Travel Blog Income Report March 2024 – $6,646

March 2024 Travel Blog Traffic Report

Our traffic on Living the Dream for the month of March was roughly 21,950 page views. This was a decrease of 20% on a per day basis from February and a decrease of 45% from March 2023.

March's Core Algorithm update in Google has been a huge hit to most blogs, and ours are no different. While our new, niche sites not included in this roundup were hit far worse, and other trave sites were certainly impacted far more than ours, this one still hurts.

We have essentially just been knocked back another two years in traffic after recovering from COVID, and, well, ouch.

Still, as my number one piece of advice for any would be bloggers is “would you still do this even if you weren't making money?”, I have to stop and admit- I'm not going anywhere.

On the Discover the Burgh front, our traffic in March was approximately 124,200 page views. This was an increase of 2.5% on a per day basis from February and a decrease of 25% from March 2023.

Our local site is a bit of an outlier this month because we saw MoM growth slightly. But, unfortunately, it isn't until looking back YoY that we also noted a considerable drop. 25% is not terrible for where things are globally right now (our travel blog did drop 45% YoY after all), but we have noticed a drop all the same.

A rise in social media clicks has helped here, but also we have noted that some of our big articles in search are holding in traffic despite dropping 3, 4, 5+ positions in SERPs. Yes, the content above ours is really that bad that people still continue to scroll further down and click our content anyway.

Hopeful? Maybe. Terrified? Maybe. We are just continuing on because that is what we do.

March 2024 Travel Blog Income Report

Our booked income for February was approximately $6,646- up approximately 5% on a per-day basis from February and an increase of 3% from March 2023. This income was approximately 85% from our local blog and 15% from our travel blog.

The breakdown includes the approximate following:

*CPM Ads: $3,500
*Affiliates: $2,396
*Facebook Bonus: $300
*Calendar: $50
*Consulting: $400

Despite our traffic drop overall, our income was, surprisingly, up. Not by a lot, but but enough that we are up both MoM and YoY.

There are a lot of reasons for this. First off was that ad rates seem to be rising and offesting the drop in traffic almost proportionally. Second, we had a record month of bookings on Stay22 with a higher-than-normal average commission rate. Third, we're starting to see some increase in earnings around consulting and social bonuses, too!

So while there is a lot to be worried about, I have to admit, this was a bit refreshing to see. Now if it can hold in the future!

March 2024 Expenses

Our dedicated blog expenses* for the month of March were roughly $650 with the following breakdown:

*Advertising: $216
*Programs: $344
*Certification Course Renewal: $90

I dropped back on my advertising spending this month once the traffic decrease started, and with a few programs renewing (like Carbonite and our calendar plugin), we more or less hit our general baseline spending for the month.

I do not have a lot to say about this one for now, but suffice it to say I need to evaluate my spending more moving forward to be careful in case our income remains variable.

*We do not share our travel/local expenses in this report. This can be anywhere from $100-$3,000+ per month extra, but your mileage may vary as the costs to generate content can vary wildly from blog to blog. We strive to only share true blog operating expenses here.

April 2024 Goals

March was a bit of a gut punch with the latest Google Core Algorithm update hitting most every blog on the planet- ours included.

That said, I have to admit that our monthly drop was not as bad as many others, and we feel quite lucky in that respect.

Still, our thoughts have shifted to working on more active work projects over relying on passive income means that are tied to traffic (ads/affiliates).

I ended up spending a bit of time over the month setting up new pages for consulting services on our local blog, and overhauling our we publish Reels. This came at a bit of a sacrifice on the guidebook and certifications end as they took a bit of time; however, I am hoping to make that a main push for the month of April.

This will also be a short month as we are heading out on another trip, so my time available to work will be limited. Still, the message is clear- more active work is in my future.

Looking For Past Reports?

Unlike other websites that host an article series on this topic, we only have one article for our travel blog income and traffic reports.

We do this for a number of reasons, but it is mostly because we do not want dozens upon dozens of posts on our site on this one specific topic. Over time, the monthly details become irrelevant and trends are the only thing that matters.

To compensate for this, we update this article every month based on our current data and publish a graphical summary of previous months as well. If you have any questions about data from a specific month we are happy to share more details via email if you contact us.