Food Blog Traffic and Income Report April 2019

Well hey there! And welcome to the latest installment. The Food Blog Income Report April 2019! These are the posts where I share all the behind the scenes with you about the numbers, the strategy and all the things that are working and the things that may not be working so well in order to grow Salted Mint.

If you read last month's income report you'll know that I will be putting a pretty big focus on the mindset that it takes to build a blog and how I'm keeping my mind where it needs to be. There are a million (maybe, a billion?) people who are more qualified than me to give you the actual nuts and bolts of the building of a food blog. 

The SEO experts, the branding people, and the design people you can learn from are endless and infinitely more qualified than I am. But, as I go along and build my thing, my hope and goal is that I will learn and potentially may already know (and share) things that could be of help to you while you try and build your thing. 

So, before we get into the numbers I actually just want to have a quick chat about a couple of seemingly random and unrelated things that I think actually have a lot to do with a food blog. And they are...

1. Google's E-A-T ranking guidelines
2. Rachel Hollis
3. The Pareto Principle 

The Vital Few and The Trivial Many

What are these things and what do they have in common? The Pareto principle is the "law of the vital few and the trivial many", Rachel Hollis is the babe who's taking the world by storm and telling us to Wash our Faces and Stop Apologizing and we all know what Google's E-A-T guidelines are.

Okay. For us to really start to rank in Google and get that organic traffic, Google needs to start seeing us as experts in our field. Whatever that may be. Seeing as you're probably here because you have a food blog yourself, then maybe your an expert in gluten-free, or meal prep or 30-minute dinners. 

For many people that means choosing a niche. But it doesn't have to be as narrow as you may think. This is what brings me to the Pareto principle. It's the law of the vital few and the trivial many. The jist of it is the 80/20 rule. Like, 80% of the knowledge you need should come from 20% of what you consume. So with everyone having an article, opinion and program for SEO is it worth your time to go chasing all of these?

No. It's not. 

Find your vital few. For me, that's Casey Markee and Jeff Hawley. That's it. If it hasn't come from one of those guys, I'm not interested. Is it possible that there may be other useful info out there that hasn't come from them? Sure. It is possible. But it's not a great use of my time to go and chase the trivial many. They're my guys. That's it. And if you are looking for rock solid SEO advice, I've just introduced you to the two best!

So now this leads to Google's E-A-T guidelines and being an expert. Are you an expert in your field? You probably are and you may not even realize it. When I took Jeff's Hashtag Jeff course he mentioned something about how you can potentially tie some of your expertise together. Like if you're a gluten-free blogger, but want to write about travel maybe you could write about gluten-free eating while traveling. Thereby telling Google that you really really know what you're talking about. 

This now brings me nicely to Rachel Hollis and her book "Girl, Stop Apologizing". My confession here is that I've not read the book... yet... but it's in the Kindle library. The synopsis of the book, though, is that it's okay to have huge goals and dreams and to be good enough to achieve them. You are permitted to go after what you want just because you want it. 

The Takeaways

This got me thinking about where I stand in the food blogging world and where my authority lies, and how I've been playing very small. You see I'm a Cordon Bleu trained chef with 10 years experience in Michelin star kitchens. But most of my readers wouldn't know that. I've been so nervous about putting that out there. What if people thought that I sounded arrogant? Of big headed? Or full of myself? But the fact of the matter is, I've worked really hard to get here and have made a lot of sacrifices along the way.

I also put myself in my readers shoes and thought that if I were going to follow a recipe, spend my time and money to buy the ingredients, spend time cooking or baking for my family, surely I'd take comfort and have confidence in a recipe that I knew was created by someone with as much experience and knowledge as someone with my credentials. 

So, let me ask you. Where are you selling yourself short because you're not sure you should burn so bright? 

Are you giving up valuable working hours chasing the 80% that just doesn't matter? And how will you capitalize on your expertise and tell Google that you absolutely do know what you're talking about and are an expert in your field? 

So yes, you guessed it. That's what I'll be thinking about and doing myself during the month of May.

The Numbers

I've compared this April to last April in order to see the long term growth. I think it's always a good idea to take a long look back and to see just how far you can get in a year and to dream of what that will look like in another 365 days. So, to say I'm thrilled with the results, all things considered, is an understatement!

Pageview Totals

Traffic Sources

Most Popular Posts

Income

MediaVine - $390.54

Amazon Associates - $16.05

Total $406.59

And there you have it. The month of April boiled down to 1000 words!

Thanks so much for reading along with these reports and for being here, making the recipes and all the comments, likes and social follows. It means the world. And for all of you who just read and cook, but don't leave comments... I know you're there and I thank you for it. ♥