Did Shareaholic eat my viewers?

Quite some time ago when I became disillusioned with Adwords and the general Google universe I installed Shareaholic on this blog (and my other sites).

I don’t depend on the revenue the sites generate (none, by the way) but I was hoping to get a bit more reach through some of the magic that was promised.

My Shareaholic experience?

Continue reading Did Shareaholic eat my viewers?

Travel Blogging: Skeptics Unite

Ive already expressed my skepticism of the “Blogger Dream” – and gone a little ways to describing some of the pitfalls and pittances it can earn.  However I still enjoy reading about the dream and occasionally have fantasies about getting rich quick.

Travel Blogging is hard?

I suppose it is, in fact like most creative pursuits it takes time and effort to plan, write and post content that will attract and maintain an audience that’s also willing to follow up with Facebook Likes or Retweets.  Although the best perspective I’ve seen thrown on it comes from Theodora at escapeartistes.com

It’s not subsistence farming in a drought. It’s not child protection or first response. It’s not labouring in the sewers, in a sweatshop, or on zero-hours contracts at the minimum wage. Nor is it rocket science, the SAS or brain surgery.

She then goes on to point out the low barrier to entry, hey I meet all of that, well except maybe the high-spec photographic equipment and I’m only partially convinced of my own delusions of grandeur.

Really there’s more, lots more, but you should really pop over to her nicely detailed post on “Why I’ll Never be a Professional Travel Blogger” and then think about what you’re reading when Zite, News360 or Flipboard throws you yet another tantalising story of how some witty hipster has travelled the world for free.

Yes my friends, they may not have spent much money to get around the world but their credibility is traded the moment they don’t declare the true financial link to what they’re reviewing.

Living the Blogger Dream on 7c a day!

Back in January I wrote about how I was so happy to be making 2.4c a day between this blog and Youtube content.

Well a solid 6 months has passed and it’s time to review the situation.  I’ve not pumped this site full of content nor have I piled on the Youtube content so I guess in part it’s been a failure.  As it turns out making interesting content is hard work!

As it turns out making interesting content is hard work!

What I can say is that typically my income is now much higher than 2.4c per day and peaked (after my March-April trip to Malaysia) at a massive 12.8c per day – a 500% increase in income!

So what have I “earned”?

Jul 1, 2014 – Jul 31, 2014 $2.43
Jun 1, 2014 – Jun 30, 2014 $1.73
May 1, 2014 – May 31, 2014 $3.93
Apr 1, 2014 – Apr 30, 2014 $2.75
Mar 1, 2014 – Mar 31, 2014 $1.12
Feb 1, 2014 – Feb 28, 2014 $2.97
Jan 1, 2014 – Jan 31, 2014 $0.88
Total: $15.81
Daily (211 Days) $0.07

 

I think that says it all, AUD0.07 per day on average for the 211 days through until the end of July 2014.

As you can see the income is sporadic and based heavily on how much effort I put into content and also into promotion.  The Renault information certainly boosts the Google rankings and generates traffic but it’s also complex research to generate.  Travel writing doesn’t generate much traffic, but I haven’t written much yet, and honestly really would need to start pushing it harder.

income is sporadic and based heavily on how much effort I put into content and also into promotion

What I do know and understand is that to build revenue I need to start pushing better content related advertisements. Perhaps Google Adsense isn’t the cash vehicle it’s cracked up to be?  I presume using better targeted programs would work, or having a greater level of hits would drive up traffic?  Maybe infusing some Airline ticket search engines would work, they can generate a decent return, assuming someone uses it to buy themselves tickets!

No matter what the outcomes are for me what I can definitely say is that unless a person has a lot of time on their hands and a fairly sizeable chunk of cash to spend on promoting their travel blog they’re not going to be living high on the proceeds of their words!

I’m also very happy to say that the experiment continues with my 7 cents per day almost 300% more than when I started!

Thanks for the Clicks on the ads and thanks for the page views.