In January 2008, I earned $304.28.

• $136.46 from Text Link Ads
• $143.85 from the renewal of a 6-month text link ad sale (direct with me)
• $23.97 from reader donation

The Text Link Ad income was the highest so far for a month without a referral bonus!  I continue to see my 10-link inventory maxed out, which is good because I can count on the income immediately, though bad because it means I cannot earn more through new sales based on my higher ad rate.

Still, after 2 months of travel, I was increasingly excited about any money I could bring in.

In December 2007, I earned $233.00.

• $129.91 from Text Link Ads
• $60.00 from Review Me (1 review written from the island of Moorea in French Polynesia)
• $43.09 from reader donations

This income took on a whole new meaning when it was deposited into my bank account.  It provided a mental boost given I had severed my ties with life in the USA and was half way around the world in New Zealand.

• $126.11 from Text Link Ads
• $527.40 from the renewal of a direct sale (5 links on different pages for 12 months)

In October, I earned $108.00

• All of it from Text Link Ads

I would’ve earned an additional $30, however I declined a Review Me request. I raised my TLA rate to $42 per link, per month, however because I’m usually running at full capacity (10 links) for the majority of each month, it’s going to take many months for new buyers to purchase my links at the higher rate.

In November, I expect to earn $134.36

• All from Text Link Ads again

I raised my Review Me price over $100, given the amount of work they require. I’m not inclined to do any now, however I may change my tune once I’m on the road. If I can continue to earn $134 a month while I’m traveling, that could cover a few splurges, an extra activity or two, or who knows!

Since I’ve saved enough to make it around the world *without* having to work, I’ve down shifted and intend to fully enjoy myself, updating my primary GoBackpacking Blog for fun instead of profit. I expect my traffic to potentially decrease as I will be posting less often. I’m still happy to have retained a PR 4 after the last Google Page Rank update, and was surprised to see Blog to Travel hit PR 2.

I depart New York City on November 30th for Tahiti!

Text link ads are currently my biggest moneymaker, and a sudden cessation of Google’s PageRank system would likely have an immediate impact on my ability to make money online. Though it’s been 5 months since the last PageRank (that boosted my backpacking blog from PRO to PR4 overnight), I believe the delay is the result of updates being made to the algorithm to detect or place less emphasis on paid text links.

Regardless of changes to Google’s PageRank strategy, I’m confident the “make money online” community is so strong at this point, it will adapt and evolve to whatever challenges come their way.  People are making thousands, if not millions, of dollars from text link ads.  For those of us focused on earning some pocket change online to fund our travels, we need only continue to subscribe to a few of the leading moneymaking blogs to see how they adapt and change.

One of her tips has already paid off to the tune of $55 in the past 24 hours. I joined the Digital Point Forum which is dedicated to internet marketing and search engine optimization. I jumped straight to the sub-forum dedicated to the buying and selling of text links, and performed a search for “travel.” I found quite a few results, and send out about 8 private messages to potential buyers. In less than 24 hours I had received $55 (via PayPal) for two different text link ads on my travel blog (1 month duration).

Despite my quick success with opening a new revenue stream via the text link marketplace in this forum, it is not my preference. Here’s a quick breakdown as I see it:

Pros’s

• Publisher receives 95-100% of sale price
• Greater flexibility with pricing (to suit individual buyers’ needs)
• Relationship building can lead to bigger sales in the future

Con’s

• If advertisers aren’t contacting you, then it’s work to go find them
• Manually managing short term ad buys takes time and good organizational skills

I consider myself lucky to be receiving the occasional ad inquiries through my site. The line from Field of Dreams, “if you build it, they will come” can ring true online. Being proactive from time to time in soliciting ad sales will be a nice compliment to the dependable and automated marketplace of Text Link Ads.

More recently, I began to track my web earnings and expenses via this service. As much as I don’t like to think about it, I will have to report my earnings on my 2007 income taxes, and having the information at my fingertips will make it easier to file online from anywhere in the world (I hope).

Also, it is a great way to share Word and Excel files online, without the need for visitors to own Microsoft Word or Excel.

YoungGoGetter.com - Do Text Link Ads Really Work

Travelhapphy.info - Make Money While You Travel With A Travel Blog

WebProNews.com - Paid Links Economy

My association with Text Link Ads continues to pay off month after month, and I’m happy to sing their praises. I project them to be my biggest earner for 2007. Sign up today and see for yourself!

I have less than 3 months to focus on growing these new domains and any others I buy before I’ll want and need to put them in auto-pilot mode. By auto-pilot mode, I mean the site design and affiliate/advertising placement is established, enough inbound links are created to build traffic, and the only work is to post new content.

Posting new content from the road should be easy enough to do from internet cafes and the occasional couchsurfer’s residence (for free!). Any money spent at the internet cafes will be an investment recouped through future web earnings. If I want to be savvy, I could even write the costs off on my federal taxes.

For those just starting out, I would recommend picking one killer domain, and investing your time and energy in building a blog or website around it. Once you learn about the various steps involved in developing an audience, and begin to earn a little money (by subscribing to this blog), you’ll find it’s easier and faster to develop additional ventures.

Based on my experience thus far, some of my streams may only pay once a year (Google AdSense, which has a $100 threshold for payout), while others have become dependable monthly sources of income (Text Link Ads, $25 threshold).

Diversifying is akin to fishing with a net, instead of a fishing rod. You could be using the fanciest fishing rod in the world, yet you can still only catch one fish at a time! Improve your catch by adopting a net mentality.

Over the last 9 months, I’ve taught myself all about blogging from the ground up: culture, etiquette, search engine optimization (SEO), marketing, writing, WordPress design, advertising sales, and more. In less than a year, I have gone from earning $0 from my website, to an average of $180 per month. While this is still a bit shy of allowing me to sustain myself abroad, it is certainly enough to pad my budget in a meaningful way in countries such as India and Thailand.

There is a small, passionate, and growing group of independent travelers who are utilizing the Internet economy as a way to fund their lives abroad. It is a tantalizing thought, and may be easier than you think to achieve!