This is my once a month, super-nerdy post for other bloggers. If you come here for the recipes, you might find this post boring. I’m sorry! This post is all numbers and blog geekery. This post also contains a number of affiliate links.
This is the fourth month I will be publicizing my blogging income and traffic report. You might be wondering why I am doing this. I was inspired by the awesome folks over at Pinch of Yum. Lindsay and Bjork have done an amazing job of growing their blog over the years. Instead of hoarding their secrets, they have generously shared their experiences. They are so dedicated to helping food bloggers that they created Food Blogger Pro. Food Blogger Pro saved me a lot of time when I was first setting up my blog. I learned how to make my blog SEO friendly and how to drive traffic to my blog. I even learned how to take better food pictures. If you are just starting out as a blogger, I highly recommend you join the community over there. It’s a very valuable resource. If you are looking for information on how to make money from a food blog, I also recommend the book “How to Monetize your Food Blog” .
Blogging is a lot of work. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a lying liar who lies or they have a team of interns to spread out the workload. Due to an unexpected move, my posting schedule was way off kilter. Ideally, I would love to post new recipes 2 or 3 times a week. In November, I only managed 4 recipes total. I did post a few non-recipe posts, but let’s be honest…most people are here for the food. I definitely saw a dip in my traffic because I didn’t have the time or energy to create content or promote it effectively.
In November, I was down 3,700 pageviews from October (sad trombone)…
I’m still over 20k, so that makes me happy.
Let’s look at the growth (and shrinkage) since I started blogging…
- March – 2,700 pageviews
- April – 10,200 pageviews
- May – 8,100 pageviews
- June – 7,200 pageviews
- July – 7,400 pageviews
- August – 16,200 pageviews
- September- 12,321 pageviews
- October – 24,216 pageviews
- November- 20,532 pageviews
If you read my October blog income report, you will remember I made $88 in income and spent $19 on expenses. That left me with a lucky $69!
Let’s see what my blog earnings look like for November…
Income:
| Adsense | $0.39 |
| Sovrn | $5.35 |
| Gourmet Ads | $44.35 |
| Swoop | $1.08 |
| Food Blogger Pro | $10.00 |
| BlogHer | $10.93 |
Total Income: $72
Gourmet Ads continue to be the moneymaker. Love them! My other ad network earning are very sad in comparison. I’m happy to see a couple of my readers joined Food Blogger Pro, I can tell because I earned some affiliate income. Money well spent, whomever you are! The forums over there are amazing. It’s like having a team of tech and moral supporters at your fingertips. I dropped Swoop in the middle of November because they were putting ads in weird places and I didn’t think it was enjoyable for my readers.
Expenses:
| Media Temple Hosting | $9.00 |
| CoSchedule | $10.00 |
Total Expenses : $19
I’m still working with my personal groceries, so no food costs are included in my expenses. I have to admit, I barely used CoSchedule last month. It’s an awesome service and I need to get back in the habit because it helps keep my blogging and social media scheduling organized. They offer a free trial, if you are in to that sort of thing.
When I subtract my expenses from my earnings I am left with $53 dollars. That is $16 less than last month. Bummer. Think of all the kale chips and kombucha I could have bought with that money. Just kidding, I don’t spend money on those things. Too easy to make your own.
Now, let’s look at how I get traffic to my blog…
Pinterest continues to dominate with the referral traffic. I briefly discussed my Pinterest strategy in last months report. I promise, I’m going to write a detailed pinterest post in December. You can hold me to that. You should also follow me on Pinterest if you don’t. Let me know you followed me from this post and I will follow you back.
I’m still getting a healthy amount of organic traffic. My most popular post seems to be my homemade neo-citran (aka theraflu or lemsip). Tis the season, I guess!
What I learned in November:
– Moving and food blogging don’t mix. I had my hands full with boring, practical things and could not give my blog the attention it deserved. As a result, I saw a drop in traffic.
– I need a basic lighting set up. Winter in Vancouver is dark. I’m struggling to get decent pictures with natural light. Blogging is more fun when you aren’t frustrated with your photos.
– I need to be consistent about posting new recipes. This is one of my 2015 blog resolutions, 2 recipes per week at the minimum.
– Looking at the numbers, it’s pretty clear to me that I need to step my game up if I’m going to make any type of sustainable living. I know that the key for making it profitable will be products (digital or physical) that are useful to my readers. I’ve got some ideas in the works, now I’ve got to make the time to make it real!
So there we have it! November in a (big) nutshell. I’d love to hear how things are going for other bloggers out there. What is working for you? What sucks? Tell me! Tell me! Feel free to link to your own income report in the comments.
