Euro Trip: 28 Days Later

If you’re new to this blog, click here to learn about the idea behind this website and my recent Euro Trip. 

It’s been 28 days since I left California and began this trip. 20 days since my last budget update. I had originally planned to post weekly and monthly budget updates, but the time just hasn’t been there.

I don’t write in the daytime because I feel should be out immersing myself in the local culture. I haven’t written much at night because these long summer days have been exhausting. As a result, I’ve decided to just post budget updates whenever I get around to them. Today happens to be one of those days!

Monetization

If you recall, this website places a heavy emphasis on transparency. I’m not only sharing with you my travel expenses for a round the world trip. I’m also sharing with you the financial aspects of running a travel blog from the very beginning.

Now that the website has been up and running with a small following of family and friends, it’s time to monetize.

Google Adsense

One of the obvious ways that websites make money is by displaying ads. The most popular and widely used is Google’s Adsense program. As of July 9th, this website was approved for the program. You may have noticed some ads displayed if you’ve visited in the last week or so.

Google pays based off CPC and CPM, which means cost-per-click and cost-per-thousand (roman numeral, if you’re wondering why it’s an M and not a T). CPC refers to how many times a visitor to your website clicks an ad. CPM refers to how many times an ad has been displayed per 1000 impressions.

Advertisers then bid on the space you’ve made available in the niche they want to advertise in. The size and type of an ad is taken into heavy consideration. Visual and text ads generally pay more than just text. Once ads have been displayed and/or clicked on, Google is paid by the advertiser. You are then given your cut of the deal.

Amazon Associate

Another common way of making money is to affiliate your website with Amazon. You can then share referral links on your website to specific items sold on Amazon. If a user buys anything on Amazon within 24 hours after clicking the link (even something different than you linked them to), you will receive a small commission. The rates vary depending on the type of item purchased. This website has been approved for the Amazon Associate program.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, I do have a few problems with the program. First, if after clicking your link they decide to do some more research elsewhere and then click another Amazon link, your referral is no longer valid. Secondly, most people won’t purchase something right away. Especially if you’re linking to something expensive like a travel backpack or laptop. They may come back to it in a few days or so, but your referral is only valid 24 hours. That’s also assuming they don’t click an Amazon link somewhere else during that span.

Wait, Amazon websites are not all linked?

Nope! Amazon programs from around the world are not linked together. Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, etc. are all separate. Meaning if I link to a product on Amazon.com (USA) and someone from another country clicks and purchases something, I don’t receive a commission. You can sign up for each countries associate program, but you will then have to post a link corresponding to that countries website. For example, if I wanted to share a link and gain commission from all Amazon programs, I’d have to share a link to every countries website separately.

Fortunately, Amazon has recently been making some changes. You can now link Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and Amazon.uk. You can now post one link (the new feature is even called One Link), that will display the correct website based on the users location. Unfortunately, you’re a bit out of luck linking to the rest of the world. Unless you’d like to pay Genius Link to do it for you.

YouTube

The last bit of monetization I’ve added is my YouTube account. Similar to the Adsense program, you’re paid for displaying ads over your content. If a video ad is displayed that allows skipping, you only get paid if the ad plays through completely. You get nothing if it’s skipped. As with Adsense, you also get paid per click.

Budget Update

Remember that these running totals include pre-trip travel expenses, which are often overlooked. These are important to budget for when planning a round the world or extended trip to anywhere. Also, the website total includes the upfront cost of a laptop and the domain, host and SSL for this website (for 1 year).

Travel Expenses (Update 2)

• Lodging: $30.69
• Food: $100.52
• Transportation: $72.17
• Activities: $67.65
• Misc: 24.53
• Alcohol: $44.18

Total: $339.74

Website Balance (Update 2)

• Adsense: $3.71
• YouTube: $0.06
• Amazon: $0

Total: +$3.77

Racked up a whopping $3.77 this month! Haha. That will actually buy me about 4-5 beers here in Prague.

So, here’s what the finances look like after roughly one month of travel blogging.

Travel Expenses: -$826.45 ($29.5/day)

Website Balance: -$1854.80 (+3.77 from previous)

Total Balance (Travel + Website): $2681.25

Next article: Euro Trip – Budget Update #3

Previous article: Euro Trip – Update #1