Welcome to the Kati Keksi monthly newsletter, bringing together the latest content from the Kati Keksi website as well as highlights from social media including Facebook and Instagram.

Hey there

Before I jump into the feature, just a quick few notes.

I'm likely going to be at the GF expo this year in Melbourne. I only ever go as a visitor, I can't afford / justify a stand.

Every year I manage to get a really bad virus and I'm a wreck shuffling around the expo. 😅

But, if my some miracle I'm well this year, I'll make myself obvious and you can feel free to come say hi. 👋

There will be no ticket giveaway from me this year.

I usually give away 10 or so tickets but earlier this year I called out Coeliac Australia regarding their ethics on something important to me.

They ignored me, that was their response.

I was not offered tickets to give away this time. Honestly, I don't want to promote for them anymore anyway.

I am sad that I can't give away ten tickets in a cost of living crisis. But standing up for myself, and for what is right, is worth infinitely more.

In the beginning

I started my website back in 2022. As soon as I could, I applied to Google's AdSense so that I could show ads on my website.

My husband was a little bit puzzled by this. Why put ads on there and change the experience of using your website?

Obviously it's a nicer, cleaner experience to use a website free of ads.

But this website was going to take a lot of work.

Work that I couldn't justify long term.

If it could earn money in the future then I could keep working on it and maintaining it.

The first $100

Like most earning systems, AdSense has a minimum income before payout.

It took me 13 months to earn my first $100 and get paid.

There was definitely a celebration.

The first year of my now famous Easter egg guide earned $35.

Four years later and it was 10 times that (and probably about 20,000 more visits).

The biggest measure of success for my website was to get into the premium ad service, Mediavine.

It's the same company that many professional bloggers use.

It's the big leagues.

I was accepted into Mediavine just after Easter in 2025 and I was both stunned and elated.

I had worked my ass off the previous month to get enough visitors to qualify for the minimum threshold.

I had to have 50,000 visits to my website in the space of a month to have a chance of qualifying.

Those visitors were you.

Every single person clicking those links I shared in that month made the difference.

The costs of running

Last month I did my tax return and for the first time my husband and I sat down and looked at the costs that go into running katikeksi.com​

The hosting fees alone are $50 a month. Hosting is scaled so more visitors means higher costs.

Believe it or not but that cost is low. We run our own website hosting, which means it's about half what we'd pay for a commercial service.

We've had some stuff ups over the years (like when 5,000 people tried to visit the Maccas guide at once and crashed my website 🫣) but we've optimised and had no issues since then.

$50 a month is $600 a year. It would be a lot to spend if I wasn't running ads.

I often talk about my earnings in terms of a coffee. These days I make about two coffees a day off my website, per day.

I'll qualify this by saying my two favourite coffee shops in Melbourne are very cheap and they're like $4 or $5. 😅 Not like Perth or Sydney at six or seven bucks.

What it means is that my website is sustainable financially. And that's important because I spend a lot of time updating my content.

Most bloggers can publish a post and never have to look at it again.

A recipe isn't going to change year to year.

The opening hours for the world's most famous museum aren't going to change every season.

Travel and recipe bloggers have it easy in that way.

But for me providing comprehensive guides on what is literally called fast moving consumer goods, means that I am constantly on my website updating my lolly guides, my ice cream guides and many more.

I was looking at my Halloween guide last weekend and I looked back at the records to see how much money it earned last year.

$15.

Not per day. Total.

A logical person would look at that and say "Okay, that's about half an hour's work at minimum wage."

And that's all they would put into an update.

I guess I'm pretty stupid in a way because I often invest a lot more time than any astute business person would.

Because while I started out wanting this to be sustainable financially and I still do, it's more important for me to know that I'm helping the gluten free community and ensuring that people, especially kids, aren't missing out.

I want to support all those non-gluten-free people who jump on Google. The ones who look up gluten free products so that they can provide a better experience for their coeliac friends and family.

The alternative to ads

This week I saw a gluten free blogger in the UK who is considering shutting down their website rather than putting ads on it.

The increasing costs for them, nearing $1,000 per year is something they can no longer justify.

There is this fear among bloggers who have never had ads on their website. The thought that users may revolt and refuse to use their content.

And while negative comments always stick in my mind longer, the fact is I've only ever had about three or four people complain about ads in the last four years.

So while I could afford to keep my website online without any ads running, I certainly could not justify the time it takes to update it every week without being compensated.

What the future may bring

Over in the US, Meta (the owner of Facebook and Instagram) has changed the system for owners of pages on Facebook.

Page owners will only be able to share two links to a website per month unless they pay a hefty subscription fee starting at $400 USD per month.

That means for example, food bloggers who share links to three or four recipes per day will be restricted to two per month.

Thankfully this isn't affecting Australian page owners yet.

But if it does, it is going to decimate the traffic to my website.

I actually only started my Facebook page to promote my website. I felt like I was putting so much work into it and not enough people were seeing it.

I made the page purely to share links and tell people about it.

I'm hoping that this subscription model in the US will absolutely backfire and they'll scrap it.

If not, I'm going to have to completely rethink my strategy.

Kati x

PS. The articles I've published this month are all top notch. Self saucing pudding from any kit? Hell yes.

20+ amazing cake hacks from you guys, awesome.

And delicious muffins, I made these again on Saturday and there is only one left.

Oh and of course that Halloween guide. Maybe it'll earn more than $15 this year. 😉

Latest posts on katikeksi.com​

Not up to date with the website? Here's what I've been talking about this month.

Self saucing pudding hack

Did you know that you can turn any packet cake mix into a self saucing pudding? It's so easy and wonderfully nostalgic.

Your Coles celebration cake hacks

Last month was all about Woolworths mud cake but let's bring the focus back to the OG Coles celebration cake. I've got a stack of hacks, all gluten free.

Spinach and feta muffins

Just like the ones us old gluten free people remember from Muffin Break. These are so so good, the only thing missing is the ridiculously huge size, but that just means you can eat two.

Halloween lollies

Setting up for trick or treaters? Or maybe you need to decode the lollies your kids get home with at the end of the month. Check out my guide showcasing the weird and wonderful specialty lollies for the season.

Most popular content on Facebook

What's been big on Facebook this month?

• ​Quality Street chocolates are back! They weren't imported for Christmas 2025 and a lot of people were devo.
• Rebel Bakehouse wraps (arguably the best GF wrap on the market) are now available at Aldi in SA and WA!
• Christmas products are coming! Aldi's chocolate truffles are back for 2026. If you want to see more Christmas content I've put my four guides on one handy link.
• A few cocoa options without a may contain since Nestlé changed.
• The Woolworth's gluten free mud cake is finally back in stock. If you missed my review, have a read.
• Select Coles stores now stock GF onigiri!

Instagram @kati_keksi

Do you follow me on Instagram? I tend to post different content there compared to Facebook so it's worth checking out both.

Here's what I've been sharing this month.

• Ever wondered what I sound / look like? Ben Hampton shared a reel with some excerpts from his recent podcast episode and I'm in it.
• I had a date at 100% gluten free venue Crossley St Cantina. Spanish tapas and big plates, yum!
• Just a quick little reel to reveal the cheese loaded interior of my spinach and feta muffins.
• ​All the new products that came out in September in one handy reel - with an awesome backing track.

New product alerts

Here's just a few of the new gluten free products I've seen in the last month.

• Pana Organic has released Mylo, with the line "Tastes as you'd expect. Hot or cold." They know what they're doing.
• New... recipe? That's basically a new product. Woolies has update their croissant recipe and early reports indicate it's much better.
• ​Caramel slice is on offer at Woolworths. Well, some stores - none in my area have it so it's not in this month's new products reel.
• Not a food product, a book! Melanie Persson's third cookbook Gluten Free Bakes is now out. You can buy on Amazon via my affiliate link to support me and get a copy!
• New but mixed reviews - pigs in blankets (mini sausages and bacon) at Coles.
• ​Cookies and Cream Rokeby drink - not at the majors though.
• ​Dino nuggggggggggggets. And yes, someone has already made a GF dino volcano, check out Alice's gluten free adventures.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook where I post everything I find, and if you prefer, follow me on Instagram for a monthly reel summary.

Article from the archive

Did you know I started my website back in January 2022? There's so many articles, including reviews that you can read. Here's one I picked for you.

Gluten Free 4u is a mixed bag but I'm still glad it exists

Have you been to one of the scores of Gluten Free 4u locations around the country? People's thoughts tend to vary widely, have a read of the hits and the misses.

Thanks for reading! If you want to support my work you can Buy Me a Coffee ☕.