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Thanks for tuning in to another income report — and I’m happy to announce we had movement!
After a slower July, things started to pick up again this month. Some old posts got a traffic boost, affiliate income finally showed signs of life, and I tested out a few small experiments I’ll break down below.
Let’s dive into the full breakdown of what worked, what didn’t, and where we’re heading next.
Overall, I’m shook that it took a month to get some hits!
If you want to start with last month’s 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 the next year, and report on my progress and setbacks as they come.
Let’s start with traffic.
Traffic for August 2025
Last month’s traffic was just under 3k sessions and this month is over 4k – which is steady but not mindblowing. Most of the traffic is due to 2 articles. This correlates to what I have found on multiple business fronts, that 80% of your growth will come from 20% of your actions, the problem is you don’t know which will do it, so you have to keep going.
Ads
Like I mentioned last month, this site won’t have ads until I hit 50,000 sessions and can apply to a premium network.
Affiliate Marketing
This month I focused on writing more long form blogs, and incorporated affiliate links where appropriate. And pretty much of all of them have given me some earnings this month!
I try to only check a few times per week (but failing, cause I get compulsive) but pretty much every single affiliate network has given me some income this month. Woop.. woop!
Stay 22: $7.61
Amazon Associates: $0.61
*The main reason I’m so excited about this tiny bit of income here is that it is 1/3 of the way toward driving 3 affiliate commissions within 180 days so the account stays active.
I’m also even more excited that the 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.
Get Your Guide: $20.50
*So excited for this one as well, as I have taken over a dozen different Get Your Guide tours/activities this year and genuinely like to recommend these tours.
Discover Cars: $9.84
*This is another one that shook me! I have been recommending this agent and using them for over a year, so it’s good to see it getting it’s first booking.
Social Media (Or Lack Thereof)
August marked my official return to Pinterest — and it’s been energizing to say the least. I treated it like a creative sandbox: batch scheduling new pins, refreshing my boards, and experimenting with visuals that support my most valuable blog content.
The results?
106% increase in impressions
80% increase in saves compared to last month
I’m now batch-creating and scheduling pins weekly using Canva and manual uploads (Tailwind is still on hold for now). If you’re curious about what I’m testing, let me know… I’m happy to break it down in a future post.
| Source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Ads | $0 |
| Affiliate sales | $38.56 |
| Brand deals / FAM tours | $0 |
| Total | $38.56 |
The first income of this blog is now official and I can’t wait to see that work compound.
Expenses
The only recurring monthly cost tied directly to the blog is Lightroom ($12/month) — which I use for photo editing across both blog content and client work. My hosting is under a business plan and the domain is a once a year cost so far.Â
I foresee these expenses rising when I switch to different hosting, once my numbers go up.Â
Other tools like AI, Canva, formatting software, and stock photo libraries fall under general business expenses for now, so I’m not counting them specifically toward the blog yet.
Content Published
This month I managed to publish 25 new blog posts — all based on recent travels, research, and topics related to remote work and freelancing. That brings the blog total to 120 posts (95 old + 25 new).
August Goals: Completed ✅
- ✅ Publish 25 blog posts
- ✅ Earn $20 in affiliate sales
September 2025 Goals
September might be a wild card. I have surgery scheduled, which means I’ll either go full content machine or end up resting and recovering (and doing very little).
So I’m keeping it simple:
- 📌 Publish 20 new blog posts
- 📌 Hit $70 in affiliate sales
Final Thoughts
If you’re following along month to month — thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. If you have any specific questions you’d like me to cover (about blogging, travel, passive income, or anything in between), feel free to reach out or leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.
Here’s to steady progress, even when it starts at zero.Â
