Lots of people ask me when they can start putting ads on their blog for passive income.

I wanted to touch on that today because it can be confusing – when to put ads on your blog! 

Although you can technically monetise a blog without ads, I find it to be the easiest way to see a return on your efforts. Besides, it’s highly motivating to know that you created something out of nothing and can make money from it. I don’t know about you, but I like consistent positive feedback that I’m on the right track.

Ads are the quickest way for blogs to earn money in the early days. As you move along and learn other ways to make money blogging, you may decide to remove them + that’s fine!

Personally, I have ads on ALL of my content. Some posts are monetized ONLY with ads, while other posts collect income other ways as well (such as by promoting affiliate products).  

When Can You Put Ads on Your Blog? 

You can technically put ads on your blog as soon as you want; however, I recommendation is that you wait until you have at least 10 blog posts. That’s because you have to apply to ad networks and you don’t want to take the chance that they don’t think your blog is legit.

So write your first 10 blog posts and then put ads on your blog.

The easiest way to do this at first is with Google Adsense or Media.net (Yahoo!’s ad agency). It’s really easy to create ad blocks in their dashboards and there are tons of tutorials available on line for this if you get stuck.

How Do You Actually Get the Ads on Your Blog?

This is important! hehe I was soooooo confused when I first started because no one was sitting beside me to help me figure out how to get ads on my blog. 

In a nutshell, there are two simple ways to do it in the early days of your blog.

1. You can either purchase a theme like Captivate from Restored 316 that comes with ready-made spots for ads OR
2. You can install a plugin called Ad Inserter (which is what I use) to place ads on your blog posts. You will simply copy and paste your ad code from Adsense or Media.net into the plugin (in your WordPress dashboard) and the plugin will place ad blocks on your blog. The Ad Inserter plugin page explains exactly how to use the plugin to ad AdSense & other ad codes to the plugin. 

Keep in mind that these recommendations are for WORDPRESS blogs. I don’t know how you place ads on any other kind of blog. If you need more information on what WordPress blogs are about, you can read about it in my Blog Startup Guide >> 

How Do You Get Paid from Ads? 

Of course, once you learn how to put ads on your blog, you’ll probably want to know this! All the ad agencies I know of pay on a 30-day delay. This means that money you earn this month will be paid out by the end of next month. In other words, income you earn from June 1 – 30th will get paid by July 30th. I’m sure some policies can vary, but this is how Adsense and Media.net ad payouts work. 

Keep in mind that there is usually a minimum threshold. I believe both of these companies have a $100 payout threshold (don’t quote me on that). I would double check this as it can change. What this threshold means is that you won’t receive payment until you accrue more than the minimum payout amount.

You will need to set up a PayPal account to receive ad income – this is the most common ad revenue payout method I know of.  

Join Start a Blog Bootcamp for FREE

If you need help getting a blog started, I have a new course that you can taketo walk you step by step through the process. It’s called Start a Blog Bootcamp and it’s located on my new learning site for bloggers, Adventures in Blogging. I have a coupon code that allows you to get it for free (a $25 value). You can find instructions on redeeming the coupon code in this tutorial >> 

Make sure you also join my Start a Blog Newsletter where you will receive invaluable tips on getting your blog up and running. 

If You Already Have a Blog

If you are already a blogger, I would love for you to join my Advanced Blogger mailing list where we’ll talk about things like monetization, product creation, recommended courses to take, and more! The link to sign up for that list is at the bottom of this income report.

I hope to see you on my blogging adventures!! 

~ Lena 

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