2014 Income Reports : January – June
When I first started YUM I had this idea that I would create income reports. I wanted to be completely transparent and show people that they can make money with a food website. When I started my other site, Self Employed Writer, I never really took the time to monetize it as it served more as a sounding board and portfolio. I’ve been working behind the scenes to clean things up and try to bring some of the older posts forward and pin them since Pinterest came after.
I am not sure why I stopped writing the income reports. It could be a combination of things. First, I felt like no one was really reading them. Second, I did not want to mislead anyone because it is very common for bloggers to not make much money during the first year or two of blogging. I was ok with this, but what would others think? Especially when there are some bloggers out there who triple what I make in their first month. I guess I feared harsh judgement. I also was afraid of failing. And sometimes I feel like I am. But, I had to come to terms with the fact that I just can’t compare myself to other bloggers.
One thing led to another and then I became extremely busy with posting, photographing, editing, writing, and networking. I just felt I couldn’t add one more post to the mix if I didn’t feel it was going to draw in readers somehow. This is a food site, not a money-making blogging site.
Another problem I had was I am still very much in the experimental state. I have been trying a lot of products for ads and links. Some working, some not. Some I just did not like. I was not sure how useful this information would be.
Lastly, per my Foodie.com/Mode Media (formerly Glam) I am not allowed to disclose the amount of money I make with them.
That was a kick to the gut. For my last income report I just XX out their amount. Readers can get the general idea.
Recently, I have had quite a few folks contact me wondering if I was going to update my income report. It took me a while, but I finally went back through everything and decided to try and sum things up as best as I could.
Money Making
One thing you will notice is that my pageviews dropped, although I am working on getting them back up. That would likely be my own fault. As much as I was trying to network and gather new readers, it wasn’t going to compete with December.
Another issue I had with money is that when Glam was taken over by Mode, we got a raise. It was a good one too. Then, not only did we get that raise taken away, we got another $50 take out of our pay. So, our payment for posts was cut in half.
Mode also has a few other channels like Tend and Bliss. Bloggers on these channels also post recipes on their sites, although they are not food bloggers. The downside is that we are all competing for sponsorship’s that come through. I am seeing less and less of these.
I have not been earning anything with Viglink. I still have $18 in my account from last year. I just think YUM is not a good fit because I don’t talk about a lot of brand names or use a lot of affiliate links.
January
Mode – $1XX.XX
Adsense – 5.55
Swoop – 2.91
Amazon – 0.48
Infolinks – 0.99
Total Income: $19X.XX
Pageviews – 11,123
February
Mode – $3X.00 *
Adsense – 5.43
Swoop – 0.74
Amazon – 0.24
Infolinks – 1.68
Total Income – $4X.XX
Pageviews – 9410
Pinterest – 1999
* I was pretty unhappy this month. I did a post and did not get paid for it and I did not get any sponsor offers.
March
Mode – $ 1XX.XX
Adsense – 5.40
Swoop – 3.48
Do Anything with Protein Powder ebook – 5.06
Food Bloggers Tax Guide – 2.06
Amazon – 1.45
Infolinks – 3.88
Total Income: $2XX.XX
I am not sure why my Infolinks was highest this month but I went ahead and removed them from YUM because they were not playing well with my theme.
Pageviews – 7173
Facebook – 1509
Twitter – 4338
Instagram – 3463
Google + – 464
LinkedIn – 252
Pinterest – 2058
Bloglovin – 25
RSS – 33
April
Mode – $1XX.XX
Adsense – 5.27
Swoop – 1.32
Do Anything with Protein Powder ebook – 3.33
Food Bloggers Tax Guide – no sales
Amazon – 0.57
Weave Media – 150
Total Income – $3XX.XX
Pageviews – 6239
May
Mode – $2XX.XX
Adsense – 4.73
Swoop – 0.43
Do Anything with Protein Powder ebook – 7.28
Food Bloggers Tax Guide -0
Amazon – 27.04
Weave – 175
Total Income – $ 4XX.XX
I have no idea how that giant amount came to be in my Amazon affiliate account!
Pageviews – 5586
Facebook – 1553
Twitter – 4464
Instagram – 3477
Google + – 582
LinkedIn – 259
Pinterest – 2269
Bloglovin – 34
RSS – 37
Google Page Rank – 3
June
Mode – $1XX.XX
Adsense – 10.60
Swoop – 1.38
Do Anything with Protein Powder ebook – 2.74
Food Bloggers Tax Guide -0
Amazon – 7.90
Weave – 0
Sverve – 0.98
Pinch of Yum affiliate for Tasty Food Photography – 9.50
Oh My Veggies affiliate for How to Monetize Food Blog – 10.00
Total Income – $ $3XX
Pageviews – 7946
Facebook – 1695
Twitter – 4527
Instagram – 3506
Google + – 630
LinkedIn –
Pinterest – 2426
Bloglovin –
RSS –
Google Page Rank – 3
Alexa Rank – 94,424 (when I started YUM I was in the 2 or 3 millions!)
Alexa Rank – US – 12, 632
Sites linking in – 447
My big expenses for the year so far were a few ebooks, and renewal of the hosting and domain. I haven’t really been tracking expense all that much for this site because a lot of the stuff I have to pay for is shared with all my other sites and my freelance work.
Alright, so there is a lot going on here. For sponsor and media purposes I have started tracking my social media follows and analytic information. As for my income, things came and went. Readership went up and down which caused income to go up and down.
Grand total income for the first half of 2014 – about $1600. So while I am not getting rich, it has helped me to give this little guy a little something extra along with our monthly gift. It should also be noted that I do have other websites and I do freelance writing. So, this is not my only source of income. I only report what I make as a direct result of YUM on here.
After reading all of this, if you are still deciding whether or not to start any sort of website, my answer is always going to be yes.
It is a fact that most bloggers don’t make a whole lot of money their first year. The average year a blogger reaps real rewards is generally by year three. The reason for this is simple. The Internet is a huge place. Readers come and go. For every reader that comes and social shares or comments, they are helping your site statistically. You have to build it, your readers are your customers and this is no different from if you had an actual storefront. There are so bloggers who do better than I during their first year and there are some who are worse.
At the end of the day I feel this website is worth every minute of the time I put in to it. I started reading some new books about monetizing and I feel like if I put some of those things to work, I will get a better return on my investment. I am also working through a few classes for Photoshop and my camera.
I’ll try to get better about doing these in the future.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I will do my best to answer.
I never really thought about posting my earnings onto my blog like this. I make money from stuff, but I spend it as soon as it comes in LOL.
I wish I would have monetized and known this stuff years ago when I started my writing site. I think I could have made some cash and maybe a bit more determined to make something of the site. I missed out. Over the years I have seen others success and felt I should be doing that too if I am going to blog!
This is all so helpful for folks who have blogs and are trying to navigate where to put their efforts. I have one company that I’ve earned money and done so many cool projects in recent years, but it’s just fallen completely off this past year (whereas I’ve picked up work with another group and it’s been a great fit.) I don’t blog for a living, but it’s nice to be recognized for a lot of the work I do. (And websites are no longer my full-time gig.) I really liked seeing all of this in one place. Thanks for sharing it! 🙂
You are very welcome. As you know there are blogs way more successful than mine and some that aren’t. It’s a learning process and what works for them and me may not work for someone else.
I always find it so interesting to see how other bloggers make money. Thank you so much for putting this together and CONGRATS on your success.
Thanks so much! I hope to improve as the months go on!
Monetizing a blog is super hard. Between networking, SEO, pitching, affiliation, sponsorships, and all the other five zillion things that go into a blog, it’s a wonder I get any sleep at all.
It’s good to keep track to see where yo are at in the blog world. And this info will be helpful later as well when you see how much you have grown!
mitch
Thanks for being so transparent. I’m with Mode as well.
Thanks for sharing that. It really gives other bloggers a sense of what they have to strive for or how to compare themselves. I think you are doing great.
I’m not as sophisticated as you are with monetizing my blog – especially with click thrus. However, the money I do make from my blog goes into a separate account and anything I spend for travel, resources, etc comes out of that fund.
This is very informative! I had thought about starting a blog and this gives me some great ideas on what I would need to do, to get where I want to go with it!
It is great that you are tracking your income and expenses for your blog. Wishing you continued success
I have tried the affiliate programs – I thought I was the only one making pennies a month. I see the same with yours. It is strange how one month is a great money maker and the next is low. I have tried and tried to figure that out with no success.
I love seeing these income reports from bloggers. I treat my blog in the same way – something I love to do that generates a little bit of spending money.
Within the past year or so I’ve started tracking my money form the blog (got a new checking account for it and everything) I love seeing other’s success too!
this is why I’ve never done affliates and such. I’ve never known anyone who really benefitted
Some people do really well with it. I just think its the niche of your site. I don’t have a lot of affiliate accounts that are food related. Some cooking. My writing site I do much better because 1. it older and there are like 1000 posts and 2. I have gathered a lot of writing type affiliates.
I keep a log of all the money that goes in and everything I pay out. I wish I would have started doing that earlier!
I love seeing this, it’s great to get a sense of what we are all making! Thanks for sharing!
I need to be more organized like you. 🙂 Also it’s wonderful to see someone who makes it works so well! Great Work!
I basically make money from sponsored posts. Thanks for sharing this info.
I love looking at what folks are making and how it is helping them or not. I read pinchofyum and am an affiliate for there products, this is another that I aim to learn from!
It’s nice that your transparent with your blogging. I had good views in the beg. of Dec. but the worst ever towards the end of it.
It’s great that you’re keeping track of your progress. It’s always nice to look back at where it all started. Congratulations!
I appreciate you being so transparent with your income sources and amounts. I am always curious how other bloggers are doing and this is very helpful information.
It’s very smart to keep track! I have a running list of what I’m being paid to do and then I check it off when I actually get paid. It helps keep me organized.
I love that you’re so honest about this! Things will only look up as you grow and in a few years this will be a great memory
I’ve loving the honesty and transparency of this! What a great way to help and motivate other bloggers! Thanks for sharing.
You make way more than I do on Google Adsense, you’ve got to share those secrets! Also that was a huge jump in the Amazon monies.
I am still trying to figure out what was with the Amazon. I am assuming its from following the affiliate links either on my site or in my books. As for the adsense, I do run it on all my sites. But YUM makes the most.
I hope next month brings you tons of earning potential! Your site is really nice!
Oh, thank you so much! This site is not even a year old yet so I am quite pleased. I hope to just keep moving forward.
Thanks so much for sharing your 6 month income report that was really helpful for me. I want to generate more income and sometimes I get discouraged because I want more campaigns but I am getting some I just want them to be more consistent! Thanks again for sharing this!