Over ¥10 Million in a Peak Month — and "80% of My Articles Dropped": Three Top Bloggers Reveal the Light and Dark Sides of the Numbers

Why This Roundtable Is a Valuable Primary Source

How far can a personal blog’s income grow, and how fragile is it? Almost no domestic source answers this question with first-person, real numbers. The roundtable published by Lolipop’s official media with Hitode, Kiguchi, and Tsuzuki (content as of February 2023) is a rare record where the ceiling-side figure, ¥10 million in a month, and the downside testimony, “about 80% of my articles dropped”, sit at the same table. What’s more, a representative from the ASP (Moshimo Affiliate) was present, so the discussion extends into the practical realities seen from the ad-intermediary side.

The Numbers Disclosed in the Roundtable

Some background on the three. Hitode runs “Kyou wa Hitode Matsuri da zo!” and “hitodeblog,” has authored books including “‘Yuru Fukugyou’ no Hajimekata” (Shoeisha), and hosts the ABC Online Salon for bloggers. Kiguchi manages “Fukugyou Quest 100” and wrote “Blog de 5-oku-en Kaseida Houhou” (Diamond Inc.). Tsuzuki is the late entrant who went independent from an SEO role at an IT company, the only one of the three who launched in the current SEO environment.

The Structure of the Ceiling — Hitode’s ¥10 Million Month

The crucial detail about Hitode’s peak monthly revenue is that it is the sum of multiple sites, not a single site. One media property’s growth is capped by the ceiling of search demand, but splitting into a portfolio of sites stacks additional ceilings. The winning strategy he describes in the roundtable is not scale but personal branding.

• Build a position where “when it comes to X, it’s me.” The ideal state is people thinking, “I want that person who knows Hakata inside out to give me recommendations”
• Never reveal which keywords are earning (competitors will pile on immediately). Even now as a teacher, he takes care not to overlap article topics with his students — including the judgment that “even if I find a newly profitable niche, using it against beginners is a long-term loss.” It’s self-defense all the way down
• Make your next move precisely when things are going well. In good times, consulting your ASP makes it easier to draw out proposals like special commission rates
• Initial costs are only server rental and a domain. “It costs almost nothing” is blogging’s greatest advantage

By contrast, he is cautious about expanding to YouTube: “outsourcing runs ¥10,000 per video, minimum 10 videos, ¥100,000,” a completely different cost structure. He coolly compares the P&L structure of each medium and keeps his footing in the ones with light fixed costs, behind the ¥10 million month lies this insistence on easy retreat.

The Structure of Fragility — Kiguchi’s 18 Years of Whiplash

Kiguchi’s revenue history single-handedly embodies how high the variance of blogging as a business is.

Even a veteran with ¥500 million cumulative can see annual income cut to less than a third by a single algorithm change. His testimony, “falling from an income you once reached is terrifying”, captures the psychological cost of search-dependent businesses. His countermeasures: building SNS assets (reaching 5,000 followers with 200–300 likes per post before aiming for synergy with the blog) and choosing the optimal medium per genre (visual genres like cooking and fitness suit Instagram/YouTube, text-based genres suit Twitter and blogs). Getting off the single leg of search is the ¥500-million blogger’s conclusion.

Practical Details — Concrete Points From the Roundtable

Beyond the headline numbers, the roundtable is full of practitioner-only detail.

• Publish articles at 70–80% completion. Kiguchi calls it “thinking hard, then easing off” — small keywords get published at 70–80% polish. Tsuzuki personally polishes to 100%, but what he recommends to others is 70–80%
• ASPs change their attitude with your performance. In good times they proactively propose and consult; in bad times they turn cold and may even cut your commission rates. “Consult your ASP while you’re doing well” is practical negotiation timing
• Expensive info products are unnecessary. ¥500,000 course materials circulate, but all three agree that three books by famous bloggers (about ¥3,000 total) cover nearly all the know-how
• On niche selection, a concrete example came up: parenting topics have cheap clicks and few AdSense advertisers

The Side That Doesn’t Continue — Kiguchi’s Brother

The roundtable also includes a real example of someone it didn’t work out for. Kiguchi’s brother, while working at an exploitative company, reached ¥300,000/month in blog profit, but despite his brother’s advice that “the same working hours could earn you dozens of times more,” he dwindled to 2–3 articles per year. The reason: “too busy, no motivation to write.” A low barrier to entry is also a low barrier to exit. Even after successfully monetizing, continuation is a separate problem, perhaps the most vivid footnote in a roundtable about ¥10 million months.

How They See AI and the Future of Search

The roundtable also records their February 2023 views on ChatGPT. Kiguchi says he doesn’t use it for his blog “because it contains too much inaccurate information,” but sees potential in speed-ups where AI handles structure and keyword organization while he adds personal, first-hand information. He also predicted that a future “where nobody uses Google Search” will not arrive. Hitode believes that in an era of mass-produced AI articles, the personal “when it comes to X, it’s me” position becomes the differentiator. Tsuzuki, meanwhile, frankly worried that if AI articles reach the level where readers “want to act on that information,” he “doesn’t know how to counter it.” That the discussion ends with optimism and caution coexisting is part of what makes it honest as a primary source.

Reading Between the Numbers

Blogging’s expected value has a high ceiling and extremely high variance. A ¥10 million monthly ceiling and an 80%-of-articles drop exist in the same market. This is not lottery-style luck but the consequence of revenue being subordinated to a single external variable: the search algorithm. Entering the market on the strength of “¥1 million/month case studies” without understanding this structure is dangerous. Read this together with Tsuzuki’s true story of dropping from #1 to #5 and losing all traffic.

Personal branding is being rediscovered as the strongest SEO defense. “When it comes to X, it’s me” generates branded search, direct visits, and SNS traffic that no algorithm can touch. The more AI search spreads and devalues generic informational articles, the more only the demand to “hear that specific person’s opinion” remains. Hitode’s strategy has turned out to double as a defense for the AI era.

All three survived through diversification. Hitode with multiple sites, Kiguchi with SNS assets, Tsuzuki with horizontal expansion during good times. Their methods differ, but not staying on a single revenue source is the one thing they have completely in common. That affiliate sites sell for only around 20 months of monthly profit shows the market has already priced in this fragility.

If You Were to Apply This Yourself

• What’s replicable: “concentrate on keywords that are earning,” “negotiate with your ASP while you’re doing well,” “publish at 70–80% and secure volume,” “build SNS assets first” — all executable today. The low entry barrier (about ¥1,000/month initial investment) is intact, and the decision rule “three books over a ¥500,000 course” is clear-cut
• The limits: Hitode’s and Kiguchi’s numbers include accumulation from an era when the SEO environment was more forgiving. Retracing the same path is difficult; today’s entrants need to design from the start around a combination of AI search, SNS, and community. And as Kiguchi’s brother shows, simply continuing until the hours-to-income ratio improves is itself the first gate

Related Reading

• Tsuzuki Blog’s month-by-month data breakdown — the detailed version for one of this roundtable’s participants
• A telecom affiliate site’s ¥950,000 sale — the option of “selling while it’s fragile”
• Pieter Levels, whose RemoteOK swung $140K → $10K → $40K/month — the overseas version of search/platform dependence