Chelsea Joy Eats' very first blogging income report! Included in this report are why I'm publicly tracking my income, what the posts will look like in the future, how much I made in March 2021, and what my strategies will be moving forward.
Why publicly track income?
Years ago, when I started blogging, I couldn't understand the point of income reports. I saw other bloggers posting them and thought it was boastful to see how much money someone was earning.
But, gradually, my views have changed. After watching a few of my blogging acquaintances start to post income reports and literally be able to track their growth, I realized that income reports could serve a few purposes for me AND for my audience.
First: publicly stating a goal makes you more likely to achieve the goal
Therefore, publicly tracking my income and stating goals each month keeps me working towards those goal. (Thanks for reminding me, Atomic Habits!)
I've always told friends and family that I'd like my blog to be my main form of income, but always framed it in a "wouldn't that be nice" way. No more of that; I am determined to set a firm goal for where I'd like my website to go and work to get there.
Second: so you can come along on the ride!
Whether you're also a blogger OR you just like peeling back the curtain a bit to see what happens behind the scenes, I've grown to appreciate how the transparency of income reports cultivates community.
As a blogger, you have an opportunity to see how others build their business; what's working and what's not. As a curious reader, you get to see how people actually make a living off of the work we're putting out there!
Going forward, I'll publish an income report each month (until such time as I decide the series has run its course). Usually, these posts will go out in the first week of the month — this one took me a bit longer to type up, being my first post.
Along with the income breakdown, I'll also write a little blurb about some aspect of food blogging as a business/job. For example, I'll talk about income streams, how I divvy up my income, and expenses in separate months — hopefully that will make it more interesting than just the numbers!
Finally, each month will include a short takeaway and what my strategies will be moving forward.
The breakdown: how much I made in March 2021
Mediavine: 724.78
Amazon: 36.04
Other affiliate income: 28.32
Total: $789.14
The takeaways
We're on the right track! I made 150% MORE than I did in March of 2020.
However, one BIG thing will affect my income moving forward. Honestly, it's one of the reasons I decided to start these blogging income reports now.
Rebranding to Chelsea Joy Eats is going to sincerely mess up my income.
I rebranded to Chelsea Joy Eats in March 2021, which was a HUGE deal for so many reasons and I'm really excited about it!
However, there are negative impacts from rebranding.
My ad company, Mediavine, cautioned me against rebranding because it can negatively affect RPM and ad income for up to a year in most cases.
SEO and Google Rankings can also take a hit due to a rebrand. The majority of my traffic comes from Google searches, so I expect that to take some time to right itself, too.
So, in all honesty, my income will probably go down over the next few months instead of going up. But I'm interested to see how long it takes for things to start evening out!
Strategies moving forward
April and May are game time for me. Besides this website, I'm a wedding photographer at Chelsea Joy Photography. June is the start of my wedding season. During wedding season, I have hardly any time left to work on new recipes. (Or the website in general, for that matter.)
With that in mind, I'm working hard NOW to make sure I have a good backlog of recipes for the summer months. Ideally, I'd like to always be at least a month ahead — but due to retesting recipes and generally getting lax, I fall behind in that.
Another project on my mind is revisiting old recipes. I have hundreds of recipes on my website, and most of the old ones could use some love! Refreshing old posts is also a great way to improve SEO, and I can use all the help I could get since the rebrand.
This month, I have two goals:
- Accrue 1 month of recipes
- Refresh 1 old recipe a week (not necessarily rephotographing)
Interested to see where we land for April 2021? Stay tuned for next month's income report!
Kayla Goebel says
This is so interesting and I'm excited to watch along with you. 🙂 I'll check in on you at the gym to see how your April goals are coming along!