Hey there! Bjork here checking in for our monthly traffic and income report.
Every month I put together a report that includes a behind-the-scenes look at Pinch of Yum. I focus on two things (1) the income and expenses and (2) the traffic. I also include any tips or tricks that we’re learning as we continue to find ways to grow the blog. Our hope with these reports is that they provide insight and inspiration as you start and grow your own blog (or business or non-profit). We don’t believe that there are any “secrets” of blogging and we’re not pretending to possess some type of knowledge that isn’t available elsewhere on the internet.
P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about some of the ways that you can monetize a food blog, we encourage you to download this free ebook, “16 Ways to Monetize Your Food Blog,” from our sister site, Food Blogger Pro!
Thoughts On Income
The Inventor
In the October income report I shared three personality types that you need to have when creating an income from your blog. You can read the entire post to get a thorough explanation. Otherwise here’s a quick review:
The Teacher – Creates tutorials and lessons that teach people how to use a certain product. Uses affiliate links throughout the tutorials to create an income. Example: The How to Start a Food Blog page.
The Landlord – Rents out their blog’s “screen real estate” to advertisers. Example: The ads you see to the right in the sidebar.
In July Lindsay put on her “inventor” cap and created a brand new product called The Cauliflower Sauce eCookbook. We knew that it was important that we add to the list of products that are currently available on Pinch of Yum, because while being a teacher and landlord can be profitable, it can also be a bit risky. It’s risky because you’re dealing with another company, and you never know when that company’s product or service will change (or completely disappear). An example is the recent change that the Amazon Associates program made to ban Minnesota from their program. I received an email from Amazon notifying me that the program would be shut down in Minnesota, and one month later we wouldn’t be able to create any income from our affiliate links. Here’s what the email said:
“We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to notify you that your Associates account will be closed and your Amazon Services LLC Associates Program Operating Agreement will be terminated effective June 30, 2013. This is a direct result of the unconstitutional Minnesota state tax collection legislation passed by the state legislature and signed by Governor Dayton on May 23, 2013, with an effective date of July 1, 2013. As a result, we will no longer pay any advertising fees for customers referred to an Amazon Site after June 30 nor will we accept new applications for the Associates Program from Minnesota residents.”
Losing the income from the Amazon Associates program didn’t hurt too much (we rarely made more than $100), but it was a bit scary to be reminded about how reliant we are on other companies.
Hence the need to be an inventor. When you’re creating your own products you don’t have to worry about companies suddenly pulling the rug out from underneath you. You have complete control of the product and can sell it where you want, when you want, and for the price you want. We think that the inventor role is one of the most important roles that you can have for creating an income from a blog.
Have you ever created your own product? Was it successful? Leave a link to your product in the comments below so readers can see what types of products other bloggers are creating.
Note: I’ll be looking through the spam and approve any comments that are flagged because of the link.
Another reason why Lindsay wrote an ecookbook
We had heard from many food bloggers that wanted to write their own cookbook but didn’t know (1) how to go about doing it or (2) if it would be worth their time. The truth was that we didn’t know either. But now, after going through the process of writing, photographing, packaging, and selling the eCookbook, we can provide some concrete numbers and information for other bloggers that are interested in creating their own eCookbook. We’re both really excited to put together some material that will help other food bloggers release their own eCookbooks!
Embedded Recipe Ads
We’re experimenting this month with recipe embedded ads from BlogHer (see below). It’s the first time we’ve ever had ads in the content area, so we’re anxious to see how they perform and if readers find them too distracting. The ads are context based, which means the ad script can see the text on the page and attempt to show a closely matching ad. If there isn’t a good match then they don’t show up at all.
Traffic
Below are some screenshots from Google Analytics. You can click on these screenshots to view a larger image.
Traffic Overview
Top Ten Traffic Sources
Top Ten Search Terms
Thoughts On Traffic
1,000,000
In last month’s income report I shared that for the first time ever Pinch of Yum received over 1,000,000 pageviews. This month we’re excited to report that, for the first time, Pinch of Yum had over 1,000,000 visits. Lindsay and I celebrated by eating leftovers from her eCookbook. 😉
Organic Search Results
The last image in the traffic screenshots above is called Top Ten Search Terms. It shows the top ten search terms that people searched on Google that eventually led them to Pinch of Yum. The top ten terms are fun to look through, but what I really appreciate about that screenshot is in the bottom right corner: 1-10 of 15057
15,057 is the total number of terms that people searched on Google that eventually brought them to Pinch of Yum. It includes everything from “stir fry noodles with shrimp” to “dinner pancakes” to “why did my mung beans turn to mush?”. There are numerous factors that go into increasing your site’s ability to be found on Google, but the general equation looks like this:
Quality of Content * Quantity of Content * Duration of Consistent Posting = Getting Found on Google
The equation is simple, but it’s not easy. What it comes down to is producing quality content week after week, year after year.
Support
In next month’s report we’ll be adding a “support staff” category to the list of expenses, as Lindsay and I are quickly realizing that we can’t do all of the things we want to do with Pinch of Yum on our own. We’ve enlisted the help of two of our extremely talented friends, Angela and Jade. Lindsay’s best friend Angela will be helping out with organizing some of the Pinch of Yum social media stuff (focusing on Pinterest). Jade is our friend from the Philippines. She’s a really bright girl that’s in school for computer programming. Jade is working part time for Pinch of Yum submitting to food sharing sites and making sure that websites that use Pinch of Yum photos include proper links back to the blog (side note: it’s insane how many people use photos without permission). The work that Angela and Jade have done is so much more than anything we could have ever done on our own. We’re incredibly thankful that they’re willing to lend their skills and abilities to Pinch of Yum.
Thanks
Thank you so much for reading these posts. They’re always fun for me to put together. 🙂 It means a lot to Lindsay and I that you follow along with this adventure we call Pinch of Yum.
OMG! here in Spain it is not customary to show the personal gains that a blog brings, we are behind in several years. Congratulations for getting so far
WOW – I just started a blog for my kids who are so into food. Living in Bangkok which is like an oven most of the time and struggling to learn how to do everything is at least less intensive than keeping my three busy when they are off school.
It is fantastic that you managed to get 1 million visits – jaw dropping. We are not aiming quite that high as we are just into Thai Food – well at least at the moment – but your post here is inspiring. I am off to search some later income reports for another boost – or maybe I should schedule the pump they give by checking back when the need for that injection is most acute.
I love this report and your thoughts on sharing original ideas. Couldn’t agree more about not hoarding info in our info driven, media society! I was hoping you could shed some light on blogher.com and their influence of 50% of your profits! I am having a hard time understanding what they do or how they profit your site in such a large way….
You bet. We use BlogHer Publishing Network to show ads on the blog. You’ll see these ads at the very top of the sidebar and just below the post. Here’s more about their publisher program – https://www.blogher.com/publishing-network/welcome
Lindsay and Bjork, I launched my blog in February of 2013 and have remained committed to my passion ever since. That being said, I am an attorney by trade and mom of three little ones under 3 years of age, so spending my time effectively is critical to pursuing my food blog dreams. I have been searching and searching for real, honest advice and direction as to how to most efficiently move forward and I am so grateful to you both for your time and concern for others who could truly benefit from your knowledge and experience. I have also purchased Lindsay’s ebook regarding photography and am loving it!!! Thank you both so much again!!!
Awesome! It’s so fun to get comments like this. Thanks so much for following along with Pinch of Yum. If you have any questions along the way be sure to let us know.
Hi there, first of all I love your blogs and love to try out your recipies, I found you guys on Pinterest a while ago. I am a personal style blogger and handmade jewelry maker, I think you guys are amazing at monetizing your blog but I was wondering how exactly do thesis and genesis work? and also how do you make money from bluehost, thesis and genesis? pardon my ignorance but I really have no clue. thank you for your time.
As always, I find your updates so inspiring and down to earth! You have massive success but are so helpful and willing to share the knowledge–that seems to be a rare thing and I am grateful for your willingness!
I do have a question that might be interesting for you to address in a future post (no obligation, of course!). Are you at all worried that so much of your traffic comes from Pinterest? I’m in the same boat (as are most food bloggers, I assume!) and although I love the Pinterest traffic, it does seem to be putting a lot of eggs in one basket–and a basket that we really have no control over, at that. Obviously there’s not much that can be done about it, other than to have good SEO practices and continuously work on other social media as well–mostly just wondering if you had thought about it or had other contingency plans.
Its great to see how far your blog has come and how popular it has got over the past couple of years. I wish you all the success in the future and hope your blog grows even bigger!
Bravo! To both you and Lindsay. You are guys are the bomb.com! I am truly inspired by the effort and work you both put into making this blog outstanding. I just sat here and read from beginning post to this current post. Thank you so much for giving details, explaining what it actually takes, and illustrating the result. I see that this didn’t happen over night but it sure does look like it was worth all the work you and Lindsay put into it. I don’t have food blog. I stumbled upon your blog because I stumbled upon Sally’s Baking Addiction blog. She mentioned the ebook you and Lindsay published on food photography. I just had to purchase it and I have already started practicing taking photos of food. The book is a tremendous help. You and Lindsay are an amazing couple. Thanks!
Hello…. First of all i should thank you for all the details you are sharing, its truly motivating. I also have a food blog, started 6 months back. I was pretty new to it and worked a lot on it and now Alexa Rank is in 2 L range. But my adsense account got disabled some times back. I am not able to monetize my blog well. I am little confused, should i start all over again as i read adsense is main source of income fro beginners. I thought i will take your valuable opinion. Please help
What a bummer. Sorry to hear that. I think it’s possible to refute the ban (but I don’t think it’s very successful for people). You could also create an AdSense account using a business EIN. I wouldn’t suggest just setting another one up using the same social security number. Here are some other alternative advertising companies you can check out: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/ga-alternatives/
Totally random question- and I couldn’t find the answer on your site or calorie count’s…. How does Lindsey get those pretty nutrition labels? When I go to calorie count, there doesn’t seem to be a way to save them as a pic. If I copy and past them, they’re a jumbled mess.
Wow! How awesome it’s been to stumbled upon Pinch of Yum!! I love how you all are so humble, and use your blessing of knowledge to bless others. Thanks for being so very generous with sharing all you have learned, and encouraging me who is still in the dreaming and wishing I could earn income from my food blog one day!
Hi Bjork / Lindsay,
I was just wondering how you manage to make so much more from BlogHer than you do from Adsense – is that just from normal BlogHer ads? I ask because I make about the same from the two types of ads (~$100 per month from each) – do you any extra freelance work for BlogHer to get your income that high, and if not, how come your ad incomes differ so much?
We have Google AdSense set as backup for Lijit, so the ad code doesn’t get shown much, hence the low earnings. We need to optimize this though, as we could be earning more there. If you look at our older income posts you’ll see that AdSense and BlogHer were a little bit close in terms of earnings.
Hi Bjork and Lindsey. I love your blog and how you give back thru your charity as well as teaching others about your business. You guys are very generous and make a great team!
I am currently in the works of making my products and launched a Kickstarter campaign, so I can’t speak about success yet (I hope this doesn’t come across as spammy, it’s not my intention). I also am working on setting up a blog and will be implementing your strategies. It is unbelievable how much work goes into things. I think you are on the right track with your eCookbooks. Write them once and sell them over and over :). Maybe look into selling them on Amazon Kindle (KDP) for more exposure? If you do, really look into KDP Select before you enroll in that program as they have some limiting guidelines.
Keep up the great work and thanks again for your generosity.
First off, I just wanted to say congratulations on an awesome month! Let’s all celebrate with some salted dark chocolate (there’s more than a pinch of yum in that stuff).
I actually just discovered your blog by way of Matthew Woodward’s Income Report Roundup, and was surprised to learn that you are from Minnesota too! Respect!
As a fellow Minnesotan I also received a love letter from Amazon. I’ve never been a big promoter of Amazon, simply because the commissions are minimal, but like you the letter made me acutely aware of the vulnerabilities that arise from relying on any outside company.
Great month for you guys! There is a blogger that I follow out of Minnesota. He was also using Amazon’s affiliate program for his niche websites until he got the same email from Amazon like you and Lindsay did. He switched his links over to Skim Links.
Skim Links automatically turns product references in your content into links to where the user can buy the item. They are affiliated with Amazon, Best Buy, Macy’s, Kmart, and a few others. He seems to be doing pretty well with it. You guys may want to check it out and see if it maybe a decent alternative.
Great to hear from you Samuel. Thanks for stopping by!
I have a friend using SkimLinks and he mentioned that they are starting to enforce the Amazon ban on clients from those respective states. I just checked in with VigLink on this the other day as well. Here’s what they said:
“In regards to affiliation for Amazon we are unfortunately unable to affiliate you with Amazon due to the fact you do live in Minnesota, however you can still affiliate with thousands of other merchants without restriction.”
The battle wages on! My hope is that Amazon (or Minnesota) changes their rules/regulations. Chances are slim, but ya never know! 🙂
I spent lots of time – years! – looking at beautiful food sites and photography, including your own. But it was these posts about the details of running a site which really made me get going myself – I think they made me feel a little more forewarned & forearmed, so thank you! 🙂
And TFP helped me IMMENSELY, so double thanks again!
Vera, I have 5 websites of my own, so I know how it can difficult it can be to try to come up with something to sell. I’ve also got 30 books published (some under a pen name.) I peaked at your website and one thing I noticed right off the bat is that you could easily write a beauty and fashion advice booklet and sell it on Kindle!
You just blew me away. 30 books???? You think I can write a beauty and fashion booklet? Interesting! I have never, ever thought about that. I have some things I’d like to do, but never have I thought about a book on fashion and beauty. Thank you so much!
I love these monthly reports. They’re so helpful and inspiring. Going from one million page views to one million visits is truly amazing! Well done, but perhaps not all that surprising given the quality of your blog and the content you’re prepared to share.
I was just wondering – speaking as someone in their first three months of blogging about food, lifestyle, etc – do you remember what your monthly stats were like in your first year at Pinch of Yum? Do you remember how long it took for your traffic to really take off?
I’m so glad you asked this because it made me go back into the analytics and look at my early traffic. 🙂 Kinda funny to look at, and fun for me to remember those days. The very early days started with something like 1 visitor a day! and then after a few months it was more like 50, and then about 10 months down the road I hit a peak of 2,800 (that was when I started to get accepted to food sharing sites like Foodgawker and Tastespotting and that particular day was an outlier). Things fluctuated up and down from there, in the 300-1,500 daily visitors range.
Love these income break downs! Congratulations on a great month! I love the Teacher, Inventor and Landlord models. With photographing FOOD, I have done the inventor model and agree that it works really well!
Thanks for the insight and keep up the great work!
Hey Taylor! We love what you’re doing with Photographing FOOD. I’m excited about what it is and am equally excited to see what it becomes. Keep up the good work! It’s inspiring.
OMG! here in Spain it is not customary to show the personal gains that a blog brings, we are behind in several years. Congratulations for getting so far
I love these income reports! They help motivate me to continue on with my projects
Thanks for keeping us updated!
WOW – I just started a blog for my kids who are so into food. Living in Bangkok which is like an oven most of the time and struggling to learn how to do everything is at least less intensive than keeping my three busy when they are off school.
It is fantastic that you managed to get 1 million visits – jaw dropping. We are not aiming quite that high as we are just into Thai Food – well at least at the moment – but your post here is inspiring. I am off to search some later income reports for another boost – or maybe I should schedule the pump they give by checking back when the need for that injection is most acute.
Great job!
Thanks Ian! So cool that you’re building a blog with your kids. Love that idea!
Wow, this a great blog. We’re just trying to get our site off the ground and this is really helpful guidance.
HI Bjork!
I love this report and your thoughts on sharing original ideas. Couldn’t agree more about not hoarding info in our info driven, media society! I was hoping you could shed some light on blogher.com and their influence of 50% of your profits! I am having a hard time understanding what they do or how they profit your site in such a large way….
Best,
Whitney
You bet. We use BlogHer Publishing Network to show ads on the blog. You’ll see these ads at the very top of the sidebar and just below the post. Here’s more about their publisher program – https://www.blogher.com/publishing-network/welcome
Lindsay and Bjork, I launched my blog in February of 2013 and have remained committed to my passion ever since. That being said, I am an attorney by trade and mom of three little ones under 3 years of age, so spending my time effectively is critical to pursuing my food blog dreams. I have been searching and searching for real, honest advice and direction as to how to most efficiently move forward and I am so grateful to you both for your time and concern for others who could truly benefit from your knowledge and experience. I have also purchased Lindsay’s ebook regarding photography and am loving it!!! Thank you both so much again!!!
Awesome! It’s so fun to get comments like this. Thanks so much for following along with Pinch of Yum. If you have any questions along the way be sure to let us know.
Hi there, first of all I love your blogs and love to try out your recipies, I found you guys on Pinterest a while ago. I am a personal style blogger and handmade jewelry maker, I think you guys are amazing at monetizing your blog but I was wondering how exactly do thesis and genesis work? and also how do you make money from bluehost, thesis and genesis? pardon my ignorance but I really have no clue. thank you for your time.
Rachelle
Hey Rachelle. Check out the October income report where I explain affiliate marketing – https://pinchofyum.com/making-money-from-a-food-blog-october-2012
The main places for the affiliate links are these two pages:
https://pinchofyum.com/resources/how-to-start-a-food-blog
https://pinchofyum.com/resources/resources-for-food-bloggers
as well as the lists on the income reports:
https://pinchofyum.com/category/making-money-from-a-food-blog
Make sense? Let me know if not. 🙂
As always, I find your updates so inspiring and down to earth! You have massive success but are so helpful and willing to share the knowledge–that seems to be a rare thing and I am grateful for your willingness!
I do have a question that might be interesting for you to address in a future post (no obligation, of course!). Are you at all worried that so much of your traffic comes from Pinterest? I’m in the same boat (as are most food bloggers, I assume!) and although I love the Pinterest traffic, it does seem to be putting a lot of eggs in one basket–and a basket that we really have no control over, at that. Obviously there’s not much that can be done about it, other than to have good SEO practices and continuously work on other social media as well–mostly just wondering if you had thought about it or had other contingency plans.
Great question Elizabeth. I’m actually using your comment in our next income report (coming out in t-minus 12 hours). Check back soon! 🙂
Hey Guys,
Its great to see how far your blog has come and how popular it has got over the past couple of years. I wish you all the success in the future and hope your blog grows even bigger!
Thank you Imran! 🙂
Bravo! To both you and Lindsay. You are guys are the bomb.com! I am truly inspired by the effort and work you both put into making this blog outstanding. I just sat here and read from beginning post to this current post. Thank you so much for giving details, explaining what it actually takes, and illustrating the result. I see that this didn’t happen over night but it sure does look like it was worth all the work you and Lindsay put into it. I don’t have food blog. I stumbled upon your blog because I stumbled upon Sally’s Baking Addiction blog. She mentioned the ebook you and Lindsay published on food photography. I just had to purchase it and I have already started practicing taking photos of food. The book is a tremendous help. You and Lindsay are an amazing couple. Thanks!
Thank you Desiree! So encouraging to hear comments like that and I love hearing that people find the book helpful. 🙂
Hello…. First of all i should thank you for all the details you are sharing, its truly motivating. I also have a food blog, started 6 months back. I was pretty new to it and worked a lot on it and now Alexa Rank is in 2 L range. But my adsense account got disabled some times back. I am not able to monetize my blog well. I am little confused, should i start all over again as i read adsense is main source of income fro beginners. I thought i will take your valuable opinion. Please help
What a bummer. Sorry to hear that. I think it’s possible to refute the ban (but I don’t think it’s very successful for people). You could also create an AdSense account using a business EIN. I wouldn’t suggest just setting another one up using the same social security number. Here are some other alternative advertising companies you can check out: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/ga-alternatives/
Totally random question- and I couldn’t find the answer on your site or calorie count’s…. How does Lindsey get those pretty nutrition labels? When I go to calorie count, there doesn’t seem to be a way to save them as a pic. If I copy and past them, they’re a jumbled mess.
Thanks!
Hey Jenn! Here’s a forum post where she talks about it: https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/community/getting-started/nutrition-information-plug-in/
ahhhhh. Thanks, Bjork!
Wow! How awesome it’s been to stumbled upon Pinch of Yum!! I love how you all are so humble, and use your blessing of knowledge to bless others. Thanks for being so very generous with sharing all you have learned, and encouraging me who is still in the dreaming and wishing I could earn income from my food blog one day!
Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us! You and Lindsey are so inspirational. Thanks again!!
Hi Bjork / Lindsay,
I was just wondering how you manage to make so much more from BlogHer than you do from Adsense – is that just from normal BlogHer ads? I ask because I make about the same from the two types of ads (~$100 per month from each) – do you any extra freelance work for BlogHer to get your income that high, and if not, how come your ad incomes differ so much?
We have Google AdSense set as backup for Lijit, so the ad code doesn’t get shown much, hence the low earnings. We need to optimize this though, as we could be earning more there. If you look at our older income posts you’ll see that AdSense and BlogHer were a little bit close in terms of earnings.
Hi Bjork and Lindsey. I love your blog and how you give back thru your charity as well as teaching others about your business. You guys are very generous and make a great team!
I am currently in the works of making my products and launched a Kickstarter campaign, so I can’t speak about success yet (I hope this doesn’t come across as spammy, it’s not my intention). I also am working on setting up a blog and will be implementing your strategies. It is unbelievable how much work goes into things. I think you are on the right track with your eCookbooks. Write them once and sell them over and over :). Maybe look into selling them on Amazon Kindle (KDP) for more exposure? If you do, really look into KDP Select before you enroll in that program as they have some limiting guidelines.
Keep up the great work and thanks again for your generosity.
Jenn
First off, I just wanted to say congratulations on an awesome month! Let’s all celebrate with some salted dark chocolate (there’s more than a pinch of yum in that stuff).
I actually just discovered your blog by way of Matthew Woodward’s Income Report Roundup, and was surprised to learn that you are from Minnesota too! Respect!
As a fellow Minnesotan I also received a love letter from Amazon. I’ve never been a big promoter of Amazon, simply because the commissions are minimal, but like you the letter made me acutely aware of the vulnerabilities that arise from relying on any outside company.
Wishing you loads of success,
Matt
Thanks Matt. Glad you stopped by! Always fun to hear from a fellow Minnesotan. 🙂
Hey Bjork,
Great month for you guys! There is a blogger that I follow out of Minnesota. He was also using Amazon’s affiliate program for his niche websites until he got the same email from Amazon like you and Lindsay did. He switched his links over to Skim Links.
Skim Links automatically turns product references in your content into links to where the user can buy the item. They are affiliated with Amazon, Best Buy, Macy’s, Kmart, and a few others. He seems to be doing pretty well with it. You guys may want to check it out and see if it maybe a decent alternative.
Great to hear from you Samuel. Thanks for stopping by!
I have a friend using SkimLinks and he mentioned that they are starting to enforce the Amazon ban on clients from those respective states. I just checked in with VigLink on this the other day as well. Here’s what they said:
“In regards to affiliation for Amazon we are unfortunately unable to affiliate you with Amazon due to the fact you do live in Minnesota, however you can still affiliate with thousands of other merchants without restriction.”
The battle wages on! My hope is that Amazon (or Minnesota) changes their rules/regulations. Chances are slim, but ya never know! 🙂
This blog made $13K in August alone or for the whole year? Either way, pretty awesome considering from the About it looks to be a part-time gig.
For this month. 🙂 Thanks Jenny!
I spent lots of time – years! – looking at beautiful food sites and photography, including your own. But it was these posts about the details of running a site which really made me get going myself – I think they made me feel a little more forewarned & forearmed, so thank you! 🙂
And TFP helped me IMMENSELY, so double thanks again!
That’s awesome Rach! So happy to hear that these posts and TFP played a small role in the life of your blog. We’re honored.
Wooooow. I am so inspired! I just wish I knew what product to create and sell (I’m a lifestyle blogger)
🙁
Vera, I have 5 websites of my own, so I know how it can difficult it can be to try to come up with something to sell. I’ve also got 30 books published (some under a pen name.) I peaked at your website and one thing I noticed right off the bat is that you could easily write a beauty and fashion advice booklet and sell it on Kindle!
Chrystal,
You just blew me away. 30 books???? You think I can write a beauty and fashion booklet? Interesting! I have never, ever thought about that. I have some things I’d like to do, but never have I thought about a book on fashion and beauty. Thank you so much!
Really impressive and inspiring. Thank you for your generosity of information and openness.
I love these monthly reports. They’re so helpful and inspiring. Going from one million page views to one million visits is truly amazing! Well done, but perhaps not all that surprising given the quality of your blog and the content you’re prepared to share.
I was just wondering – speaking as someone in their first three months of blogging about food, lifestyle, etc – do you remember what your monthly stats were like in your first year at Pinch of Yum? Do you remember how long it took for your traffic to really take off?
I’m so glad you asked this because it made me go back into the analytics and look at my early traffic. 🙂 Kinda funny to look at, and fun for me to remember those days. The very early days started with something like 1 visitor a day! and then after a few months it was more like 50, and then about 10 months down the road I hit a peak of 2,800 (that was when I started to get accepted to food sharing sites like Foodgawker and Tastespotting and that particular day was an outlier). Things fluctuated up and down from there, in the 300-1,500 daily visitors range.
Thanks! This is so helpful to me in starting my food blog… and motivating. It’s hard at first when nobody cares :p
Also, I love your site that much more because I trust you because of these reports. I like you guys 🙂 I am glad you are so successful.
Thanks Chels. That’s really nice. 🙂 Keep on keepin’ on with your blog. The first year or two is the hardest!
Love these income break downs! Congratulations on a great month! I love the Teacher, Inventor and Landlord models. With photographing FOOD, I have done the inventor model and agree that it works really well!
Thanks for the insight and keep up the great work!
Hey Taylor! We love what you’re doing with Photographing FOOD. I’m excited about what it is and am equally excited to see what it becomes. Keep up the good work! It’s inspiring.