In this post you will find out how I made $3 808 from food blogging and what I'm doing to grow my traffic. To read more, head to my first income report.
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Why do 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.
October 2022 Recap
In October I tried to increase my publishing schedule a bit, and ended up overdoing and stressing myself out. In the end I focused more than I wanted to on publishing new content, and too little on updating old content.
At the end of the month I started to find a better balance and I now feel like I have a good plan in place for the coming months.
This is what I did this month.
Published 6 new recipes:
- Salmon Stir Fry (Easy, Healthy, Weeknight Dinner)
- Chocolate Chip Cookies without Brown Sugar
- Spicy Vodka Pasta (Penne alla Vodka)
- Frozen Chicken Patties in Air Fryer
- Chicken Patties in Air Fryer
- Shrimp Scampi without Wine
Re-published 2 recipes with new photos & videos:
Published 2 Air Fryer Resources:
- Air Fryer FAQ - Everything you ever wondered about air frying!
- How To Choose The Right Air Fryer For You - 5 Important Factors to Consider!
Other things I did:
- Updated 10+ recipes
- Dove into my Air Fryer Frozen Food archive to try to understand why some of them rank really well, really quickly, and others stick to page 2. I'm doing a lot of testing with these posts now to try to get them all ranking in the top spots before the January Air Fryer Craziness hits!
October 2022 Traffic
I share both current figures and where I was a year ago, as I find it encouraging to see the progress I'm making even when I'm not quite where I want to be... yet!
| September 2022 | September 2021 | Growth | |
| Page views | 173 344 | 95 725 | 81% |
| Sessions | 151 571 | 82 132 | 85% |
| Users | 123 783 | 67 971 | 82% |
I was super happy to reach my goal of 170 000+ page views this month, and while I always want more growth - almost doubling my page views in the past year feels like a great accomplishment.
Traffic Sources
Parentheses show the change versus last month in percentage units.
Organic search: 77% (-1%)
Direct: 12% (+/-0)
Referral: 8% (+/-0)
Socials: 3% (+/-0)
Demographics
I share this as well as it makes a huge difference for RPMs! My US traffic made up ~60% of my traffic last December, and now it's under 50%. Increasing my US traffic % is something I work hard at, as that's where the highest RPMs are.
In parentheses the change versus last month in percentage units.
US: 47% (-1%)
UK: 27% (+1%)
Canada: 7% (+/-0)
Australia: 5% (-1%)
South Africa: 2% (+/-0)
Other: 11% (+1%)
October 2022 P&L
Let's see what this traffic brought me in terms of monetary results!
October 2022 Income
I make almost all my income from AdThrive through display ads on my website.
I've been with them since January of this year and have seen an increase in RPMs since the switch. They are still low compared to a lot of my peers, but I'm working on increasing them while not overwhelming my readers with ads.
| October 2022 | October 2021 | Growth | |
| RPM | $22.01 | ||
| RPS | $25.18 | $21.19 | 19% |
| Total Ad Income | $3 808 | $1 740 | 119% |
RPM is what I make per 1000 pageviews, RPS is what I make per 1000 sessions.
I also make a very small income from affiliate programs*:
Amazon: $14.77
Other affiliates: $5.00
Total income: $3 828
October 2022 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: $370
Nerdpress: $379 (these guys are my lifesavers!!)
RankIQ*: $49 (RankIQ helped me 3X my traffic in 6 months last year!)
Lightroom & Premiere Pro: $45
Tasty Links*: $49 (one-time purchase)
Feast Plug-in*: $8
Big Scoots hosting*: $48
Mailchimp: $28
Canva*: $10
Akismet (site security): $7.50
Jetpack: $2.50
WP Recipe Maker: $6.78
Cooking stuff & photo props: $113
Flight tickets for the 2023 Tastemaker conference: $670
Total expenses: $1 737
October 2022 Profit
| Income: | $3 828 |
| Expenses: | -$1 737 |
| Profit: | = $2 091 |
The profit above does not take into account taxes.
While it's not enough for me to live on quite yet, it does pay for my rent & my very expensive horse riding hobby!
Goals and Plans
October Goals
Page views: 170 000 - CHECK!
Total income: $4 000 - ALMOST!
November Goals
Page views: 200 000
Total income: $5 000
October Action Plan
A goal without a plan is just a wish.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Update seasonal content - for November this means a focus on Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year's Eve content
- Keep working through my air fryer frozen food archive and get more of them to rank higher
- Post at least 5 new recipes
- Post at least 1 new air fryer resource
- Create web stories for seasonal, new & updated content
- Create reels & TikToks for seasonal, new & updated content
- BE SMART! It's fine not to post new content for a few weeks and instead focus on updating old content. In the best of worlds I would be ahead of my schedule and have new posts ready to go - but when I don't, I need to focus on what's most urgent. Right now, that means updating seasonal posts!
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 of luck for the rest of Q4!
Emmeline
imsen
congratulations on your achievements! One question, how do you manage to get that massive amount of backlinks to your website? is there any service or software you recommend I use? thank you in advance.
Emmeline Kemperyd
Thank you! To get backlinks I drop my links in the roundup groups on Facebook, so other food bloggers can use my recipes in their roundups. I am also a part of the Insiders program (https://gumroad.com/a/480360659) which gives you guest posting opportunities and other major opportunities for acquiring great links. /Emmeline
Betsy
Hej, Emmeline. I must not read enough food blogs because I have never seen anyone post their financial info before. I was fascinated. I have no desire to be a food blogger; I am happily retired. But I had wondered at the proliferation of food blogs, and now see why. Thank you for wonderful recipes. I just found your blog, and plan to try the foil fish packets tonight and hummus pasta soon. I will be looking through your recipes because they look both delicious and attainable. I don't want to present cordon bleu meals, but I do want to provide really delicious meals that I can manage without blowing my food budget or spending all my time prepping!
I would love to know more about your horse riding obsession. I used to ride and have horses, but am too fragile now and just have chickens and quail. Plus dogs, of course.
Emmeline Kemperyd
Hi Betsy!
Happy you’ve found your way here! And thank you for the kind words. I hope you find more recipes to try!
Oh I want to have chickens as well! Some day in the future I need a house where I can have them. For now I’m happy with my dog, and of course the horses. I was horse obsessed when I was younger and then quit for 15-20 years, and just got back to it a year ago. Went from riding 1 day per week to 4 days per week in a few months! It’s such an amazing way to spend your time!
Have a great Sunday!
Emmeline