In March 2010, I earned a total of $2,779.
- $1,697 – Direct advertising (banners, text links, paid reviews)
- $775 – Travel Blog Success
- $262 – World Nomads affiliate payment
- $35 – Linkworth text link ad
- $10 – Miscellaneous affiliate payment
The second month of Travel Blog Success was almost as strong as the first. This was partly the result of Clickbank’s accounting policies, and how they issue payments. I record my earnings per month based on the amount of money that hits my PayPal or bank accounts, not how much I made on paper alone.
The World Nomads payment was a nice chunk of change, though I feel like it took way too long for me to earn my first affiliate payment from them. I should probably do more to promote their travel insurance products going forward, given they’re perfectly suited for my core audience (and I’ve used them as well).
I launched my first digital product, a membership course called Travel Blog Success (TBS), February 1, 2010.
It immediately stuck a chord, and opened up a new income stream for me. I was unsure of how it would be received (was the price too high, would the content be valued, etc.), however the four months of work it took to create the content and build the site paid off. I was no longer solely dependent on advertising and affiliate sales.
In February 2010, I earned a total of $2,698.
- $1,644 – Direct advertising (banners, text links, paid reviews)
- $836 – Travel Blog Success
- $141 – Google AdSense
- $35 – Linkworth text link ad
- $33 – Amazon.com affiliate payment (mostly due to one netbook purchase before holidays)
- $10 – Miscellaneous affiliate payment
I really thought January was going to be an average to low month, but it turned out to be my second highest month on record.
In January 2010, I earned a total of $2,055
- $1,927 – Direct advertising (banners, text links, paid reviews)
- $67 – Woo Themes affiliate payment
- $35 – Linkworth text link ad
- $26 – Nomadic Matt affiliate payment (for his ebook)
My traffic was the highest on record for a single month at Go Backpacking: 25,000 unique visits and over 50,000 page views. This was helped by the fact that the blog was a top 5 finalist for the Best Travel Weblog award in the 2010 Bloggies.
I don’t usually try to win those popularity contest type of awards because it requires me to appeal to my audience to vote, but this time I really went all out. This is only the second year (out of ten) that they’ve had a unique travel blog category, and I want to win it. Not that it comes with a big reward, $20.10, but because it would be a nice selling point to throw out at potential sponsors. A little recognition can go a long way.
Two weeks into February, it’s looking like I’ll easily be able to surpass January thanks to the successful launch of my new membership site, Travel Blog Success.
If you like what you see and read here, consider joining the course and community I built from scratch to help others achieve the same results, and better, than me!
Tags: earnings
