Blog to Travel

Web Earnings for January 2009

Dave — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:11:52 +0000

In January 2009, I earned $272.

$131 from Donations
$71 from Text Link Ads
$70 from Linkworth

The earnings from Text Link Ads hit their lowest since my third month with the company – February 2007. Yikes! Hopefully I’ll start getting more sales again now that my Alexa Rank is improving, but Page Rank is important too, and Google most recently dropped me from 3 to 2.

Web Earnings for 2008 (Year End Total)

Dave — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:32:48 +0000

Happy 4th of July to all the Americans reading.

In 2008, I earned a total of $6,141. I doubled my 2007 income, which represented my first year of blogging and learning how to monetize my site. But about $1,000 of this represents cash gifts, donations, and payments for Dares, so the advertising growth was perhaps 75% over 2007 versus 100%.

Either way, this was my sole income for 2008 as I traveled around the world. It easily allowed me to travel longer than I would’ve done otherwise, and in more style. Having some money come in also provided a mental boost, and encouraged me to put in the hours of work each day and week required to keep the blog updated daily.

Next, time to catch everyone up on how I’ve been doing in 2009.

Web Earnings for December 2008

Dave — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:27:39 +0000

In December 2008, I earned $290.

$101 from Google AdSense
$71 from Text Link Ads
$70 from Linkworth
$48 from reader donations

My Text Link Ads stream is drying up by this point. Down from a high of about $136 nine months earlier. I think my drop in Alexa Ranking and Page Rank, combined with tough economic times, has accounted for the lack of new sales. I wrote TLA regarding the poor performance lately, and they offered to have their sales reps help to push it.

I also lost a Linkworth ad which hurts because I get 70% of my $50/month rate, or $35 per text link, per month. Much more generous than TLA, but with a lower volume of sales.

Web Earnings For November 2008

Dave — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:22:39 +0000

November was a higher-than-average month. Unfortunately, it would be followed by two lower-than-average months which resulted from non-renewals. The world’s economic troubles were pinching the budgets of advertisers.

In November 2008, I earned $678.

$389 from the direct sale of a text link
$88 from Text Link Ads
$105 from Linkworth
$97 from reader donations

I’m Still Here!

Dave — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:18:54 +0000

Hola amigos.

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.

Web Earnings For October 2008

Dave — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:55:32 +0000

I love the months where I pick up a new advertiser to pay for a 6 or 12 month commitment on a text link sale turns out to be gre

In October 2008, I earned $501.

$289 from the direct sale of a text link
$103 from Text Link Ads
$70 from Linkworth
$30 from reader donations

Web Earnings For September 2008

Dave — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:33:48 +0000

September was a great month as I contacted an advertiser early to see if he would be willing to renew 5 text links a little early. He was happy working with me, and happy to renew a little early in support of my travels. I also gained a new advertiser on Linkworth to up my earnings through that marketplace.

In September 2008, I earned $681.

$411 from the annual renewal of 5 text links
$103 from Text Link Ads
$97 from reader donations
$70 from Linkworth

Web Earnings For August 2008

Dave — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:37:03 +0000

August marked my 5th straight month of decline for income from TextLinkAds.com. As I write today, my income has declined even further, with months passing between new ad sales. It appears as though this source of income is going to dry up once the remaining ads expire.

I recently contacted Text Link Ads after reviewing the way my site is listed in their marketplace. Changes to the listings, and what I feel are gross inaccuracies in the stats are clearly hurting me, yet the company didn´t see a problem. They did offer to push my site to their salespeople to hopefully spur new interest.

In August 2008, I earned $305.

$110 from reader donations
$100 from Text Link Ads
$60 from Review Me
$35 from Linkworth

Web Earnings for July 2008

Dave — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:48:50 +0000

The last four months evened out to a nice figure for July. The direct sales of text links continue to offer the boosts I need to see a higher average income per month. Best of all, the advertisers come to me, so my part in the process continues to simply be the development of a interesting content and negotiating rates. Seems easy enough!

In July 2008, I earned $396.

$144 from direct text link sales
$119 from Text Link Ads
$98 from reader donations
$35 from Linkworth

Web Earnings for June 2008

Dave — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:45:54 +0000

Nothing much to speak of last June. It was the second time a very good month was followed by an especially low month.

In June 2008, I earned $171.

$116 from Text Link Ads
$35 from Linkworth
$20 from reader donations