In the 1st Quarter (January – March 2012), I earned a total of $13,746.

• $11,631 – Direct advertising
• $1,639* – Travel Blog Success memberships
• $320 – Advertising referrals
• $108 – Pay per Click advertising
• $49 – Affiliate sales

This averages out to $4,582 per month, and has been enough to support another two months of living in Lima, as well as eating my way through Patagonia, and renting a sweet studio apartment in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

Go Backpacking traffic averaged: 40,000 unique visits and 163,000 page views per month.

Medellin Living traffic averaged: 15,000 unique visits and 38,000 page views per month.

The travel highlight of my first quarter was a 2-week trip around Patagonia with G Adventures. After several years of following one another on Twitter, I’d approached them in 2011 about working together to promote one of their trips in South America.

I still had to pay for transport to Buenos Aires, optional activities, and food myself, but the base rate of the trip ($2,500) was covered in exchange for the coverage I provided real time through social media, as well as after the trip through my writing on both Go Backpacking, as well as the G Adventures blog.

The whole experience has been wonderful, albeit the actual travel part was quite fast-paced and a bit exhausting. Still, it’s my hope to do at least one, if not two, kinds of these trips each year.

Actually, I’m already working on my second press trip, which will be taking me back to Peru in June. I’ll share the details of that one in the 2nd Quarter report!

Note: I’m now reporting earnings on a quarterly basis, so the next (new earnings) update will be in July 2012 for the 2nd Quarter of 2012.

*Net earnings (after fees/affiliate payments)