Welcome to my second Income Report for my food blog. As I explained in my Income Report for 2018, I have wanted to share these for a long time but wasn’t really sure where to start.
So, to get us started, I am working on sharing my Income Reports for Baking with Granny from 2018 (the first year I made money from my food blog), through to the present day. Initially these with be annual reports, with me eventually opting for monthly or quarterly reports, once we reach the present day.
2019 was the seond year of earning an income via my food blog. It was also one of the toughest years of life! Although spoiler alert: it did end on a high. At the start of 2019 I received a phone call from my letting agent to let me know the owners of the flat I rented (as a single mother, with two young kids) was now wanting to sell. And so, we were being evicted!
My heart was broken. I had moved into that flat in early 2018, as a newly single mother, fleeing an abusive relationship and it finally felt like a safe space, that was just mine. And now we had to leave. Thankfully, my amazing letting agent found us another flat nearby and it turned out to be a much better fit for us anyway (blessing in disguise you could say).
The stress didn’t end there though. In 2019 I had to filed for bankruptcy. A large part of the abuse I faced in my previous relationship was financial, and I had come to accept there was no other way out than to admit defeat and deal with the consequences. My bankruptcy (or Sequestration, as it is known in Scotland) was finalised in April 2019.
Like I said though, it wasn’t all bad! In 2019 I reconnected with my [now] husband. And I made moreincome than I did in 2018 too.
Reasons for sharing my food blogs income & traffic reports:
1. Sharing Knowledge. I’ve been in the blogging game for a long time and have some good knowledge of what does and doesn’t work. I want to offer an insight to those who are starting out, or even just thinking about whether this food blogging gig is something they’d like to dive into. I know from my own experience, seeing other bloggers Income Reports can be very insightful, either giving you something to strive for, or as a way to steal some tips to try & implement on your own blog. Information is power and all that jazz!
2. UK Blogger Income & Traffic Report. I’ve struggled to find other food bloggers based in the UK that share this info. And believe me, I’ve tried searching all manner of “food blog income report UK”, “UK food blogger traffic and income report”, “blog income report UK”… As helpful as it can be to see income and traffic reports from elsewhere in the world, it can be hard to translate that information to your own blog when your traffic is mostly UK based.
3. Wider Understanding. One of the first questions you are asked as a food blogger is, “how do you make your money?” Well, these income reports will hopefully answer that.
4. Accountability & Motivation. I already do track income, as being self-employed I do my own tax return. But the hope is in sharing this information that I will have a better understanding of areas that are doing particularly well, or where things could be making improvements. Hopefully this will also motivate me to keep striving for more too.
Next up, what to expect from these Income & Traffic reports:
First, I will share what my traffic was for that period. These will be listed in Pageviews, Sessions and Users, with the data being collected from Google Analytics. I will also share some info on the traffic sources.
Second, I will share what my income was for that period. This will be broken down into the different sources of income, and this does change as time goes by. This will be my gross income for that period.
Third, I will share what my expenses are for that period. This is where I will share my net income for the period too.
Finally, throughout and where appropriate, I will share any other important information that influenced the income, traffic or expenses for that period.
Traffic Report for 2019
Pageviews: 1,249,105
Sessions: 940,725
Users:Â 660,974
(Databox offers a good explanation as to what the difference between Pageviews, Sessions & Users is).
2019 was the first year I hit a million pageviews! Pretty crazy at the time, and even more crazy to look back and reflect on.
Traffic Sources for 2019
Organic: 77.9%
Pinterest: 11.7%
Direct: 7.7%
Facebook: 1.3%
Referral: 0.8%
Other: 0.6%
The majority of my traffic came from Organic Search (ie. Google, or your search engine of choice), which is unsurprising as it’s always been my number one focus when it comes to creating content. By 2019 I also had more content on Baking with Granny, so it would make sense that organic traffic would increase slightly too.
What I do find interesting on reflection is just how much traffic I still had from Pinterest, with the majority of the Social traffic coming from there.
There was a small increase in traffic from Facebook too, which would eventually become my most engaged social media audience.
Income for 2019
Gourmet Ads: £1,707.84
Newspaper Features: £1,300
TOTAL: £3,007.84
Unfortunately, I no longer have access to my Gourmet Ads account to breakdown the figures of my income via them. But basically it was from some ads they would place on my website. It was by no means enough to live off but I always hoped it would cover my expenses and leave a bit of pocket money, until I could get into a more fruitful Ad provider.
The newspaper features were for two separate features I did for a national newspaper in Scotland. The first was for Christmas 2018 but payment didn’t come through until the start of 2019. The second was for Christmas 2019 and that payment did come in before the end of the year.
Expenses for 2019
Website Hosting: £55.98
Ingredients & Supplies: £282.78
Advertising: £15.00
TOTAL: £353.76
If you thought Expenses in 2018 were minimal, 2019 was next to nothing! But with good reason.
Like I shared in the intro, 2019 was the year we were evicted from the first home I had for my kids as a single mother (the owner wanted to sell the flat), I filed for bankruptcy following the escape from an abusive relationship in 2018, and money was just generally quite tight. So investing in Baking with Granny just wasn’t a priority. Convertkit was the first expense to fall off the radar as a result.
My webhosting was still very affordable – although this was justified by the complete lack of support they offered too. I spent many days in 2019 trying to fix countless issues by myself.
I got better at tracking my ingredient and supply expenses in 2019. Although even now I go through phases of being on top of this!
The advertising was a Facebook Ad I ran for a few days around Christmas, to try and boost my following there.
NET Income for 2019
Gross Income: £3,007.84
Expenses: £353.76
TOTAL INCOME: £2,654.08
My second year of earning from Baking with Granny and I was pretty satisfied, given all that 2019 had thrown at me. Despite the year getting off to a rocky start, I ended it with a renewed focus and a determination to bring Baking with Granny to its full potential.
Of course, nothing could have prepared us for what 2020 would bring. However, one step I took before the end was 2019 was to FINALLY enquire about applying to Mediavine. By this point my traffic was well above the minimum required, so I patiently waited for the New Year to see the Ads on my website and the income from that come into play.
Past Income Reports:
Food Blog Income Report 2018
Future Income Reports:
Food Blog Income Report 2020
