Blog Income Report April 2020

Blog Income Report April 2020 : Find out how I made $1574.94 through my blog with various strategies.

Well, the world is still somewhat in shambles but things really are getting better as businesses slowly start to open. I really hope that the later part of the year is going to be booming with business in all areas including blog traffic!

In April, I was once again reminded of how volatile this business is. The ups are amazing but the downs are depressing. It made me realize that I need to set aside some time to really think about how I want to approach this blog not just immediately but in the future long term.

Past Blog Income Reports

• Check out: Blog Income Report | February & March 2018 | $18.34
• Check out: Blog Income Report | April 2018 | $203.17
• Check out: Blog Income Report | May 2018 | $50.93
• Check out: Blog Income Report | June 2018 | $213.50
• Check out: Blog Income Report | July 2018 | $213.50
• Check out: Blog Income Report | August 2018 | $174.52
• Check out: Blog Income Report | September 2018 | $177.52
• Check out: Blog Income Report | October 2018 | $563.78
• Check out: Blog Income Report | November 2018 | $345.42
• Check out: Blog Income Report | December 2018 | $919.76
• Check out: Blog Income Report | January 2019 | $1334.94
• Check out: Blog Income Report | February 2019 | $1156.02
• Check out: Blog Income Report | March 2019 | $1120.24
• Check out: Blog Income Report | April 2019 | $1231.17
• Check out: Blog Income Report | May 2019 | $1465.15
• Check out: Blog Income Report | June 2019 | $1898.35
• Check out: Blog Income Report | July 2019 | $1754.04
• Check out: Blog Income Report | August 2019 | $1729.33
• Check out: Blog Income Report | September 2019 | $1626.35
• Check out: Blog Income Report | October 2019 | $1880.46
• Check out: Blog Income Report | November 2019 | $5064.21
• Check out: Blog Income Report | December 2019 | $2583.00
• Check out: Blog Income Report |January 2020 |$2008.63
• Check out: Blog Income Report |February 2020 |$1411.15
• Check out: Blog Income Report |March 2020 |$1415.15

Blog Income Report April 2020

Here are some noteworthy things that happened in April:

• Traffic and mental health trending down: I’ll admit, I fell into the comparison trap again HARD. Because of the state of the world, most food bloggers are seeing insane amounts of traffic uptick. I am not one of those bloggers and this was a huge blow to my mental health. When I compare the bloggers that have more traffic than I do to myself it seems that they are just more cohesive with their content. They also have a LOT more. Even though I have ramped up content production, there is only so much I can do with such little time with an almost 8 month old and while we’re about to embark on a huge life change and yet another move. It’s definitely not easy doing it all, especially when major tasks like moving come into the picture. All of this has got me thinking again that I was much happier when my blog was a side hustle while I was doing other secure work on the side. Right now, the blog is all I have as an income source. I can’t take a job right now for the reasons stated above. I am SO incredibly grateful for the blog and I want to and will continue it, but I won’t deny that constantly feeling like I am hanging by a thread is a happy place to be with it. For my mental health, many people have recommended cbd gummies to me as a natural solution. A nice edible session, whenever I can make time for it, should help me feel a little better I think.
• RPMS Way Down: When those Q2 pandemic RPM’s hit at first it was very scary! Things still haven’t really recovered but they have gone up since. For scale, RPM’s dropped to about $9 for me and then climbed back up to an average of $13. As great as that is, they were close to $22-25 from November-January so a lot of bloggers are taking a huge hit. I’m confident I will get back there just as everyone will, but right now is just a really hard time! If I hope to grow and expand my blog beyond just me someday, then I might have to consider investing in financial forecasting software now so that I am able to make the best possible financial decisions in these turbulent times. I would be in line with the changes in advertising that I am currently making, elaborated on below.
• Inconsistent Instagram & Lifestyle Brand: I inadvertently became a “food only” account after James was born. This stemmed from 2 things. One, I just didn’t have the time to put much effort into sharing anything else and I’m not really comfortable sharing most of my motherhood journey so naturally, food prevailed. As this was happening I also saw many successful food bloggers and looked at what they were doing. Sure they shared some personal things on stories but for the most part, their feed was only food with a very cohesive aesthetic. It’s clear that food is the BUSINESS. I’ve always done well sharing many aspects of life and lately I have held back which I feel was necessary but now I am ready to start sharing again. I want to share wellness, travel, motivational quotes and blog posts that are more than just food. I started losing gobs of followers each week, so I decided if I’m going to lose them anyway I might as well start being more of myself again and have fun with it. Thyme and JOY is food focused but there is also so much more than that. We will see what happens!
• I Hopped On a Viral Trend: In my last blog income report I explained how I made a post for Dalgona Whipped Coffee right as the trend started to hit IG. The first week my traffic blew up and I have a good $200 of this months income to thank for that. Then, the inevitable happened. More bloggers with greater authority started making blog posts about it and mine fell in the rankings. At this point the traffic from it is barely notable. However it does go to show that you never know what could happen with a post and how it could impact you.
• The BIG Switch: I’ve decided to save the biggest news for last. Last month, I have decided to switch from Mediavine to AdThrive as my advertising network. This was a very HARD decision and I went back and fourth about it a lot. I spent so much time on FB groups looking at others who have done the same and long story short, I would regret it if I didn’t try it and see if it works better for my blog. I absolutely LOVE Mediavine and I feel like I am leaving behind some groundbreaking things they have in the works. However, there is a higher threshold for AdThrive and for a few reasons, they seem to be able to pay out more income per ad for bloggers in my niche. I really hope this is true and I didn’t want to keep wondering so in May I will make the switch and see. This is a strange time to switch ad networks because its Q2, the pandemic has RPM’s already low AND it takes a few weeks for advertisers to understand your site and get your income up. Essentially, I will be taking all the income hits now while everything is in rock bottom places. My hope is that things will be established enough in time for Q3-Q4 so I can maximize my earnings beyond what I made with Mediavine at the time. I’m excited to make the jump albeit sad to leave Mediavine.

Plan for May is different than last month. With limited time left before we probably move, I need to spend my work time wisely. I’ve decided to make 1-2 new posts per week but I have also pulled up last years seasonal posts that did well and will spend some time updating those so they are as optimized as possible for the holidays.

To be honest though, April just has me burnt out from it all. Not being able to refresh or go anywhere or have any trips to look forward to has squashed my motivation big time along with the traffic hits. In my soul I feel like I maybe need to take a bit of a break for a week or so to refresh, get re-inspired and continue on.

Blog Income Report April | Metrics

Food/Recipe posts that were created in April: 18

Amazon Affiliate Income: $127.66

Mediavine Income: $1447.48

Virtual Assistant Work: $50

Sponsored Work: $0

Hours spent working on the blog: 15-20 hours per week

Blog Income Report April 2020 Total: $1574.94