Blog Income Estimator
Enter your traffic and a few assumptions to see what a blog could realistically earn from ads and affiliate links each month.
Total views across the whole blog in a month.
Display ad networks typically pay $5-$25. Use $8 if unsure.
Share of visitors who click an affiliate link. 1-3% is normal.
Share of those clicks that become a sale. 1-5% is normal.
What you earn per sale on average.
Conservative
$138
per month
$1,656 / year
Moderate
$230
per month
$2,760 / year
Optimistic
$345
per month
$4,140 / year
At 10,000 pageviews a month, that works out to $23.00 per 1,000 visitors. To reach $1,000 a month on the same assumptions you'd need roughly 43,478 monthly pageviews — or a better-matched offer at the traffic you already have.
Where the money comes from
- Ad revenue (moderate)
- $80.00
- Affiliate revenue (moderate)
- $150
- Affiliate clicks per month
- 200
- Sales per month
- 6
- Earnings per 1,000 pageviews
- $23.00
The assumptions behind this
- Conservative is 60% of your inputs — closer to what a new blog with unseasoned traffic actually collects.
- Moderate uses your numbers exactly as entered.
- Optimistic is 150%, roughly a good season with strong ad rates and a well-placed offer.
- Ads are pageviews ÷ 1,000 × RPM. Affiliate income is pageviews × click rate × conversion rate × commission.
- This ignores refunds, taxes, tool costs, and seasonality. Treat it as a range to plan against, not a promise.
Want to move these numbers? Read the honest guide to monetizing a blog, or sharpen your headlines.
Estimates only. Your results depend on niche, audience, and offer.
How to read your estimate
Blog income comes from two very different engines. Ad revenue scales almost perfectly with traffic: double the pageviews, double the ads. Affiliate revenue doesn't — it depends on whether the post is the kind someone reads while deciding to buy something. That's why two blogs with identical traffic can earn ten times differently.
If your estimate looks small, the fastest lever usually isn't more traffic. It's matching a better offer to the posts you already have, or writing one post aimed at a buying decision instead of five aimed at curiosity. Traffic growth is slow; offer-matching can change your numbers in a week.
Use the conservative column when you're deciding whether to invest time or money, and the optimistic column only to see what a good month looks like. Everything here is gross revenue — subtract hosting, tools, and tax before you call it income.
Frequently asked questions
- How much money can a blog with 10,000 monthly views make?
- With a typical $8 ad RPM and modest affiliate performance, roughly $80 in ad revenue plus $100-200 in commissions — call it $150-300 a month. The affiliate half varies far more than the ad half, because it depends on how well the offer matches the post.
- What is a realistic blog RPM?
- Display ad networks generally pay $5-$25 per thousand pageviews. New sites on entry-level networks sit at the bottom of that range; finance, business, and insurance content sits at the top. If you have no data yet, $8 is a fair placeholder.
- Why are the conservative and optimistic numbers so far apart?
- Conservative is 60% of your inputs and optimistic is 150%, because blog income swings with season, traffic mix, and how commercial the post is. Planning against the conservative figure is how you avoid disappointment.
- Does this include taxes and expenses?
- No. These are gross revenue estimates. Hosting, email tools, refunds, and taxes all come out of the figure shown, so treat it as the top line rather than take-home.
- Is the blog income estimator free?
- Yes. It calculates in your browser, saves nothing, and needs no account or email address.