Traffic and Income Report (Q2 2023)

I'm back with Quarter 2's traffic and income report! If you missed my first one, check out Quarter 1's report here.

This year I've decided to add transparency to my blog by sharing my traffic, income, and expenses every quarter! I'm hoping that doing this will help other food bloggers and/or those considering blogging as a career while keeping me on top of my finances.

A Few Notes

• The traffic reports are pulled from Google Analytics (Universal Analytics).
• The income and expenses are cash values, not accrual. This means the numbers shown are what actually entered/exited my accounts each month.
  • For example, Mediavine pays publishers on a Net65 basis, so my reported income in April 2023 is reflecting what I made from Mediavine in January 2023.
• I moved into a new apartment with my own studio/office in April, so expenses were higher than normal in Quarter 2.
• I have a few contractors helping me with blog writing, Pinterest, photo editing, and video editing.
• May 2023 marked my 2nd year of blogging full-time and 1st full year with Mediavine!

April 2023

Blog Traffic

In April, brokenovenbaking.com had 64,417 sessions and the majority of traffic came from Google search results. Income-wise, I experienced a net loss!

May 2023

Blog Traffic

In May, brokenovenbaking.com had 79,838 sessions and the majority of traffic came from Google search results, once again. There was a spike in traffic to my Cinnamon Streusel Muffins from Instagram and Facebook on May 6-7th.

June 2023

Traffic

In June, brokenovenbaking.com had 66,768 sessions and the majority of traffic came from Google search results. This is up from April, but less than what we saw in May due to that random traffic spike.

Quarter 2, 2023

2023 vs 2022 Traffic

My sessions increased by 81% compared to Q2 2022, which is good! I did feel like my traffic was plateauing, but I know the first half of the year is generally slow, especially when summer's approaching.

Net Income

• Q2 Income: $21000.58
• Q2 Expenses: $15647.06
• Q2 Net Income: $5353.52

Looking to Quarter 3

I felt like I got a bit off-track with the blog in Quarter 2. I shifted my time to coaching other food bloggers, updating older recipes, and working on a few client projects that popped up. So, I went from consistently posting 2 new recipes per week in Q1 to inconsistently publishing 1-3 new/updated recipes per week.

This quarter I'm going to get better systems in place so I'm more efficient with my time spent on the blog, coaching, and client work. I'm really excited about my 3-month coaching program and will likely open it up to more food bloggers at the end of summer.

I recently hired a video editor which has been a huge help! It's expensive, but I think it'll pay off with all the time and energy it'll save me. Video editing is something that I've always dreaded doing, which made me slack off. Now that I don't have it on my plate, I feel energized to get more things done!

I'll also be planning ahead and prepping for Quarter 4. Chris's cousin is getting married in Poland this fall. We'd like to go and spend a couple weeks in Europe! However, it's at the end of October, so I need to make sure I have everything ready to go for the busy holiday baking season!