How I Made Over $530k From My Food Blog in 2025

The Big Picture

First, let’s review the actual numbers from my profit and loss report for 2025.

Income – $534,433

• Ad Revenue: $519,412
• Affiliate Revenue: $8,871
• Product/Consulting Revenue: $6,150

Expenses – $ 78,514

• Continuing Education: $599
• Contract Labor: $36,868
• Dues & Subscriptions: $4,866
• Job Supplies: $2,443
• Legal & Accounting Services: $3,078
• Payroll Tax Expenses: $12,606
• Employee Benefits (Insurance): $11,730
• Software & Apps: $5,992
• Taxes, Licenses, Permits: $332

Taxes – $83,255

• Federal Taxes: $56,767
• State Taxes: $26,488*

*This number might go up a bit. I think I’ll end up paying some CA state tax after I file my returns for 2025. Luckily, I have wonderful CPAs at Peach Perfect Financials who handle all that hard stuff for me, so I don’t have to worry about it!

Blog Snapshot

• 8.5 years blogging
• comfort food/family dinner niche
• Raptive (for display advertising)
• 624 live posts
• averaging 700,000+ views per month in 2025
• averaging 523,000+ sessions per month in 2025
• 18k email subscribers
• 65k Pinterest
• 12.7k Instagram

Traffic

Now, let’s chat about the year and dive a little deeper into traffic trends for 2025!

• My overall traffic was down about 20% this year, but my RPMs were higher, so my revenue was actually a bit higher than last year.
• The most interesting part to me is that even with the lower traffic, my actual traffic pattern in 2025 was SO similar to the previous year.
• You can see how the bold blue line (2025) and the dotted blue line (2024) have very similar peaks and valleys that closely ebb and flow around the same times of the year.
• You can see that around February/March, my traffic starts to drop and fall below where it had been the previous year. Then it just follows that trend, fluctuating about 20-30% lower at any given time, and finishing the year around 20% lower total.

• What I find even more interesting is that when you break down the traffic by source, organic, social, and direct are all down, but referral traffic is up.
• This tells me that at least some of that traffic “loss” from organic/social probably just shifted the way it was reported and is now coming through as direct traffic.

• Any amount of traffic loss is disappointing, but honestly, I didn’t spend much time worrying about traffic this year. I knew my traffic was down a bit, but I really wasn’t sure exactly how much until I started prepping this income report.
• Chances are good I was hit by the March 2025 core update, and between that and AI, I am honestly thankful it was only a 20% loss!
• And I’m very thankful to Raptive, who kept my RPMs high so I actually made more money this year than last despite the traffic loss!

2025 By Month

This table shows my RPM, ad revenue, sessions, and views each month of 2025. These numbers are ad revenue only and don’t include other income. If you’re a blogger, you’ll know that ad revenue is paid out net 45 at Raptive and net 65 at Mediavine. I am with Raptive, so we get paid for the month 45 days after it ends. For example, the January amount was paid to me in March, February was paid in April, March was paid in May, etc. So the totals in this table will not match the “ad revenue” you see listed above because that revenue is based on the payments that I actually received in 2025 (some of which were from late 2024).

*I do realize this is hard to read on mobile, and I apologize. It’s much easier to digest when viewed on a laptop/desktop!

Things I Couldn’t Live Without in 2025

Here are my top ten eleven.

1. NerdPress
2. Deep Roots Hosting
3. Tailwind
4. Keysearch
5. Kit
6. Asana
7. Canon 6D Mark II
8. nifty fifty lens
9. marble pastry slab
10. large photography light
11. small rolling table

Most of these things were on my list last year. If you want to read more in detail about any of them, check out my 2024 income report.

Things I Did to Avoid Burnout in 2025

• Stayed organized. I started using Asana either last year or in 2023, and I’m obsessed. I use the personal plan, which is the free, most basic version, but I absolutely love it for staying organized. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for an online planner/calendar/organizer. I still make tons of physical lists – post-its, notebooks, my giant whiteboard – but Asana is my primary hub for all things blog-related.
• Didn’t do all the things. I’ve gotten better at protecting my time, and in 2025, I worked hard to ensure that both personally and professionally, I was cultivating relationships and experiences that filled me up instead of just saying yes to everything.
• Got a massage or went to a sound bath at least once a month. That little hour of self-care is something I look forward to all month, and for me, it feels worth the money.
• Took at least one vacation every quarter. We enjoyed a lot of fun vacations as a family this year, and I am really thankful for all the memories we made. I can’t wait to see where 2026 takes us! So far, we’ve just got a trip back to the Midwest planned for summer, but I’m thinking an epic coastal California road trip is definitely in our future as well!

What I’ll Be Doing in 2026

• Setting goals. I’m not quite ready to set them yet, but in the next couple of weeks, I think I will be. I really love setting goals and strongly believe there is a correlation between performance and keeping your goals in mind. I will post mine right next to my computer again this year so I can look at them every day.
• Looking into Flodesk and Substack. I’ve been thinking about switching email providers because Kit is so expensive. I’ve also been feeling pulled to learn more about how I could incorporate Substack into something valuable for my readers. I love writing and think it might be a fun way to connect with readers and other bloggers in a more casual setting.
• Only publishing 2 recipes per week. I tried outsourcing photography and publishing a third recipe each week for most of last year, and while I really enjoyed it, I just didn’t see much of a payoff in terms of ROI. So this year, we are back to 2 posts a week shot by yours truly 🙂
• Continuing to focus on work-life balance. While I do feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at this over the years, I do think that I might be a little heavy on the play and a little light on the work. So this year I’ll be focusing on getting my work done first and then playing after!
• Get into more of a weekly schedule where I’m doing certain things on certain days, timeblocking, etc. I’m hoping that this will aid in a more equal work-life balance, too! I naturally like to move from thing to thing all day, doing whatever feels good, only planning a day in advance or so, and sometimes I think there must be a better way. I’ll report back next year on how that went!
• Keep a closer eye on traffic. I’m planning to check analytics once a month (or more!) to see where things are at. I’m not sure that I would have done anything differently this year (other than stressed out about being hit by an update!), but knowledge is power!
• Using AI to my advantage. I’ve already dabbled with using AI for outlines and other small projects, but I know that there are many ways that I could be utilizing it to save me time and help generate ideas. I will say that while ethically I am not sure that I support AI, I do realize that it’s a necessary evil in this industry at the moment, and I hope to use it for the greater good for all.

I suppose this list is a bit of a goal-setting exercise in itself, but usually when I focus on goals for the year, I set them for revenue, traffic, email subscribers, investments, and vacations specifically 🙂

We Moved!

• In May/June of this year, we casually started talking about moving and literally used ChatGPT to help us figure out which city.
• At the end of June, we flew to LA on a whim and toured some houses in Long Beach just to see what was out there. And in July, we signed the lease on our new house and moved in August 1st!
• We are looooooving Southern California, although honestly, we have barely scratched the surface and have so much more to explore!
• The cost of living is ridiculous, yes. But the sunshine is nearly constant, and I just wore socks for the first time yesterday since we moved here in August. I still have tan lines on my feet. In January. Tan lines! In January!
• Before we settled on Long Beach, we gave ChatGPT our criteria and asked it to find us a city and a specific neighborhood in that city. The criteria we listed were:
  • city in Southern California
  • close to the beach
  • walkable
  • diverse
  • liberal
  • restaurants nearby
  • family-friendly
  • good public schools
• It gave us a list of 4-5 cities, and then we really dug in and compared them all. Long Beach kept coming up on the list over and over, and it just seemed to be the best option for our family. Once we decided on Long Beach, we used ChatGPT to narrow down neighborhoods that would be best for us, and we were super lucky to find a house in the neighborhood we wanted!

Let’s Wrap This Up, Shall We?

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.
• Truth be told, I am still using that exact same strategy today!
• If you’re struggling with Pinterest, check out my e-book!

Consulting for Other Bloggers

• I didn’t do as much consulting in 2025 as I had previously, but I’m planning to prioritize more time for that this year.
• I did a couple towards the end of 2025, dipping my toe back in slowly, and really enjoyed myself!
• I am planning to open my consults back up later this month. If you emailed me about having one – you are on my list – and I will reach out by the end of the month!
• In your consultation, we will 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.

The Biggest Takeaway

• For me, the biggest takeaway from my food blogging journey over the years is that consistency is key and cock eyed optimism sure helps!!
• My hope is that these income reports motivate you if you’re a food blogger and help provide insight into blogging for those outside the food world.
• As always, I am an open book! Please feel free to comment if you have any questions or need clarification on anything. You can also email me at kylie@midwestfoodieblog.com with questions as well!

Thanks for supporting Midwest Foodie, and I wish you happy cooking!