In this post you will find out how I made $18 059 from food blogging the past month, and what I'm doing to grow my traffic even further. I hope you will get as much value from these, as I have from other bloggers' income reports! Find all the income reports here.
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Why I share my income reports
I decided to start sharing my income reports for four reasons:
- Keep myself accountable! What better way to make sure I reach my goals, than to share them with you?
- Give back! I've found so much value from other bloggers' income reports over the years, it's time I started sharing what's working for me as well!
- De-mystify blogging! Food blogging is a marathon, not a sprint - and entirely possible to succeed with.
- I love sharing my journey! And I hope you enjoy following along.
Why This Is My Final Income Report
This will be my last income report, at least for now. I made a commitment to myself that I would do them for a year, and see what results I could create during that time. And wow, the results have blown me away!
A big goal for this year was to find another income source, besides display ads on my site. I now make a big chunk of money from a source I didn't even know about a year ago, and this source also sends me lots of traffic.
If I hadn't done these income reports and so publicly committed to finding new revenue streams, I'm not sure I would have put in all that effort and got the needle moving.
That being said, I did what I set out to: I documented my efforts for a year. After a year I can now close the books knowing I tripled my traffic and increased my income by a factor of six (from ~$3 000 in August 2022 to over $18 000 in August 2023).
August 2023 Recap
I got back to work in August after a 5-week summer vacation. Full of energy and excited to get back to work - and what a month it turned out to be!
I got lucky quite a bit this month, but I also worked hard - and as the famous Swedish skier Ingmar Stenmark once said "The more I practice, the more luck I have." I truly believe luck is a factor in most success, but luck also comes easier to those who work their butts off.
More specifically, this is how I worked my butt of this month:
Published 3 new recipes:
Published 2 new resources and roundups:
Other things I did:
- Created 60+ new slideshows for MSN
- Republished 120+ slideshows on MSN
- HIRED MY BEST FRIEND! She's now working for me one day per week, helping me update MSN content, and I am super pumped to actually have some company for this year's office Christmas party.
August 2023 Traffic
| August 2023 | August 2022 | Growth | |
| Page views | 467 957 | 149 820 | 212% |
| Sessions | 388 140 | 137 851 | 182% |
August traffic was insane. The month overall was fine, and then the final two days were through the roof thanks to Google Discover sending me loads of traffic.
I ended up with more than 60 000 page views per day for those two final days of August, which drove my total traffic for the month to a new record high. And what a record! Far surpassing my earlier best months.
August 2023 P&L
Let's see what this traffic brought me in terms of monetary results!
April 2023 Income
| August 2023 | August 2022 | Growth | |
| RPM | $34.53 | $21.87 | 58% |
| Page RPM | $27.59 | $19.21 | 44% |
| Total Ad Income | $12 530 | $2 967 | 322% |
My ad income alone for August was above $12 000, which is insane, and more than 4x what it was this time last year. To say I am happy with these results is far too mild.
As you can see, my RPMs are also up a lot. Google Discover traffic brings amazing RPMs and my highest day was around $75 RPM for the day. However, my RPMs are up in general as well, thanks to both MSN traffic and my increase in US traffic.
MSN ad income: $5 420
Affiliate: $108.70
Total income: $18 059
August 2023 Expenses
I run my own business full time and divide my time between food blogging and business consulting. Here I only include the expenses that are directly related to my food blog - other shared expenses like cell phone costs, company car, new computer, etc. are not included here.
(This section contains Affiliate links. Affiliate links are marked with *.)
Groceries: $324
Nerdpress: $379 (these guys are my lifesavers!!)
The Insiders Mastermind:* $395 (this is how I can publish to MSN!)
Keysearch: $14
RankIQ*: $29 (RankIQ has really helped me grow my traffic!)
Lightroom & Premiere Pro: $45
Feast Plug-in*: $8
Big Scoots hosting*: $48
ConvertKit: $48
Canva* (for making collages & printables): $10
Akismet (site security): $7.50
WP Recipe Maker: $6.78
Jetpack: $2.50
Shutterstock: $354 (images for MSN slideshows)
VAs: $800
Total expenses: $2 489
August 2023 Profit
| Income: | $18 059 |
| Expenses: | -$2 489 |
| Profit: | = $15 570 |
The profit above does not take into account taxes.
Goals and Plans for September
September Goals
Pageviews: 375 000 (I don't expect to surpass August!)
Total income: $15 000
September Action Plan
- Post at least 4 new recipes
- Post at least 2 new resources & roundups
- Publish 2 new slideshows per day to MSN
- Republish 5 slideshows per day on MSN
I hope you got some value out of this income report. If you did - please leave a comment below and let me know what was most valuable to you! And if you have any questions, please reach out through commenting or by sending an e-mail to emmeline@alwaysusebutter.com
All the best luck for Q4, it's almost here!
Emmeline
Razia
Hi Emmeline!
Thank you so much for sharing your income reports! Are MSN slideshows still part of your traffic strategy? And if yes, how many are you now doing per week? Is it still bringing in traffic for you, or has it now dropped going into 2025? Are you able to share your other current traffic strategies? Thank you!
Emmeline Kemperyd
Hi Razia,
Yes they are. I am doing 15-20 per day, spread over 2 sites. It's really a numbers game and to have success with it you need to commit to doing at least a few per day. /Emmeline
Mikha
Hi Emmeline,
Thank you for sharing these resources, it's SUPER helpful! Could you please elaborate what you mean by using The Insider Mastermind to publish to MSN? Is that different than applying & publishing directly through Microsoft Start? Does the mastermind provide specific resources or strategies for MSN/Microsoft Start?
Your insight is SUPER appreciated! Thanks
- Mikha
Emmeline Kemperyd
Hi Mikha! Happy to hear you find these income reports helpful!
The Insider's Mastermind is a mastermind group with lots of different things. Access to MSN is one of the things they can provide if you wish (and are approved by MSN), but they also offer guest posting opportunities, possibility to buy AP credits (which can be a great help with backlinks) as well as trainings, support, and new ideas for how to run your blog. I do believe you also have more options for what to publish to MSN then you do if you go direct with MSN, I don't think you can do slideshows on your own, for example.
And of course, there's a lot of help and training regarding MSN included in the group!
If you are curious, I would sign up for a trial membership (it's $1 per month for 3 months). This won't give you access to MSN; but you will get an onboarding call with the guy in charge and then he can tell you more about what's included and how it can help you.
Hope that helps!
/Emmeline
Magda
Hi Emmeline,
These reports are very useful, thank you! Do you think The Insider Mastermind membership would be useful if my blog is very young (I've been blogging for about a year now)? This costs quite a lot and been wondering if it's worth it at that point. I would appreciate your advise!
Emmeline Kemperyd
Hi Magda,
I think the mastermind can be especially beneficial if you are just starting out! It's a great way to build backlinks in a structured way, and if you make the most of it I definitely think you will be happy you made the investment.
/Emmeline