December in Review - Dad Feeds The Fam

top view of an elegant table set up for christmas — December is for family and there is usually a lot of eating to do!

Quarantine Resumes…

2020 was a crapshoot, and I’m glad it’s over! This month, one or both of my kids was at home, making it difficult to write at the pace I wanted. We still cooked a lot and came up with a bunch of recipes to write about, but the actual writing is still elusive. With the vaccine on the horizon, I should be able to muscle through until Covid ends…

Blog Traffic

Traffic to a blog is like fuel in an engine. You’re not going anywhere without it. This month fell short on the side of the social engagement, but the introduction of Frase.io for polishing the SEO from each new article has generated amazing results so far. With 345 visitors, total visitors is down for the month. However, I now have recipes ranking on Google, with 18 clicks in December. 2-3 clicks per recipe, per month, can grow to something awesome, so I am inspired to write more frequently.

Expenses

No new costs to mention. So far, my initial investment is covering the operations of the blog, with no monthly expenses to take into account. I am eyeing a couple of upgrades that will give me more functionality in a couple of places. I am also looking into several pieces of training so I can better understand what I am doing.

December and Black Friday Deals brought an opportunity to invest in this operation a little further, so here is the breakdown:

FIMP Training: This training is a beginner’s course in building a website, picking a niche, and building something profitable. The host is great, engaged, and purchasing this training allows for access to a members-only support group, which has been helpful. This is a lifetime resource, so I can get help at any time. Worth it in the long run I think. Cost: $197
AppSumo Plus: AppSumo is a discount subscription vendor, which allowed me to get the following Frase subscription. The Plus membership was needed to access the deal, so I have a plus membership for 2021. Cost: $99
Frase.io: This website allows you to pick a topic and research it in depth in minutes. The results have been stellar so far, and the Black Friday deal allowed for a lifetime subscription. Cost: $70
Camera Stand: To make cooking videos, it’s nearly impossible to properly cook and hold a camera. So, this month I invested in a simple camera stand. At roughly $38 for the whole setup, I am blown away by the functionality of how it comes together. No complaints at all and I highly recommend it.
- NEWEER Adjustable Microphone Stand: The main bulk of the stand, this microphone stand allows me to take those nice over the food videos, hands-free. This stand is great except for finding places to mount it in my kitchen.
- Vastar Universal Cell Phone Holder: Adjustable to grip any recently developed phone, I have every confidence that my phone will not fall into the soup I am cooking.
- NEWEER 360 Swivel: That final touch to bring it all together. The 360 degree swivel makes sure you can position your camera anywhere and walk away.

Income

There was no income to report this month for December. Currently, I am focusing on cooking good food and writing good SEO articles. This will hopefully get some traction eventually and lead to some sort of income. Some of the tech investments I made above have affiliate programs, so I have included links below

Bluehost: As my hosting website, they are doing a great job. I totally recommend them if you are starting a website. Their customer service has really helped me solve some issues this month.
Amazon affiliate: I have started using amazon affiliate links in all of my posts, and I will go back and add them to previous posts. It is quite easy to do, so I recommend it to anyone who is starting a blog.
Advertising program: I need some SEO traction before I can get in with an advertising firm to get ads on the site. Small steps.

Use the below links to save money on the different sites by using my referral code. Using my links gives us a small referral fee and supports our efforts here, so thank you!

AppSumo: Discussed above, Appsumo is a great resource for finding deals on the tech needed for building and managing great websites. Their lifetime deals on subscriptions can really cut down the recurring costs if you can find the right deal. Check it out and see if it can help you save. AppSumo Tech Discounts.
Frase.io: Frase is a fascinating new tool that really simplifies optimizing SEO. It can help research a topic or take an article and compare it to others across the web, so you can see how to compete and gain rank. It has really helped with optimizing my articles this month, so check it out. Frase.io

December Recipes

December fell a bit short in regards to publishing content. I am slowly getting a groove going for publishing content, and writing articles gets easier every time I publish one. I also don’t want to resort to poorly written articles, so I am publishing a bit slower on purpose. As long as I keep chugging along, slow progress is still progress.

Supporting DFTF:

If youre enjoying what we are working on here, these are a few ways you can help us grow:

Cook a recipe, leave a rating. Let us know how it went. I am always looking for feedback to improve.
Share with a friend or on Social Media; Facebook, IG, or Pinterest. #Dadfeedsthefam to let us know how it’s going!
Sign up for the newsletter. Each subscriber gets access to upcoming recipes are special subscriber-only content.
Use our links to make any purchases you need. Every little bit helps, and some of our links give a discount!