Running a food blog is not just baking and eating. There’s actual work involved, too. In this Work & Income Report I’ll tell you all about blogging workload, income, expenses, and more!
Okay, first things first. Confession time. Every time I make a Work & Income Report I have a hard time remembering what I actually did and didn’t do in the month I’m writing about. That obviously has a lot to do with the fact that:
- I’m a chaotic, disorganized person prone to forgetting stuff,
- I usually write these reports two or three weeks after the close of the month.
So, the numbers below are all definitely from April, but stuff I say about cakes, or being sick, or working on my blog in general may or may not have happened in April. Sorry for being an airhead!
Sick Days
I got sick twice the past couple of months. First I came down with sinusitis and then the Rocking Rebel, Baby Boy, and I all got the stomach flu, which wasn’t pretty.
(Seriously, the mountains of laundry I had to work my way through!)
Luckily I was able to post some amazing recipes for awesome cakes (my dreamy Chocolate Espresso Cake and the Momofuku Birthday Cake), but I haven’t been able to bake much ahead yet, which was my plan in February/March.
Traffic
The numbers from Google Analytics:
My average amount of pageviews per day dropped again, from 2725 a day to 2447 a day, so I’m a bit sad about that. Lucky for me I made Millionaire’s Shortbread Cake this afternoon, which will definitely help make me feel better again, but honestly, I’ve been thinking: I’m not sure that being a professional blogger is really the right job for me. There are so many things I love about blogging, like baking, cake eating, recipe developing, and sharing/swapping amazing recipes with readers from all over the world.
But the whole social media circus to get more readers, because more readers equals more income? Not big on that…
Yet when I look at those numbers, they tell me that I really need to try and grow my readership if I want to turn the blog into a business.
Why do I want to turn the blog into a business, you ask? It’s because as a mom I’m not comfortable with spending so much time on a hobby, when I could spend that time working and earning money for my family, or spending time with my son.
So if I can turn this little hobby blog into a business (say, make $20 an hour), I can justify all that blogging and cakeing to myself.
Income Report April
SheKnows: $165,11
Sovrn: $78,79
Gourmet Ads: $45,65
Grand total: $289,55
Which is $2,43 more than last month!
Expenses
- Food expenses: $43,02
- Food Blogger Pro: $29
- Viraltag: $24
- Adobe Photoshop: $12.76
- PO box for Mailchimp: $5.05
- Google Apps: $3.52
Grand total: $117,35
(Let’s just NOT focus on unjustifiable expenses, okay? Because it would mean I’d have to confront the fact that ‘writing a post about Viraltag’ has been on my to-do list since January and I still haven’t done it. I need help getting my life organized! How do other people do it???)
So, what did I REALLY make in April?
Income – expenses: $172,20
Workload
In April, because of all the sickness, I spend almost 29 hours on my blog, which is a lot less than March, when I worked 46 hours on the blog. Of those 29 hours, I didn’t spend a minute on social media or blog promotion, which is kind of stupid, because blog promotion is of course key to blog growth (← that sounds like an illness, too, doesn’t it?).
My Hourly Wage as a Blogger
Because I didn’t/couldn’t work on my blog a lot in April, my hourly wage as a blogger has gone up to a whopping $5,93!
Which is about half the minimum wage in the Netherlands, so if you’re thinking about starting a food blog, don’t quit your day job yet 😉
BUT: free cake, too!
To-Do List May
- Think out and stick to an exposure strategy to grow my readership.
- VIRALTAG! VIRALTAG! VIRALTAG! This is getting ridiculous…
I love your blog. I think you are an amazing blogger!! Please don’t stop. To get so much traffic in April with two posts sounds pretty impressive to me. The numbers and income will increase I’m sure of it. That’s not to say blogging isn’t tough, I think it seriously is particularly with sickness and a little one. But stick at it, you’ll get there!
I am not worthy!!!! I love this blog so much!
This is amazing that you post your income reports.
Glad you like them Tammy 😉