How This 38-Year-Old’s Baking Blog Earns $5k+ From Ads, Affiliates, and Sponsored Posts

Amy Bloodworth ran a profitable bakery along with her mother and father for 11 years, however after the pandemic, they determined to shut it down. Although that enterprise got here to an finish, she did not surrender on her dream of sharing her recipes with others.

She determined to start out a weblog, Amycakes Bakes, in Could of 2021 and certified for Mediavine lower than a 12 months later. 

Though she had no expertise with search engine optimization or running a blog, Amy figured it out fairly shortly. At the moment her recipe weblog earns $5k+ per 30 days, and she or he additionally launched two further area of interest web sites.

Hold studying to search out out:

• Why she created her web site
• What sparked her curiosity for incomes cash on-line
• What different area of interest websites she created
• The place her earnings comes from
• How a lot visitors she’s getting
• What advert firms she works with
• Her advertising and marketing methods
• Her recommendation on getting sponsored posts
• Her ideas on search engine optimization
• Her strategy to key phrase analysis and hyperlink constructing
• How she creates content material
• Her favourite assets and instruments
• Her principal problem
• Her largest mistake
• Her biggest accomplishment
• Her recommendation for different entrepreneurs

Meet Amy Bloodworth

My identify is Amy and I reside in Missouri with my husband and our two sons. I spent most of my working life operating a bakery for over 11 years. 

Transitioning to full-time running a blog has given me a versatile schedule and extra high quality time with my household, and we take pleasure in out of doors adventures, tenting, and crafting collectively.

Why She Created Her Website

Earlier than my running a blog journey, my mother and father and I opened Amycakes Bakery in 2009 once I was 22. We specialised in extra-moist muffins and made-from-scratch desserts. 

That chapter taught me lots about baking effectively and persistently, in addition to concerning the dessert flavors and cake designs that clients take pleasure in.

Nevertheless, after the pandemic in early 2021, we made the troublesome determination to shut the bakery, and my mother and father retired. We bought the bakery home and tools, however I made a decision to carry on to all of the recipes I had been perfecting over the previous decade.

A few months after we closed, I launched the Amycakes Bakes weblog and started sharing my former bakery’s recipes. 

I knew nothing about running a blog or search engine optimization, however I did have over 5 years of hands-on expertise creating and managing the bakery’s on-line store on Shopify. Throughout that point, on-line cake gross sales grew to 75% of our gross sales.

That have with the bakery’s on-line store sparked my curiosity about getting cash on-line, and I made a decision to go all-in on running a blog. 

I began the weblog with a small following of former native clients who have been excited about my recipes, and it has steadily grown from there.

My husband has a full-time job, however he and I launched Games and Gatherings and Honestly ADHD as aspect tasks to diversify our earnings. These blogs are nonetheless within the early levels, however we have not too long ago begun monetizing Truthfully ADHD via Raptive.

We picked these niches as a result of they’re near our hearts. Video games and Gatherings is the place we share our love of throwing events and dreaming up homicide thriller video games. 

We each have ADHD, so we use Truthfully ADHD as an area to share easy-to-understand ADHD data and free printables which have been useful for us.

How A lot She’s Incomes

In 2023, my common month-to-month earnings from Amycakes Bakes have been $5,190, with the next income breakdown:

• Advert Income: 76% (Mediavine)
• Affiliate Gross sales (primarily from Amazon): 17%
• Sponsored Social Media Posts: 7%

It’s been gradual however regular progress. 

I began the weblog in Could of 2021, was accepted into Mediavine in April of 2022, and this previous This autumn of 2023 marked my highest earnings interval to this point. 

The weblog’s efficiency is considerably seasonal, with increased earnings in months with holidays as a result of vacation baking recipes.

I switched to Raptive from Mediavine in the beginning of 2024 in order that I might monetize Truthfully ADHD at a decrease visitors threshold. 

It was a troublesome determination as a result of I liked working with Mediavine, however I used to be excited to see that January’s advert income from Amycakes Bakes doubled in comparison with January of final 12 months.

Raptive lets second websites be part of with simply 30,000 month-to-month pageviews, so I used to be in a position to get each blogs arrange on the similar time once I made the swap.

I feel my RPMs elevated on Raptive due to how they deal with movies, which appears notably suited to food blogs. 

Their sticky video participant is extra distinguished on cell gadgets, and it performs my recipe movies between the adverts. On Mediavine the sticky video participant was smaller and solely performed adverts. 

This distinction actually upped my video advert income. 

As for visitors, my recipe website receives between 90,000 – 100,000 periods per 30 days, or 150,000-160,000 web page views.

My work hours generally is a bit all over as a result of I’ve two younger youngsters. 

At present, I dedicate about 20 to 25 hours per week to Amycakes Bakes, but it surely varies relying on my youngsters’ faculty schedule or if I’ve childcare assist accessible. 

I’m lucky to have supportive grandparents on the town who watch the children once I have to work!

Amy’s Important Advertising and marketing Methods

I did not begin with a concrete advertising and marketing plan, however I imagine what propelled my enterprise ahead was sharing the lesser-known baking merchandise and methods that I picked up within the skilled bakery setting. 

Inside my posts, I speak lots about distinctive baking components and time-saving strategies which might be new to many dwelling bakers.

Instant Clearjel is one in all my favourite bakery “secret” components that I embody in a variety of my recipes.

From the start, I’ve included a video with virtually each recipe and tutorial. The movies have helped make the blog more engaging and they boost my earnings from video adverts.

search engine optimization has been my main focus to make sure folks can discover my weblog, however I additionally keep a daily presence on social media.

I’m most energetic on Instagram and Facebook, however I take pleasure in Pinterest essentially the most, and Pinterest delivers the perfect ROI for me. I often put up on TikTok, but it surely not often drives visitors to my weblog.

In terms of sponsored posts and affiliate links, I’m very selective. I solely promote merchandise that I actively use, which I imagine builds belief with my readers.

I consider sponsored posts as a bonus earnings, so I’ve waited for firms to strategy me as an alternative of in search of them out. Most of those relationships began after I joined the sponsor’s associates program or tagged them on Instagram when utilizing their components. 

Having a media package ready for this has been useful. Even when a sponsor initially proposes simply to ship free merchandise in trade for a video, sharing my media package typically results in a paid collaboration.

Her Ideas on search engine optimization

search engine optimization is my prime precedence. I discovered fairly shortly that it didn’t matter how good my recipes have been if nobody might discover them! My technique consists of:

• Specializing in low-competition key phrases
• Creating content material that persons are looking for
• Recurrently updating previous content material to maintain it contemporary and related

I take advantage of KeySearch and RankIQ to pick my key phrases primarily based on their competitors and to see how many individuals are looking for the subject. 

I take advantage of RankIQ’s optimizer when writing posts and its rating audit to see which posts are dropping visitors over time and have to be up to date. Then I take advantage of the Rank Logic plugin inside WordPress to observe my put up edits and see how the updates have an effect on my posts.

Key phrase Analysis

A number of months after beginning my weblog, I had a lightbulb second once I discovered about low-competition key phrases. That grew to become my principal focus for the primary 12 months of my weblog, and I solely focused very low-competition key phrases, most of which had solely a pair hundred searches a month.

Now that my weblog is extra established, I begin with the recipe I need to make.

Then I’ll search each KeySearch and RankIQ to see what related key phrases readers are looking for, concentrating on something I imagine I can rank for on the primary web page of Google.

Lastly, I run the optimizer in RankIQ in order that I can goal the right subjects inside every article.

Hyperlink Constructing

Hyperlink constructing hasn’t been on the prime of my listing. Sometimes, I am going to submit my posts for consideration in Fb running a blog roundup teams. 

I linked my former bakery’s area to Amycakes Bakes once I began the weblog, which gave me a little bit of a head begin with some high quality backlinks. 

Plus, once I transitioned to running a blog, a number of native information retailers that have been accustomed to my bakery have been form sufficient to function and hyperlink to my weblog.

Amy’s Content material Creation Course of

I at present have 87 posts reside on my website. 

For baking recipes, it begins with recipe improvement, which might take a number of days and many trial and error. After I’m proud of the recipe, I’ll shoot it for video and photographs.

After I began out, I used to be utilizing simply my iPhone or iPad to seize all the things, so many of the photographs on my website have been taken with my iPhone. 

Then I employed a photographer who baked my recipes at her dwelling and shot them. This saved a variety of time, and she or he was fabulous, but it surely made me really feel a bit disconnected from my work, and I wished to provide extra intricate baked items and cake designs. 

So, on the finish of final 12 months, I invested in a digital camera and have been slowly studying to shoot photographs and movies with increased high quality.

After publishing, I hold track of how my content performs based on Google Analytics and reader suggestions. 

Finishing a brand new recipe put up with a video from begin to end can take anyplace from a number of days to a few weeks. My vanilla almond cake is the second recipe I posted on my website and one in all my hottest. 

Her E mail Listing

I take advantage of Flodesk for my e mail listing and appeal to subscribers via a sign-up type that seems on each put up on my weblog. It’s at present at 6,900 subscribers. 

I uncared for my e mail listing for over a 12 months, however a number of months in the past I began prioritizing weekly emails. 

I want I had began that sooner, because it’s been a good way to attach with my viewers and hold them up to date!

Her Favourite Sources

I am a giant fan of podcasts and I really feel like there’s all the time extra to be taught within the running a blog world. 

• I often hearken to the Area of interest Pursuits podcast and search engine optimization for Bloggers by High Hat Rank to remain up-to-date with the most recent running a blog tendencies and updates.
• I take pleasure in studying from different meals creators on the Meals Blogger Professional Podcast.
• The e book Revenue First by Mike Michalowicz had a huge impact on how I deal with cash in my enterprise.
• For anybody fighting time administration, I like to recommend the LinkedIn course “Time Administration Fundamentals” by Dave Crenshaw. It actually helped me once I transitioned to working from dwelling with out strict deadlines.

Her Go-To Instruments

Buying the Feast Plugin in early 2022 offered the steering and construction I wanted when formatting my weblog. Their common updates make me really feel like I’m in good fingers and following the business’s finest practices.

SmarterQueue has helped me keep constant when posting on Instagram and Fb. I nonetheless spend time as soon as per week scheduling my social media posts, but it surely saves me a variety of time to have all my pictures and caption concepts saved and rotated in a queue.

In 2023, I upgraded from a small laptop computer to a twin monitor desk setup, which actually boosted my productiveness. It’s the most effective issues I’ve executed for myself and my enterprise.

Her Largest Problem

The largest problem I’ve confronted whereas rising my enterprise is juggling the calls for of content creation. 

I am fairly gradual in relation to running a blog—I take my time with writing, video modifying, and images, that are abilities I’ve needed to be taught as I’m going. 

Recipe testing is a meticulous course of that may take days, particularly since I am a little bit of a perfectionist. I will not share a recipe till I am 100% proud of it, which suggests I’ve a backlog of recipes ready to be re-tested and refined. 

Plus, adapting my baking methods from business to residential ovens has been time-consuming, as I need to ensure all the things is beginner-friendly.

As an alternative of speeding myself, I’ve discovered to prioritize high quality over amount in my weblog posts.

Her Biggest Accomplishment

My most essential accomplishment as an entrepreneur must be constructing my weblog to its present state and sustaining the drive and motivation to proceed studying and rising every single day.

It has been fairly a journey, particularly since there have been occasions once I felt a bit remoted as a result of not many individuals in my offline circles perceive how one can make a residing from running a blog.

When speaking about my job, I’ve discovered it useful to elaborate a bit extra for folks unfamiliar with running a blog. For example, if somebody asks me what I do, I am going to say “I run a recipe weblog that earns earnings via adverts and sponsored components.”

What She Needs She Knew When She Began

Wanting again, I want I had recognized extra about on-page search engine optimization. 

After I began, the construction of my weblog was disorganized, and my posts have been all over. Now I am progressively revisiting and updating older posts that want enchancment.

I discovered about on-page search engine optimization via the month-to-month search engine optimization for Bloggers webinars by High Hat Rank, and in addition via the Feast Plugin by following their suggestions and utilizing their recipe put up template as a information.

The Link Whisper plugin was an enormous time-saver once I had to return and insert inside hyperlinks into my older posts, and now I apply it to all new posts.

Her Important Mistake

One of many largest errors I made was spreading myself too skinny and burning myself out.

Through the first 12 months, I used to be continuously engaged on the weblog or fascinated with it. I’d really feel responsible if I didn’t keep a constant posting schedule or meet my very own expectations.

Even after getting accepted into Mediavine, I discovered myself evaluating my blog to more successful blogs and getting overwhelmed. 

At one level, I used to be so burnt out that I used to be able to promote my weblog. I took a number of months off from creating new content material and shifted my focus to different tasks. 

Surprisingly, throughout this break, I seen that my weblog was nonetheless rising. Type emails from readers throughout this time jogged my memory that my baking suggestions have been serving to different bakers.

This jogged my memory why I began the weblog within the first place and reignited my ardour and motivation.

Her Recommendation for Different Entrepreneurs

My recommendation is to keep in mind that the massive image takes time, so construct in the direction of it progressively. 

As an alternative of solely catering to what search engines like google and yahoo like Google need, form your small business into one thing you are genuinely captivated with.