So. I’ve come full circle. My blog has had its first birthday plus a few months (I started this blog in November 2018). And boy have I got news for you.
I write these reports because when I was starting out they were invaluable for setting realistic benchmarks and goals. The problem I encountered back then was that most bloggers only share traffic and income reports after they’re already successful, which makes it hard for new bloggers to gauge the early stages.
Long-running examples like Pinch of Yum are inspiring because they documented their growth from the beginning, but older reports become less relevant over time. Blogging dynamics change quickly—what worked one or two years ago may not apply now. For example, it was easier to attract traffic years ago but harder to monetize it due to advertisers’ early skepticism.
So here I am, sharing my imperfect early numbers. No clickbait promises—just honest reporting. If you missed earlier updates, you can find my previous quarterly reports in the list below.
- Food Blog Traffic & Income Report Q1 Y1
- Food Blog Traffic & Income Report Q2 Y1
- Food Blog Traffic & Income Report Q3 Y1
- Food Blog Traffic & Income Report Q4 Y1
(For more recent reports check the blog income reports page on the site.)
I Qualified for Mediavine!
Great news: I qualified for Mediavine. Their ad management and rates have been my goal since day one. To qualify you need 25,000 sessions in a 30-day period, and while I thought it would take two years, I hit the threshold just weeks after my blog turned one. Because of that milestone, I’ll be switching from quarterly to monthly reports going forward and exploring affiliate opportunities as I build more consistent income.
- Posts
- Traffic
- Subscribers
- DA
- Income
- What’s next?
Posts
- November – 3 posts
- December – 2 posts
- January – 4 posts
Nine posts in three months, three of which were major updates of older content. That’s a disappointing total for me—last year I published 21 posts over the same period. Life, work, a slow laptop that required replacement, illness, and a holiday break all contributed to the reduced output. Still, consistency matters: without a diverse set of posts bringing traffic in, growth slows.
Traffic
- November: Page Views 28,390 (November 2018: 1,460)
- December: Page Views 28,503 (December 2018: 1,486)
- January: Page Views 37,752 (January 2019: 1,862)
- Average Monthly Views: 31,548
Traffic peaked in October and then declined into November and December, although it remained sufficient to qualify for Mediavine. The dip reflected several factors: the viral pin from earlier in the year faded, my theme became extremely slow when ads were added, and I had limited seasonal content for the holidays.
I switched to the lightweight GeneratePress theme and worked with Mediavine support to fix optimization settings I hadn’t saved. I focused on the actionable items in Google PageSpeed Insights, reoptimized images with ShortPixel and WebP, and configured AutoOptimizer and WP Rocket. Those changes brought load times under about three seconds, which is acceptable for an ad-supported site. There’s still room to shave off another few tenths of a second, but that would require deeper technical work or hiring help.
Subscribers
171 subscribers. This is an improvement from last quarter (122), but the number is lower than it might have been because I had to remove a Mailchimp popup after joining Mediavine. That popup was generating several subscribers per day. ConvertKit is compatible with Mediavine, but the paid plan would cost about $30 per month. I haven’t started receiving Mediavine payouts yet, so I haven’t switched, but I plan to migrate to a paid email service when income allows.
I’m cautious about offering list incentives; I prefer subscribers who genuinely want updates rather than signing up only for freebies. Mailing lists can be costly to maintain, so quality matters.
Followers increased to 1,522 from 889 last quarter. I’ve been putting more effort into Facebook, albeit inconsistently. A friend mentioned that pages that hit around 2,000 followers sometimes receive outreach from Facebook and can see increased reach and follower growth. I plan to adopt a scheduler and use analytics to post at optimal times now that I have clearer data.
Pinterest followers rose to 1,000 from 683. Monthly impressions moved from 1.3 million down to 926,800, but impressions aren’t a reliable metric on their own. Google Analytics shows Pinterest drove about 22,581 sessions this quarter versus 12,306 last quarter. That’s a solid increase.
I completed the Pinning Perfect course and have implemented most of its strategies. I now follow a focused Pinterest strategy and spend far less time pinning. The downside: retrofitting old pins to the new approach is time-consuming and will take a long time to complete.
Instagram remains low priority for me. Followers increased slightly to 280 from 215. It’s not my preferred platform, so growth here isn’t a major focus—at least for now.
DA
My homepage Domain Authority is currently 26. DA is a rough, third-party metric that estimates a site’s ability to rank, influenced by age and backlinks. It can take a long time to move. I’ll record DA in future reports so I can track changes consistently.
Income
- November – $40.61
- December – $418.81
- January – $344.86
Income is finally here. These are gross earnings; Mediavine pays on a NET 65 schedule, so payouts arrive a few months after the earnings month. November’s earnings will be paid later this month. January RPMs dipped as expected after the holidays, but the revenue held up better than I anticipated.
I’ll start tracking expenses and net profits as payouts begin, and I’ll share what I find worth investing in at this stage of the blog.
What’s next?
I’m pleased with overall progress, but recent personal circumstances mean I need income from the blog to grow faster. My immediate goals for February include:
- Complete the Mediavine RPM Challenge to improve revenue and traffic strategies.
- Add video—starting with simple slideshow videos via Lumen5 to test impact on RPM.
- Implement a Facebook scheduler after analyzing peak posting times.
- Continue actions learned from Pinning Perfect and create new pins.
- Study food photography techniques and invest in lighting; I plan to buy artificial lights with Mediavine income and practice the methods I learn.
- Increase traffic by at least 10%, aiming for 20%.
I’ll be refining photography, lighting, and composition over the coming months. Monthly reports should be shorter and more frequent going forward—feedback on what to include is welcome.
So there it is: the first quarter of year two wrapped up. I hope you found this report helpful—leave a comment if you’d like to share thoughts or questions.
Happy blogging!
Recent posts:
- Easy Spicy Miso Sauce
- Quick Ensalada Mixta (Spanish Mixed Salad)
- Easy Garlic Salad (Toasted Garlic Dressing)
- Easy Frozen Vegetable Soup (No Tomatoes, Vegan)
- Quick Spicy Labneh Dip