Food Blog Income Report – 2nd 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 allows me to share with you what I’m working on and the new things I’m trying.
If you’re new here, be sure to check out my previous income reports to see how this blog got started!
Let’s take a look at the stats for April, May, and June of 2023! These traffic totals do not include web story traffic.
TRAFFIC
APRIL 2023
| Pageviews | 673,665 |
| Sessions | 550,169 |
| Users | 422,133 |
MAY 2023
| Pageviews | 706,138 |
| Sessions | 579,096 |
| Users | 436,774 |
JUNE 2023
| Pageviews | 700,161 |
| Sessions | 573,161 |
| Users | 437,484 |
TRAFFIC SOURCES
APRIL 2023
MAY 2023
JUNE 2023
2ND QUARTER INCOME TOTAL: $63,785
APRIL 2023
| Raptive | $18,314 |
| Amazon Associates | $180 |
| Pinterest E-Book + Vegan E-Book | $97 |
| Affiliate Income | $414 |
| Total Income | $19,005 |
MAY 2023
| Raptive | $19,980 |
| Amazon Associates | $258 |
| Pinterest E-Book + Vegan E-Book | $296 |
| Affiliate Income | $240 |
| Total Income | $20,774 |
JUNE 2023
| Raptive | $13,581 |
| Mediavine | $8,867 |
| Amazon Associates | $328 |
| Pinterest E-Book + Vegan E-Book | $388 |
| Affiliate Income | $842 |
| Total Income | $24,006 |
MONTHLY RPM/RPS
| APR | MAY | JUN (AT/MV) | |
| RPM | $33.29 | $34.50 | $36.05/$26.60 |
| Page RPM | $27.19 | $28.30 | $30.08/$18.93 |
TOTAL EXPENSES $3,970
MONTHLY RECURRING EXPENSES $2,922
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
Content Writer: $395
Groceries: $600
OTHER EXPENSES $1,048
MeetEdgar: $258
Coaching Call with Aleka: $395
The Money Mix Insiders: $395
PROFIT $59,815
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
- MeetEdgar: I’m trying out a new social media scheduling software called MeetEdgar and so far I’m really liking it. It’s a pretty inexpensive investment and although I’m not totally convinced that it’s going to have a huge ROI for me since I use it mainly for scheduling FB which does not drive a ton of traffic, I decided I’d try it out for a year and see how it goes. The benefit is that you can bulk upload all your current posts and then schedule them to FB on a loop. Then when you have new posts you just add them to the loop. As I mentioned I don’t get a ton of traffic from FB but I blame part of that on the fact that I don’t post consistently so I’m hoping that being more consistent will pay off. Only time will tell! And I will tell you in the coming months whether I think it was worth the time and money!
- Coaching Call with Aleka: I had a coaching call with Aleka in May and it was awesome! We went over posts that I can update and she walked me through her process of what she does when she’s planning to update a post. I highly recommend a call with her if you’re planning to update old content. I also loved her Cooking with Keywords course which is a must if you’re new to the world of keywords or just need a refresher and want to get up to date on best practices in a thorough way.
- The Money Mix Insiders: I haven’t been able to dive into The Insiders yet (which totally makes me kick myself because it’s $395/month and I literally did not use it at all this month so I basically just threw money away but I’m trying not to dwell on it…). However, I’m hoping to prioritize some work time over the next month to really dig deep and decide if this one is for me or not. The benefits that piqued my interest were the syndicated content related to publishing posts on MSN.
WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO
- Switched from AdThrive/Raptive to Mediavine: If you follow me on IG you may know this already but I switched from AdThrive/Raptive to Mediavine in June! Unfortunately, I don’t have much to report as I officially switched on June 20th so it hasn’t been long enough to give a robust comparison. Stayed tuned for next quarter’s income report though – by then I’ll have 3+ months to compare. Also – I was able to join Mediavine at an 85% revenue share instead of the 75% that I had with Raptive which is a big plus and hopefully translates into more income!
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!
