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)

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In 2011, I earned a total of $44,313.

• $34,376 – Direct advertising (78%)
• $5,731* – Travel Blog Success memberships (13%)
• $2,912 – Advertising referrals (6%)
• $866 – Affiliate sales (2%)
• $428 – Pay per Click advertising (1%)

I made 20% more than in 2010, however my expenses also increased sharply as I bought new equipment and began paying contributors for the first time.

This averages out to $3,693 per month, and was more than enough for me to comfortably afford the location independent lifestyle I’ve dreamed about:

Travel

• Travel Japan for 11 days
• Travel Ecuador (including a cruise to the Galapagos) for 2 months
• Travel Peru (including a trek to Machu Picchu) for 2.5 months
• And live in Medellin, Colombia for 6 months

New Gear

I also upgraded ALL my key electronics to the latest and greatest:

• 13″ MacBook Air
• iPhone 4S
• Canon S100 camera

Now that I’m traveling with high priced Apple gear, I also took out an international property insurance policy to protect my investments in the event of theft or loss. At $160 per year, I found it surprisingly cheap.

New Theme

My other single biggest investment of the year was a new custom theme for my largest blog, Go Backpacking.

This cost about $1,700 not including some further improvements made after the launch. It took 4 months to complete.

Traffic

Go Backpacking traffic averaged: 35,000 unique visits and 104,500 page views per month.

Go Backpacking’s visits grew slightly in 2011, though page views cross the 1.2 million mark (which sounds really cool).

Medellin Living traffic averaged: 9,750 unique visits and 25,000 page views per month.

These figures don’t tell the tale of growth on Medellin Living. Due to a focus on improving SEO, traffic doubled in the second half of the year.

It’s still a very niche site, however it’s indisputably the #1 blog about Medellin, Colombia. I just need to figure out ways to better use it to make money in 2012.

Note: I’m now reporting earnings on a quarterly basis, so the next (new earnings) update will be in early April 2012 for the 1st Quarter of 2012.

*Net earnings (after fees/affiliate payments)

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In the 4th Quarter (October – December 2011), I earned a total of $9,658.

• $7,732 – Direct advertising
• $1,530* – Travel Blog Success memberships
• $238 – Affiliate sales
• $120 – Pay per Click advertising
• $38 – Advertising referrals

This averages out to $3,219 per month, and has been more than enough for me to travel Peru, and live comfortably in Lima’s upscale Miraflores district.

Go Backpacking traffic averaged: 40,000 unique visits and 71,000 page views per month.

Medellin Living traffic averaged: 13,000 unique visits and 27,000 page views per month.

In the last update, I talked about the value of re-investing in my online business.

In the 4th Quarter, I went on a 5-day trek to Machu Picchu, dined at one of the world’s 50 best restaurants (Astrid & Gaston), and used my quick 1-week return to the USA to stock up on new electronics, including:

• iPhone 4S (32 GB)
• Canon S100 (w/HD video)
• 1 TB Seagate external hard drive (to replace a 500 GB drive that broke)

Along with my 13″ MacAir, this constitutes my most essential gear. And unless something breaks or is stolen, I don’t foresee the need to buy anything new for several years.

I’ll post an annual summary of my online income for 2011 soon, so stay tuned for another record year!

Note: I’m now reporting earnings on a quarterly basis, so the next (new earnings) update will be in early April 2012 for the 1st Quarter of 2012.

*Net earnings (after fees/affiliate payments)

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In the 3rd Quarter (July – Sept 2011), I earned a total of $12,929.

• $9,768 – Direct advertising
• $1,869* – Travel Blog Success memberships
• $893 – Advertising referrals
• $399 – Affiliate sales

This averages out to $4,310 per month, and has been more than enough for me to live off of in Colombia, and begin traveling the rest of South America.

Go Backpacking traffic averaged: 36,000 unique visits and 120,000 page views per month.

Medellin Living traffic averaged: 13,000 unique visits and 29,000 page views per month.

One of the lessons I learned early on was the benefit of re-investing online income into your websites to help them grow faster. Aside from the membership earnings, these reports reflect gross profits.

What am I investing in, you might ask?

• 8-day cruise through the Galapagos Islands
• New 13″ MacBook Air (highly recommended)
• New custom design for GoBackpacking.com

This update is coming to you from Cuenca, Ecuador. I’ve fallen for the old world charm of this city, and have decided to spend a 2nd week here.

The fact that I can spend 2 weeks here, which amounts to the average American’s vacation time for a YEAR, makes me feel incredibly lucky to be living this location independent lifestyle.

And it’s all possible because I’ve learned how to make money travel blogging.

Note: I’m now reporting earnings on a quarterly basis, so the next update will be in early January 2012 for Q4 (October, November, December).

*Net earnings (after fees/affiliate payments)

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• $4,117 – Direct advertising
• $158 – Advertising referrals
• $757* – Travel Blog Success memberships
• $24 – Affiliate sales

June 2011 was another $5k+ month!  

Go Backpacking traffic is holding steady:  32,000 uniques and 115,000 views.

Medellin Living continued to grow: 8,500 uniques and 44,000 views.

The increase in earnings from Travel Blog Success this month were the result of a sale I ran to coincide with the annual Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) conference, which was held in Vancouver, Canada.

Conferences offer travel bloggers an excellent opportunity to network in person.

I attended the 2010 TBEX conference in New York City and had the chance to make lots of new connections. This year, I preferred to stay put in Colombia versus leaving early, before my 6-months were up.

Note: Going forward, I’m going to report on a quarterly basis, so the next update will be in early October for Q3 (July, August, September). I feel this will help present a more well-rounded snapshot of my earnings.

*Net earnings (after fees/affiliate payments)

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• $3,902 – Direct advertising
• $648 – Advertising referrals
• $400* – Travel Blog Success memberships
• $140 – Affiliate sales
• $102 – Pay Per Click Advertising

May 2011 was a record month!  I cleared $5,000 for the first time, and would’ve been closer to $5,500 if it weren’t for a few overdue payments.

Go Backpacking traffic is holding steady:  35,000 uniques and 120,000 views.

Medellin Living rocketed to a new high: 8,000 uniques and 36,000 views.

In the next few months, I’ll be focused on building content and links for two new niche travel sites. This will allow me to better leverage existing advertisers that I work with, as well as the new ones approaching me daily who have lower budgets.

I also want to write and start selling my first ebook, a city guide to Medellin.  I’ll probably price it low, anywhere from $2 – $5, and see what comes of it. I’m especially interested in extending the authority I’ve built up over the last two years on travel in Colombia to the Amazon/Kindle/guidebook realm.

*Net earnings (after fees/affiliate payments)

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• $1,923 – Direct advertising
• $851* – Travel Blog Success memberships
• $678 – Advertising referrals
• $4 – Affiliate sales

April’s total turned out to be an interesting series of digits:  3 – 4 – 5 – 6.  Hopefully that’s a lucky sign for what May holds.

I would’ve broken the $4,000 mark for the first time since December 2010, however a few advertisers were taking longer than usual to send payment. It turned out at least one of them was delayed because of an internal debate about whether to proceed with text link renewals in the aftermath of the Google “Panda” update.

One of my goals for 2011 was to start earning $500 per sponsored post on Go Backpacking, and I met that goal in April, though the inquiry came at the end of the month so the payment will be reflected in May’s report.

I’m excited to be back on track, earning $3,000+ per month after a slow start to the year.

*Net earnings (after fees/affiliate payments)

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• $3,714 – Direct advertising
• $107 – Advertising referrals
• $58* – Travel Blog Success memberships
• $4 – Affiliate sales

I began to get a lot of new, high quality advertisers coming to me in early March, and it turned into a solid month overall. Unless a friend refers me to a specific advertiser, 99% of the time I only respond to inquiries, versus sending them out proactively. This is one of the big benefits to ranking well in search engines.

March was big for another reason, I re-opened Travel Blog Success to new members.

*Net earnings (after fees/affiliate payments)

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• $1,299 – Direct advertising
• $374 – Advertising referrals
• $97 – Affiliate sales
• $38* – Travel Blog Success memberships

This month I saw my earnings dip to their lowest in 10 months, and it made me question whether I should’ve pulled down Travel Blog Success while I worked on creating the new resources (lessons and interviews). It didn’t help matters that I spent the first 12 days in Japan, and then immediately flew (still jetlagged) back to Medellin, Colombia for another 6 month stay.

As in January, several advertisers chose not to renew, which felt indirectly related to the big algorithm changes Google was making. It seemed to be cause for some SEO companies to take pause, and reconsider their strategies. This might have happened anyways, given it was still the start of a new year.

Either way, February 2011 reminded me of why it’s important to create multiple income streams, and preferably ones that reach a minimum monthly average (which is at least enough to support yourself on a bare bones budget).

*Net earnings (after fees/affiliate payments)

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• $1,920 – Direct advertising
• $229* – Travel Blog Success memberships
• $101 – Pay Per Click advertising
• $64 – Affiliate sales
• $16 – Advertising referrals

2011 got off to a slower start than I expected. Several previously dependable advertisers chose not to renew their ads, and to compound the situation, I closed Travel Blog Success to new members in order to revamp it.

It was a reminder that while my earnings continue to rise year to year, in any given month I can see wide swings in my income. I’m sure this is nothing new for freelancers, such as travel writers and graphic designers, but it’s a long way from the steady, biweekly paycheck I could always count on at my old office job.

*Net earnings (after fees/affiliate payments)

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