tallied, accounting for returning viewers. Now let’s say someone came to your site and clicked through to three of your blog posts. Each of those clicks would register as three separate pageviews. While they are all related, we want to focus on the pageviews right now.
How Many Pageviews Will Help Me Earn Money as a Blogger?
I wish it were as simple as tossing out a number of pageviews you need to start earning money with your blog. It’d be great to know what to hit to make a full-time income blogging, but it just doesn’t work that way. There are several factors to consider.
Your site’s niche is a factor, as well as how you’re monetizing it. Are you using affiliate links? Sponsored posts? Selling digital products? While some site may see nice earnings with 10-15,000 pageviews a month, others may struggle to make $500 a month hitting 100,000 pageviews a month.
So, How Do You Use Pageviews to Earn Money?
Look at it this way – more pageviews can lead to more affiliate link clicks, more ad revenue, sponsored post connections and opportunities, and returning readers who begin to trust you and purchase from you. The stronger your content is, the more engaged your readers will be. As you build trust with your audience, they’ll dive deeper into your content, boosting pageviews and the opportunities for them to use your affiliate links and display ads.
How Long Does It Take to Start Earning Money?
While I know you don’t want to hear me say “it depends,” it truly does. But, for the sake of providing general guidelines, most bloggers will tell you affiliate links can start earning a new blog money around three to six months.
Display ads will take longer, as ad networks typically have pageview minimums in order for your site to even qualify. Once your site is getting steady traffic, you can start applying to the networks whose minimums you meet. This could take you roughly six to twelve months to start earning.
Even if monetizing is your primary goal for your blog, take your time building a strong foundation and setting yourself up for success. Build a loyal following with trustworthy content and the traffic and earnings will soon follow!
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