food blog side hustle

Blog Income Report March 2019

April 13, 2019 by Thyme and JOY Leave a Comment

Blog Income Report March 2019 : Find out how I made $1120.24 through my blog with various strategies.

It’s officially Spring! In the blogging world, that means that the infamous Q1 is over. In the blog world, traffic for most bloggers especially in the food and healthy living space drops dramatically due to advertisers blowing their budget on end of year mayhem.

Luckily, being a health focused food blogger, the resolution crowd balances that out with an influx of traffic, especially with thing like Keto and Whole30 being as popular as it is.

As for me, I have still been on the downward slope of blogging meaning I have not put nearly as much time into it as I did in the last few months of the year. My life just hasn’t allowed for that and I really just had to put what was important first and do the best I can with the circumstances as you’ll find out below.

Even through all of that, I am shocked to see that my revenue hasn’t really dropped all that much which proves that growth over time is KEY.

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 2018 | $1156.02

Blog Income Report March 2019

Here are some noteworthy things that happened in March:

Growth Over Time is KEY: I’ve read a million times over that a post takes about 4-6 months to really start ranking. This may take even MORE time for people like me who has a lower domain authority. The point is, posts that I’ve made 6 months ago are FINALLY starting to receive daily traffic. For some, it isn’t much traffic at all but over time it does grow. I now know that once I put a post out there that I’ve put my all into, I may not see any benefits until half a year later. The good part of this is that I can share it again later when the season comes back around and it will have a bit more power under it at that point.
Pregnancy Has Been Hard For Me: On my Instagram, I finally shared some honest thoughts about the first few months of my pregnancy. It has been a rocky ride for me filled with fatigue, emotional stress and unknown as well as scary news we received that told us our baby may not be ok. After a lot of crying, depression, and testing, we’re in the clear for right now and I feel like I am on the other side of a nightmare. I feel SO much better now and I have learned so much about myself and the journey we’re about to go on as parents. One thing I’ve learned for sure is that taking a break and focusing on what is important will not cause everything I’ve worked on to crumble.
I dropped out of the Rat Race: With all of that said above, I felt this ease in pressure to drop out of the “rat race” of the internet game. So many of my friends are becoming so successful with blogging, social media and other aspects of business but I really just can’t! Not only do I not have the energy to keep up with it all, but this HUGE once in a lifetime (for me) event is approaching in 5 months that will take up SO much of my time. If I miss out on those precious years because I was trying to prove myself respectable by being “popular” and “killing it” I know I would look back and feel really sad about it. I think I’ve truly learned and accepted what it means to stay in my own lane when it comes to the internet world. It’s ok if I don’t grow fast enough as those around me and whatever opportunities come my way in this limited capacity are good enough. I am not giving up blogging or my internet over-sharing by any means, but I AM no longer in a season of hustling being the only thing that matters. There will be plenty of time for that later.
I’m enjoying Instagram Much Better: This is mostly because I am not on it as much! I’ve made a few decisions about how I want to treat that platform and what I came up with is this: I pretty much muted A LOT of stories. It’s nothing personal, I just find that once I watch one persons, it tumbles into watching 20 peoples stories and all of the sudden I spent 35 minutes of my life watching a mix of ads and things that aren’t always what I need to see. When I am thinking about someone, I go to their page and watch their stories and that’s that. I’ve also decided that most people that I am friends with on FB that share their IG to it I have muted on one or the other. This is purely because I am seeing the same thing in 2 places and there is no need. One major thing I’ve changed as I’ve mentioned in my last income post was that I was making it more of a personal place for me. Not every post has to have great meaning or be a recipe and what’s funny is I get more engagement on the personal posts than a recipe ever would. I like making it personal again and making sure it’s for me just as much as it is for you.

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

Blog Income Report March 2019 | Metrics

Food/Recipe posts that were created in March: 7

Amazon Affiliate Income: $37.23

Mediavine Income: $658.01

Recipe Development Projects Paid Out: $375

Virtual Assistant Work: $50

Hours spent working on the blog: 3-5 per week

Blog Income Report March 2019 Total: $1120.24

Well, this report was more about personal updates than it was about actual blogging but that really actually mirrors what my month was like!

Like I said, I do have a blog coach AND Foodtography school in my current flow (albeit slow) so I will not be giving up on this endeavor that I’ve worked so hard for, I am just finding a way to balance it with my main hustle, pregnancy and time to enjoy the last 5 months with it just being me and Mike and I am totally ok with that!

Also, I was featured over on YourParkingSpace.Co with a bunch of other people explaining how they make money with their side hustle. Check it out HERE.

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.

Lets Connect!

Check out my Podcast: Food Conversations

Email me: thymeandjoy@gmail.com

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Blog Income Report January 2019

February 7, 2019 by Thyme and JOY 4 Comments

Blog Income Report January 2019 : Find out how I made $1334.94 through my blog with various strategies.

Welcome to my 11th blog income report! This obviously been a record breaking month for me and I owe all of that to the traffic that comes with being a “health food blogger” in the month of January. I really thought November and December were going to be high and didn’t really believe the January hype, but it is REAL and now that I know this, I will be fully prepared for an even BETTER January in 2020 . . . hopefully.

What’s weird is that right now I am writing this from a strange mindset. As of right now my traffic is TANKING HARD. I am definitely not on track to make anywhere near this income for February and the best way to combat it is with more recipes and I literally have done NOTHING in January for February. Read below to see why.

The good thing is, all of the compounded work from OCT-JAN has made me a January income that is enough to pay my mortgage! My short term goal is to get this blog to consistently be paying the mortgage and even though I probably won’t hit this amount of money for a while, I know it is possible and that is so motivating!

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

Blog Income Report January 2019

Here are some noteworthy things that happened in January:

Uhhh . . . I kind of really hate food right now: Yeah, so this thing happened where I found out I was pregnant on Christmas day and about 6 weeks in I started to HATE FOOD. It’s not so much that I’ve been hit with nausea, but I have had a low level aversion to pretty much everything. It honestly has me into a little depressed state. Food is literally everything to me. I have built my career and life around it and to be so uninspired by it has been really sad.
I barely made any new recipes in JAN: Because I have been saving all of my energy for taking care of my clients, I have had no energy or desire to put up new recipes let alone cook food at home. I made a commitment to post almost every single day in January so it really looked like I had my shit together, but honestly it was mostly older stuff I have been hanging on to for later promotion. I don’t really have that back up now so I kind of screwed myself. But I mean, its for a good cause . . . creating human life and such.
I got a traffic bump from Whole30 Facebook: The official Whole30 facebook page posted my Chicken Pot Pie recipe during the middle of January Whole30 and it got me 10k page views in just that day! I wish that kind of luck could happen every day but again, just knowing it’s possible keeps that fire under me.
I’m being coached: I hired one of the most successful people in this space to look over everything and give me a swift kick in the pants for what I need to do to reach my goals. It’s been strange only because I haven’t really posted recipes so there is nothing to critique besides basic structure etc. but look forward to more content, videos AND how I schedule out my recipes for a maternity leave during the holidays *gasp*
I’m shooting in Manual AND using Lightroom: I have to admit, I have been taking so many short cuts with photography. Mostly I have been shooting in auto and JPEG, then uploading to my phone and editing on the free version of light room. This did get me pretty far in improvement BUT having a coach was just what I needed to really value doing it right. Honestly, if I don’t have stunning pictures my traffic won’t gain momentum as fast. Also, having beautiful photos allows the opportunity for more sponsored work and to make a side business out of food photography. I have a LONG way to go but I actually started and have seen many peaks and valleys getting to know how to do this right. But, it’s addicting and I am determined.

A note on the metrics below: All of this is income that was MADE in January. I don’t actually see any payment for this money for about 2-3 months depending on how the schedule works.

Blog Income Report January 2019 | Metrics

Food/Recipe posts that were created in January: 3 (SERIOUSLY!?…)

Amazon Affiliate Income: $79.98

Mediavine Income: $704.97

Recipe Development Projects Paid Out: $500

Virtual Assistant Work: $50

Hours spent working on the blog: Ummm… like 5?

Blog Income Report January 2019 Total: $1334.95

I know I am going through a strange time with being in my first trimester and all of these food aversions. I was SO determined to make sure I met my goal of having this blog pay my mortgage consistently. Although that is STILL my goal. I must realize that I have a full time business that comes first and not as much TIME as a full time blogger to make this happen when I want it to. I also need to prioritize rest and enjoy this pregnancy as it will likely be my only one.

My next blog income report will be a FULL YEAR of blogging seriously. I honestly feel like I am just “getting it” now. It took that long and I still have so much to change and improve on.

I am so glad I continued to write these because they allow me a physical representation on how far I came when we are so hard wired on only seeing how far we have to go.

Even though it’s likely I will come back next with a much lower income number I am still so proud of myself and can’t thank everyone enough who has visited my corner of the internet to make it possible.

God I’m sappy . . . damn hormones . . .

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 December 2018

January 2, 2019 by Thyme and JOY Leave a Comment

Blog Income Report December 2018 : Find out how I made $919.76 through my blog with various strategies.

Welcome to my 10th blog income report! To be honest, when I added up the actual blog income for this month, I actually thought I maybe should stop doing reports. Making over $900 this month was a BIG deal to me.

It almost feels selfish.

I have this weird thing where I feel like I always need to be struggling in the trenches to be accepted by my peers and community. I feel like if I start becoming successful or my dreams I work hard for start coming true that I will lose the respect of others.

Honestly, even though you all KNOW I work my ass off for this, that feeling still rings true. My dream is to make a decent income off of this blog and as success follows hard work, I know that I WILL lose some valuable people that were on my team. I know I will make mistakes and I know I will open myself up to a lot more negativity along with the positivity.

That shit is SCARY

But my two choices are clear:

I can stay in the trenches, play small and keep working my ass off to inevitably never get anywhere
Or I can take the growing pains in stride and know that the people that are on my team will come and go with the seasons but the right ones will always be there.

The blog as a whole this month had me questioning so many things. In the beginning of the month, my traffic was so LOW that I almost gave up yet again. I kept plugging away regardless and I’m glad I did because by the end of the month I was in a much better place.

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

Blog Income Report Decmber 2018

Here are some noteworthy things that happened in December:

Everything (still) dropped DRAMATICALLY: On the heels of Octobers Whole30 traffic and a decent week or two in November because of Thanksgiving, I expected December to be overall a higher traffic month for me. I even made quite a few dessert recipes as people were asking for them, but the first 3 weeks of December were just depressing in blog land for me. I even saw it on IG and FB as my follower count would go up and drop down even further. I seriously questioned it all.
I have more value than just recipes: One thing I was able to realize this month is that my How-To’s and demonstration and posts with information that weren’t recipes sometimes do even better than recipes themselves. I often forget that as a chef, people look to me for cooking advice and not just recipes. Because of this, I have started to demonstrate more things in the kitchen and even started creating more resources along with recipes. It makes total sense.
I hired a coach: I’m not usually a fan of coaching programs but I have hired a personal chef coach and have done other courses in the past. This year, my December personal chef income was so low, I have a client gap in my schedule and I decided I need to make a decision. I wondered if I should replace that weekly client or spend that time and really go for it with the blog, a risky financial decision. If I were to do that, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t making any more mistakes or putting myself in a hole that I would need to dig myself out of 6 months later. After much research and debate, I decided to invest money on a blogging coach. I haven’t started yet because of the holidays, but I am excited to get a deeper look from an outside source of how I can be maximizing my time to reach my blog goals in 2019.
I have an amazing support group: I know quite a few women in the same boat as me that want to reach the same goals. Instead of suffering alone, I reached out to them and created a little IG group where we vent, share and even collaborate on posts. This group has helped me feel less alone in the process and has further solidified the fact that everyone is on different journeys and success is so different to everyone. If you think you need support, reach out! You never know what you all could help each other with.
I expanded my Keyword Research: Last month I had said that I was focusing on writing for search engines instead of social media. This has continued to pay off this month. I research my keywords and try to put as much valuable content in my posts as possible. At first it didn’t seem like it was working, but it really does take some time for that compounding SEO juice to start paying off. I continue to research all of my posts (with the exception of these) and I am excited to see my posts become more popular over time!
I landed my first sponsored post: Valuing my work has always been difficult for me, so I never sought after any sponsored work because I was afraid my work and traffic weren’t good enough for any. I am SO wrong about this. Companies need content and chances are, they can’t always make it themselves. The New Primal was the first company to hire me for recipe development and I am so grateful to them for the past 6 months of learning and growing. It was a shock to me when another company reached out to ME to develop a recipe and asked me for rates. I learned so much through the process and because of them and The New Primal, I now have so much more confidence to go after what I want even though scary rejection is going to be a part of it all.
I’ve Increased Recipe Development Projects: Speaking of The New Primal, we had a meeting in December and they are up to some AMAZING things in 2019 and have asked me to help create more content for them which I am super excited and grateful for!
I Finished my first month with Mediavine: In November, I was in their ad network for about 10 days. This month was a full 31 days and I couldn’t be more happy with them. I know it is going to take a good chunk of time and solid work to get where I want to be income wise, but they are super helpful, responsive, they care so much about their publishers and are always creating content for us to learn how to succeed. Super happy!

A note on the metrics below: All of this is income that was MADE in December. I don’t actually see any payment for this money for about 2-3 months depending on how the schedule works.

Blog Income Report December 2018 | Metrics

Blog posts that were created in Decmber: 22

Amazon Affiliate Income: $39.57

Mediavine Income: $300.13

Recipe Development Projects Paid Out: $580

Hours spent working on the blog: 25-30 Hours Each Week

Blog Income Report December 2018 Total: $919.76

As far as I know, the downward trend of blog traffic starts NOW. But, if you’re a health food blogger your traffic could actually increase even though your ad revenue may go down. After that is pretty steady until the end of June where everyone’s traffic plummets until the fall rolls around again.

I still have so many lessons to learn and all of this information will help me plan my content and strategize my time better so that I can reach my short and long term income goals with the blog! I feel more motivated than ever!