Pinch of Yum is a successful food blog. But just how successful monetarily? It’s a question we all wonder about food blogs.
Turns out this particular blog is successful enough to be a full-time job for the husband-and-wife team behind it ― plus staff.
Lindsay and Bjork Ostrom, the duo behind the blog, have working on Pinch of Yum since 2009 and they made it their full time job in 2014. The bloggers post beautiful photos of delicious-looking food that inspires us to get back into the kitchen. And they do one additional thing that not many other food bloggers do: they post all of their earnings and expenses online, for everyone to see.
How exactly food bloggers make a living has long felt like a mystery, but thanks to the Ostroms we can see precisely how they function as a business. They make money mostly from ads and sponsored content, but have other avenues for revenue from Amazon partnerships and their e-book.
The Ostroms began posting the blog’s earnings in August 2011, when they made a measly $21.97 that month. They began the public project to see if they could make money food blogging (which they called the Food Blogging Money Making Experience). Folks, they succeeded.
If you go through the months with them over the years, you can see the earnings grow ― sometimes exceeding over $90,000 in one single month. For real.
But of course, more money means more problems and by that we mean expenses. The aforementioned month (November 2016), when Pinch of Yum made $95,197.34, their expenses were $28,505.27. So their profit was closer to $66,692.07 ― not bad for one month’s work.
This is how much they earned during a 12-month period (from December 2015- November 2016): $802,144.55
This is how much their expenses totaled up to during that same time period: $293,014.38
This was their 12-month profit: $483,883.51
We broke it down month by month below, so you can see for yourself. We started in December 2015 and ended with November 2016, in order to show a 12-month earning. (November 2016 is the most recent month in which they’ve released an earnings report.) Here are the numbers.
Income: $86,884.12
Expenses: -$16,377.44
Profit: $70,546.68
Income: $77,140.58
Expenses: -$28,314.83
Profit: $48,825.75
Income: $63,682.99
Expenses: -$28,062.54
Profit: $35,620.45
Income: $58,060.81
Expenses: -$28,489.19
Profit: $29,571.62
Income: $57,686.15
Expenses: -$23,777.03
Profit: $33,909.12
Income: $56,061.97
Expenses: -$25,246.66
Profit: $30,815.31
Income: $59,737.78
Expenses: -$29,918.17
Profit: $29,819.61
Income: $65,677.72
Expenses: -$27,091.35
Profit: $38,586.37
Income: $58,465.41
Expenses: -$21,701.08
Profit: $36,764.33
Income: $52,222.60
Expenses: -$29,251.75
Profit: $22,970.85
Income: $71,327.08
Expenses: -$31,525.73
Profit: $39,801.35
Income: $95,197.34
Expenses: -$28,505.27
Profit: $66,692.07
Of course, not every blog is this successful ― and possibly some blogs are even more profitable ― but this profit comes only with hard work, determination, talent and a love of good food.