Greetings! Bjork here. I am Lindsay’s husband and the proud sous chef taste tester in the Pinch of Yum kitchen.
Four 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 pass along any information we learned along the way.
After our first month (August) we reported back with a grand total of $21.97. We’re excited to say that November’s total was 10 times more than our first month of creating an income from the blog! Plus, we were the recipients of a little surprise package! More on that towards the end of this post. Here’s the update from November:
The Breakdown:
- Foodie Blogroll – $61.78
- Bluehost – $130.00
- The Thesis Theme – $28.71
Grand Total: $220.49
#1 Foodie Blogroll: $61.78
As a reminder, the Foodie Blogroll income is our best estimate based on previous payments (there is a two-month delay before Foodie Blogroll actually shows you what you earned). It’s been fun to see the Foodie Blogroll number rise as traffic to Pinch of Yum continually increases. Here’s the traffic overview for November:
Many thanks to Michelle from the Brown Eyed Baker for sending almost 600 visits to Pinch of Yum!
#2 Bluehost: $130
Bluehost is the company we use to host Pinch of Yum. We are part of the Bluehost Affiliate Program. If someone signs up for domain hosting after clicking on a link from Pinch of Yum then we get $65. Pretty sweet deal! This happened twice this month. For those that are interested here are the places we have Bluehost links.
- The Sidebar (125×125 ad image to the right)
- The Resources for Food Bloggers page
- The How to Start a Food Blog page
- These monthly money report posts
#3 The Thesis Theme: $28.71
The Thesis theme is the WordPress theme we use to power this site, and we’d highly recommend if for other bloggers. That’s why we have Thesis theme links throughout the site. If people happen to click on the Thesis theme links and eventually purchase the theme, we get paid a portion of the sale. The $28.71 was from these type of affiliate sales.
The Thesis theme also great for SEO (search engine optimization).
A great example of SEO in action is the Roasted Sweet Potato Salad post from this summer. Every month Pinch of Yum gets 100-150 people visiting the blog because they searched “Roasted Sweet Potato Salad” in Google. The post shows up on the first page of Google despite the fact that there are 2,000,000 other possible pages for this keyword (see pictures below). Thesis theme helps make that happen by allowing for each post to have custom titles and meta descriptions.
A fun surprise package!
A couple weeks ago someone representing a new product from a Food Network host contacted Pinch of Yum and asked if we’d be interested in testing out some new fresh food products. We get requests every once in a while, but this one seemed to be a good fit. We’re talking about possibilities for partnering with them because we really truly loved the product. We’ll keep you updated with what happens with this. For now, we’ll leave you with this picture of the first refrigerated UPS box we’ve ever received! #cool #literally
What will we be doing with the money?
All of the money we’re earning from Pinch of Yum this month will go to the Children’s Shelter of Cebu.
The reality is that we’re all super busy people, but if you have five minutes I’d encourage you to meet the kids at CSC and read their stories. If you’re feeling extra ambitious you can listen to this song while you browse through the CSC site.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to write yet another techno-finance post! I’m kind of into this stuff if you can’t tell. Back to the regularly scheduled programming on Monday! -Bjork
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!
Wow! So excited to for you guys with the Food Network thing! That sounds awesome, and what great progress with the income! That’s very encouraging. I’ve been following your tips and pointers, and hopefully someday I’ll do it too. Thanks for everything! I heart Pinch of Yum! 😉
Thanks Sara! 🙂
I want to say thank you for sharing this information. It has been really helpful and inspired me to start a foodblog of my own. I just started mine last month. I didn’t go through bluehost, only beacause I couldn’t afford it for now. I’m excited because only using googleadsense I’ve already made $29.46. So thank you again for sharing your info. I’m going to link you guys on my blog. I love pinch of yum!
That’s great, Hollie! Congrats on your google adsense earnings!
Still appreciating you posting about this, it’s very helpful and I’ll have to look up your roasted potato salad 😉
By reading your posts I’ve realized that the ‘key’ seems to be BEAUTIFUL photography. I have a point-and-shoot, any recommendations to help me moving forward in getting my pics accepted to the source sites like foodgawker?
Natural lighting and persistence! 🙂 Lots of persistence.
It is SO SO cool that you donate everything. Can’t wait to hear about the mystery company!
Remember me when you two are uber famous…
Oh please.
Thank you so much, this is very informative. I’m currently on wordpress.com so the only revenue I’ve pulled in so far is through my Amazon store, which you should look into! They have an affiliate program as well. I’ve made around $80 in a month.
I’m hesitant to relocate my blog from wordpress.com to .org because I receive a lot of traffic through wordpress.com’s searching (at least an additional 500 hits per day, plus 950 subscribers). But I’m really like to add these other methods, so it’s something to think about.
I actually have an Amazon affiliate account but I have not been very good about following through with my affiliate links. 🙂 Thanks for the reminder – I need to get back on that!
Wow I use Bluehost but never knew they had a program like that. I am surprised that so many people sign up that way. I wonder if I should do that…
You should! 🙂
I don’t really get all of this… but I am quite impressed with how savvy you both are in not only creating a great food blog, but also figuring out a way to “pay it forward”. Very cool!
Thanks! 🙂 There’s a reason that Bjork writes these posts, and it’s because he’s the tech/financial savvy one around here!
Lindsay,
I just can’t tell you how awesome I think it is that you two are using the proceeds from your wonderful blog to help out CSC! As you know, it is an organization that is near and dear to my heart and I love that you are creative enough to find ways to help CSC out financially. I am sure that God will continue to bless you for your generosity!
I love your blog,
barb H.
Thanks so much, Barb! We are excited to be able to generate money for such an awesome organization.
What a great post once again. You two are inspiring us!
Thanks!
Loved this. Most people aren’t so open about the money they make. I know your blog isn’t about making money but with your photography you could easily be making a lot. I tried several advertisers but with blogher I make more than I ever have. They might have a waiting list but it’s worth it. I make more now than I did wit my computer science degree. Just advice from one blogger to another. Good luck. You have a great blog!
Thanks Christy! I’ve often wondered about BlogHer, and started an application, but never took the plunge for a variety of reasons. I may be getting in touch with you, if you don’t mind… 🙂
ANother question if you don’t mind :). These posts are so helpful! Do you know if the Foodie Blogroll is a “competitor” of Foodbuzz? I would assume so since they both provide advertisements. ALso do you know how their CPM compares to Foodbuzz? Thank you again!
Yep! They are two different companies that offer similar services. I’m not sure on the CPM that Foodbuzz gets, but in December Lindsay had just over 110,000 page views and the Foodie Blogroll payout was just under $90.
Very cool that you’re publishing your stats and info… just FYI, you would make a lot more money from Foodbuzz.
Also, do you submit your stuff to Foodgawker and Tastespotting, or do other people submit?
Thanks, love your site!
Thanks for the feedback! We’ve been talking about other options for ads and I’ve actually seen the food buzz contract so I know how much more they pay. :/ The thing we like about Foodie Blogroll is that there is no contract and fewer rules about affiliate ads. That being said… We’re probably going to be switching to a nee network within the month.
As for foodgawker and tastespotting, I submit all my own stuff.
Thank you for this post. I’ve been trying to find a blogger who lists out their earnings and how much they make from foodie blogroll. Congrats on your success!
Glad it was helpful for you Erin!
Hi there! I’m just starting to read through all of your reports. I made the move to monetize several months ago, and it’s going well, but I know it could be so much better, so I’m eager to learn from you. Just wondering – you say you link to the THESIS them, and get a kick-back if anyone purchase it. Is this an option for every theme? And if so, how do I go about signing up for something like that? Do I contact WP?
Thanks so much!
Do you have the basic Genesis at $59? How easy is it to learn?
Hi Mireya. Our designer did everything design-wise in Genesis so I can’t say what it’s like to work with because I really don’t work with it directly. We do have the basic version.
Thank you Lindsay!
Hey!! Your site is adorable!!!! I love the income reports- they are so helpful! I am in the process of starting my own food blog. Just wondering how many posts did you start at per week? And how many posts did you have total before you applied to programs for moola?