Food Blog Income Report – 1st Quarter 2024
I share my income reports to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run Midwest Foodie as a flexible career that brings in a multi-six-figure income. I also like to share with you what I’m working on and the new things I’m trying.
If you’re new here, start with my previous income reports to see how I built this site from the ground up in 2017!
Let’s take a look at the stats for January, February, and March of 2024!
Traffic
January 2024
| Pageviews | 932,345 |
| Sessions | 780,783 |
| Users | 569,596 |
February 2024
| Pageviews | 835,730 |
| Sessions | 642,122 |
| Users | 464,906 |
March 2024
| Pageviews | 705,208 |
| Sessions | 591,342 |
| Users | 416,336 |
Traffic Sources
January 2024
February 2024
March 2024
1st Quarter Income Total: $99,632
January 2024
| Mediavine | $32,851 |
| Amazon Associates | $283 |
| Pinterest E-Book | $684 |
| Affiliate Income | $495 |
| Total Income | $34,313 |
February 2024
| Mediavine | $32,341 |
| Amazon Associates | $291 |
| Pinterest E-Book | $204 |
| Affiliate Income | $56 |
| Total Income | $32,892 |
March 2024
| Mediavine | $32,009 |
| Amazon Associates | $224 |
| Pinterest E-Book | $194 |
| Total Income | $32,427 |
Monthly RPM/RPS
| Jan | Feb | Mar | |
| RPM (sessions) | $41.57 | $49.11 | $54.91 |
| RPM (pageviews) | $35.22 | $38.69 | $45.50 |
Total Expenses $8,939
Monthly Recurring Expenses $1,656
Microsoft One Drive: $6
Peach Perfect Financials: $747
Lightroom: $32
SendOwl: $27
Gsuite: $36
Agathon: $240
Gusto: $135
Canva: $30
Tailwind: $35
Nerdpress: $368
Other Expenses $7,283
Ahrefs: $199
Matt Molen: $4,500
ConvertKit: $1,763
Hubbub Pro: $34
Quickbooks: $320
Keysearch: $169
Akismet: $48
Groceries: $250
Profit $90,693
Taxes
Please note that this “profit” does not take into account the taxes I will have to pay on it. It’s easy to look at these numbers and think the profits from blogging are great (which they are!) but it’s also important to remember that taxes come along and take about 20-30% as well.
Expenses Breakdown
- Matt Molen: I signed up for Matt’s “Done for You” program and after a bit of time on the waitlist, it’s up and running! My email sign-ups are increasing which I love to see in this crazy time of Google updates and third-party cookies going away!
- ConvertKit: Along those same lines, I’ve stopped culling my email list of cold subscribers for the time being which means my ConvertKit expenses have gone up! As things in the blogging world continue to change, my email list has become more important than ever so I’m willing to pay the extra money to keep all the subscribers I’ve got instead of removing cold subscribers. I’ve got about 3,600 cold subscribers at the moment and I’m planning to do a re-engagement sequence over the coming months to see if I can get some of them back. According to their website, cold subscribers in ConvertKit are defined as, “For subscribers who have been active for more than 90 days, anyone who hasn’t opened or clicked an email in the last 90 days. For subscribers who have been active for fewer than 90 days, anyone who hasn’t opened or clicked an email in the last 30 days.”
- Ahrefs: I used Ahrefs a bit again for keyword research but I just don’t love it. It feels like a lot of bells and whistles, with a high price tag, and I don’t use all of the features to justify keeping it around on the regular. I typically use it for a month here and there when I get the itch.
What I’ve Been Up To
- Eating. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen that we are still eating our way through Portland each week. Some notable favorites this quarter were The Pie Spot (the pecan pie is amazing!), Sebastiano’s (try the tuna salad sandwich!), and Sammich (everything there is good)!
- Traveling. We went to Palm Springs in January and just got back from a trip to Sedona for Spring Break! We are headed to San Francisco later this month, Wisconsin in May, and Italy in June/July! We’ve been having lots of fun eating our way through some new cities too!
- Investing. We continue to fund our Roth IRA’s, solo 401k, and our brokerage account. Starting towards the end of last year we also hired our daughter to help with the blog so we can fund her custodial Roth IRA and her 529 Plan. This is something we’ve had on our to-do list for a long time so it’s nice to have it in place finally.
My Pinterest E-Book
If you’re looking for the tried and true strategy that has gotten me where I am today, be sure to check out my Pinterest e-book!
- This e-book will help you develop a quick, easy, and simple Pinterest strategy to drive consistent traffic to your site in JUST 20 MINUTES A WEEK!
- This e-book is ideal for those who prefer to work at their own pace. This is not a Pinterest course. It’s not going to take you days or weeks to work through.
- It’s loaded with screenshots and images to help clarify the concepts that you’re learning and is geared toward those who already have a basic understanding of Pinterest, Tailwind, and Canva.
As always, thank you for reading! None of this would be possible without you 🙂 And don’t forget to check out my previous income reports for more behind-the-scenes info!
I also recently started a food/ recipe blog.
Good for you! It’s the perfect time to dive in! There’s so many courses and great information about there to help you along the journey. Wishing you the best of luck!!
Thanks for sharing these reports. Gives me hope and inspiration to keep going when I see someone who is where I hope to be one day!
Hi Kylie!
Thank you so much for sharing these reports! As a newer blogger, it’s sometimes tough to find the motivation to keep going. Your transparency helps inspire me through those tough times! Congratulations on checking some of your long time to-dos off your list, I bet that feels nice!
Congrats on another great quarter! I almost had a mild heart attack when I saw your Convertkit expense! Do you plan on monetizing your list using any of Convertkit’s tools? I’m currently with Flodesk, but not sure if it’s still my best choice going forward.
Not at this point but I’ve thought about it! That cost of ConvertKit is for the whole year so when you divide it by 12 months it’s not quite as hard to swallow but yes, it’s still al ot!
Thanks for sharing your reports! This type of transparency is rare and I thinknit is admirable that you practice it.
I notice you didnt include the time you/your daughter spend on the blog per month. I’m sure it’s not all quantifiable (eating thru Portland!), but it would be interesting to add your Labor as an expense line item. Congratulations on a fine piece of work.
Great idea!