Hey there friends!
Bjork here, checking in for the monthly traffic and income report on Pinch of Yum.
We started doing these reports over three years ago when we were making less than $30/month from this blog. At that time, food blogging for us (mostly Lindsay) was purely a hobby, but we wanted to know if it was possible to actually monetize a food blog. These income reports were created to document that progress.
Usually, in our monthly income reports, Lindsay and I write a bunch of stuff about the things we learned or did or studied in the previous month. But after drafting and re-drafting and talking this post over several times, we decided that this month we’re going to change it up.
We’re not going to write about anything this month.
At least, not in the way that we normally do.
For this month’s report, we’re going to host a Q&A in the comments!
Here’s how it’ll work:
You can ask a question in the comment section below. The questions can be about anything – blogging, business, work/life balance, our dog Sage, Pinch of Yum, Food Blogger Pro, the dark chocolate coconut bites that Lindsay won’t stop making, etc, etc…
In 48 hours, we’ll close the comments. Make sure you get your questions in as soon as possible!
Lindsay and I will take the next few days to answer each of the questions thoroughly in an effort to provide you, our readers, with information that is, we hope, both valuable and super relevant.
It’s as simple as that. I’m excited to hear what questions you have!
Update 5/19 at 8:53 am: please limit to one “big” question – this will enable us to give better responses to each commenter!
Before we dive into Q&A, here are the numbers…
A quick note: Some of the links below are affiliate links. All of the products listed below are products and services we’ve used before.
Income
- Bluehost – $5,635.00 –> this income comes from a page where we show people how to start a food blog in three easy steps.
- Yellow Hammer Media – $5,241.19
- sovrn – $5,342.22
- Sponsored Posts/Speaking – $4,000
- Tasty Food Photography – $3,198.70
- Federated Media – $1,863.28
- Swoop (via BlogHer) – $1,276.63
- Gourmet Ads – $1,282.37
- Food Innovation Group – $1,261.06
- Amazon Associates – $726.76
- Genesis Theme – $691.45
- Elegant Themes – $273.50
- Go Sugar Free Course – $249.25
- How to Monetize Your Food Blog eBook – $245.00
- Everyday Healthy eCookbook – $226.10
- The Creamy Cauliflower Sauce eCookbook – $234.00
- AWeber – $28.80
Total Income: $31,775.31
Expenses
- How to Monetize your eBook (Assets) – $2,000.00
- Support Staff – $1,284.16
- Food Expenses – $835.77
- eBook Affiliates – $688.15
- Amazon S3 and Cloudfront – $507.48
- Media Temple (Hosting) – $350.00
- Photography Props – $293.94
- PayPal Transaction Percentage – $255.64
- MailChimp – $156.00
- Overwhelmingly $79.00
- LeadPages – $67.00
- Courses and Classes – $54.00
- Adobe Creative Cloud – $53.55
- PayPal Website Payments Pro – $30.00
- Shoeboxed – $29.95
- ViralTag – $28.00
- QuickBooks – $26.95
- Software and Apps – $24.73
- VaultPress – $20.00
- E-Junkie – $18.00
- TailWind – $14.99
- Backupify – $12.00
Total Expenses: $6,829.31
Net Profit: $24,946.00
If you’re interested in learning more about some of the ways that you can monetize a food blog, we encourage you to download this free ebook, “16 Ways to Monetize Your Food Blog,” from our sister site, Food Blogger Pro!
Traffic Totals
Below are some screenshots from Google Analytics. You can click on these images to view a larger size.
Traffic Overview
Top Ten Traffic Sources
Mobile Vs. Desktop Vs. Tablet
Top Traffic Channels
That’s a Wrap!
That’s it. Our shortest income report ever!
Now for the fun part: Any questions?