Thyme & JOY

simple real food recipes & cooking tips for the home chef

food blog side hustle

Blog Income Report February 2020

by Leave a Comment

Blog Income Report February 2020 : Find out how I made $1411.15 through my blog with various strategies. 

So obviously, we made a turn for the worse income wise. Honestly, I feel very frustrated and disappointed and even more worried about the future. I actually have been working VERY hard making content over this last month and have exceeded my goals, so it’s only natural to be feeling a bit tense about the downward trend. 

Blog Income Report February 2020

Here are some noteworthy things that happened in February:

  • Goal Setting: For 2 months in a row, a good friend of mine and I have been meeting in person once per month to create business goals for ourselves. This month in particular, I exceeded my goals! This makes me happy because it means I now have a standard for what I can accomplish for the blog that can be compared to. This simple act will help me grow with the tides. 
  • Traffic down 34%: The official numbers are in, and my blog took a 34% hit in traffic this month. This stings REALLY bad. When you are busting your ass cranking out posts (with videos) and see that everything is going DOWN, it can get really frustrating. I suspect the reason for my traffic drop is for a few different reasons. One being seasonal, less people care about food in February because most have abandoned their healthy eating strategy. There also has been insane amounts of google algorithm updates. Because I have SEMrush, I am able to see what I lost rankings for and I lost a lot! This is something that is out of my control in a lot of ways. Another reason I could have lost traffic is because I have been a bit radio silent on Pinterest. They have made MAJOR updates over the last month and I am waiting on some personalized information on what to do so I can move forward. 
  • No Extra Work: For the month of February, I did not have any sponsored work or recipe development projects for any companies. I almost did, but the timeline on a few were too short for me to handle and be able to do my best so I had to turn them down. 
  • Ebook: One of my goals for the month was to start creating a better opt-in. Well, not only did I start it, I finished it! When you sign up for my email list, you will get an ebook that has 15 Meal Prep Hacks that I’ve learned through the years. It’s not as perfect and pretty as I would like it to be, but the information inside is very valuable. I was surprised to see so many already signing up for my list immediately after I put it out there. 
  • Newsletter: I’ve decided to change up things on the email list front a bit. Instead of sending a weekly email with my latest posts, I will be crafting a monthly newsletter to my subscribers that will be more personal. It will have a life update, seasonal recipes, product recommendations and more. If you want to sign up, CLICK HERE. 
  • Pinterest Audit: One investment I made in my business was to get a full blown Pinterest audit. Right now, I can’t afford someone to run my account for me so I figured this was the next best thing. I was very lucky to have it worked on while these changes were going on so that I wouldn’t be working off of old information. I actually should be receiving my audit today and am excited to work on it even though I know I have been doing so many things wrong!
  • I don’t Actually Work Full-Time: I caught myself in the comparison trap a lot recently. What I fail to realize sometimes is that this really is a part time gig right now. I only have 10-15 hours a week to work on this blog because I am blessed enough to be able to stay home with our son AND pay a babysitter to come over 2x a week so I can work. The amount I can do is not as much as others who get a full 40+ hours. 
  • Carnivore Diet Experiment: I came out of the diet closet this month and announced I was going on diet in order to heal after pregnancy and birth. If you want to know a full list of why I am doing it, you can read this post. I mention this here because it put a bit of a damper on recipe creation for the last half of the month. Since I am only eating from the animal kingdom, I really couldn’t experiment with much. I am over halfway through this experiment and I am excited to continue to create from a place where I have more variety in my eating. However, I will say that going forward most of my post will be keto and low carb based as I truly do believe that way of eating for the most part is best for me.
  • Blog Re-Design: One of the missing pieces of my whole blog as a business is the fluidity of my design. I bootstrapped my way into this as a personal chef and it took on it’s own world. Because of that, I have mismatched logos, color schemes and branding. One thing I hope to accomplish this year is to make enough money to hire a designer or branding expert so I can get everything looking clean, smooth and minimalistic.
  • Seasonal Recipes: A while back in Q2 and Q3, I remember how many people were basically dropping everything for Q4. Now I understand! That truly is when you make the bulk of your money that will carry you through the rough months. This year I am going to try and be smart and look ahead. Since we have a big family transition coming up with my husband getting out of the military, it seems like a good idea for me to start working on seasonal content now. This for me means researching recipes for the holidays and making and photographing them during spring and summer so I have a bank of content to work with for that time period. This actually excites me a bit because sometimes I have trouble making summer type recipes. 

As defeated as I feel right now, I also feel like deep down I am going to reach my goals by the end of this year. I know it takes about 6-8 months for posts to really start ranking and doing well and so I am hoping that all this work I am putting in now will eventually pay off soon. I just need to keep up the momentum even though I don’t see much growth!

Blog Income Report February 2020 | Metrics

Food/Recipe posts that were created in February: 12

Amazon Affiliate Income: $73.84

 Mediavine Income: $1337.31

Virtual Assistant Work: $0

Sponsored Work: $0

Hours spent working on the blog: 16-20

Blog Income Report February 2020 Total: $1411.15

 

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

Lets Connect!

Check out my Podcast: Food Conversations

Email me: thymeandjoy@gmail.com

Follow me on Instagram

Join my community on Facebook

See what I’m pinning on Pinterest

 

Blog Income Report January 2020

by Leave a Comment

Blog Income Report January 2020 : Find out how I made $2008.63 through my blog with various strategies. 

Well, it’s the first month of 2020 and we’re off to a weird start in the blogging world as expected. January is that cruel month for a health food blogger where traffic is high but RPM’s are down in the dumps.  This means although my traffic gets boosted, I get paid half as much which is not a great moral booster and a further reminder that this business is very cyclical!

Blog Income Report January 2020

Here are some noteworthy things that happened in January:

  • I went “back to work” after maternity leave: Even though I have pretty much been working since James was a few weeks old, this is the month where I really felt “back”. The reason why this was the month is because I started with a new client and also agreed to continue work developing recipes for a popular Paleo & Whole30 brand. In full transparency, the client just didn’t work out for reasons beyond my control.  I was kind of heartbroken because I was left questioning if the universe was trying to tell me something. I had no idea what to do next. With the help of some insightful friends, I decided that if the perfect client came my way, I would take the job but I wasn’t going to spend any extra time and money looking for one unless I really needed to.  That is definitely a luxury I am grateful for!
  • I actually set goals for blog posts and met them: A friend of mine and I sat down and mapped out our goals for the year. Within that time, we also decided to set monthly goals just so we had something to anchor to.  My goal was to put up 8 blog posts in the month of January and I met that goal!  This is significant to me because if we never chatted about it or wrote it down on paper, I never would have really pushed myself to get it done. Goal setting was the difference between putting out 8 posts this month vs. 6 posts this month and I am happy with that!
  • Crappy Videos: I know videos are a big deal in this land, but I really don’t have the time to make picture perfect videos for every (or any) recipe. I didn’t want to let perfect get in the way of done, so I decided to just post some cooking videos for my latest posts that are pretty scrappy and amateur but I’m letting myself be ok with that because I found that people actually enjoy seeing the behind the scenes type footage MORE than the professional fare.  Also, adding video definitely ramped up my income a bit and I’m pretty sure it’s helping some of my posts rank higher which are all good things. 
  • I lost my ranking for a high traffic post: This one hurt! One of my posts that was driving a lot of traffic got outranked in a recent update. I kind of knew this was going to happen, it’s just a matter of when. The post was actually a tag page, so there weren’t many ads on it and I slacked on turning it into an ACTUAL blog post so a lot of this is my fault.  This was a reminder to me that I constantly need to have good high ranking content up so that it catches the traffic of other posts that fall in rankings when they do.  It’s just the nature of the beast!
  • I am LOVING SEMRush: I finally bit the bullet and purchased a full year subscription to SEMrush which is a very powerful SEO tool that helps with keyword research but also shows you so many stats about your website including what your ranking for and when it drops or improves etc. I feel like I have hit a good groove with how to use it to write my posts and even though I won’t see the full benefit for a 4-6 months, some of the posts I’ve written are already climbing up the ranks. I split this with 2 people to drive the cost down but we are still looking for 1-2 people to join our group! Email me if you’re interested. (thymeandjoy@gmail.com)
  • I purchased a Sous Vide: I am a kitchen appliance whore . . . but I am allowed to be, right?! We used one of these machines in the restaurant but now they make fun home versions and I also bit the bullet on this. Since I have upped my fat intake and animal protein intake, I am excited to cook with this nifty tool and share my recipes which feels like a breath of fresh air when it comes to creating content. 

As of right now, I feel an equal mix of motivated and an equal mix of anxiety about this blog. I was hoping that my add income surpassed $2000 for January and it fell short. February is looking even worse! These are the times I panic and then go off and do something else because it’s hard to play the long game, but I feel like this time I will stick with it and keep creating great content, trying new things and I know in time I will reach my first long-term goal of making $5000 per month even though I have a seemingly long way to go! 

Blog Income Report January 2020 | Metrics

Food/Recipe posts that were created in January: 8

Amazon Affiliate Income: $121.97

 Mediavine Income: $1886.66

Virtual Assistant Work: $0

Sponsored Work: $0

Hours spent working on the blog: 16-20

Blog Income Report January 2020 Total: $2008.63

 

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

Lets Connect!

Check out my Podcast: Food Conversations

Email me: thymeandjoy@gmail.com

Follow me on Instagram

Join my community on Facebook

See what I’m pinning on Pinterest

 

Blog Income Report September 2019

by 2 Comments

Blog Income Report September 2019 : Find out how I made $1626.35 through my blog with various strategies. 

At the time of writing this, I am nearly 4 weeks postpartum and my life just EXPLODED.  I knew having a newborn and adjusting to being a mom would be hard but there are so many other things I never expected.  More on that another time . . . 

I will say that about 2 weeks after, I found myself missing work which is a testament to my personality and also says a lot about how I will get things done going forward. 

Blog Income Report September 2019

Here are some noteworthy things that happened in September:

  • I HAD A BABY: Baby James Michael Skinner was born on September 17th after 36 hours of labor turned into a C-Section.  Life has been a whirlwind trying to learn this little guy and trying to adjust to life as parents. Recovery has been difficult for me and my emotions are all over the place still, but I recognize that this is the absolute hardest part of parenthood and we’re both trying to get through it but also enjoy it at the same time. 
  • I thought about work early: Before I gave birth, I told myself that I would allow myself ample time to not think about work because I had no idea what kind of person I was going to be.  Turns out, I am exactly who I thought I was. Taking care of a newborn is exhausting mentally and physically. My brain is 100% on James and it’s hard to focus on much else.  Thinking about work in those tiny blips of time I have has actually allowed me to take a break from the mental part of having a child but actually getting to work has been a challenge.  I don’t have a set time or set schedule to do ANYTHING right now and that’s been hard to handle mentally and emotionally for me since I was in FULL control of everything I did just one month prior. Luckily I did schedule out October and November, but I am hoping that I will be on more of  a schedule so I can get some things in line for December. 
  • In the meantime, I’m comparing: Being on social media even MORE is something I did anticipate since a lot of the time I only have one hand to do anything and because it’s my only connection to the outside world.  The problem with this is that I get to see what everyone else is up to and get to see them working and doing the things I can’t do and succeeding etc. No matter how many times I tell myself I need to “stay in my own lane” and “what’s meant for me won’t pass me”, it’s not that easy to believe!  To be honest, I almost decided not to even post blog income reports anymore because I feel embarrassed about where I am at but I feel like this journey is a valuable piece of my life and seeing the ups and downs will let me and others see how far I’ve come and also how the journey is very much NOT linear. 
  • SEO Rankings Dropping:  Now for some practical stuff,  the more content you have, the better chance you have of it ranking.  I’ve had just a few heavy hitter posts carry me through and now with the new google update, the rankings are dropping pretty fast!  This makes me nervous because I was hoping that Q4 would be a big growth spurt for me, but it may only be keeping me afloat at the same level.  Again, more content will help this, but obviously it’s not something I can do right now. 
  • Partnerships: I find it so crazy how brands reach out to other bloggers.  Some bloggers get reached out to by the SAME brands and others are completely different. In the last month and a half I’ve gotten reached out to by brands that I really don’t see others get reached out to.  Just goes to show you that everyone is different and everyone’s VALUE is different.  While there’s a lot I turned down because it wasn’t in line my life, I also did accept some awesome partnerships I never thought I would get! I really want to get comfortable with this concept and in a way that suits everyone involved.  AKA I don’t ever want to be an annoying commercial and I hope any of you would tell me if that’s the case! 
  • The Future of This Blog: before I gave birth, I came up with a plan to really ramp up this side of my business in every way. I have SO many ideas and so many creative things I want to share and really do feel renewed. I feel truly blessed to have an income source that I can work on from home doing something I love.  At this point I feel like my personal chef business will end up being the side hustle and the blog will be the main focus for a few different personal reasons that I will share at a later date. In the meantime, mom life is at the forefront and I will have to just accept that whatever I get done is icing on the gluten free cake. 

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

Blog Income Report September 2019 | Metrics

Food/Recipe posts that were created in September: 2+

Amazon Affiliate Income: $111.41

 Mediavine Income: $1214.94

Recipe Development Projects Paid Out: $250

Virtual Assistant Work: $50

Hours spent working on the blog: 2-5 but barely

Blog Income Report September 2019 Total: $1626.35

 

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

Lets Connect!

Check out my Podcast: Food Conversations

Email me: thymeandjoy@gmail.com

Follow me on Instagram

Join my community on Facebook

See what I’m pinning on Pinterest