Post By D
Hello All – D here.
We’re finishing our last days in China, or, as I like to call it “where internet comes to die”. It’s been difficult maintaining our two blogs ( one travel and one food) but, given that it is our only source of income at the moment, we are sticking with it!
I hope that everyone has been enjoying the Asian recipes that Vicky is showcasing, many of which are from cooking schools here in China. Her first, if you remember, was at Yangshuo Cooking School. Recently, she did another at Rice and Friends in Dali, China. Those recipes will be published over the next two weeks. Soon, we’ll be heading to Vietnam, where Vicky will continue on her quest to conquer every cooking school in Asia.
Traffic:
November, with elections, Veteran’s Day, and Thanksgiving was a bit of a down month for blogging – but for the most part it’s the same traffic we’ve had for the last three months.
November Breakdown:
BlogHer – $45.90
Google Adsense – $77.67
The Thesis Theme – $0
Hostgator – $50
Direct Advertising – $854
Grand Total: $1021.67
Income Summary:
While the Direct Advertising is still the breadwinner of October, one thing I’d like to call out is our HostGator affiliate sale. In past reports I’ve noted that we haven’t had any success with affiliate sales on our blog. About a week ago, we got an email from HostGator saying that we may have made our first sale! I say may, because as far as I can tell it is still showing up as not valid in HostGator’s system…I’m not entirely sure what’s going on and should probably call HG to see what the deal is. Still, it’s nice to know we may almost have a sale. That’s closer than we’ve ever been before.
I don’t want to overstate a few of my actions here because it just resulted in one maybe sale, but I did take a few steps this past month to better showcase our post on How To Start A Food Blog (which contains our affiliate links). Here are a few tips:
- Make it visible. If you have a post you really want to showcase, consider putting it in your menu (see how our menu now has “Start A Blog“). If you don’t want to put it in your menu, maybe your sidebar or footer would be a good place.
- Go back to old posts and add it in. Just because a post is old, doesn’t mean that no one reads it anymore. People search on Google and find old posts all the time, so you want to link to new posts in old posts.
- Spread that Page Rank juice. In order for a post to get seen in the search engines, it helps to have a good page rank. If you’re a blogger you’re probably familiar with the concept of page rank, but what some people don’t realize is that just because their home page has a page rank of X that does not mean that every page on your blog has that page rank. In fact, there is a good chance that the page rank of many of your pages is actually lower. You want to link to key pages often in order to spread the juice around internally. This will help those pages in the search engine rankings. This can be done internally (see step 2) by looking for key words (like “food blog“) and linking to your post. It can also be done when other bloggers link to your post (which is also aided by steps 1 and 2). Shortly after I went on a campaign to better showcase our post, we had a blogger link to us here!
Previous Income Updates (Food Blog)
Previous Income Updates (Travel Blog)
- August 2012 – $55
- September 2012 – $490
- October 2012 – $1345
- November 2012 – $2031
Carol says
I love reading through the details of your income reports! Have you ever thought of doing some YouTube videos with the google ads on them? I would love to see a video of the Asian cooking schools or techniques you learn.
Vicky says
Thanks Carol! Dave actually was filming during the last cooking class I took so as soon as he gets the editing done and we have Youtube access we’ll be putting it up! We currently do not have any kind of following or exposure on Youtube so it’s time to start working on that!
Cashcash says
This is awesome, read through other people’s income report encourage me to keep it going.
Vicky says
Thanks! Glad to be encouraging you! It’s definitely no easy task but there is some money to be made from blogging!
Juliana Walters says
I found your blog from a recipe featured on foodbuzz, and I really do enjoy it (your blog). But I have to admit that I follow your “Income and Traffic Reports” because I am trying to monetize my own blog. Your blog is extremely helpful! I would like to ask you a question about blogher (feel free to just “not answer” if you do not feel like my asking is appropriate). I filled out their form and received a notification, via email, that my blog was approved. They said that they would contact me when they matched me with appropriate ads (or something to that nature). When you were accepted, how long after them accepting you were you able to post their ads on your blog? Also, how did that transaction transpire (their ads, to your blog)? I probably should have just sent you an email. Sorry for the comment/question/novel. Thanks, Juliana
Vicky says
Thanks! So glad you find these posts helpful. In terms of the Blogher response time I honestly do not remember and recommend just shooting them an email. Have you heard anything back from them? Once you have access to their network the code for the ads is on the site and you just input that into a sidebar on your blog. It’s just a matter of inputting the code that one time and then you don’t have to do anything else with the ads. Let me know if you have any more questions! Always happy to help!
marie@citronlimette says
I have been following your blog for a while. Love the recipes and the pictures. I am starting to monetize my blog also. I am curious about your Direct Advertising! It may seem very basic, but how do you get them? Feel free to answer if it is too private! Thanks and good luck!
Marie
Kristen @ The Endless Meal says
I’ve been reading through your income reports and they are really encouraging. I’d really be interested in learning more about how you make money direct advertising. I’ve heard of selling space directly to advertisers but I really wouldn’t know how to go about doing it myself.
Enjoy the rest of your travels!
Vicky says
Hey Kristen – take a look at the December income report for a brief intro into Direct Advertising!
Alex Cardo says
Thank You very much for this report. It gives me hope. As I can see, you start your blog in 2012? Or I made a mistake? How can you get Page Rank too fast? And you have a lot of traffic at your site. I’m very happy for you.
Unfortunately, google still doesn’t like my blog. And Adsense too. $77 …your income is too slow from Adsense. Why google doesn’t like newbies? You have a great blog with unique content, and google gave you only $77 for your work (
Yesterday, I wrote a big article (More than 7000 words) with the full report about my travel, and google didn’t give me any positions. It’s strange…Good site = bad positions. Bad site = good positions.
When I look at your site – I want to eat ))) This is an excellent blog, but positions not so good. People want to find a report about travel, and found only tripadvisor and wikitravel…it’s very strange algorithm is usув by google.
But, anyway, you have very good incomes from the direct advertising, so you found a solution to be independent from the Google Adsense!
I sincerely wish you good luck. Once again, thank you for sharing that information about your income – it really gives me hope!
Linda says
Hi There,
What an awesome blog and also the posting about traffic and monies made. I was curious to understand that the majority of the income from the site is from”direct advertising”
Can you give more in terms of what that is ? Do you mean this is not a network like blogher or Google adsense – meaning local business. Can you give examples ?
Thanks
Linda
Lawrence says
Thanks for posting your income reports. I always wonder if the side bar ads really do earn their keep when I see them.
I am a newbie food blogger but I am encouraged by your post and looking for ways to go from a zero income site to earning a few bucks. I have been thinking of adding products like a BBQ seasonings and sauces.
How do you go after your direct marketing which looks like the loin share of your income?
Lawrence
http://www.FireOfCoals.com
smoking and grilling over a fire of coals
Vicky says
With the side bar ads it really all does depend on the traffic that you’re getting. The more traffic the more you can earn. Though I don’t earn much through the side bar ads (between 50-150 a month) it still is nice. It terms of direct marketing, I also run a travel blog with my boyfriend and we have been approached through that blog by many advertisers so in response to them we mention this food blog. Food blogs don’t seem to generate as much interest for direct advertising as travel blogs do, and because I write about our travels on the food blog as well and post international recipes I think this gets some of the advertisers from the travel niche interested. Best of luck with your blog and let me know if you have any other questions!