Hey There!

Here I am checking in for the traffic and income report- March 2018 edition. I'm definitely playing catch up with these reports, so bear with me. I'm of the opinion that late is better than never. If you're new to these reports, I'll give you a quick overview and you can check out the others right here.

In January I decided to set a goal for traffic to Salted Mint. The goal is/was to be at 500k pageviews per month by December of this year.

But I also mentioned that I've survived some pretty serious personal battles that had me feeling way behind the eight ball when it came to setting (and achieving) goals. So, my 500k goal was set. And what better way to keep track of the progress than to create these reports that keep me honest!

My goal for these reports is to be of service to anyone and everyone who is thinking of getting into this crazy and amazing online world. When you're just starting out, it's easy to get discouraged and feel like you really don't know where to turn for help and advice.

When you read some of the other income reports out there, there are some top tier bloggers making top-tier income.

It's great that they are. It can be inspiring and motivating. But, it can sometimes mean that people are afraid to start at the beginning. It can be intimidating to realize that there's a big gap between where you are and where you want to be. But, it's really important to remember that we all start from zero. So, my aim is to establish that you can start from the beginning and get somewhere.

March was kind of really exciting. Although I only posted 4 recipes in March, I'll discuss more on that later, the pageviews were consistent and the income was great! So what happened?

Let's get to the numbers and find out!

The Numbers

Traffic Overview

Top 10 Traffic Sources

Income

Mediavine- $165.68

Amazon Affiliates- $4.43

Sponsored Posts- £750= $995

Total Income- $1165.11

The Struggles:

Afraid to really commit: I’ve had one toe in and one toe out in this whole blogging thing for YEARS. If you happen to be reading this post and you’re new to blogging listen to me closely…

COMMIT!

This is the reason that I only posted 4 times in March. I can suffer from crippling self-doubt and it stops me dead. The reason why I didn’t commit was the same reason people don’t commit to anything else… fear. I was terrified that I’d go all in, throw my heart and soul into something that wouldn’t love me back. What if no one visited my site? Maybe people would come but they'd hate it. I "what if"d it to death.

But we don’t stay there in normal life, do we?! No. Because we know we can't. We apply for the job even though we might not get it. We ask for the first or second date even though they might say no. You get the idea.

We move forward in life and we commit to rolling with the punches.

What was the solution:

So, what was the solution for my half in, half out, half-committed food blogging soul?

I started to do the scary things.

1. Starting an income report. Scary level 10,000.
2. Saying yes to catering a food photography workshop led my friends Bea and Rachel. I've cooked for 1000's of people in my career, but it has been a long time and it still makes me nervous.
3. Setting rates for a sponsored post when I had NO IDEA what to charge.

Then I started to create other plans. The scary things have a way of making your monkey mind jolt upright and start to pay attention! And he gets to work with the sabotage. My monkey mind said things like “but there’s no income- people will think you’re a loser” about the income reports. It said "what if people don't like your food" about the workshop. <- Yeah. My monkey mind is a real jerk… but guess what? So is yours… and everyone else’s. These monkeys are not worth listening to.

Okay. So now we’re officially into “doing scary things” territory and we’re rolling with the punches. When you start to take positive action things start to really happen.

What were the gains:

One of the biggest wins this month was that I was contacted by an Ah-mazing company to do a sponsored post for them!!! This was HUGE for me. I always dismissed the idea that I should do pitches for sponsored posts as I just assumed my following was too small. I love each and every one of my followers, I just assumed that there weren't enough of them for a big company to entertain doing a post with me.

This company didn't even ask about my traffic. They had seen Salted Mint, taken a look at social profiles and gotten in touch. It turns out they loved my recipes and my photography and liked how I interacted online.

The takeaway:

"Who" not "how many". It's the "who" that is reading your blog that really counts, not the "how many". In the beginning, when the numbers start low, and all you want is to see growth, it's easy to get wrapped up in how many pageviews you get a day and a month. A better question to ask is "who" are these people coming to the blog and what are they looking for?" How can I make it better? So, I started to ask myself, if I was only getting 600 pageviews a day, but they were from Ina Garten, or Mary Berry, or another brand that really loved what I do, what would I want them to see? You never know who is going to stumble across your stunning content. Commit to creating it.

What I'm working on For April, May & June

Get to know the numbers!!!!

Here's the thing. I've always been afraid of math. Summer school 4 years in a row, anyone?

Nope. Just me. Ah. Okay.

Well, that's where I spent the summers of grade 7,8,9 & 10. So, it was pretty easy to convince myself that I wasn't very good with numbers and that I'm kinda scared of them.

But that left me really not knowing where I'm at, in every way. Earnings, expenses and hours spent working on the blog were all a bit a lot of a blind spot. It's impossible to hit a traffic goal or an income goal when you have no idea where you're starting from.

I can't stress enough how important it is to get control of the numbers. The hours worked may seem a little high and the income may seem a little low, but unless you know what they are, you won't be able to move them.

Spreadsheets are now becoming my friends. I've started to use an amazing FREE online accounting software called Wave. It keeps track of all incoming and outgoing expenses and lets you create branded invoices too.

So until next month, I'll be getting to know my numbers and committing to create every day!

Thanks so much for reading! If you've got any thoughts on growing a food blog, I'd love to hear them. Drop me a note in the comments and we can have a good ol' chat about this wild and crazy job!