Food Blog Income Report - 1st Quarter 2023

I share my income reports to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run Midwest Foodie as a full-time job that supports a family of three! It also gives me a chance to share with you what I'm working on and the new things I'm trying.

If you're new here, be sure to start at the beginning with my first income report to see how this blog got started!

Let’s take a look at the stats for January, February, and March of 2023! These traffic totals do not include web story traffic.

TRAFFIC

JANUARY 2023

Pageviews	973,270
Sessions	796,153
Users	605,853

FEBRUARY 2023

Pageviews	810,319
Sessions	669,012
Users	505,702

MARCH 2023

Pageviews	761,460
Sessions	620,741
Users	476,967

TRAFFIC SOURCES

JANUARY 2023

FEBRUARY 2023

MARCH 2023

1ST QUARTER INCOME TOTAL: $67,751

JANUARY 2023

AdThrive	$21,384
Amazon Associates	$479
Pinterest E-Book + Vegan E-Book	$873
Affiliate Income	$1,933
Total Income	$24,669

FEBRUARY 2023

AdThrive	$21,023
Amazon Associates	$309
Pinterest E-Book + Vegan E-Book	$102
Affiliate Income	$610
Total Income	$22,044

MARCH 2023

AdThrive	$20,090
Amazon Associates	$371
Pinterest E-Book + Vegan E-Book	$194
Affiliate Income	$383
Total Income	$21,038

MONTHLY RPM/RPS

	JAN	FEB	MAR
RPM	$26.86	$31.42	$32.36
Page RPM	$21.97	$25.94	$26.38

TOTAL EXPENSES $3,417

MONTHLY RECURRING EXPENSES $2,527

Microsoft One Drive: $6
Akismet: $25
Nerdpress: $366
Peach Perfect Financials: $717
Lightroom: $32
SendOwl: $27
ConvertKit: $241
Gsuite: $36
Agathon: $240
Canva: $30
Tailwind: $30
KeySearch: $42
Gusto: $135
Groceries: $600

OTHER EXPENSES $890

Content Writer: $420
Quickbooks Online: $320
Oregon Business Registry Renewal: $150

PROFIT $64,334

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 there are a lot of monthly expenses that go into blogging, and then taxes come along and take about 30% of anything you have leftover!

EXPENSES BREAKDOWN

• Not much noteworthy this quarter as far as expenses go. I kept expenses pretty lean this quarter which is nice but I am thinking that it might be time to start investing a bit more of my income back into my business. Not exactly sure what that's going to look like in the coming months but I'll keep you posted!

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO

• Work Schedule/Life Balance: This year I've really leaned into scheduling work around my life instead of the other way around. I'm currently working about 15ish hours a week (sometimes less) and feel really thankful to be in this season where I'm almost living a semi-retired life. This has got me thinking a lot about our future and how we can invest to help cultivate a more relaxing lifestyle as we get older and build some generational wealth for our daughter. We are currently prioritizing our funds towards food, travel, and investing and it feels good to be able to put our money towards things that are important to us.
• ChatGPT: As I think all bloggers are right now, I've been thinking about the future of AI and how it's going to affect our income and livelihood in the future. And I'll admit that the more I learn about it the more nervous I become that eventually someday down the road, the landscape of blogging is going to look completely different than it does now. That's why we are investing as much as we can and also trying to find ways to use ChatGPT to our advantage. I usually take a "wait and see" approach with anything new that comes along regarding blogging and I'm doing pretty much the same thing when it comes to AI. There is no use in freaking out about it because we have no control over it. What we can do is learn about it, use it where it's helpful, and try to adapt. It also feels like this is a good time to build strong social communities (which is admittedly not an area of strength for me as I find using IG for business very annoying and I haven't even dipped a toe in TikTok). It's also a great time to diversify my income flow which is another area that I've got a lot of room for improvement. With that said, I'm hopeful that ChatGPT and bloggers will find a mutually beneficial relationship in the future where we can coexist peacefully. Or I at least hope that I can sell my blog for a decent profit just before it all goes down the drain! 😉
• Updating Content Update: So far this year I think I've updated 4-5 recipes 🙂 Whoops! Was hoping to get more updated, but it's been slow going and that's okay! I will continue plugging along with getting older posts updated over the coming months.

GOALS

• No major goals this year! I'm not big on New Year's resolutions or goal setting and honestly where I'm at right now is beyond my wildest dreams. I would be delighted just to continue on as things are right now.

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! More details below!

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.

Download the e-book now!

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!