Yippppeeee! $219.01 is starting to feel like a real amount of money. Last month I could take myself out for dinner; this month I can take myself and a friend out for a really great dinner, and some drinks afterwards too 
The breakdown of income goes something like this:
Google Adsense: $154.57
Infolinks: $64.44
Affiliate Links: $0
Not surprising, the income The Endless Meal has earned has increased in direct proportion to the number of visitors on the site. In April there were 27,227 visitors and The Endless Meal earned $68.10. This month there were 45,888 and $219.01 in profits.
What is surprising is that the number of visitors nearly doubled even though there were only 4 more post put out in May compared to April; there were 12 posts in April and 16 in May. Much of this new traffic comes from other websites that have featured posts put out by The Endless Meal.
Why? Maybe they like the new layout of The Endless Meal site. Maybe they thought that the Bacon, Bourbon, Peanut Butter Cookies just sounded too good not to share. Or maybe it’s just pure luck.
Some of you have asked to know more about ‘the stats’ or ‘the numbers’ or basically how many people are stopping by The Endless Meal. So here you go:
During the month of May, The Endless Meal had:
- 45,888 visitors (roughly 1,500 per day)
- 22% of those visitors had stopped by The Endless Meal before
- The top 3 referral traffic sources were Foodgawker, Tastespotting and Pinterest.
- The top 3 phrases people typed into Google before they arrived at The Endless Meal were: guacamole recipe, fish tacos and pizza dough recipe
What does this mean?
It means you want to make sure you’re taking photos that get accepted onto Foodgawker and Tastespotting, and that people want to pin them onto Pinterest. Check out the page 10 Photography Tips for New Food Bloggers for tips on how to improve your photography.
It also means that it is a good idea to stop by Google Adwords before you choose your post title. I chose Pizza Dough Recipe over pizza dough or best pizza dough because there was a substantial number of people searching for pizza dough recipe but low competition for that title. In other words, there was a better chance of the post showing up on the first page in a Google search. You want this.
You also want to make sure your site is clean, uncluttered and focuses on your food photography. If you choose a free WordPress theme, choose a simple one. If you are looking for a little more control over what you want your sit to look like, consider upgrading to The Thesis Theme for WordPress
Let me know if you have any questions or comments about Cooking Up an Income. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
If you are interested in reading more about this series, check out:
November Cooking Up an Income Report – $235.37
October Cooking Up an Income Report – $268.29
September Cooking Up an Income Report – $258.17
August Cooking Up an Income Report – $161.77
June Cooking Up an Income Report – $109.09
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
The numbers are definitely rising. What’s interesting is that although your traffic doubled in May, your income quadrupled this month. That’s nice
. Thanks for sharing your tips with the blogging community.
No problem at all! I really think there is an opportunity for all of us to learn from each other. Hope you find some useful info here!
Awesome!! I was looking forward to seeing how the numbers are working for you and it sure is looking positive. When you put on ad on your blog do you get paid when a person clicks on the ad itself or do you get paid when a person just visits your blog?
Hey Vita,
I get paid a whole lot more when people click on the ads. There’s two ways you can make money on Google, neither you have control over as far as I know. The first is CPC or cost-per-click and the second is CPM or cost-per-impression. I definitely see more money from CPC than CPM.
Now to figure out how to encourage people to click more!
Good for you gf! That’s awesome!
Thanks Rachael!
hi kristen, your blog seem so light hearted and fun, i really hope the monetizing part picks up and you can start making lots of money from it
your statistics seem good and it looks like your traffic is gonna go up
i found a few things that might help you with making more money with the website
try blogher publishing program , it could get you good money if your website traffic goes up, im not sure how much but its a good thing to add to the affiliate list
they are a little picky though, but so is tastespotting lol
the other thing which i am soo delighted about i just found out about it is viglink.com its good for pple that dont know how to monetize there website. you just sign in and then just add the code to yout website.
its a good way to make money with out knowing how, it follow the visitors that visited ur site and when they buy something u get commission for it!
i hope this was a helpful comment to you
take care and goood luck!
p.s sorry if i dont make sense cuz im really sleepy and hope my spelling and reasoning is not impaired lol
Hey Rima,
Thank you so much for taking the time to share with me some of your ideas about monetizing the blog!
I applied (and was accepted) to Blogher earlier last year but I ended up turning them down. I guess I got a little nervous over their contract. Do you use Blogher as your publishing platform? Have you found better results than with Adsense? I know you can do both at the same time as long as Adsense is below the fold. It’s funny you mention this now because I have been thinking of giving them a try over the last few weeks.
I actually signed up for Viglinks but they haven’t caught any missing affiliate sales. It is interesting to see the number of people who click on the links though.
Again I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with me!
Hope you’re having an awesome weekend
Kristen
I recently redesigned my blog with the Thesis theme and added ads to it a couple weeks ago. I signed up with BlogHer and was accepted and am currently running one of their ads in my sidebar as well as a tune in bar at the very top of the web page. So far I have not had any problems with BlogHer and the amount of money you make is based on off your pageviews so the more page views the more money – I am currently getting around 40,000 (20K visitors) page views a month and am hoping to make around $80 (by running the one main side bar ad). I also put up a couple google adsense ads but those don’t seem to be making much money. How have you been doing so well with adsense? Any specific tips ?
It’s always interesting to see how other blogs are doing so I love reading these types of posts. I am also going to start featuring posts with monthly traffic and money making wrap ups.
Also I recently wrote a post on Thesis Theme for food blogs and have added your link there.
Hey Vicky,
Thank you for linking up The Endless Meal on your post. I wish I could give you more specific advice but I’ll be honest that this is new for me to. I run three google ads, one above the fold. I also have google search installed but that gives me the least amount of $$. I am thinking that next month I may try BlogHer, just a little nervous about the two year commitment. Maybe I’m just a commitment phobe, but what if it doesn’t work out!
hi kristen sorry for the late reply,
whats funny i dont have a food blog yet, im still getting my ducks in order and trying to understand what a food blog intails and needs. but what i love about this is that i finally understood what kind of website i know is right for me, a food blog.! its been my passion since i was a child.
so i am sharing what i found from research that i found with you.
i have seen some website that make good income from blogher,
i have seen a website that makes more with blogher then adsense, what scared you about there contract?
but it all depends on how much traffic you are getting, the more traffic the better deals you will get. and as long as you keep providing great recipes ( you have great ones!) and consistently your traffic will increase. patience is really the key! which most of us dont have ( i know i dont lol)
no problem! i love helping people, its nice to see people who are trying like you and also sharing what you experience, and i think sharing helps us all with our experience.
i think it just takes patience and dedication and, and you changed up ( as you said) your blog style, i noticed that if you have a more professional looking blog, people will take you more seriously because whether they know it consciously or not, they feel the effort, and pple love nice looking blogs, we cant help it, we like pretty thing
i really hope you the most success in your blog and life, and if you have anymore question i am more than happy to answer if i have information to help you
take care
Hi Kristen,
I love your site! Thanks for sharing this information with all of us too–very helpful! I was curious how you make money using Ad Words? I tried to look at their site and am struggling to understand.
Thanks!
Julia