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Welcome to another travel blog income report where I document the wins and losses on the way to seeing if travel blogging is still viable.
If you want to start with last monthās income report and get the backstory on when I started and everything else, click here.
Travel income blog reports were so fun to read back in the day when most bloggers shared honestly. I think it gives hope to those of us starting from zero and also puts things in perspective. Since there is a lot of talk on travel blogging being dead since the AI boom, I hope to continue this series for all of 2025, and report on my progress and setbacks as they come.
Letās start with traffic.
Traffic for September 2025
I started this experiment back in June, with a semi-dead blog that was averaging under 1k and had not been updated in more than two years.
I started July with a small upward movement to 3k sessions and July was 4.3k.
September was even better even though I’m still under my 10k goal. Ā
The main traffic volume comes from 3 articles at the time, and the rest are divided between average performance and no reads at all.Ā
As with last month’s, I’m reminded of how 20% of the work will yield 80% of the results, Ā so you never know which article will perform well or which one action will provide that boost.Ā
Ads
This site wonāt have ads until I hit 50,000 sessions and can apply to a premium network so there is no change on this front.Ā
Affiliate Marketing
Most of the affiliate income this month came on the first week of September, which gave me false hope that I would keep seeing that momentum. I also had a few cancellations in bookings that would have brought in about $20 extra income, which I was a bit disappointed about. But oh well!Ā
Stay 22: $23.03
Amazon Associates: $0.08
Once again, this tiny commission came from my recommendation of this book by Roderick Beaton on the history of Greece. I recommend and have bought over a dozen copies of it for friends and colleagues so I’m happy people are checking it out.Ā
Get Your Guide + Travel Payouts $7.32
Discover Cars: $0
The only channel I’m actively trying to grow at the moment is Pinterest, as I see a noticeable difference on traffic and can be built on the background.Ā
I’m happy to be all in the green, with upward movement and will give it some more time before I put together a guide on the strategy I’ve been following so far.Ā
| Source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Ads | $0 |
| Affiliate sales | $30.43 |
| Brand deals / FAM tours | $0 |
| Total | $30.43 |
The first income of this blog is now official and I canāt wait to see that work compound.
Expenses
The only recurring monthly cost tied directly to the blog is Lightroom ($12/month) ā which I use for photo editing across both blog content and client work.
My hosting is under a shared hosting plan bought. for client work, Ā and the domain is a once a year cost so far.Ā
I foresee these expenses rising when I switch to different hosting, once my numbers go up.Ā
For now, I recommend Hostinger as an affordable hosting plan for those starting out. I’ve also had to reach out to them for support multiple times (for client related work) and they reply fast and fix the issue.Ā
More tools if you’re wanting to start a travel blog.Ā
Other tools like AI, Canva, formatting software, and stock photo libraries fall under general business expenses for now, so Iām not counting them specifically toward the blog expenses yet.
Content Published
This month I managed to publish 17 new blog posts ā all based on recent travels. Ā That brings the blog total to 137 posts (120 old + 17 new).
Which means I didn’t reach my goal of 20 new blog posts. With that said I’m still pretty happy. The first two weeks of September were pretty rough due to a knee injury and surgery, so I had less motivation to work for long hours.Ā
September Goals: Completed ā
ā Publish 20 blog posts
- ā Earn $70 in affiliate sales
October 2025 Goals
I’m curious to see how October goes, since I don’t usually focus on doing a lot of autumn or fall related content, which I’ll try to change.Ā
I want to keep steady with last month’s goals this time and see if I can take the $ out of the equation and just follow on output.Ā
- š Publish 20 new blog posts
- šĀ Reach 50k monthly views on Pinterest
- šĀ Reach 15k traffic
Final Thoughts
If youāre following along month to month ā thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. If you have any specific questions youād like me to cover (about blogging, travel, passive income, or anything in between), feel free to reach out or leave a comment. Iād love to hear from you.
Hereās to steady progress, even when it starts at zero.Ā
