Hola amigos.
This is just a quick update to let you know I’m still here. If building one successful blog (GoBackpacking) is a lot of work, then I’ve learned the last few months that building a second one from scratch (Medellin Living) is about double the work! No shortcuts.
Thankfully my gamble on the second one paid off with almost immediate SEO and traffic results. I’m even making some money from it already, and arranged my first contributing author to help keep the content fresh when I leave Colombia for home in the USA next month.
I’m still very dedicated to sharing what I’m making from my sites, as well as how I’m doing in growing that income. I’ll need to catch up with the Earnings Updates, and then my postings should start to become more regular.
As a teaser, I’ll let you know exactly where I’m at right now.
May 2009 was my second highest earnings month on record. I earned over $1,300! And as expected, June is down from that, and closer to my monthly average for the year. Overall, my earnings are up about 20% over 2008, and that doesn’t discount the donations and cash gifts I received last year while traveling. The real growth number from paid advertisers is probably closer to 30%.
My goal is to reach a sustainable traveling income over the next 12 months. At the moment, I’m setting that figure at $1,500 per month, which means I’ll have to figure out how to double my recurring income. Then, I’ll really open up my options for being able to take another long term backpacking trip! 
I’ve begun a new series over at GoBackpacking called Developing A Successful Travel Blog. I haven’t hit the monetization aspects of travel blogging yet, but there’s still a lot of good info being posted each week. Be sure to check it out, and I’ll talk to you soon.
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