Income Report – How I Made $7,000 with my Food Blog in October

I haven’t shared income reports before but I love to read them when other bloggers share them. There is no guidebook for bloggers, so it is so helpful to have some transparency in how we make money. It can be so encouraging and helpful to see what is possible when you are consistent. I vividly remember being ecstatic when I made my first .10 cents with Google Ads. And I remember hitting my goal to make $2,000/month so I could leave my job. Now I make more than I did as a nursing director with a full time salary! I have big goals for 2021 and I hope this will make you feel inspired, whether you are just starting out or have been doing this for a while.

First, let me dive into the main ways that I make money as a blogger. I get this question a lot so I think it will be helpful!

Advertisements:

This is my main source of income (it is for most bloggers). Having advertisements on my site is what ensures that I can continue to provide my readers with free content. I get paid based on the amount of traffic that comes to my site. I work with an Ad management company – AdThrive. I love them, they have excellent customer service and pay really well. If you are a blogger, I highly recommend them. They do have a minimum requirement for monthly sessions that you have to hit before you can work with them, but that is a great way to set goals for yourself!

I made $6,792 with AdThrive for the month of October – it is so cool to look back and see that I made $5,531 more than I did last October!

Affiliate Marketing:

Affiliate marketing means that I get a commission based off of purchases that my readers make using my links or codes. These links/codes do not increase the cost of the product/service for my readers at all, it just gives me a percentage for my recommendation. My main source of affiliate income is with Amazon, but I also work with companies that I love to share their products. I am very picky with who I promote because my trust/rapport with my readers is so important to me.

I made $148.78 with affiliate marketing for the month of October

Sponsored Posts:

A great way for bloggers to make money is to work with companies or brands that they love to promote a product or service. A brand might pay me to include their product in a recipe or share about how I use it in my everyday life. I don’t do a ton of sponsored work, because I only work with brands that I love and use in my own home. Normally, the end of the year is when you will see bloggers doing a lot more sponsored work because brands reserve their budget all year and want to use it before the new year begins. I have only done two small sponsored posts this October because I was so pregnant and didn’t want to commit to anything. Normally this number would be quite a bit higher.

I made $175 in sponsored posts for the month of October

Income Breakdown:

• Ad Income – $6792
• Affiliate Income – $148.78
• Sponsored Posts – $175
  • Total – $7115.78

It wouldn’t be a realistic income report if I didn’t also share what my monthly expenses are too! My October expenses are lower than normal because I haven’t been doing recipe development (again, very pregnant). I use my business card for the groceries that are used for recipe development so there is usually a line item for food. I only included what I paid for in October, but my expenses are already higher for November because I am now paying someone to manage my Pinterest account for me and I made some investments in better photography equipment.

Expenses Breakdown:

• Website Hosting – $34.95 (I use BigScoots and HIGHLY recommend them!)
• MailChimp – $27.88
• Adobe – $52.99 (this is what I paid in October, but I changed my plan and it is much less now)
• Askimet – $5.00
• Quickbooks – $25.00
  • Total – $145.82

After I subtract the expenses from what the blog brought in, my husband and I evaluate the numbers and decide what I will pay myself. It is important to note that the blog income is different than my personal income. I pay myself after expenses and also have to put a large chunk away each month for taxes. Let me know if this was helpful for you and if you would like to see more content like this!

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This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclaimer.