A 30-Day Roadmap to Website Monetization

Thirty days. That's how long you have to build something that can actually make money.

Not perfect. Not polished. Just something that works and has a real chance of generating revenue. Here's exactly what to do each day.

Week 1: Foundation (Days 1–7)

Stop overthinking. Start building.

• Day 1: Pick a niche you understand and can monetize
• Day 2: Validate your idea in 48 hours and check out the competition
• Day 3: Write a value proposition that doesn't suck
• Day 4: Buy domain, set up hosting, get the basics working
• Day 5: Plan your core content or product (keep it simple)
• Day 6: Build the basic website structure
• Day 7: Launch a landing page and start collecting emails

Week 2: Build & Launch (Days 8–14)

Stop perfecting. Start shipping.

• Day 8: Create your main offering (minimum viable version)
• Day 9: Add Google Analytics so you know if anyone cares
• Day 10: Do basic SEO (titles, descriptions, make it findable)
• Day 11: Set up social media profiles and link everything
• Day 12: Share in communities where your users hang out
• Day 13: Listen to feedback (even if it hurts)
• Day 14: Fix the most obvious problems based on feedback

Week 3: Money & Growth (Days 15–21)

Stop being afraid of asking for money.

• Day 15: Add your first monetization method (pick one, make it work)
• Day 16: Write supporting content that brings in search traffic
• Day 17: Reach out for guest posts or backlinks (be helpful, not annoying)
• Day 18: Speed up your site and fix mobile issues
• Day 19: Start an email list or newsletter
• Day 20: Look at your analytics and actually learn something
• Day 21: Double down on whatever's working

Week 4: Optimize & Plan (Days 22–30)

Stop random activities. Start systematic growth.

• Day 22: Try a second monetization approach
• Day 23: Add better analytics (heatmaps, conversion tracking)
• Day 24: Actually talk to your users (revolutionary concept)
• Day 25: Repurpose your best content into different formats
• Day 26: Automate anything you're doing manually
• Day 27: Look for partnerships or collaboration opportunities
• Day 28: Document what you've learned and what you'd outsource
• Day 29: Set realistic 3-6 month goals
• Day 30: Celebrate what you built and commit to the next phase

What Happens After 30 Days

3-6 months: Focus on what's working. More content around successful topics. Better conversion optimization. Advanced monetization experiments. Stop trying random stuff.

12 months: Scale what's proven. Hire help for tasks you shouldn't be doing. Explore new verticals. Build systems that work without you.

The Reality Check

This timeline is aggressive. You'll want to spend more time perfecting things. Don't.

The goal isn't to build something perfect. The goal is to build something that works and generates feedback (and hopefully money) so you can improve it.

Most people spend 6 months building something nobody wants. This approach gets you real-world feedback in 30 days.

After the Challenge

Once you've completed this 30-day sprint, dive deeper with our website expansion strategies guide or follow our comprehensive monetization roadmap.

Need someone to keep you accountable through all 30 days? Indie10k turns each day into a specific mission with clear deliverables and deadlines. Because having a plan is nice, but sticking to it is what actually matters.