How I Made Over $500k in One Year From My Food Blog

Every quarter I share my income report where I give you a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run a multi-six-figure business that supports our family. I break down the numbers, share insights, and highlight what’s working to help you learn and grow on your own blogging journey.

Now I want to share with you a high-level look at exactly what has helped me earn over $500,000 from my blog in 2024! I’ll share details about all the different services, software, and supplies I use. I want to show you that it’s possible to make a legitimate living from food blogging and that you don’t have to spend hours on Instagram or have a huge social following to do it!

 

Things I Can’t Live Without

These services are things that took my food blog to the next level. If you’re serious about food blogging becoming a full-time, high-earning, career for you, I highly recommend investing in these services. This is what I use to keep my blog up and running smoothly.

NerdPress

• Hands down the best investment I made in my blog was signing up with NerdPress 6+ years ago. They handle all of my back-end stuff – everything technical that my brain doesn’t have the capacity to understand.
• I recently switched to their next tier of service – the Inner Peace package – and I feel completely taken care of. If I have issues with anything technical, I email them and they’re quick to respond with a solution or suggestion.
• I have been so happy with their service. There really is nothing like NerdPress.

Deep Roots Hosting (formerly Agathon)

• I can’t say enough good things about Deep Roots. I have been with them for 6+ years as well.
• They are quick to respond to my questions and have a close working relationship with NerdPress so they can work in tandem to remedy any technical situation I am facing.
• A good host is important and I’ve been so happy with my experience with Deep Roots.

Tailwind

• Everyone has their own way of scheduling pins, but for me, it’s always been Tailwind.
• I’ve tried manually pinning here and there over the years just to see if it makes a difference or gives me better results and I always come back to Tailwind!

Keysearch

• When I first started the blog, I had no idea what I was doing with keywords. I made recipes I wanted and tried to keyword them as an afterthought.
• Around 2019 I started using Keysearch more seriously and took the Cooking with Keywords course.
• I still probably don’t use all the features that Keysearch has to offer but it has given me a great baseline for which recipes are worth spending time on.
• With that said, I usually follow an 80/20 rule with keywords and blog posts. Meaning that 80% of them are words I’d like to rank for or could rank for and the other 20% are just random recipes that have no search volume but they’re so delicious that I must share them. While I never make anything that I’m not totally jazzed about, that 20% of creative freedom really keeps me excited about making new recipes and keeps those creative juices flowing.

Kit

• Email has become a big part of my business over the last couple of years. I took Matt Molen’s email course through Raptive a couple years ago it and was amazing. Very informative and helpful to understand how important email is.
• I send out my “forever series” on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Then I publish new posts and send those out on Tuesday, Thursday, and sometimes Saturday/Sunday.
• This means I’m sending emails to my audience at least 5-6 times a week.
• This might feel like a lot to some people but Matt does a good job of explaining in his course that not everyone is going to open every single email. Your true fans are going to be excited to get emails from you.
• Matt also installed the “Save this Recipe” box on my site which has been invaluable. It seems to be a common practice now but I attribute that feature to retaining the majority of my email subscribers.
• I feel like email is a lot like Pinterest in that it’s a long game. You aren’t going to start emailing your subscribers and suddenly make thousands of dollars and get thousands of clicks, but if you are consistent and show the value that your recipes offer, the right people will appreciate it and they will click.

Props & Equipment

• I don’t have a fancy photography studio to shoot my recipes.
• I have a small rolling table in the corner of our dining room with a large photography light and a marble pastry slab from Crate and Barrel.
• I shoot with a Cannon 6D Mark II that I bought 5 years ago and a nifty fifty lens from even longer ago than that.
• I use a step stool to get those lovely overhead shots.
• And all of my props fit into one of our drawers in the kitchen – with a few stragglers in another cupboard.
• I style most of my photos the same way, using mostly the same plates, bowls, dishes, and linens. I keep it simple and don’t get too wrapped up in making every photo shoot super unique and different.
• There is nothing wrong with having a large photography studio or lots of props if that’s what makes you happy – I am just trying to highlight that you can still make a living as a food blogger without having high-end everything or tons of fancy equipment.

Things I Do to Avoid Burnout

Outsourcing

• Over the years I’ve tried outsourcing various things without much success. I am a control enthusiast and I’m not afraid to say it! I like things done a certain way and while I have learned to let go of some things, I’ve also realized that because I don’t need to be doing all the things (IG, FB, YouTube, etc.), I can let go of needing help with some things too.
• I have been working with a photographer for the last several months who I really love and that has allowed me to start publishing an extra recipe each week or just take some extra time off during the week. I started working with a second photographer as well in hopes that I’ll be able to take even a little more off my plate.

Not Doing All the Things

• I’ve never been a big Instagram gal. I love to share our family’s travels and some of the behind-the-scenes stuff about what we’re doing from day to day. But I post sporadically and take long periods off when I feel like it. IG is not something that I’m willing to put in the time or work on right now. The ROI for me just isn’t as high as spending time making new pins or working on a new recipe.
• I’ve also never done YouTube, Flipbook, or MSN. I have dabbled and tried a few different things but my bread and butter is Google and Pinterest so that is where I spend most of my time.
• I’m starting to see an ROI on email so I also focus on that as a “low hanging fruit” way to generate income and traffic.
• I commend those who can do it all and love to create content for different platforms – and I think that they can have a great ROI for some people! – but I like to keep it simple.

Setting Goals

• I love setting goals! I am part of a foodie mastermind that meets monthly and one of the things we do is set goals each year.
• I really attribute setting these goals to the success I’ve seen over the years.
• I set goals for income, traffic, email subscribers, investing, and vacations. I have lead goals and lag goals for each category and I keep them taped above my desk.
• Then I have a spreadsheet where I break down my goals by month so I can track my progress and see where I’m currently at.
• Every morning I sit down at my desk and look at my goals and they motivate me to sit down and write another post, test another recipe, or set up a consultation.
• I love the motivation that goal setting brings and I highly recommend setting some goals for 2025 if you haven’t already!

Work-Life Balance

• One thing that I think is most important in running a successful business is a good work-life balance. This took me many years to achieve but one of the reasons I never feel burnt out or run down when it comes to work is because I play just as hard as I work.
• I make sure to go for a walk (almost) every day, schedule a massage each month, go out to lunch once a week, and prioritize time with friends and family as often as I want.
• When you run your own business it can be hard to slow down or “clock out” at the end of the day. In the early years, I was grinding 30 hours a week at my day job and then coming home and pumping out another 20-30 hours on the blog.
• I was very passionate about it (and younger – hah!) so while it didn’t always feel like work, it was physically and mentally very exhausting.
• With 500 recipes under my belt and a steady cadence of traffic, I now realize that it won’t all disappear if I take a week off.
• Finding a work-life balance was hard for me, but now that I’ve found it, I really lean in and enjoy the life that we’ve created for ourselves. Instead of feeling guilty when I’m not working and enjoying life – I feel thankful that I am lucky enough to get to choose how I spend my time.

Taking Vacations

• Being able to fully step away from the blog for a week or two at a time is such a luxury and one that I don’t take lightly. It gives me a chance to recharge and allows me to come back refreshed and ready to tackle new projects. It also gives my brain the space to develop new recipes and ideas.
• While we will never spend our money on a luxury vehicle or a big house, we do love splurge on vacations and you might find us in first class once in a while if the upgrade isn’t too steep! For us, prioritizing and enjoying travel is a main focus (along with investing!) and something we love being able to do with our daughter.

Alternate Sources of Income

While the majority of my income comes from display ads (through Raptive now, previously through Mediavine) I also have a few other revenue streams.

Pinterest E-Book

• If you’ve read any of my other income reports, you’ve probably seen me chat about my Pinterest e-book. In it, I share with you exactly what I do to get traffic from Pinterest.
• Since I made this e-book in 2021, I’ve made over $20,000 just from this e-book alone.

Amazon Associates

• I don’t make a ton from Amazon Associates and I also kind of hate the whole Amazon, Bezos, capitalism web that comes along with it.
• However, I make enough passive income using Tasty Links that I still do it.

Ooni Pizza Oven + Z Grills Affiliate

• While neither of these really makes me much money currently, they were very lucrative in the past. Since I posted my Ooni pizza oven review, I’ve made over $25k in affiliate revenue from that post alone.
• They’re also products that I use regularly and really believe in so even though they aren’t making me much in terms of revenue, I still want to keep my reviews out there so that I can share my honest opinion with my readers.

Consulting for Other Bloggers

• In 2024 I started doing consults for other bloggers and it has been so much fun! We spend an hour chatting about whatever you want! Pinterest, keyword research, my workflow, etc. Basically, you get to pick my brain about whatever you want and I’ll share with you any suggestions I have for your site.
• I charge $297/hour and if you’re interested in setting up a consult, please email me at kylie@midwestfoodieblog.com. I also have a couple clients that I’m consulting for on a monthly or bi-monthly basis which is another option if you’re interested in something more long-term.
• It’s been so fun to connect with other bloggers and really get into the nitty-gritty. I used to do a ton of Pinterest consults before I wrote my e-book so it’s fun to get back to that and connect more with the food blogging community.

The Biggest Take Away

• For me, the biggest takeaway from my food blogging journey thus far is that consistency is key and cock eyed optimism sure helps!!
• When I realized that I wanted this to become my career in 2019, I went all in. I have posted consistently for 6 years since then! Not necessarily publishing the same amount of posts each week but consistently publishing at least something new every week – unless I’m on vacation!
• For years I published twice a week, and now I’m up to 3 times a week. During the summer I drop down to once a week. But either way, I’m always creating and publishing. And the best part is, thanks to Tailwind, I’m always publishing new pins! So even when I have slow summer weeks where I only get one post done, or if I’m on vacation and I get zero posts done, my Pinterest is still cranking out content and my forever series on Kit is still sending out emails.

My hope is that my story motivates you to realize you can write your own blog post about your $500k year someday! I never in a million years dreamed that I would be here. And I am so thankful every day that this is my life. And even if it’s all gone tomorrow, I know that I’ve accomplished my wildest dreams and I’m really proud of that!