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    Home » Income Reports

    Jan 7, 2023 by Stephanie Rutherford · This post may contain affiliate links · This blog generates income via ads

    2022 Food Blog Income Report

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    This is my annual 2022 food blog income report! This is intended to help other food bloggers to see how much money is possible in this career.

    I did make a quarter 1 income report and quarter 2 income report, but I decided to make 1 annual one each year.

    2022 income report

    First, I will share the traffic for every 12 months. Then, I will share the income and expenses for each month. At the end, I will share everything I learned and what I hope 2023 will bring.

    2022 Traffic

    January

    Page sessions: 86,567

    january traffic

    I was really surprised that this month wasn't the slowest of the year. Maybe because of the new year traffic?

    This year my goal was to work at dramatically increasing my organic search traffic. However 10k in January wasn't too bad!

    Social is a combination of Instagram, Tiktok, and Pinterest.

    Direct is both google web stories, direct traffic to my homepage, and being on google discover.

    Top 3 recipes for January

    • Small batch chocolate chip cookies
    • Oreo chocolate chip cookies
    • Brown butter chocolate chip cookies
    Oreo chocolate chip cookie with a bite missing.

    February

    Page sessions: 76,122

    feb traffic

    So, this is actually the slowest month of the year for me. Which I was surprised because of Valentine's Day. However, my google organic is slightly higher compared to January!

    Top 3 recipes for February

    • Oreo chocolate chip cookies
    • Reese's peanut butter chip cookies
    • Small batch chocolate chip cookies

    March

    Page sessions: 130, 954

    march traffic

    This month has significantly higher page sessions because of my Lemon blueberry cookies. These cookies went super viral on Instagram and they went to number one on google because of all the social traffic they got.

    Top 3 recipes for March

    • Lemon blueberry cookies
    • Lemon blackberry cake
    • Brown butter snickerdoodle cookies

    April

    Page sessions: 180,400

    april traffic

    This month I had significantly higher traffic because of Easter. The traffic coming from direct is from viral web stories.

    The traffic coming from referral came from Tiktok. I used linktree the beginning of the year for Tiktok, which comes as referral traffic. Later in the year I switched to Later that I also use for Instagram linking.

    Top 3 recipes for April

    • Brown butter snickerdoodle cookies
    • Lemon blueberry cookies
    • Double chocolate banana bread
    Three lemon blueberry cookies on parchment paper with fresh blueberries around it.

    May

    Page sessions: 122,215

    may traffic

    The reason why this month page sessions were lower was because I wasn't having anything go viral this month.

    Top 3 recipes for May

    • Lemon blueberry cookies
    • Giant fluffy cinnamon rolls
    • Oreo chocolate chip cookies

    June

    Page sessions: 135,390

    june traffic

    People say that the summer is slow months for food bloggers, but my traffic has been remaining steady!

    My google organic is increasing every month due to good keyword research!

    Top 3 recipes for June

    • Peach cobbler cinnamon rolls
    • Oreo chocolate chip cookies
    • No bake vanilla cheesecake

    July

    Page sessions: 164,338

    july traffic

    This month I had my s'mores cookies went viral both on Instagram and on Pinterest. Which is why the social traffic is so much higher.

    Top 3 recipes for July

    • S'mores cookies
    • Pineapple sunshine cake
    • Oreo chocolate chip cookies

    August

    Page sessions: 191,477

    august traffic

    Hooray! My google organic was number 1 this month. The reason why this is so important is your ad revenue is higher on your sessions coming from ranking on google.

    Top 3 recipes for August

    • Oreo chocolate chip cookies
    • Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
    • Peach cobbler cinnamon rolls
    Peach cobbler cinnamon rolls in a baking pan.

    September

    Page sessions: 241,769

    september traffic

    This month my apple cider cookies went viral on Instagram, Tiktok, and Pinterest! They were a great recipe. I was really surprised how my traffic increased for the month of September.

    Top 3 recipes for September

    • Apple cider cookies
    • Caramel cinnamon rolls
    • Apple pie cookies

    October

    Page sessions: 239,652

    october 2022

    This month was another great month! I had more videos on Instagram go viral. I also had more recipes ranking which is why the increase in google organic.

    Top 3 recipes for October

    • Apple cider cookies
    • Caramel cinnamon rolls
    • Giant fluffy cinnamon rolls

    November

    Page sessions: 200,814

    november traffic

    So this month, I went into Instagram jail. On the 11th, I posted about photoshooting a piece of pie. Instagram flagged it because they thought I was trying unalive someone. So my social traffic will a lot lower until February 9th, 2023.

    Being in trouble with Instagram means I can't use any monetizing features and they won't show my reels on the reels tab or the explore tab.

    Oh well. This month still did great!

    Top 3 recipes for November

    • Giant fluffy cinnamon rolls
    • Oreo chocolate chip cookies
    • Apple cider cookies

    December

    Page sessions: 221,615

    december traffic


    The last month of the year! There was also email and display come up, I have no clue what those are.
    While I think my social would have been higher if Instagram wasn't rude, I am still incredibly happy with my growth in Organic Search!

    Top 3 recipes for December

    • Grinch cookies
    • Cookie dough cheesecake
    • Giant fluffy cinnamon rolls

    Income

    January

    • Amazon affiliate- $44.91
    • Coaching- $1,256.89
    • Website ads- $2,105.08
    • Total- $3,406.99

    February

    • Brand Sponsorships- $1,000
    • Coaching- $1,306.78
    • Website ads- $3,032.15
    • Total- $5,338.93

    March

    • Amazon Affiliate- $24.72
    • Brand Sponsorships- $1,000
    • Coaching- $1,677.15
    • Website ads- $3,095.01
    • Total- $5,796.88

    April

    • Amazon Affiliate- $24.92
    • Brand Sponsorships- $8,533
    • Website ads- $1,537.89
    • Total- $10,095.81

    May

    • Amazon Affiliate- $51.27
    • Brand Sponsorships- $2,200
    • Website ads- $1,973.88
    • Total- $4,225.15

    June

    • Amazon Affiliate- $30.24
    • Brand Sponsorships- $6,850
    • Instagram- $277.22
    • Coaching- $237.45
    • Website ads- $3,114.38
    • Total- $10,509.29

    July

    • Amazon Affiliate- $34.74
    • Brand Sponsorships- $1,500
    • Instagram- $358.31
    • Coaching- $714.85
    • Website ads- $4,172.16
    • Total- $6,780.06

    August

    • Amazon Affiliate- $15.53
    • Brand Sponsorships- $3,850
    • Instagram- $655.45
    • Coaching- $332.55
    • Website ads- $3,610.29
    • Total- $8,463.82

    September

    • Amazon Affiliate- $63.56
    • Instagram- $431.73
    • Coaching- $18.31
    • Website ads- $4,190.02
    • Total- $4,703.62

    October

    • Amazon Affiliate- $42.06
    • Brand Sponsorships- $7,000
    • Instagram- $553.17
    • Website ads- $5,039.14
    • Total- $12,634.37

    November

    • Amazon Affiliate- $40.41
    • Brand Sponsorships- $10,500
    • Website ads- $14,071.90
    • Total- $24,612.31

    December

    • Amazon Affiliate- $88.95
    • Brand Sponsorships- $22,600
    • Instagram- $367.35
    • Website ads- $8,264.37
    • Total- $31,320.67

    Grand Total: $127,887.79

    Expenses

    These are the expenses for the whole year. Check out my quarter 2 income report for specific things I spend money on.

    • Contractors- $12,912.75
    • Groceries- $1,865.39
    • Insurance- $1,185.19
    • Legal fees- $1,304.05
    • Office supplies- $111.23
    • Photography props- $2,754.27
    • Software- $3,697.92
    • Total- $23,830.8

    Profit: $104.056.99

    Thoughts on 2022

    • In 2022, my big stretch goal was to make $100k in revenue. I was blown away to make $27k more than that! I am so thankful for how successful this business has become.
    • I also had a goal of 100k Instagram followers, I am now at 125k!
    • During the month of September I did switch for mediavine to ad thrive for my website ads. It was the best decision ever.
    • In quarter 4, I also decided to hire out horizontal recipe videos for my blog. Not only is this great for user experience, but it also greatly increases my income as well.
    • A huge goal of mine was to also increase my google organic traffic, which I mentioned above. I went from 10k a month to 60k a month. That is huge growth.
    • Later in the year I changed my focus to keywords that have higher volume.
    • Since my blog was taking off, my husband became a stay at home dad. He now writes my blog posts and he takes care of Henry!

    Thoughts on 2023

    I am so excited for 2023. My big goal is to get an average of $10k a month in websites ads for stable income. I made 9k in both November and December with my ads, but I want that continue the rest of the year.

    To do that, I need to focus on keywords with higher volume. If one starts to rank, that gives me a bigger return of investment.

    I also started a youtube channel. I am at 100 subscribers now. I hope that grows more through the year.

    I plan to make 2 recipes a week for the rest of year. 2022 was all about the hustle. 202 is about being creative and growing my blog.

    Instead of focusing only on keywords for each recipe, once a month I am going to be making 1 recipe that will be whatever I want!

    More Food Blog Income Reports

    • Food Blog Income Report- 2nd Quarter 2022
    • Food Blog Income Report- 1st Quarter 2022

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