January Recap

I can’t believe it is already February 3rd as I write this. January has flown by and I have a feeling this year is going to as well. 

One of my goals for the new year is to document my blogging journey for myself to look back on and for other bloggers to use as a resource. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments or shoot me a message over on Instagram.

Below you will see a table of contents with what you can expect to see in these monthly recaps. Hope you enjoy!! xx

Google Analytics Summary

Overview

• Sessions: 62,223 
  • Sessions are the metric I have always paid the most attention to because it is the metric Mediavine uses. According to Google a session is “a group of user interactions with your website that take place within a given time frame.” 
• Pageviews: 72,961
• Users: 55,462

Acquisition

• Organic Search: 30,472
• Direct: 13,346
  • While I can’t see the exact breakdown, some of these sessions come from Pinterest stories, web stories, and my email list. 
• Social: 9,826
  • Pinterest: 6,971
  • Facebook: 2,803
  • Instagram & Instagram Stories: 36 (does not include tap bio)
• Referral: 8,550
  • biteswithbri-com.cdn.ampproject.org: 4,046 (web stories)
  • tap.bio: 368
• Other: 29

Ahrefs Summary

• Domain Rating: 28 (+2 from Dec.)
• Total Keywords: 16,927 (+1,261 from Dec.)

Income 

Total: $1,535.56

Mediavine

• Ads: $1,430.21
  • RPM: $22.99
  • Page RPM: $19.60

Other

• Amazon Affiliates: $105.35

Keep in mind that most of this income is not paid out monthly. Mediavine pays Net 65. Also, this income is passive, meaning that the money I made in January is not correlated to what work I did for the month. 

I will not be taking a salary from BWB in 2022. I plan to reinvest all of the income into the business to accelerate its growth this year. So hopefully I can earn a 6 figure salary next year. 

Expenses

• Accountant: $300.00 (created a new LLC in Texas)
• Pinterest VA: $325.00 

I am in the process of transferring ALL recurring blog expenses to the business checking account. Items not purchased from the business account this month include hosting (Bigscoots), my image optimization service (ShortPixel), and groceries. 

What I Focused on in January

• Accounting. I hired an accountant and opened a separate bank account for BWB. 
• Video. I am creating longer form videos for all of my new recipes. I then cut this footage down to create reels, shorts, and tiktoks. 
• Volume. I am putting more of an emphasis on volume when choosing keywords to target. 
• Consistency. I am posting everyday on both Instagram and Facebook. 

Takeaways

• January RPMs are low & traffic slows down. Web stories were hot in November & December. They boosted me quickly to the Mediavine threshold. They did not have nearly as much traffic in January. Q4 is definitely the best time of the year for a food blog. 
• Video is super important right now. I finally bit the bullet and dove into video. It really intimidates me so I just make all of my videos using my phone and edit them in Davinci Resolve which is free. I try to keep it simple so I can focus on still getting out 3-4 recipes per week. I am hoping this helps me grow on social media and attracts more client work. Video will also improve SEO for recipe posts. 

Goals

• Land more clients. I landed one client in January that I am super excited about. I am very picky when it comes to client work because it is often not worth your time depending on the pay and how difficult the client is. I prefer to put my resources towards my blog that will continue to generate passive income. 
• Increase organic traffic. My goal is to see organic traffic increase by 15-20% each month. 
• Grow on Pinterest. I just hired a VA to help with Pinterest. I am super excited to see where Pinteret will be in 3-4 months.  

Q&A

• When did you start blogging?
  • I started my blog in October 2020. I had basically no blog traffic through March 2020. I started keyword research in April 2021 and I think I had about 600 sessions. I applied for Mediavine on November 23rd of the same year with 50,189 sessions. My ads launched on December 18th.
• What camera do you use?
  • I use the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. My favorite lenses are the 24-70mm and the 100mm. I use them both for every single shoot.