I Set Up Blog Automation While Working a Full-Time Job and Started Making 500,000 Won a Month
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
I'll be honest with you. At first, I thought, "A salaried worker making money from a blog? Does that even make sense?" After work I'd be exhausted, on weekends I just wanted to rest, and where would I ever find time to write? But now, around 500,000 won comes in automatically every month. The secret was building not a structure that consumes your time, but a structure that runs on its own once you set it up. After reading this post, you'll be able to start tonight.
Photo by Team Nocoloco on Unsplash
Step 1: Pick Just One Blog Topic That Can Actually Make Money
When you start a blog, the first thing you get stuck on is, "What should I write about?" But it's simpler than you think. The topics that make money are already defined.
If your goal is automated income, you need to choose a topic based on these three criteria.
- Topics with steady search volume – Not trending topics, but things people search for all year round. Examples: how to calculate national health insurance premiums, year-end tax settlement, used car purchase reviews, childcare subsidies, etc.
- A field you know at least a little about – You don't need to be an expert. If you're a salaried worker, topics like office life, salary negotiation, or lunch recommendations are more than enough.
- Categories with high ad rates – Topics related to finance, insurance, health, and IT generate 3 to 5 times more ad revenue per click than general topics.
Here's what to do: Right now, search on Naver or Google for a topic you could write about and check whether a lot of blog posts appear at the top. If they do, that's a signal there's demand. Just deciding on one topic means you've already finished half of today's work.
Step 2: Build a Routine for Semi-Automatically Generating Posts with AI
For a salaried worker with no time, the most realistic approach is using AI as a writing assistant. One thing you shouldn't misunderstand here is that AI doesn't write 100% of the content for you. The idea is that AI provides the framework, and you add the flesh. This way, finishing one post takes just 30 to 40 minutes.
Here's the actual routine I use.
- Enter a prompt into ChatGPT or Claude – Start with something like, "Give me 5 blog post outlines about [topic] that salaried workers would search for."
- Generate a draft based on the outline – For each subheading, ask "Write this section in 300 characters" and a draft will appear.
- Add 1 to 2 sentences in your own experience or tone – This is the key part. This step is what helps you survive in search engines and earn readers' trust.
- Upload to Tistory or WordPress – Once you attach AdSense, revenue accumulates automatically as traffic comes in.
Here's what to do: Three times a week, invest just 40 minutes after work and publish one post at a time. That's 12 posts in a month, and 36 posts in three months. The moment that number builds up is when income starts to roll in.
Step 3: Set Up SEO to Automatically Drive Traffic
If you write posts but nobody reads them, there's no income. That's why search engine optimization (SEO) is necessary — and it's not as hard as you might think. You only need to focus on three things.
- Include keywords in the title – Put the words people actually search for toward the front of your title. For example: "How to Get a Bigger Year-End Tax Refund: A Guide for Salaried Workers."
- Keep posts at least 1,000 characters long – Posts that are too short don't rank well in search. Just add a little of your own experience to the AI draft and you'll easily surpass 1,000 characters.
- Add internal links – Linking related posts within your blog keeps visitors reading more articles, increasing their time on site and boosting ad exposure along with it.
Additionally, register your blog with Google Search Console and Naver Search Advisor. This takes just 10 minutes, but without it, search engines won't properly recognize your blog. Do it once, and from then on indexing happens automatically. It's completely hands-free.
Step 4: Set Up Two or More Income Streams, Not Just One
If you only attach AdSense, your income will be inconsistent. To reliably earn 500,000 won a month, you need to diversify into 2 to 3 income channels. Don't overthink it — this is all possible simultaneously with a single blog.
- Google AdSense – The most fundamental option. Ad revenue that comes in automatically as traffic accumulates. With around 10,000 monthly visitors, you can expect roughly 50,000 to 150,000 won.
- Coupang Partners – Just drop one relevant product link into your post. For example: a supplement link in a health post, or a related device link in an IT post. When someone clicks and makes a purchase, you earn a 3% commission.
- Running Naver Blog + AdPost in parallel – Besides Tistory or WordPress, posting slightly modified versions of the same content on Naver Blog generates additional traffic and income.
- E-books or Class101 integration – Once your blog has grown to a certain point, create one e-book on your best-performing topic and link to it. This eventually becomes your highest-paying income source.
Here's what to do: For now, setting up just AdSense and Coupang Partners is enough. With just those two properly in place, your income will naturally grow as traffic accumulates.
Wrapping Up: Tonight, Do Just This One Thing
If you've read this far, you're already ready to start. Trying to do everything at once will actually leave you doing nothing. Here's the one thing you need to do tonight.
→ Create a Tistory blog account, pick one topic, and type into ChatGPT: "Give me a blog post outline for this topic."
It takes 30 minutes. The moment that outline appears, you've already completed half of your first post. At first, your income will be zero. But three months from now, your life will look completely different depending on whether you started today or not. I experienced this firsthand, and that's why I wrote this post. Let's do this together.
댓글
댓글 쓰기