Welcome to our detailed food blog income report for March 2018. This monthly deep dive is designed to offer invaluable insights for aspiring and established food bloggers alike, eager to expand their reach, optimize their monetization strategies, and elevate their online presence. In this report, we dissect our website’s traffic performance, reveal our comprehensive income streams, detail the operational costs, and share the genesis story behind the launch of our innovative food blog VA agency. If you’re committed to transforming your passion for food into a thriving online business, this report provides a transparent look at the journey.
For bloggers aiming to significantly boost their traffic and revenue, consider enrolling in Cheryl’s highly acclaimed Food Blogging Bootcamp. This intensive six-week program distills Cheryl’s proven methodology for cultivating exceptional food blogs, focusing on enhancing content quality, maximizing revenue, and skyrocketing traffic. It’s a comprehensive resource covering everything essential for successful, impactful food blogging. Discover how to revolutionize your blog by clicking here.
Our iced golden milk turmeric latte recipe continued to be a major hit with our audience, generating significant engagement!
March 2018 marked a period of solidifying new growth and adapting to an elevated platform performance. The typical January surge had tapered, but it was followed by an exceptionally strong February and a consistently robust March. This sustained performance instilled a sense of confidence that these higher traffic numbers might just be the new baseline for our food blog. While the prospect of the traditional summer slowdown, often dreaded by health food bloggers, still loomed, it was incredibly reassuring to know our metrics were substantially higher than in 2017, and this upward trend wasn’t merely attributable to New Year’s resolutions.
Beyond the numbers, March 2018 proved to be an incredibly dynamic and busy month behind the scenes. Though a quick glance at the financial report might suggest otherwise – with minimal sponsored work invoiced and no freelance food photography or recipe development projects billed this specific month (despite ongoing work that would be invoiced later) – my focus was elsewhere. This period was largely dedicated to an ambitious new venture that promises to redefine support for the food blogging community.
The biggest undertaking was the launch of a dedicated food blog virtual assistant agency, a significant initiative spearheaded by myself and my own long-time assistant, Christina. This was a monumental leap, requiring substantial time and energy to conceptualize, plan, and execute. Much of March was spent navigating the challenges of establishing this new entity, from grappling with the magnitude of the decision – What have I done? – to meticulously charting out its operational framework. However, before delving deeper into the intricacies of this exciting new agency, let’s first unpack the core of this report: the compelling financial and traffic data.
Impressive Traffic Growth: March 2018 Performance
Our traffic in March 2018 continued to demonstrate a healthy elevation post-January, a trend we were extremely pleased to observe. While there was a slight dip from February’s peak figures, our initial expectation for the year was a super high January followed by a return to pre-2018 levels. Fortunately, our strategic efforts paid off, and that scenario did not materialize. Instead, we maintained a significantly higher audience reach, indicative of sustainable growth and an engaged readership.
What truly underscores the success of our content and promotional strategies is the stark comparison to the previous year. Our March 2018 traffic soared by an astounding 500% compared to March 2017! This exponential growth is a testament to consistent effort, refined SEO tactics, and a deeper understanding of our audience’s needs. It highlights the power of investing in high-quality content and effective distribution channels.
Total Pageviews for March 2018: 616,029 (across all 31 days)
Achieving over 600,000 pageviews in a single month signifies a substantial reach within the food blogging niche. This level of traffic not only provides a large audience for our content but also creates significant opportunities for robust monetization through various channels, particularly advertising, which we will delve into next. It validates the hard work put into creating valuable, shareable content that resonates deeply with our readership.
March 2018 Income Report: A Transparent Look at Revenue Streams
In this income report, I meticulously break down all revenue directly attributable to my food blog and online presence. It’s crucial to distinguish this from other freelance work. For instance, while my blog may indirectly contribute to securing clients for broader digital marketing services, such as assisting a nonprofit with their year-end campaign this month, I only include income that is a direct result of my food blogging activities. Freelance food photography, for example, is explicitly included because it stems directly from my online portfolio and visibility generated by the blog.
This month saw a focused effort on scaling my one-on-one food blog and photography coaching program, which significantly contributed to our overall earnings, as you’ll see detailed below.
- Sponsored Posts: $500. This revenue was generated from carefully selected brand collaborations. This month, I successfully completed one recipe development project for a long-standing sponsored post client and produced one engaging Instagram video. Securing sponsored content is about building strong relationships with brands that align with your blog’s values and audience, ensuring authenticity and value for both parties.
- Ad Revenue with Adthrive: $9,464.10. Our primary source of income continues to be display advertising through Adthrive, a premium ad network. With 616,029 pageviews, our RPM (Revenue Per Mille, or revenue per thousand pageviews) stood at an impressive $15.36. This robust RPM is a testament to our high-quality content, engaged audience, and Adthrive’s optimized ad placements. Consistent high traffic combined with a strong RPM is the backbone of significant ad revenue, allowing us to invest further in content creation and site improvements.
- Freelance Food Photography: None this month. While typically a strong income stream, no invoices for freelance food photography projects were issued or paid in March 2018. Projects were ongoing, but payment cycles meant this revenue would reflect in future reports.
- Freelance Recipe Development: None this month. Similar to food photography, no specific recipe development projects were billed in March, though this remains an important service offered through my online presence.
- Food Blog & Photography Coaching: $2,150. This month, I dedicated considerable time to my intensive one-on-one coaching program. I worked with a diverse group of emerging and experienced food bloggers, providing personalized, in-depth brand development analyses and tailored growth strategies. My program is unique in that it includes access to my exclusive resources, such as my food photography book and custom Lightroom presets. Weekly sessions involve detailed critiques of recent photography, SEO efforts, and copywriting. We collaborate on innovative content ideas, deep-dive into analytics to identify growth opportunities, and troubleshoot social media strategies. This is a highly hands-on, comprehensive program designed for bloggers who are serious about elevating their skills and professional impact. If this sounds like the dedicated support you need to level up your blog, I encourage you to get in touch to learn more.
- Digital Product Sales: $395. This category encompasses revenue from all digital products available on my site. This includes my popular digital cookbook, The Paleo Instant Pot, my specialized food photography presets, and my insightful ebook, Improve Your Food Photography Almost Instantly. Creating and selling digital products is an excellent way to diversify income, leverage existing expertise, and provide passive income streams that complement your core blog content.
- Amazon Affiliate Sales: $773.62. This income is generated when readers purchase products through Amazon links embedded on my site. It operates on a referral fee basis; buyers pay no extra cost, but I receive a small commission for directing them to Amazon. Strategic placement of relevant product recommendations within recipes and articles can significantly boost affiliate earnings, providing value to both the reader and the blogger.
Total Gross Income for March 2018: $13,282.72
This gross income figure represents a healthy and diversified revenue stream, demonstrating the potential for significant earnings within the food blogging niche when combining various monetization strategies. It underscores the importance of not relying on a single income source but rather building a robust ecosystem of revenue generation.
Operational Expenses: Investing in Growth
Running a successful food blog requires strategic investment in tools and services that ensure optimal performance, security, and scalability. Here’s a breakdown of our key operational expenses for March 2018, each playing a crucial role in maintaining and growing our platform:
- WPOpt (Managed WordPress Hosting): $43. Our hosting provider, WPOpt, is instrumental in keeping our site running at lightning speed. Fast loading times are not just vital for user experience but also a critical factor for SEO. Beyond performance, WPOpt includes an HTTPS certificate, which ensures site security and saves us the headache of managing it separately. They offer scalable plans tailored to different traffic volumes, making them suitable for bloggers at various stages. While our traffic is rapidly growing, WPOpt continues to handle our current volume exceptionally well at this price point, and I highly recommend them for their reliability and support.
- Mailerlite (Email Marketing Service): $110. Our email list is an indispensable asset for driving consistent traffic and fostering a loyal community. It provides a direct line of communication with our most engaged readers, ensuring they never miss new content. Mailerlite effectively manages our rapidly expanding list, which reached over 30,000 subscribers this month, leading to a $20 increase in our monthly subscription. Its straightforward functionality meets all our needs without requiring overly complex features, making it a cost-effective solution for robust email marketing.
- Adobe Creative Cloud: $50. As a content creator deeply involved in design, photography, and videography, the full suite of Adobe applications is essential. This monthly subscription grants access to tools like Premiere Pro for video editing, Lightroom and Photoshop for professional-grade photo editing, and Adobe Illustrator for graphic design elements. The $50/month investment provides immense value, empowering us to produce high-quality visual content that is crucial for a food blog’s aesthetic and engagement.
- LinkMyPhotos (Instagram Linking Service): $5. This service allows us to seamlessly connect our Instagram posts directly to relevant content on our blog. Many bloggers use alternatives like LinkInProfile, but LinkMyPhotos offers identical functionality at half the price, providing an efficient and affordable way to drive traffic from our social media presence back to our website.
- Food Blogger Virtual Assistant: $700. This expense covers the invaluable support from my personal assistant. Her contributions span a wide array of tasks, including curating social media content, assisting on photo and video shoots, managing administrative duties, and much more. This investment has made the single largest positive difference in my business’s capacity to grow and generate income. Delegating these tasks allows me to focus on high-impact activities, proving that a virtual assistant is not just a luxury but a strategic necessity for serious bloggers. Her impact is so profound that it directly inspired the next major development we’re about to discuss.
Total Operating Expenses for March 2018: $908
These expenses are strategic investments that enable the blog to operate efficiently, maintain a high standard of quality, and continue its growth trajectory. Understanding and optimizing these costs is as crucial as maximizing income streams.
Net Income for March 2018: $12,374.72
Our net income for March 2018 demonstrates the strong profitability of the blog, even after accounting for significant investments in essential tools and human resources. This figure highlights the immense potential for financial independence and growth within the food blogging industry when supported by strategic planning and execution.
Why I Launched 40A.: A Specialized Food Blog VA Agency
It feels like eons ago that I took the terrifying leap to hire my first personal assistant, yet we’re only just approaching our one-year anniversary. Reflecting on how utterly indispensable she has become to the 40 Aprons team, I vividly recall the profound fear and apprehension that accompanied that decision. Hiring someone meant I would become beholden; I now had the added responsibility of generating enough income not just for my own bills, but for hers too. It was a commitment, a contract that required consistent leadership to ensure her efficiency while fostering a genuine sense of belonging within the team. The sheer weight of that responsibility was, frankly, terrifying.
However, after meticulously crunching the numbers and overcoming my initial trepidation, I reminded myself of the core purpose: her role was to free me from the time-consuming, non-revenue-generating tasks, allowing me to fully immerse myself in the activities that truly fueled my passion and profitability within blogging. This meant dedicating my energy to creative content generation, securing high-value contract work, and developing crucial industry relationships. Tedious tasks like scheduling Facebook posts, curating Pinterest content, intricate project management, or wrestling with tech support were now off my plate. What a relief!
Within a mere couple of months, the transformative impact of her involvement on 40 Aprons was undeniable. We witnessed tangible improvements in traffic, and—crucially—a significant increase in income. The return on investment was simply too compelling to ignore. Yet, the narrative I frequently heard from my fellow food blogger friends regarding their own virtual assistants painted a drastically different picture. Many expressed feeling lost about reasonable expectations, uncomfortable addressing dissatisfaction with results, surprised by often opaque invoices, and concerned that their VAs lacked a comprehensive grasp of specialized blogging platforms or a true sense of team integration.
It was then that a powerful idea began to form: Why couldn’t I replicate the successful, symbiotic VA relationship I had cultivated, but for a wider community of food bloggers?
With this vision, we established 40A., a specialized Food Blog Virtual Assistant Agency, with a commitment to doing things fundamentally differently to ensure these relationships worked as effectively for others as mine had for me:
- Specialized Training & Continuous Optimization: We take the entire burden of VA training off your shoulders. Our virtual assistants are not just generally skilled; they are rigorously trained in the specific nuances and best practices of food blogging, from intricate WordPress functionalities to advanced social media strategies. We ensure they stay perpetually updated with the ever-evolving landscapes of social media platforms and search engine algorithms, constantly refining our strategies. This means your VA comes equipped with niche expertise. We also train them specifically on your project and collaboratively develop a tailored plan to maximize your traffic and audience engagement.
- Seamless, Multi-Level Communication: We’ve built in a unique communication structure to eliminate awkwardness and maximize effectiveness. You have direct lines of communication with your assigned VA for day-to-day tasks. However, for higher-level strategy, project development, or if you ever feel uncomfortable addressing performance concerns directly, you have a direct conduit to my assistant—who is also my business partner at 40A. This two-tiered approach ensures you always feel heard, supported, and confident in addressing any aspect of your project.
- Robust Backup & Uninterrupted Service: Reliability is paramount. At 40A., we have comprehensive backup systems in place for our virtual assistants. Should your primary VA face an unforeseen circumstance, your project continuity will remain entirely uninterrupted. You might not even notice a change! This eliminates the stress of potential weeks off, empty schedules, or project delays. Our agency model ensures we always have the skilled hands available to keep your work flowing seamlessly. Sometimes, this even means I personally step in to schedule Facebook posts for you – whatever it takes to ensure your blog is consistently supported.
- In-Depth Analytics & Expert Content Strategy: Each month, we provide detailed social media and traffic analytics reports. Beyond raw data, we offer a personalized content analysis from yours truly! My extensive background in digital marketing and brand strategy equips me to identify growth opportunities and strategic directions for your content that might otherwise be obscure. It’s often difficult to objectively strategize for one’s own content (the classic “forest for the trees” dilemma). Leveraging my experience as a full-time food blogger and my unique understanding of your specific project, I continually offer bespoke content analysis to refine our content planning and overarching strategy, guiding your blog towards sustained success.
- Affordable Excellence: Despite offering these extensive, specialized services and extra layers of support, we are committed to keeping our services accessible and affordable. We believe that high-quality, specialized VA support shouldn’t be an unattainable luxury but a strategic asset available to all serious food bloggers.
The reception and results thus far have been nothing short of phenomenal. We consistently hear from our clients that they’ve found immense relief in having all the benefits of a personal virtual assistant, coupled with the reassuring feeling of a dedicated team and professional agency backing them. Our rapid growth and the caliber of food bloggers we’ve had the privilege to support and witness grow has been truly inspiring.
At 40A., our core mission is to empower you to focus on the aspects of blogging you genuinely love—the creative, culinary, and connection-building parts—while we expertly handle the rest. If you’re ready to offload those dreaded administrative tasks or delegate responsibilities that are simply not the best use of your valuable time, I genuinely encourage you to explore working with us. We don’t offer generic, set package prices; instead, we engage in personalized consultations with each blogger to understand their unique needs, goals, and vision. From there, we meticulously craft a customized monthly project proposal designed to deliver maximum impact. I truly believe that partnering with 40A. could be the catalyst that transforms everything for your food blog.
Visit our website to learn more about our specialized services: 40A. Food Blog Virtual Assistants. Or, if you’re ready to discuss your specific needs, please don’t hesitate to send me an email by clicking here.