Welcome to my very first food blogging traffic and income report and a big welcome to the inside of our food blog business.
We see many bloggers sharing their success one that their food blog is a few years old and when they have millions of monthly visitors. But what we wanted to do was to share our progress from the beginning so that you can watch over our shoulder every step of the way.
We are not new to income reports as we do share our income on two of our diet sites, but as they are now both for sale, it felt right to start the income report process again on our brand new food blog.
So let’s get started……
Our Food Blog Income During November 2015:
Free Physical Products = $1208.90
Google Adsense = $1.45
Total Revenue = $1210.35
Our Food Blog Expenses During November 2015:
Knownhost = $9
Aweber = $19
Total Expenses = $28.00
This leads to a total income from Recipe This For November 2015 of $1182.35.
I am really pleased with this because I didn’t start the site dead on the first of the month, so technically it hasn’t had its first full month yet. It is like a baby that has not had the chance to spread its wings and get noticed.
We have worked really hard this month making sure daily content is going on the site and to make sure that everything is going on social media channels. We have also started the promotional side of things too.
At the moment we are in the process of selling our two diet sites that require quite a bit of my writing attention. So once they are sold I will be able to put a lot more of my time into the promotional side of Recipe This.
Instead of me explaining everything I did in each week here is a run down of my weekly work diary:
Real Life Food Blogging Week 1
Real Life Food Blogging Week 2
Real Life Food Blogging Week 3
Real Life Food Blogging Week 4
You’re probably wondering how on earth anyone can end up with over $1000 of free goods that they can review and then resell. Well I simply asked people for them. Actually I will rephrase….my amazing virtual assistant asked on my behalf. This resulted in me getting every kitchen gadget you can think of including a state of the art Italian Ice Cream Machine. You can read all about it in my working with food brands blog post.
I also expect my expenses to become higher in future months with the first lot of expenses being due out in December.
Our Food Blog Traffic During November 2015:
Now this was the exciting but and this was how much traffic we could bring to the site in the first few weeks.
As you can see we have had:
2693 page loads
1383 sessions
1131 users
I really can’t complain since we started on the 14th of November and we have only really had two weeks worth of traffic.
It is also right now a food blog that has not had much beyond the usual blogging and social media sharing and over December/January we plan to step this up a gear.
One thing we are really pleased about is the early SEO reaction as we do want this to be a long term traffic source.
Looking at the results of the traffic sources for the first couple of weeks comes back as follows:
We are also really pleased to have been accepted to a lot of Pinterest groups which will of course help with the initial social media sharing.
Understanding Traffic Speed: Are You In A Traffic Jam, Cruising Down The Motorway Or In A Formula One Race?
The majority of food bloggers will get bored with how long it takes for the traffic to grow on their blog and will quit before they make their way out of the traffic jam. They will never make it onto the motorway and they certainly will never get close to a formula one race.
You’re probably wondering what on earth I am talking about so let me explain:
The speed that the traffic on your blog grows at depending on the effort you put in. If you build it at a basic speed and just load up your blog posts and share them on social media channels you’ll feel like you’re in a traffic jam. You will start off really slow with the traffic to your site and will have the odd day when you have a few visitors (besides you and your mother) and you might get lucky and someone with a decent following may share one of your recipes on social media.
This is not going to make you rich and you’re probably looking at 2-3 years before it is worth monetising your blog. This is also why some bloggers get bored, because they will have blogged for six months and have nothing to show for it.
Those cruising down the motorway will see these same results in six months rather then a few years because they will have gone above and beyond just loading up blog posts and social media sharing.
They will have promoted their blog posts in a variety of places, will have networked with other bloggers for more social media sharing and may have even taken on paid ads to help increase their chances.
Month 1 Food Blogging Traffic & Income Report – November 2015
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Then there is the formula one crowd. They will be interested in growth from day one and will not be looking over their shoulder at whatever anyone else is doing. They will have an end goal and they will expect to reach it quickly. Many in this category will have a million monthly visitors in less than twelve months. They will do everything and will live and breathe their food blog.
The good news for you is that with so many traffic jam enthusiasts quitting food blogging means that there is a lot of room for the more serious food blogger!
I would say that I am somewhere between cruising on the motorway and taking on the Formula one track. What about you?
What’s Next On Recipe This?
After we have completed and scheduled all the blog content on Recipe This for December our next plan of action is to work on our Podcast. We have been planning our Podcast for ages and it is a case of finding the time to do it justice.
We also want to work a lot more closely with free traffic and will be expanding our promotional efforts on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Reddit and a few forums. We are yet to open a Instagram & You Tube accounts so these will also be a priority.
It is really exciting because like a new relationship it has this “everything new feeling” and a fantastic buzz and we just want to get this blog where we want it.