In June 2010, I earned a total of $2,556.
- $1,401 – Direct advertising (banners, text links, paid reviews)
- $637 – Travel Blog Success
- $261 – Private consulting
- $193 – Commission Junction affiliate payment
- $63 – Linkworth text link ad
June was a strong month, and by now, my average income for the year was over $2,000 per month.
My rough goal for the year was to reach the $5,000 per month mark, however that seems like a long ways off. Instead, I’d really like to reach the $3,000 per month mark by year’s end, and then focus on $5,000/month for 2011. That kind of income would allow me to live just about anywhere in the world, from New York City to Rio de Janeiro. My eye is on the latter.
I ran a ten day, 20%-off sale for Travel Blog Success to coincide with the Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) conference in New York City. Several affiliates helped to publicize it, which earned them some money, and my sales were double the norm that month.
The private consulting income was the result of an agreement I made with the client to refer advertisers her way, in exchange for a share of any earnings she made. Because she was already well established, with good traffic and Page Rank, the advertisements practically sold themselves. She was happy, and I was happy.
Part of me wondered whether I should be getting paid for those referrals. I’ve referred advertisers to a few of my friends simply to help them out. Then I realized that the payments were incentive for me to contact the advertisers, and do a little pre-screening work before getting my client involved. I’m sure this saved her time, and given she was traveling, made her life easier. During the second half of 2010, while I’m here in Colombia, I intend to pursue the consulting angle further.
Lastly, I earned my first affiliate payment from Commission Junction, and it was a big one. It was the result of a large purchase through a GoDaddy affiliate links. I’m guessing the buyer was via my membership site, as I haven’t earned money from GoDaddy for the small number of other links I’ve used on blogs in the past.
In May 2010, I earned a total of $2,248.
- $1,615 – Direct advertising (banners, text links, paid reviews)
- $399 – Travel Blog Success
- $136 – Private consulting
- $55 – Linkworth text link ad
- $44 – Miscellaneous affiliate payment
By May, earnings from Travel Blog Success appeared to be leveling off at $400 per month, or $100 per week. While I’d been hoping for more new members to join each week and month, I’ve been satisfied with results of creating and launching my first product (ever!).
My goal with Travel Blog Success was never to earn a living completely off of it, but rather to launch a product that could supplement my other online income sources, and thereby allow me to live abroad, or travel again, sooner rather than later. Basically, I saw it as a means to expedite the growth of my online earnings.
Considering I am writing this update from a comfortable room I’m renting in a new building in Medellin, Colombia, I’d say my plan worked out well.
May 2010 marked the start of my first foray into private consulting. I’d created the membership site to help travelers build high quality blogs, however there will always be people who for one reason or another, prefer to work on a 1:1 basis. The earnings from consulting were based on an agreed upon hourly rate, which I set quite low in order to gain the client and test the waters.
In April 2010, I earned a total of $1,544.
- $962 – Direct advertising (banners, text links, paid reviews)
- $489 – Travel Blog Success
- $58 – Woo Themes affiliate payment
- $35 – Linkworth text link ad
My streak of 3 straight months over the $2,000 mark ended in April, however I was still happy to be earning over 3 times what I made the same month the year before (2009).
Travel Blog Success earnings dipped noticeably, and I knew a plateau was inevitable. I found the post-launch marketing push to be more draining than I expected, and I didn’t keep the sales pressure up for very long.
On the plus side, the feedback from the people joining was very positive. I’d only had a handful of refund requests, and those were in the first few weeks, mostly due to personal financial reasons (ie. they shouldn’t have purchased the membership to begin with).
