Welcome to my Q2 income report for 2023, my very first! I'm not doing these to brag (because yet, there's nothing to brag about to be honest haha) but because I'm convinced that it can help other bloggers to see the sources of income of a blog, and the expenses that must be made to manage it.
What I did in Q2
Rethinking my strategy
I find it quite difficult to combine content creation on social networks (I only have French socials for now, except for Pinterest) with the work here on the blog: in general, what works on socials works less well here, and vice versa. So I needed to find the right balance!
My biggest source of income (for the moment) is from social network collaborations (I developed the blog afterwards, so if you're interested in seeing my blogging journey from scratch), I shouldn't have to abandon the recipes that worked there.
But if I wanted to develop the blog, it had to work here too... In Q1, I strayed a little from my usual content, focusing ONLY on keyword research, which led to a drop in audience on Instagram. To put it plainly, I got a bit lost in Q1...
So my goal for Q2 was to rediscover my creativity and sit down to think about my strategy. And it worked: my engagement went back up and my content worked much better, both on the blog and on socials.
Be regular
Regularity being the key, I have continued with my rhythm of a new recipe every two days, which is really a lot of work!
Recipes
Here's how it broke down in Q2:
- Recipes created for the blog: 32
- Recipes created for social networks: 16
- Sponsored collaborations: 4 on Instagram, including just one on the blog.
And 52 recipes in 3 months, that's a lot of work! For each recipe, you need to make :
- Keyword research and recipe development/writing,
- Grocery shopping,
- Recipe testing,
- Writing the post,
- Shooting the video,
- Mooboards and photo shoot sketches,
- The photo shoot,
- Editing of the videos with voice-over,
- Scheduling publications on socials (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Tik Tok),
- Preparation of the newsletter.
I'd say that it represents a dozen hours of work per recipe, which makes about 52 hours of work per week for this quarter.
My traffic summary
It's only been 9 months since I started being 1000% serious with this blog. In the beginning, I knew nothing about blogging and was exhausted trying to figure out how to make money with this blog. Then I found Cheryl Malik from 40aprons.com, who became my coach in October 2021, and things really took off.
I didn't reach the 50,000 sessions required to join Mediavine until the end of May. So I applied in June and waited for their reply (spoiler: I was accepted). Until then, I've had to rely on Google AdSense.
April
- Sessions : 45346
- Page views : 57913
- RPM* (French**): €0.31
May
- Sessions: 54003
- Page views : 77253
- RPM (French): €0.33
June
- Sessions: 50295
- Page views : 73223
- RPM (French): €0.36
Top 3 most popular recipes in Q2
*Never compare your RPM to that of another blogger: everyone's RPM is different and varies according to many parameters!
**At this time, I was only blogging in French. And yes, here the RPM are super super low compared to American's!
My traffic sources
- Google: 82.4%
- Direct: 11%
- Pinterest: 3.5%
- Others: 3.1%
The devices used
Unsurprisingly, the smartphone comes out on top by far.
- Smartphone: 96.14%
- Desktop: 2.9%
- Tablet: 1.48%
My total income for Q2 2023: €1206.57
- Content for brands on my social networks (influence): €1,100
- Google AdSense: €106.57.
Total for Q2 2023: €1206.57.
My total expenses for Q2 2023: € 1966.94
And yes, I know that my expenses are higher than what I earn. Fortunately, I still had money left over from Q4 2022 and Q1 2023. And I've always said that to succeed, you have to reinvest a good part of the money you've earned. So that's what I did this quarter.
Monthly expenses
- OVH (blog hosting): €7.5/month.
- Shine (my professional bank): €9.5/month.
- Adobe Premiere Rush: €11.99/month.
- Adobe Photoshop + Lightroom: €11.99/month.
- Grocery shopping: €500/month.
Annual expenses
These are still included in the quarterly expenses.
- Food Blogger Pro : $396/year (or $350/year if you take the annual lump-sum option).
- UNUM: €66/year.
- WP Recipe Maker : €100/year.
- Tasty Pin : $29/year.
- Google domain: €12/year.
- Feast Plugin : €253/year.
- WP Rocket : €50/year.
- ShortPixel : €50/year.
- Flodesk 420/year.
Total Q2 2023: 1966.94€.
To be completely transparent, it was very hard for me to see that I was investing so much to be at a loss. I questioned myself enormously, thought about giving up and then thought again about my coaching with Cheryl Malik.
One of the most important lessons she taught me was: when things are tough, think about the long term, think of the "big picture". So I hung in there, didn't give up and kept going.
What's next
Keep being strategic
I'll continue to find my rhythm between content for social networks and content that works here, even if it's a bit like walking a tightrope at the moment...
Getting ready for summer
I have lots of winter recipes, but not many for summer. I've started preparing my summer seasonal content and I'm going to continue in that direction.
Important - to keep in mind
Your audience is the key: you can have all the strategies in the world, but if you don't analyze your audience and what they like, it won't work.
I hope you've enjoyed reading this income report or found it helpful. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the subject, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail. I'm always happy to chat with you: mariefoodtips@gmail.com .
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