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My Cranberry Rosemary One-Pan Chicken went wild this month! The income reports are back! Now that I’ve settled in with my baby girl, it’s time to bring back to life this accounting of my food blogger income and expenses. But first, Why do I do food blog income reports? Well, there are two reasons.
Traffic
My traffic in November 2018 shows something really awesome! But first, a backstory. Last year, I spent most of Q3 and Q4 working on seasonal winter recipes with the hopes that I’d be able to experience traffic surges like my non-healthy food bloggers do around holidays. I produced recipes like Perfect Whole30 Turkey Breast and Gravy, Whole30 Green Bean Casserole, and Instant Pot Whole30 Cranberry Sauce with Apples and Rosemary. And then while I was preparing for maternity leave, I took a look at older recipes I thought could work well for me in the same season and spent tons of time reshooting them, creating videos for them, updating their content, and clarifying directions, all with SEO in mind. Guess what happened. I actually had a serious increase in all my seasonal traffic! My recipe for The Best Paleo Stuffing in particular served me well, which is great, because I was 8 months pregnant making paleo stuffing for a video in July and yeah. Let’s just… yeah. Here’s a comparison:
Yooooo. And then how’s about a 2312% increase for you? I’ll take it.
Of course, we were working super hard with my Pinterest team to boost that one. And how amazing did they do?! Moral of the story? I worked my butt off to support my seasonal content, and it paid off. Now if only I could nail down the Christmas content…
Pageviews in November 2018
Here’s my overall traffic in November 2018, compared to the last 30 days in October 2018.
And my traffic doubled from this time last year.
Pageviews: 659,151
Income
I don’t include any of my freelance work that isn’t completely related to my blog and my online presence. For example, I don’t include any income I might make from 40A., my food blog virtual assistant agency. Is my experience as a blogger related to 40A.? Of course! But is it completely related to my blog? Nah, so it’s excluded it. This month, I was still halfway on maternity leave, so there isn’t much sponsored, freelance, or coaching income. Total Income: $18,037.56
Expenses
WPOpt: $43. I adore my host, and they keep my site running super fast. They even include an https certificate, so I didn’t have to deal with any headache at all. They offer different levels for different traffic volumes, so there’s something for everyone. I probably need to upgrade soon, but I still feel like WPOpt handles the volume well at the level I pay for. I highly recommend them. Mailerlite: $110. My list is so important to my traffic, but that focus has made it pretty large. I use Mailerlite because it does the job, and I really don’t feel like I need any fancy capabilities with my list. My subscription went up $20 this month because I reached 30,000 subscribers that month. Adobe: $50. I pay for the entire suite of Adobe apps, because I do so much design, photography, and videography. For my blog I used Premiere Pro, Lightroom, Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator, so the $50/month deal is great for me. LinkMyPhotos: $5. This services lets me link my Instagram photos directly to my blog. A lot of people use LinkInProfile, but LinkMyPhotos is half the price and does the same thing. Food blogger VA: $700 My assistant helps me with finding social media links to share, on photo and video shoots, and on a million other things. She’s made the biggest difference in my business and what I’m able to do and earn, and I really think everyone needs a virtual assistant. More on that in the next paragraph! cal
Total Expenses: $908
Net Income: $17,129.56
So… I had my best month ever with almost zero freelance work and working only part-time while I stay at home with my baby girl full-time. Being a “full-time blogger” (Whatever that means!) is the best. And, of course, make sure you get in touch if you’re interested in applying to become a food blogging and photography coaching client, retainer client, or are interested in learning more about our food blog virtual assistants at 40A.!
