Hello, friends! As I mentioned last month, I’m starting monthly income and traffic reports to track the growth of my blog. Writing these reports helps me see progress clearly and keeps me motivated to improve over time.

I’ve learned so much from other bloggers who generously share their numbers and strategies, and I hope these reports can offer useful insights and encouragement for anyone building an online presence.

To those unfamiliar with blog income reports, it might seem unusual to publish earnings publicly. I understand that, but my goals are twofold: 1) to help others who want to earn money online, and 2) to hold myself accountable so I keep learning and growing.

So, here we go…

The Traffic

Overview

Note on traffic: I’ve been around the 60k/month mark for several months. My current goal is to reach 100k/month by this summer. For context, here’s a short history of tracked traffic starting in September 2014:

Sept 2014: 17,748 (one year after starting the blog)
Dec 2014: 10,085
March 2015: 18,041
July 2015: 29,368
Sept 2015: 60,182
December 2015: 46,820

New vs. Returning Visitors

Building a dedicated readership—people who return week after week—is one of my top priorities. Having roughly 3,632 people who come back monthly means a lot to me; I never imagined that many readers. My goal is to increase returning visitors to a steady 30%.

Top Ten Traffic Sources

Note on sources: Pinterest used to be my top referrer, but organic Google search traffic has recently overtaken it, which is fantastic. I’ve focused heavily on SEO across posts, and it’s paying off—especially for squash recipes. Among my top-performing recipes, two are spaghetti squash and one is butternut squash, all pulling significant traffic from Google searches.

The Income*

Some links below are affiliate links. All services and products listed are ones I use and recommend. If you have questions, feel free to contact me.

Mediavine: $152.33
—joined this ad network midway through the month
Freelance Writing: $300
Sponsored Post: $150
Gourmet Ads: $89.47
Food Blogger Pro: $65.80
—revenue from a post encouraging bloggers to sign up for Food Blogger Pro
Food Photography School: $29.70
—from a post sharing food photography tips
Greater Than Gatsby: $26.24
—from posts about editing photos with GTG presets and actions

*These figures exclude income from my food photography business.

Total: $813.54

Expenses

WP Engine Hosting: $51
Giveaways: $35
Food: $124.60
I only expense food that’s photographed for the blog, not general recipe testing.
Facebook Ads: $19.99
Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop: $10.91

Total Expenses: $251.50

What I Focused on in January

In January I chose one social platform to focus on and concentrated my efforts on Pinterest. While I enjoy Instagram and Snapchat, Pinterest delivers the best long-term traffic for my blog. I spent several days researching how to grow organically—best posting times, follower strategies, and authentic growth tactics.

Here are my follower numbers from the start of the experiment:

January 4: 950
January 6: 987
January 11: 1,138
January 15: 1,555
January 18: 1,811
January 25: 2,135
February 1: 2,344
February 18: 2,796

In six weeks I grew my Pinterest following by 1,846 followers—a 294% increase. If that pace were sustainable, I estimated around 17,000 followers by 2017.

How I achieved it: I pinned a lot. For the first two weeks I pinned 200–300 times per day, which was intense and not sustainable. After that I settled into about 50 pins per day. My practical guidelines were: 1) pin throughout the day with emphasis on evenings (8 pm–12 am), and 2) pin at least once to each board daily.

I also experimented with focused pinning—spending a session pinning 20–50 pins to a single board—and noticed follower spikes on those days. Beyond pinning volume, I cleaned up my boards: I updated titles and descriptions to be clear and searchable, assigned proper categories, removed seldom-used boards, added new relevant boards, and used a simple spreadsheet to organize group board pinning.

Posting Consistently

A major goal for 2016 was to establish a consistent posting schedule. I committed to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and published 15 posts in January. I’ve continued that rhythm into February and am proud to maintain consistency.

Reaching Out to Brands

I’m also working to collaborate more with brands I already use and love. January was the beginning of reaching out and joining a few networks that connect bloggers with brands. Results are still developing, but I’ve been accepted into some promising campaigns.

Focus for the Next 30 Days

My priority is finishing an ebook that I’ll offer free to newsletter subscribers. I have the content planned and most of it written, and I hired a professional designer (a friend) to create a polished design. I expect the ebook to be ready within a month.

Thanks to YOU

Because of your support, I sponsored a young girl in Haiti this month and plan to continue doing so. I donate 10% of my blog income, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to give back, even in a small way.