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.
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Wow, that was fast! Great to read about your success over the past few months!
It’s great to have a product of your own to sell to bump you up a few hundred a month and also diversify a bit. I’m pretty intrigued about the consulting work you’re doing. What exactly are you helping people with? A one-on-one version of TBS? I also think the advertiser referral thing is a great idea. I wonder sometimes about whether I should ask for a fee (from the advertiser) for referring them to people. Have you scrapped Adsense altogether?
I’m hoping to be at the steady $3000 per month mark by the end of the year which might be a challenge considering how long I’ve been hovering at $1500 without moving. But I have a whole heap of sites already built to promote and a few new ways of doing it up my sleeve. Most importantly, I have boatloads of time since I’m settled in one place for a few months. That’s the key for me.
I imagine you’ll do well living in Medellin and working on that site at the same time. It’s great to see how well it’s taken off in a relatively short amount of time.
It’s great to read your reports, I’ll be following along… I find seeing you do well motivates me to keep at it too. Do you know of anyone else who gives monthly updates?
“What exactly are you helping people with? A one-on-one version of TBS?”
I’m helping them with whatever they need help with, however I think I’ll be creating a few standard packages to offer as well. With my first client, I did a site review, and we followed that up with 2-3 very detailed email exchanges with Q&A. She also wanted to bump up her earnings per month, which is why I began introducing her to my best advertisers.
“Have you scrapped Adsense altogether?”
No, I am using it on MedellinLiving.com and I still earn money from it via Lonely Planet’s Blogsherpa program, however it’s much less than if I were to add it back on GoBackpacking.com, which is actually something I’ve been thinking about recently.
“Do you know of anyone else who gives monthly updates?”
Lea Woodward from http://locationindependent.com has begun to share her earnings via their email newsletter.