Blog Income Report and Traffic: August 2019

This is our food blog income report for August 2019, outlining how much traffic we had, what money we made, where it came from, and what it cost to run our site. This food blog income report is awesome for food bloggers looking to expand and monetize their blogs! Plus how my food blog coaching program has helped dozens of bloggers grow their sites as well.

If you’re interested in growing your blog’s traffic and revenue, make sure to sign up for Cheryl’s Food Blogging Bootcamp! This six-week course contains Cheryl’s method for growing food blogs in quality, revenue, and traffic, and contains everything you need to know for better, bigger food blogging. Click here to learn more.

Whoa, it’s been a minute since I published a blog income report, eh? It started to feel a bit weird, if I’m being honest, sharing how much money I’m making doing, let’s face it, literally the best job ever.

Not that I have a problem with transparency and honest – the opposite. It just felt kind of uh, bragadocious? 

But I got over that because I remembered why we publish income reports.

So why do you publish blog income reports?

As a young blogger years ago, I devoured other bloggers’ income reports. I saw how much they were making, which showed me what was possible. I saw how they were doing it, which showed me what made it possible. And I saw all the little tips and tricks they found helpful, allowing growth of my own blog to be truly possible.

So let’s get down to it, shall we?

Traffic

So, traffic for food blogs in the summer can be kind of boring. Most of us see a general slump, and I get it! I’m taking as many trips and just generally not cooking as often as possible myself. But around August, we start to see an uptick. 

My traffic in August 2019 was up a little from January, but a lot from August 2018.

Pageviews in August 2019

Here’s my overall traffic in August 2019, compared to the previous 31 days.

And here’s August 2019 vs. 2018. A sustained 53% – that’s pretty great!

Pageviews: 954,338

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.

• Ad revenue with Adthrive: $25,421. RPM (revenue per thousand impressions [pageviews]) = 25,421/954,338 = $26.95. If you read my January income report, you’ll notice that, while my traffic is about half of what it was in January, I made almost the same amount of money. Whoa.
• Sponsored posts: $1800. This month I only agreed to a small social campaign, along with an old client that I love and continue to work for despite a low budget!
• Food blog retainer clients: $550
• Food Blog & Photography Coaching: $2500. I’m working on turning my coaching program into a group course, and the one-on-one will increase in price quite a bit. If you’re interested in taking your blog to the next level, sign up now and take advantage of everything one-on-one coaching can do you for you, your site, and your income.
• Thrive Market: $560. I’m a partner with Thrive Market and make a bit of money whenever someone signs up for a trial through my link. I was a Thrive shopper before they reached out to me, and I cannot overstate just how much I love this company!
• Sales: $150. This number includes all the items I have for sale on my site, like my digital cookbook The Paleo Instant Pot, my food photography presets, and my ebook Improve Your Food Photography Almost Instantly. I rarely promote these products.
• Amazon Affiliate sales: $244.13. This is what I make when anyone purchases something using a link from my site. It doesn’t cost the buyer anything else, but gives me a small portion of the sale as a referral fee for the purchase. My Amazon affiliate sales are decreasing, since I’m actively prioritizing my relationship with Thrive Market.

Total Income: $31,225.13.

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: $175. 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.
• 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.
• Later.com: $10. This services allows us to schedule my Instagram posts and include a link in bio.
• Staff: $2500. I have full-time staff that assists with every aspect of my businesses, from 40 Aprons to Layer Cake, my design agency for food bloggers, to Quattro Mama, our postpartum mama apparel shop, to Real Good, our clean skincare and wellness lifestyle brand. At this time, we had only one full-time staff member, but we’ll likely be expanding to two positions shortly.
• Food blogger VA: $500. I use VAs from my own agency to help write posts and manage my social media. I credit them for much of the growth we’re seeing!

Total Expenses: $3278

Net Income: $27,947.13

Food Blogging & Photography Coaching

So, something’s been happening lately with my coaching clients. They email me all the time like…

I just had my best month ever.

I just made the most money ever.

I just hit this crazy milestone I never thought I’d say.

I’ll be honest with you. When I started coaching, I had one hand behind my back, fingers crossed, whistling to myself, “I really hope this works…”

I decided to combine my experience as a food blogger (And my experience as a kind of crappy food blogger, all the way to my experience as a full-time 6-figure food blogger) with my experience in digital marketing and brand strategy. I mushed that together with the best practices we maintain in social media and content creation for my food blogger virtual assistant agency, 40A. Like…

It should have worked.

But I was still nervous. Until it really, really started working.

Who is food blog coaching for?

Food blog coaching is for anyone who’s been blogging for a while and ready to take their work to the next level. Whether you’re ready to qualify for a top ad network or make it your full-time gig, it’s for those who are serious about what they do and are ready to do the work to take it pro.

I’m currently taking on new clients for my food blogging and photography coaching program, with lots of brand new, majorly updated content modules! We’ll work closely for 8 weeks, following a deep analysis of your brand, strengths, and weaknesses. We’ll work on getting you and your photography to the next level, with the help of SEO, brand analysis and development, and my special secret content analysis methods. If you’re interested, click here to read more about the program and apply to begin.

We are about to turn the coaching program into a group course! The content will be the same, but the one-on-one strategy video conference will be replaced by group calls and course chats. If you’re serious about improving your platform, now is the time to sign up, because after we launch the group course, the one-on-one program’s program will increase quite a bit! Click here to apply now.

The one-on-one program includes an in-depth brand strategy, niche vision, and game plan, delivered via video conference with me. The program includes direct and daily access to my email and personal review of all your work and assignments. There’s just no better program if you’re ready to take your food blog pro.

Food Blog Virtual Assistants

Whether you need help crafting or scheduling social content, implementing SEO updates, reaching out to brands, or, well, anything you can think of that might support you as a food blogger, we’ve got the right person to join your team! My food blog virtual assistant agency is made up of the most talented food bloggers, ready to join your team and help you do more of what you love, less of what you don’t, and make more money doing it. Click here to reach out and get a quote.