Greetings! Bjork here. I am Lindsay’s husband and the proud sous chef potato peeler in the Pinch of Yum kitchen.
Two months ago Lindsay and I decided to experiment with making money from her blog. We thought it would be fun (and maybe helpful to others) to write a monthly post detailing the money we made from the blog and passing along any information we learned along the way. Here’s the update from September.
The Breakdown:
- Foodie Blogroll – $27.68
- Elegant Themes – $19.50
- The Thesis Theme – $25.41
Grand Total = $72.59.
Our plan for this money is to go against the age-old adage and spend it all in one place. We consider it money well spent.
Foodie Blogroll: $27.68
Foodieblogroll.com has been having some issues lately (sales reporting is not working) so we can’t report exact earnings. Let’s go back to high school algebra to do a quick estimate of what we can expect for September Foodieblogroll earnings.
Therefore, if my rusty algebra skills are correct:
We’re certainly open to other ad services, but for now, Foodie Blogroll seems to be getting the job done.
Affiliate Links (Thesis + Elegant) - $44.91
Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links. We will earn a commission if you purchase through those links.
We currently use five different affiliate programs:
An affiliate program is a pretty basic concept. You (the publisher) link to a certain product or service from your website. If a person comes to your blog, clicks on the link, and decides to buy the given product then you get a certain percent of the sale. For instance, the five links shown above this paragraph are all affiliate links. If you watch the URL when you click on the link you will notice it quickly flash a different URL before directing you to the final site. Here’s a screencast that shows what I mean (**nerd alert**):
The URL that flashes quickly is embedding a cookie (a web cookie, not a fluffy peanut butter cookie) that identifies your blog as the referral source. Basically, it lets the company know that if the person should purchase the product then you (the publisher) get a cut of the sale.
Another Quick Tip:
For those of you that are interested, here are some examples of the payout for the different affiliate programs we currently use:
- Bluehost – $65
- The Thesis Theme – $25.41 – $54.12 (33%)
- Elegant Themes – $19.50 (50%)
- WooThemes – $14 – $30 (20%)
- Amazon – 4-6% of total purchase
So here’s our September affiliate story. A couple weeks ago I was checking through the five affiliate programs we use, and I found that we had made two sales – one with Elegant Themes and one with Thesis Themes! It was almost hard to believe that the affiliate links had actually worked. The whole affiliate marketing thing almost seemed mythical to me.
Being the data sleuth that I am, I did some research and found that the Elegant Themes sale came from the Resources for Food Bloggers page on September 16th. The Thesis Theme sale came from the sidebar advertisement on September 12th.
Let’s pause for a moment and enter my brain at the moment I found out the Thesis Theme sale date.
“Wait… September 12th? Why does that sound familiar? What day was that? Monday I think… Wasn’t I working on some website updates then? Didn’t I purchase the premium version of the Thesis Theme that day?”
Indeed, the person that made the Thesis Theme purchase… was me.
Apparently while working on Pinch of Yum that day I had clicked on the ad I set up on the sidebar. A little bit later on I purchased the theme for a website I was working on. Sure enough, because I clicked on our own ad, we received some of our own own money back. It’s like finding $20 on the sidewalk and then realizing it was you that dropped it. Things could be worse.
Once again, here’s a look at September:
The Breakdown:
- Foodie Blogroll – $27.68
- Elegant Themes – $19.50
- The Thesis Theme – $25.41
Grand Total = $72.59.
The take away from September is that affiliate sales work! With just two affiliate transactions we easily surpassed our Foodie Blogroll revenue. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as we continue to search for high quality products or services that have affiliate programs.
How about you? Do you have a food blog (or other type of blog) that you’re thinking about monetizing? Any tips, tricks, or advice?
We love getting your questions and comments!
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This is such a helpful post – I haven’t thought about monetizing my blog because it seemed like such a lot of effort for a small return but those numbers seem pretty impressive and what I really like about this site is the fact that the ads don’t feel very intrusive.
Thanks! Sometimes they do feel a tad intrusive to me, just because I don’t always love what’s being advertised, but it’s a small price to pay for easy money.
I love your money making expermint updates. That’s pretty impressive that the affiliate sales work. Thanks for sharing all that info!
I’m glad you love it.
Ha! So my ittybittybaby blog might make .07$ a year!!! Very informative post though, I’ll refer back to it when my monthly traffic exceeds 20….:)
I used to think the same thing… I can remember thinking how cool it would be to have over 100 visitors per day and now I often have more than 1,000. It happens – it just takes time!
We would love for our blog to eventually make us some bucks. Working on that goal. We actually found we make more money with Google Adsense than we did with Amazon affiliates.
Yeah, I found the same thing with Amazon affiliate links. I have made like 10 cents or something with it.
It’s all a learning process I guess!
This is fun…so glad you posted this. It’s fun to hear that people are making a little money off their foodie passion…
I’m having a giveaway at my site if you’re interested!
Thought I’d share the fun!
Awesome – thanks!
thanks… i want like u….
Thanks for doing this!…I’m still a newbie to blogging & trying to figure it all out. Have you seen the current ‘knife giveaway’ on thepioneerwoman.com?…almost $50,000, yes fifty-thousand comments. Imagine the number of clicks!
In my book, you guys are just plain…cool!
hi! thank you so much for doing this experiment and showing us all how to do it.
i try to monetize my blog but i only make about 10-50 dollars/month. i use foodie blogroll and google adsense and i’ve yet to get paid for google adsense because you only get paid for every $100 you make, and i haven’t made that much yet.
do you think it matters who hosts your blog? i’ve thought about switching to wordpress
You’re welcome! It’s fun to hear from people who have also tried their hand at making a little blog money.
I use WordPress (as of a few months ago) and I love the theme I’m using – it’s called Thesis. And the Thesis Theme is supposed to be good for SEO (search engine optimization). However, Thesis is only compatible with WordPress, so you might want to consider theme compatibilty when thinking about switching. But really, it really doesn’t matter what platform you use to host your blog in terms of how much money you make. Good luck with your food blogging adventures!
I have a question. I am hosting my site on BlueHost but how do I “sponsor” blue host to become an affiliate? Is your “sponsorship” that earns your payment simply the blue host widget on the sidebar of your blog? Thank you!
Hi Mercedes! This is Bjork, Lindsay’s husband. I make rare appearances in the comments section to answer questions. I just checked out your blog. Love the first two pictures on the Coconut M&M Cookie Bars post.
Here’s the link to the Bluehost affiliate program: https://www.bluehost.com/cgi-bin/partner – It doesn’t cost anything to sign up. They will have all of the links that you’ll need to get started. They have special URLs that track when people click on your link. If someone makes a Bluehost purchase after clicking on your link then you’ll get your affiliate payout. Let me know if you have additional questions.
Thank you so much for the amazing post and explanation Bjork! Your monthly sales reports are really useful! I was telling my fiance that he needs to get crackin on my blog to help me out.
Thanks again for all this info, and of course a big thanks to Lindsay for all the amazing blog posts and inspiration!
Thanks for sharing these insights and numbers! It’s amazing (and motivating) to see where you started in 2011 and how you’re doing now in 2012.
How much time do you spent on your blog?
I’ve been blogging for about 2 1/2 years, and right now I spend about 15 hours a week on it.
I am thinking about using Bluehost and the Thesis theme thanks to your site and a few other articles I’ve read online. I will be sure to click through and hope you receive the commission when I make a purchase. Fantastic that you give your affiliate income to such a wonderful cause. I learn something every time I come to your site whether it is about food, photography or generosity to others!
Thank you Holly! In the spirit of transparency, we’ve shifted our finances since moving to the Philippines to work at the orphanage, so all of the profits you see aren’t all directly donated as they were before (at the time of this post). We love hearing that the information and resources on Pinch of Yum are helping people get started.
Thanks for the comment!