GoBackpacking's RSS Feedreader Stats

Slow and steady wins the race.

In January 2010, I’ll have been blogging on GoBackpacking for 3 years, with 20 months of it spent traveling around the world.  And I am just now breaking the 800-subscriber mark.

See the steep uptick toward the very right edge?  That corresponds with the end of my ’round the world trip.

At that time, I began to leverage Twitter to create a new source of traffic, and also compiled my dares from the trip into an eBook which I am giving away as a bonus for RSS/newsletter subscribers.

Being unemployed does have its benefits, at least in the short term.

Join Travel Blog Success and learn to build a better travel blog.

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1. Stay Organized with Google Docs and Spreadsheets
2. Web Earnings for October 2009
3. Web Earnings for 2008 (Year End Total)

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.

Join Travel Blog Success and learn to build a better travel blog.

Related posts:

1. Web Earnings for August 2009
2. Web Earnings for June 2010

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!

Join Travel Blog Success and learn to build a better travel blog.

Related posts:

1. Nomadic Matt’s Make Money Travel Blogging eBook
2. Web Earnings for March 2009
3. Another $9 Domain Name Purchased via GoDaddy.com