How Much Can a Blogger Earn?

Type the query "how much does a blogger earn?" into Google or your favorite AI, and you will almost certainly get the wrong answer.

Search for "how much does a podcaster earn?" or "how much can I earn on YouTube?" and the misinformation continues. The problem is that relatively few public data sources track entrepreneurial content creators like bloggers, newsletter authors, podcasters, or influencers.

ZipRecruiter Example

What's more, even when some good data is available, it might be misapplied.

For example, if you had searched Google, Perplexity, or Bing for "how much does a blogger earn?" you would have probably found fascinating data from ZipRecruiter showing that, on average, American bloggers earn $62,275 per year as of February 3, 2025.

ZipRecruiter's data is almost certainly accurate, but it might not be what you wanted. ZipRecruiter is tracking "blogging jobs," not a content creator's entrepreneurial endeavors.

In fact, the ZipRecruiter data goes on to identify the "Top 5 Best Paying Related Blogger Jobs in the U.S." These "blogging jobs" are:

• Director Of Content,
• Director Of Marketing Communication,
• Professional Food Blogger,
• Independent Journalist,
• Offshore Cooks.

While one might argue that a "professional food blogger" or even an "independent journalist" is a content creator, the role of "director of content" is also impacting the results. As such, if you want to know how much a self-employed or side-hustling content creator is earning, you will need to do a little more work.

Estimating Income for Content Creators

To figure out how much you can earn as a content creator —blogger, podcaster, etc.— or even to estimate how much another creator earns, you can work through a few steps.

Define Channels & Metric

If you want to know how much a blogger earns or can earn, you need to focus on traffic —which is the key performance mechanism. Similarly, if you are going to estimate revenue from a newsletter, you would need to track the open rate and total subscriber count.

Identify Income & Formulas

Next, consider how income is earned and identify the revenue formula for each one.

Advertising Revenue

Advertising is often sold on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis —revenue-per-thousand (RPM) from the creator's perspective. Thus, if a blog has 100,000 monthly page views at a $10 CPM/RPM, the blog will earn $1,000 in advertising revenue.

The formula looks like this:

Again, CPM and RPM are a matter of perspective. The advertiser views this as CPM (cost), and the blogger or publisher, if you will, sees it as RPM (revenue).

Sponsored Content or Brand Partnership Revenue

Some revenue will be flat rate like when a blogger sells a sponsored post at a set price.

Affiliate Revenue

For affiliate income, the formula is a conversion calculation that takes a creator's average commission.

Income from Products and Courses

This formula will calculate revenue for digital products, merchandise, subscriptions, and course sales.

Coaching or Consulting Revenue

Creators often earn a significant portion of total revenue from coach, consulting, freelancing, or offering services. Here is an example formula for these.

Do the Math

Apply the formulas to the various channels to calculate the total monthly income for a given set of channels. You will be making lots of assumptions about impressions or conversion rates at first, but as you have more information, you will be able to make much better estimates.