Blog Income Report July 2019 | Food Blog Side Hustle

Blog Income Report July 2019 : Find out how I made $1754.04 through my blog with various strategies. 

It’s officially August!  That means we made it through the biggest traffic slump of the year.  I’m not sure exactly when things are going to pick back up, but I know that it’s sometime in August. 

I’m incredibly happy to report that despite the slump month, I have made the highest amount of money ever in ad revenue income which is a big deal.

Hopefully this will mean that Q4 results will make an even better impact because extra money during maternity leave sounds good to me! 

Blog Income Report July 2019

Here are some noteworthy things that happened in July:

  • July Work Flow: July was such a strange month for me when it came to work. Most of my personal chef clients were on vacation which meant I had a LOT of time at home to work. As much as this felt like a blessing, it was actually really hard to motivate myself to get ahead in the game. I have types of “work from home” days.  One is when I am developing and photographing recipes.  I will usually shop in the morning then get to work on about 3 recipes which seems to be my max of late.  Once all the development, shooting and dishes are done I am pretty SPENT and need a good old third trimester nap. I’ve learned that doing any other administrative work for the rest of the day is a bad idea. The other type of work from home day is purely from the laptop.  This is the day where I save all my photo editing, post drafting, social media scheduling and client menus for the week.  I’ve learned that to be the most productive for this, I actually need to be OUTSIDE of the house in a coffee shop because I find that by the end of the week I need that separation.
  • Working In the Third Trimester: I can’t deny things are getting a lot harder to handle.  At this point, it’s not that I don’t have the TIME to work on things, it’s that I don’t have the energy. Not only that, but cooking in a kitchen my belly has been bumping into the sink and counter CONSTANTLY and it’s harder to bend over do get dishes done etc. I also recently realized that I maybe have been putting way too much pressure on myself (shocker). The work I am doing right now with little energy is half to keep up with the present and half to schedule out 2 months worth of content for maternity leave.  In essence, I am trying to do DOUBLE the blog work with half the energy and it isn’t always easy.  I wonder how this will change when baby does arrive as if he comes later than expected, I may just keep slowly working into the next month until he arrives so I have that cushion.  The reality is, I do have enough saved for maternity leave even if I do absolutely nothing leading up to it. However, the future of personal chef clients and a possible move out of Charleston in fall of next year have me thinking it’s probably a better idea to continue to work on passive income streams while I can. 
  • Amazon: My amazon affiliate commission last month was one of the highest I’ve seen, but it had to do with someone making large purchase of OTHER things after clicking on something from my website.  It got me thinking about the product people clicked on MOST and it was a spice blend that linked to the shop page of someone else where I was making ZERO commission. So, I found a similar blend on amazon, changed the links to affiliate links and I truly believe that is why this commission was similar as I didn’t actually have any huge purchases this month, not even on this years Amazon prime days. 
  • Post Boost on Facebook: I made an additional $40 one day in ad revenue because my chicken pot pie recipe got shared by a big Facebook account.  This made me think a LOT.  If my website got that amount of traffic each day, I would be making double what I am right now on ads.  Part of me wishes I was in a space to double down on the things that are really working for me (SEO Research) but at the same time I have to remember there will eventually be time to focus on these things and I have to be patient. Facebook specifically, for example, is a really useful tool for sending traffic to my website. Furthermore, my friend would recommend to buy cheap Facebook likes in popularity bazaar and other websites in order to increase my popularity. I don’t know yet if I will do it, but it sounds like a good idea. 
  • Social Media Update: Speaking of the above, being in front of large numbers for more traffic and more money is kind of a double edged sword.  It takes a lot of work to put yourself out there these days to GET high metrics and sometimes that means being sucked into the world of social media which includes the good and the bad.  Even though I have been taking a huge break on social media by instead posting personal content on my youtube channel. However, I would be lying if I said I hadn’t downloaded the IG app back on my phone and I’ve been doing a little scrolling here and there. Truth is, I still don’t know where I stand.  It has become SO much harder to build a following and I have been steadily losing 75-120 followers a MONTH and when I found that out, it hit me hard.  In order to keep building I have to keep giving MORE of myself and I haven’t quite figured out a way to do that without the app using ME instead of the other way around. I’ve reconciled with the fact that I will be on my phone a LOT in the next couple months while I am home taking care of a newborn and that is going to mean I will be on social media a lot more either looking at others stuff or beginning to post again.  Idk . . . I’m still confused!!
  • Partnerships: I did not make any money from partnerships this month, but I also wasn’t on stories to even promote any.  I do plan on placing another Thrive Market order before baby gets here and I did partner with a new company that I am trying out their stuff and love it so far.  I don’t count on these things at all because they are very up and down, but it may be something to really consider in the future. 

As far as August, my plan is to continue to work on scheduling out the next 2-2.5 months by creating some new content as well as updating old content.  If I continue into September then great, and if not I am ready to see what this new chapter brings! 

A note on the metrics below: All of this is income that was MADE in July.  I don’t actually see all payment for this money for about 2-3 months depending on the company paying me. 

Blog Income Report July 2019 | Metrics

Food/Recipe posts that were created in June: 3

Amazon Affiliate Income: $103.93

 Mediavine Income: $1100.11

Recipe Development Projects Paid Out: $500

Virtual Assistant Work: $50

Brand Partnerships: $0

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

Blog Income Report July 2019 Total: $1754.04

 

Valerie Skinner is a Whole30 approved personal chef & recipe developer that bridges the gap between healthy eating and busy lives by providing simple healthy meals and recipes for you and your family.Charleston Personal Chef Thyme and JOY

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