Hi! Things have changed quite a bit since I got started – it’s become more competitive out there, as more and more people realize this is a thing. That said, I’ve seen plenty of people grow a blog in today’s climate and be just fine! I’ll say this though: it’s a long time before any “real” benefit can be seen, and a lot of work to get there. That can feel frustrating, to not see the fruits of your labor immediately. Make sure you are marketing your recipes on all available channels (social media, email, etc.) and also be sure you are paying attention to SEO. I recommend joining the Food Bloggers Central group on facebook for a really great network of people to help and ask questions from. Good luck!

Hi Elizabeth! I love your blog post and I just started to post, I have about 12 so far and have been posting 2-3 times a week so far. How long did it take you to get to the thousand views mark and any tips to even get to that?? It seems like an impossible task at this point but I’m going to keep at it.

Yes, it’s harder to get on Mediavine now for sure. There are alternatives- She media (formerly blogher), monumetric, and ezoic. I don’t know much about them, but I do know that the threshold is often lower and they still offer competitive RPMs! And affiliate marketing is always a good option as an alternative to ad revenue. Your site has the most delicious looking recipes! I’m drooling over that Moroccan Cauliflower dish. I know you didn’t ask for this feedback, but after a quick glance, I think you would benefit from digging into some good SEO practices to harness more google traffic. That’s where a majority of my traffic comes from. For example, you’ll want to add content to your post other than one photo and the recipe itself. There are some good SEO courses out there that might help you navigate some of it- it’s kind of complex but essential! I recommend joining the “Food Bloggers Central” FB group for some really good information about SEO in past threads (and a great place to ask questions too). Good luck :-)

Unfortunately, my experience with Sovrn is also very outdated- I haven’t used their services in years, so I’m not sure if I can be helpful here. Hope their customer support gets back to you soon!

In the meantime, something to consider- there’s a growing theory that when you are first starting a blog, it’s actually better to not add any ads until you can get onto a good network, like monumetric, mediavine, or adthrive. The reason being is that ads slow down your site, and slow site speed can hinder growth, which means it takes longer to be accepted to these lucrative networks. Since most other methods of ad placement, like adsense or sovrn, pay pennies compared to those networks, some people just focus on growing their audience and making a little money with affiliate marketing before even bothering with ad placements. Hope that helps :-)

Thank you so much Elizabeth for your prompt reply! I do also have one more question. Sovrn ad tag placement- how many ad tags you place on a page and do you place desktop and mobile separately so it doubles the amount of ad tags in the end or how? I couldnt find any answer on their site and customer support not answering any tickets! So lost! Thanks in advance!

Hi! These income reports are pretty old- I stopped doing them years ago, and to be honest I’m not even sure SWOOP exists anymore! Are you part of the Food Bloggers Central group on facebook? I recommend joining- it’s a great resource and there are a lot of discussions about how to monetize blogs in the beginning (or whether you should bother). And so happy you reached out about this- I’m going to add a disclaimer about this to the top of these reports to prevent further confusion!

Thank you!

Congrats on moving to Mediavine! Love them so much. That will be a huge turning point for you. I only did four of these income reports before I realized that writing them bored me out of my mind and I didn’t want to spend the time on them haha! If it helps, I make about $17K per month right now. Most of it comes from Mediavine ads. Depending on time of year, it gets up to $25K. It’s amazing to see the growth over the past few years. Feel free to email me any time about this stuff- elizabeth@bowlofdelicious.com – I love talking about blogging and income, even if I don’t like blogging about it!

I just recently moved from SheKnows (BlogHer) to Mediavine and I’m so excited to finally earn a decent income from my blog.

Awesome, thanks for sharing! If you ever have any specific questions, please feel free to shoot me an email (elizabeth@bowlofdelicious.com) :-)

So happy you found this post helpful!

Mediavine is exclusive. You can still do sponsored posts and affiliate links with them, but can’t run any other ad network. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. MV takes care of EVERYTHING- I don’t have to do any work. They are the best ad company (and potentially the best company in general) I’ve ever worked with! Most bloggers choose between them and adthrive- they are the two biggest and best ad networks out there right now (and both are exclusive to my knowledge). I was SO happy to switch from trying to balance google ads, sovrn, gourmet ads, and blogher and just go down to the one network (and my revenue skyrocketed as a result). Hope that helps, let me know if you have any other questions!

Many people have one just as a hobby and don’t try to make money from it- some don’t want the hassle but I think others don’t really know that it’s possible! You should totally try it out, even if it’s just one post a month or so, just to see if you like it. I never thought I’d be a blogger but here I am, and I couldn’t ask for a better job!

Thanks Jenn! I don’t know where the BlogHer application is (is that what you meant?). They’ve had a lot of changes over the past few months. I’m hoping to get back into these income posts very soon- I had to skip the last one because the first trimester of my pregnancy was so rough! Glad its so helpful for you :-)

Good stuff luv!

You’re welcome, Kerri! Hope you start to make money soon and let me know if I can help in any way! :-)

Hi again Elizabeth, thanks for the quick reply. You’ve shared some very useful advice. You are so right about SEO. We’ve been using Yoast and I can already see the organic visits going up. I didn’t know about WholeYum.com. I’ll have to check them out. Thanks again for getting back to me. Take care.