A Couple Travelers By The Numbers: Dec ’12 Income – $2170
It’s hard to believe we’re in 2013 and spending our last day in Vietnam. I imagine that is pretty surprising given the lack of Vietnam posts we’ve had on the blog, but there’s a reason for that I’ll get to later. The last three and a half months of travel have been fantastic. We’ve already covered 4 countries I probably didn’t think I’d visit for another 20 years before this trip. We’ve seen what it’s like to blow through a country in only 10 days, as well as what it’s like to spend nearly 2 months in one. We’ve traveled on trains, planes, and automobiles, as well as boats, buses, and motorcycles. We’ve celebrated Halloween with Chinese students and Christmas with Vietnam’s EasyRiders.
There’s been a lot of adventures and we’re not slowing down. 2013 is already looking to be a fantastic year. January will be spent mostly on the Thai islands where Vicky’s parents will be joining us. It’s mostly going to be a lot of down time where we’ll catch up on our posts and if all things go according to plan, pursue a few of the ideas Vicky and I have floating around. The plan right now is highly tentative, but we’re hoping to spend a few more months in SEA while the weather is nice before jumping over to Europe in late May. Come November, we’ll set off to conquer Everest Base Camp in Nepal, and then India. This, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg. To see all the details, you’re just going to have to follow along!
Summary
Social Media: Frankly, social media has never been our strong point. It’s a lot of work with questionable dividends. If there’s anything to announce in this category it’s that we’re looking into hiring an assistant to help with the blog. Actually, we’ve already worked with two during December and we’re hashing out the details as to how we’re going to incorporate one on a more full time basis (more like 10-20 hours a month).
Traffic: In November traffic fell a bit as a result of the holidays. December was similar. The fact of the matter is we’ve plateaued and don’t really have any idea as to how we’re going to get over this 10k page views/month hump. It’s not a bad place to be though and we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing, while hoping that the addition of an assistant will allow Vicky and I to focus on writing, photography, and potentially some new endeavors that we’ve been waiting for January to explore.
Guest posts and interviews this month:
- Interview On Way-Away.com
- Interview On 1000fights
- Guest Post On Careerbreaksecrets: What are you going to do when you get back?
and the interviews we do on our site
Advertising: December was another great month for advertising. We were invited by some other bloggers to share contacts, which always adds a few fresh leads. We also did some work with Arribaa but unfortunately their site was not getting enough users and they are no longer operating. So here we are again, looking for companies to work with, advertisers to contact, and a list of about 40 ideas, a few of which we’re looking to pursue in January. So far, things are looking good for January, and, given the nature of the work, we pretty much take it one month at a time.
Social Media
Website Statistics
Google Page Rank: 2/10
Domain Authority: 38/100
Advertising
Total Advertising Revenue: $2,990
- Direct Advertising ACoupleTravelers: $2,015
- Sponsorships (Arribaa) ACoupleTravelers: $155
- Direct Advertising AvocadoPesto: $820
Total Value Received: $356
- Sapa Sisters Tour (Discount) – $50
- Hanoi Cooking Class (Discount) – $27.5
- Halong Bay Tour (Discount) – $78
- Easy Rider (Discount) – $200
Find previous traffic updates:
Previous Income Updates (Travel Blog)
- August 2012 – $55
- September 2012 – $490
- October 2012 – $1345
- November 2012 – $2031
- December 2012 – $2170
- January 2013 – $2925
Previous Income Updates (Food Blog)
- July 2012 – $47
- August 2012 – $117
- September 2012 – $128
- October 2012 – $825
- November 2012 – $1019
- December – $837
Wow, over $2000 in direct advertising?! Out of curiosity, was this sponsored posts, banner ads, or some combo of the two? Wondering how many ads you had to sell to get to that number, as most of the offers we’ve seen lately have been ridiculously low…
Bret @ Green Global Travel recently posted..GGT’s Top 10 Dream Trips For 2013
Brett, I counted 4 sponsored posts that appeared on the home page in the month of December. We usually try to limit it to once a week, as we write very frequently (often 5 times a week) so we feel this is an OK amount for our readers to endure. Two of them fit in very seamlessly as they were themes that Vicky and I were going to touch upon anyways and we just wrote the articles ourselves. Some of our sponsored posts (aside from the aforementioned 4) did not appear on the homepage or in any of the feeds/archives. In these cases I get approval from the advertiser ahead of time, so in essence it would be like they don’t exist but the link is genuine and they don’t seem to mind. There’s a plugin for this BTW. We also had a few other things, sidebar links, our arribaa partnership, etc to total the full 2k.
You mentioned a plug-in to keep the posts out of both your feed and homepage? This sounds like just what I’ve been looking for. Do you happen to have the info on the plugin?
Kenin – The Constant Rambler recently posted..Carnival in Trinidad, A White Man’s Guide!
WP Hide Post – just sent you an email
I’m excited to see what your ideas will be!
Thanks we will continue to update you monthly!
Wow! That’s great. Thanks for sharing your inner workings. It’s always inspiring to see how others are doing it. Cheers!
Linda McCormick recently posted..The How and Why of an Ecological Pee In The Woods
Thanks a bunch Linda!
You’ve inspired me to keep workin’ on the blog! Keep up the great work!
Curious Nomad recently posted..5 Festivals to celebrate the end of the world
Definitely keep it up, it can pay off!
You guys thinking about going to TBEX in Dublin at all??
Bethaney – Flashpacker Family recently posted..Our 2013 Travel Plans… Sort Of.
when is it again? Are you going?
Wow ! You guys planning to visit Everest !! Cool !! I guess entering Nepal were much easier than Tibet , :p
I didn’t find any banner ads actually , you guys doing that so well !! I never thought running a website can make profit , Dave was not only smart in Math !!! Have you guys learning Advertising / Marketing in college ??
Larry
Thanks Larry haven’t heard from you in awhile! We didn’t think we’d be doing so well either but I guess you never know. Neither of us have a background in advertising or marketing so this is very new for us!
I was preparing for my finals :p Belated —Happy New year !!!
You too!
It’s amazing how quickly your revenue has shot up I’d love for my websites to see this type of growth. I’ve never heared of LINKLIFT so I’ll give that a try.
Thanks,
Lewis
Lewis Saka recently posted..How the Roger Ebert Effect Can Take Your Website from $0 to $1 Million
Yeah we’re very surprised ourselves. Definitely give it a try, at least to get your feet wet a bit
Hey guys definitely keen to hear more about what you are planning in January. We are very keen to work with other bloggers on projects so do email us if you think we can help you out in anyway possible!
Also interested to know more about your assistant! Costs etc.
Will be in touch
Cole @ FourJandals.com recently posted..Travel Adventure of the Year – The Ultimate Train Challenge 2013
would love to discuss it – send us an email and I’ll share all the deets!