I call this “The Food Blog Experiment”! Yes, it’s an actual experiment I want to conduct on my little food blog, to see if one can make money from a cooking hobby. I mean, who doesn’t want a bit of an extra income, right? Maybe you want to buy something cute for the home or go on a trip with your friends. Why not pay for these with the money generated by your cooking blog?

So, how much did I make?

THE INCOME

This little food blog has been around for 4 months now, and it is time to see if it has the power to generate some income on its own. I know you are probably wondering how much money I made since I began Simply yum… I am curious too, so let’s do the math:

1. Licensing images on microstock websites: $125.45

I’ve been doing this since, 2009 I think, long before I started this little food blog. It won’t get you very far if you’re doing it as a part time job, but it is a little extra income and I’m happy with it so far. If you want to find more info on the subject just google “microstock photography”.

2. Google Adsense: $5.58

It’s the only type of advertising I’ve done so far on Simply yum. I know it’s not much, but things will get better as long as I drive more traffic to the blog.

A grand total of: $131.03

But, this amount is what I made since I started my blog, on the 1st of January. So, that makes $32.76$ a month. By no means a retirement fund, but it’s a start, right?

THE TRAFFIC

Traffic overview:

Traffic sources:

As you can see I have a lot of spikes going on within the graph above. That’s a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. The bad thing is that I’m not constant, that the majority of people get to my blog after I submit my recipes to websites like Foodgawker or TasteSpotting, or whenever one of my images gets viral on Pinterest.

The good thing is that the base of the spikes is constantly moving upwards. Each time I have a lot of people visiting my blog there are a few that enjoy what I share and come back for more.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Adding more revenue streams!

Let’s see what revenue streams I can add…

Well, for the moment there is only one. A referral link back to the hosting company, Bluehost, with which I host Simply yum. I’m really excited about this one, because it’s the first referral program of any kind that I had the chance of joining, so wish me luck!

What is a referral link? In simple words, it is a link, to a product or service that embeds a cookie on your computer. Now, what this cookie does is it tells the manufacturer / producer that your blog acts as a referral source. This means that if a person sees product X on your blog and eventually ends up buying it ( by going from your blog to the seller’s ), you get a commission of the product’s price. Because that cookie was nice enough to point to you as the source of the sale. With Bluehost, I get $65 if someone I refer joins them.

Pretty sweet right?

Helping others!

I want to build a community with my blog and I believe helping others is the foundation for any kind of community. But, how can my blog help you?

Let me share a few things that you can find here that can help you:

– you can find tasty, easy to do recipes, with images, ingredient lists and cooking methods

– you can find my step by step tutorial about how to start your own food blog

– you can find this monthly Income Report that I will write every month in which I share the kind of revenue streams I use

So much for now, I hope I’ve pointed out a few great ideas. If you have any thoughts or tips please leave a comment or contact me at any time!

More on Simply yum

Red Wine and Garlic Mushrooms

Alaska Cod, Tomatoes, Red Peppers and Olives. Oh, yeah!

Spicy Grilled Chicken with Fresh Spring Salad