Greetings! Bjork here. I am Lindsay’s husband and the proud sous chef potato peeler in the Pinch of Yum kitchen.
Two months ago Lindsay and I decided to experiment with making money from her blog. We thought it would be fun (and maybe helpful to others) to write a monthly post detailing the money we made from the blog and passing along any information we learned along the way. Here’s the update from September.
The Breakdown:
- Foodie Blogroll – $27.68
- Elegant Themes – $19.50
- The Thesis Theme – $25.41
Grand Total = $72.59.
Our plan for this money is to go against the age-old adage and spend it all in one place. We consider it money well spent.
Foodie Blogroll: $27.68
Foodieblogroll.com has been having some issues lately (sales reporting is not working) so we can’t report exact earnings. Let’s go back to high school algebra to do a quick estimate of what we can expect for September Foodieblogroll earnings.
Therefore, if my rusty algebra skills are correct:
We’re certainly open to other ad services, but for now, Foodie Blogroll seems to be getting the job done.
Affiliate Links (Thesis + Elegant) – $44.91
Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links. We will earn a commission if you purchase through those links.
We currently use five different affiliate programs:
- Bluehost
- The Thesis Theme
- Elegant Themes
- WooThemes
- Amazon
An affiliate program is a pretty basic concept. You (the publisher) link to a certain product or service from your website. If a person comes to your blog, clicks on the link, and decides to buy the given product then you get a certain percent of the sale. For instance, the five links shown above this paragraph are all affiliate links. If you watch the URL when you click on the link you will notice it quickly flash a different URL before directing you to the final site. Here’s a screencast that shows what I mean (**nerd alert**):
The URL that flashes quickly is embedding a cookie (a web cookie, not a fluffy peanut butter cookie) that identifies your blog as the referral source. Basically, it lets the company know that if the person should purchase the product then you (the publisher) get a cut of the sale.
Another Quick Tip:
For those of you that are interested, here are some examples of the payout for the different affiliate programs we currently use:
- Bluehost – $65
- The Thesis Theme – $25.41 – $54.12 (33%)
- Elegant Themes – $19.50 (50%)
- WooThemes – $14 – $30 (20%)
- Amazon – 4-6% of total purchase
So here’s our September affiliate story. A couple weeks ago I was checking through the five affiliate programs we use, and I found that we had made two sales – one with Elegant Themes and one with Thesis Themes! It was almost hard to believe that the affiliate links had actually worked. The whole affiliate marketing thing almost seemed mythical to me.
Being the data sleuth that I am, I did some research and found that the Elegant Themes sale came from the Resources for Food Bloggers page on September 16th. The Thesis Theme sale came from the sidebar advertisement on September 12th.
Let’s pause for a moment and enter my brain at the moment I found out the Thesis Theme sale date.
“Wait… September 12th? Why does that sound familiar? What day was that? Monday I think… Wasn’t I working on some website updates then? Didn’t I purchase the premium version of the Thesis Theme that day?”
Indeed, the person that made the Thesis Theme purchase… was me.
Apparently while working on Pinch of Yum that day I had clicked on the ad I set up on the sidebar. A little bit later on I purchased the theme for a website I was working on. Sure enough, because I clicked on our own ad, we received some of our own money back. It’s like finding $20 on the sidewalk and then realizing it was you that dropped it. Things could be worse.
Once again, here’s a look at September:
The Breakdown:
- Foodie Blogroll – $27.68
- Elegant Themes – $19.50
- The Thesis Theme – $25.41
Grand Total = $72.59.
The take away from September is that affiliate sales work! With just two affiliate transactions we easily surpassed our Foodie Blogroll revenue. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as we continue to search for high quality products or services that have affiliate programs.
How about you? Do you have a food blog (or other type of blog) that you’re thinking about monetizing? Any tips, tricks, or advice?
We love getting your questions and comments!
P.S. 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!
