I just started writing these reports in October, but I wish that I would have started them sooner. I read income report after income report when I was first starting my blog almost 4 years ago. It took me over two years before I wrote myself my first paycheck and it was barely over $300. I write these now to remind myself of how far I have come and to encourage you if you are just starting out.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclaimer.
A little background…
I started this blog when I was a nurse and had just had Samuel (my youngest of two at the time). I was working 12-16 hr shifts and my husband was working two jobs. We both worked non-stop for years to pay off $72,000 of debt (you can read more about that here). I knew I wanted to be able to have more time with my kids and I loved cooking, so I stayed up late after the kids were in bed and cooked on the weekends and built this blog from the ground up. I wanted to quit so many times, but I didn’t and now we are on our way to saving up a down payment for our first home. I know that you can do this because I did it. It is possible to make your dreams come true.
January Income Breakdown:
January is an interesting month when it comes to Ad income because it is the start of quarter one. This means that there is a large drop in RPM (what we get paid per certain amount of page views). This is because advertisers don’t want to spend as much in the beginning of the year. January is also a huge month for health food blogs. So I got a big boost in traffic (like 450,000+ page views) but almost made exactly the same as I did in October with much less traffic. This can feel discouraging but ultimately it all evens out in the end. Q4 is when we see the highest RPM’s. I will probably do my income reports once a quarter to give a good idea of the ad income trends.
*please note that this is what the blog made, not what I actually paid myself
Ad Income – $6,863
Sponsored Work – $2,000
Affiliate Income – $164.34
Total – $9,027.34
January Cost Breakdown:
I spent a lot more in January than I did in October (my last income report). This is because I have been getting back into the kitchen after having my son and I decided to make some business investments as well.
Site Hosting – $34.95 I use BigScoots and I highly recommend them!
Mailchimp – $27.88 – this is for my email list
Adobe – $9.99 – photo editing software
Askimet – $5.00 anti-spam software
Quickbooks – $25.00 – book-keeping (so beneficial for taxes)
Groceries for Recipe Development – $1,054.12
Pinterest Management – $360.00 – I use Ana Ankeny with Pinned to Perfection, she is amazing and I love being able to let this go and focus on other tasks
Recipe Videos – $700.00
Tailwind – $14.99 – Pinterest scheduling software
Canva – $12-95 – for creating pins and graphics
Linktree – $6.00 – links in my Instagram bio
WP Recipe Maker – $99.00 – this is an annual fee that happened to be in January for my recipe card software
Food Props – $159.50
Total Expenses – $2,509.38
Income – Expenses = $6,517.96
After I subtract the expenses, I decide what I will be paying myself that month. Then I set aside a substantial amount for taxes. I pay taxes quarterly as someone who is self-employed. After that I put money in my business savings account (this is for bigger expenses in the future, like equipment or website updates). And the rest stays in my checking to roll into the next month.
I love writing these out to hopefully help encourage some of you. Please drop any questions in the comment box if you have any!
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