Happy New Year!
After my record-setting month of November 2009, I expected to see a dip in December. Plus, with the holidays and people traveling, I knew the traffic to Go Backpacking would dip.
In December 2009, I earned a total of $568:
- $520 – direct banner/text links
- $35 – Linkworth
- $13.50 – affiliate sale (money collected)
Go Backpacking received 16,000 unique visits, up about 5% from the month before.
I’m actually happy with this because I don’t think I had any new sales, so it’s a reflection of recurring monthly income. I was sad to lose a long time $35/month Linkworth advertiser though.
I turned down a handful of text link ads, and my prices were simply too high for other interested parties. I raised them extra high to get a feel for a ceiling on what companies will be willing to pay, yet as my traffic grows, I continue to think the site’s value is headed towards those dollar amounts.
Now that I have 3 years of earnings on record, I can tell January 2010 is likely to be a slow month too, but then things should pick up heading into the Spring.
A few affiliations are starting to pay off for me, though not yet in collected money:
- World Nomads – I’m a few dollars shy of hitting their $250 minimum payout for the first time.
- Woo Themes – I made 4 affiliate sales in December, and that affiliate link is the 2nd most clicked at Go Backpacking (as it appears on every page in the footer). This is almost enough for me to break even on the cost of the Gazette premium theme I use there. And I am flabbergasted at how many owners of premium themes don’t use an affiliate link in their footer! They’re leaving money on the table and they don’t even realize it.
- How to Make Money with Your Travel Blog – I’ve sold a few of Nomadic Matt’s ebook, though in December he was offering a discounted price so the commission was lower.
In 2010, I’ll likely transition Medellin Living and Blog to Travel over to Woo Themes as well. Picking a preferred brand and standing behind it makes a big difference in earning money through affiliate sales. It’s akin to shooting a distant target with a sniper rifle vs spraying machine gun fire in the hopes a bullet strikes the bullseye. If that analogy didn’t make sense, then I’ll just add that affiliate marketing requires a lot more precision than I initially realized.
I intend to post a few more times this month, including a year-end report for 2009′s online earnings. I’ll give you a hint as to the results: I more than doubled 2008′s earnings, and cracked the 5-figure threshold for the first time!
Plus, I’ll share my 2010 goals for travel blogging.
Related posts:
Tags: affiliates, earnings
Good work Dave! GoBacking is an awesome URL to work with so I’m sure the success will continue.
Hi Rob,
Thanks! Yea, I bought the gobackpacking.com domain back in early 1999. Probably the best website/blog decision I’ve ever made.
Hey Dave,
Ya, getting in early has been great but it’s a shame I didn’t put more work in back in the early days! Shoulda, coulda, woulda. But having an income sprout out of a hobby is amazing. I don’t know about you, but back in 2001 when I started I didn’t expect to be able to make a living out of the internet.
It’s a shame you had such a big drop from November but if you look at it a different way you could say it’s great you had such a big November!
I’m looking like I will get back on track in January after a not so good month in December. Hopefully uou will do the same.
Kirsty
Hi Kirsty,
Always good to hear from you halfway around the world.
I definitely had a great November, and January is already looking better than December, after I sold some links on Medellin Living the first week.
But I’m more excited about the huge bump in traffic GoBackpacking.com is experiencing right now. Page impressions are up something crazy like 30%, and it’s coming from Google. It’s not a spike tied to any particular bookmarking/social media network, so I’m hoping that even if it tapers as the month wears on, these new numbers are here to stay through the Spring as people prepare for their 2010 travels.
Hey, hope you come back very fast with much articles. I like your Blog.