Interested in knowing some of the behind the scenes stuff for Kitchen Sanctuary? Here’s the latest in my blog income and traffic report April 2017. Check out my previous reports and more info on how to make money from your blog here.
BBQ is one of our favourite methods of cooking (we’ve had three barbecues already) and we’ve got lots of ideas for some tasty grilled recipes coming in the next couple of months.
Took this about 2 hours after the lawn finished being laid!
Since Chris finishes his IT job to join me on Kitchen Sanctuary at the end of this week (eeek!) I’m envisioning lots of days spent in the garden, testing out recipes!
Sorry I’m a little late with the April report – I’m still finding it difficult to get into a routine with writing blog posts. You’d think after three years of doing this, I’d have perfected the art of scheduling, but income reports always seem to take a long time to put together, so they often get pushed back. I’m hoping Chris is going to be able to help pull these together in future, so you might be hearing new voice on KS soon!
It’s been a busy couple of months with us starting to get into the swing of things with video (check out some of our faves here, here and here), a trip to Germany with Neff (more about that later) and a family holiday to Ramsgate.
I really hope the info in this post gives you some insight and ideas if you’re new to blogging and monetization. Also check out my How to Start a Food Blog post if you are thinking about giving this blogging thing a go too!
Ok, let’s get down to the numbers for April.
Income Breakdown
Note – there are some links in this post that are affiliate links – which means that if you click on them and then sign up to the service/product I’ll get a small commission (at no extra cost to you of course). If you do click through then thanks!
Income (fyi – this info is based on earning reports and invoices for work done in the month of April, it’s not based on money that has actually come in yet, so there may be some variations based on things like paypal fees or exchange rate fluctuations):
- Freelance writing & video: £6126.66 ($8211.66)
- MediaVine: £1373.94 ($1771.14)
- Sponsored Work £851.38 ($1131.57)
- Amazon Affiliate sales £6.69 ($8.89)
- FoodBloggerPro affiliate sales £100.10 ($129.10)
- Tailwind Affiliate £0 ($0)
- StudioPress Genesis Theme affiliate sales £0 ($0)
- How I earned $40k in my first year of blogging affiliate sales £7.73 ($9.98)
- Tasty Food Photography £22.50 ($29)
- The Food Photography book affiliate sales £0 ($0)
- You Tube Ads (just started my You Tube channel – check it out here) £0.14 ($0.18)
- Stock Photography Sales: £750 ($996.83)
Total = £9239.14 ($12288.44)
Expenses (currently this includes regular payments for tools, membership fees and advertising but not inconsistent things like courses, trips and props):
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- FoodBloggerPro: £16.37 ($20.83)
- Hosting and backups: £64.08 ($81.50)
- Tailwind: £8.02 ($9.99)
- Tailwind for Instagram: £8.02 ($9.99)
- MailChimp £60.21 ($75)
- Adobe creative cloud £47.76 ($60.79)
- Facebook Ads £0 ($0)
- Instagram Ads £12.00 ($15.27)
- OptinMonster £12.00 ($15.27)
Total = £228.46 ($288.64)
Net Profit = £9010.68 ($11.999.80)
Traffic
Another traffic drop for April – in fact April was the worst traffic month I’ve had in the last 6 months. I spoke to a few of my UK blogger buddies about this, and it seems to be a bit of a common theme at the moment. I know Feb-May generally aren’t great traffic months anyway, but I’m keeping everything crossed that May will start to see a rise again.
Here’s a screenshot from Google Analytics for April:
Here’s a breakdown of my traffic sources based on the number of sessions (not pageviews). An 11,000 drop in views from google and a 5,000 drop in views from Pinterest compared to the previous month (I’m starting to really dislike April!!).
However!! Looking on the bright side, my google views are 40k higher than the same month last year, and my Pinterest views are 28k higher!
Here’s the info on the location of my readers – The US and UK percentages are continuing to converge. This time last year, the percentage of my readers in the US was 45%, with the UK at around 19%.
Personally I still think this is something to do with Google and Pinterest prioritising search results from a readers own country – meaning my site will show up higher in search results for someone searching from the UK, but lower for someone searching from the US. I could be wrong (If you have any theories or thoughts please do let me know!).
April Happenings:
- Lots of video work again in April. Chris and I are trying to get into the habit of creating one video a week for Kitchen Sanctuary and then any further freelance/sponsored videos on top of that. It’s involving a fair amount of juggling and evening work, but hopefully we’ll be able to stick to that plan better once Chris is working full time on KS.
- We had a meeting with our accountant to start the discussion on setting KS up as a Limited Company. Eeek! Big grown-up words!
- I ate my own weight in Easter eggs. Which led me to put on about 5lbs! Back to the personal trainer. I don’t think I’ll EVER be able to control my chocolate habit (or my general greediness for that matter!)
- We finally published our Kitchen reveal!! So happy with the new kitchen. I just need someone to come in and clean it for me every day now.
- I attended a fab trip to Germany with Neff – to celebrate their 140 year anniversary and the production of their 1 millionth Slide&Hide oven! Here’s a peek at some of the fun, food and drink:
May/June Happenings and Plans:
- Blogon conference – It’s one I’ve been to a couple of times now – more about it in the next report
- Quite a few friend’s a family events – including relatives visiting from Poole & California, plus a wedding (Chris is best man)
- Half term – and a family trip to Ramsgate (we’re back now, I’ll post a few pics in the next report)
- CHRIS FINISHING WORK – leaving us both relying on Kitchen Sanctuary for our income. More than a little nervous!
- More video work
- Some serious KS planning to figure out what Chris and I are going to work on, what we’ll prioritise and getting the ball rolling on some new and exciting ideas (more to come on that one!)
I think that’s all from me. I hope you found all of the info helpful. Please let me know if there’s anything you want me to talk about in a future report. Just drop me a note in the comments
