Welcome to my income report for June. This is where I share how much money I made through Discover Your Indonesia last month. It’s also a chance for me to share what I’ve done with the business over the last month.
If this is the first time you’ve seen my income report, you might be wondering why I want to share these income reports online. In part these income reports are a way to track my progress. It’s nice to be able to look back and see what I achieved in June and what I wanted (and maybe failed) to do, but they are also a way to share my experiences.
Over the last nine months I’ve managed to grow a business from my blog. I’m my own boss and for the first time in my life I’m also a boss. I look forward to working every day and I’m optimistic about what the future will bring. If you haven’t started a website I hope this inspires you, if you’re already running a business then I hope you can avoid some of my mistakes and maybe learn from my experiences.
Blog Income in June
I earn most of my money through my travel consultancy service, with B2B (business to business) commissions that don’t cost my guests anything.June was a great month for Discover Your Indonesia. I hired a new employee, did a two week project with Skyscanner and hired a new employee. Just reading that sounds exhausting and I really can’t believe that’s a description of my job.
In total I earned $2,297 from Discover Your Indonesia. This is less than I earned last month. However my expenses this month were also a lot more. I’m still happy though as the money I’m earning through my travel consultancy work is up.
The income from travel consultancy is really the foundation of my business. I earned $730 more from my travel consultancy in June than May and this is good news for me. Part of the reason for the increase is that we are approaching the peak tourist season in Indonesia so of course there are more travellers.
While freelance writing is a nice additional source of income I don’t consider this to be something I can rely on. Unless I can systemise the process for seeking clients offers from companies, like Skyscanner and Swiss Contact, this form of revenue will not be consistent.
INCOME
Source Income
Travel Consultancy USD 2,180
Freelance Writing USD 300
Affiliate Income USD 67
Total USD 2,497
Expenses
Total USD 250
I use Traffic Planet Hosting for Discover Your Indonesia because the site is receiving more than 30,000 unique visitors a month, so I can no longer used shared hosting. I recommend the service for anybody looking to upgrade their hosting provider.
Photo was taken at The Hideout Bali: Instagram
Collaboration:
As I was traveling for two weeks in June I didn’t have time to collaborate with many places. In fact the only collaboration I did was with this super cute Airbnb house called The Hideout Bali. You can read my review of the house on Discover Your Indonesia here.
If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I recommend using Hostgator. You can start a blog from just $5.95 a month. You will receive a free website worth $15 if you purchase through my affiliate link. While you can get free hosting, I really recommend self-hosting as it is more professional and there are more ways you can make money from your blog.
Latest Developments On the Blog
June was a slow month for the blog. Between traveling and training Susan (I should start calling Susan by her name here) I had almost no time for creating content. In fact June really felt like a black hole for Discover Your Indonesia.
Travelling for work was a lot of fun, but it was also exhausting. I found myself working 14 hour days as I struggled to travel, answer emails and create a training program for Susan. It’s probably no surprise that I fell ill a number of times in June and arrived back in Bali exhausted and just wanting to curl up and sleep like a hibernating bear for a month.
If I could press ‘reset’ I would do. I shouldn’t have hired my first employee while travelling so much. It was both mentally and physically exhausting. Yet for all the difficulties I had training Susan in June I’m so happy to have someone working for me and I know there will be long term payoffs.
I’d actually like to go a bit more in depth about training a new employee below. I think this is such an important step for new business owners, that most people just aren’t prepared for, and will struggle with.
Which leads me onto my next point, because I had planned to hire two employees in June…
Affiliate Income Crashes
If you look at my May Income Report you’ll see I was excited about my affiliate income from Hotels Combined. I was earning an average of 20 – 30 cents a lead on Hotels Combined in May. While this wasn’t a big income I was averaging $5 a day in passive income. This just dropped through the floor in June. I’m currently sending between 35-60 visitors to the site a day and earning between 6 – 12 cents a lead.
Lead value for Hotels Combined drops from 20 – 30 cents to 6 – 12 cents.
The income I’m receiving is way below the average lead value quoted on the Hotels Combined affiliate page. This huge gap between the average lead value and what I am receiving makes me wonder how much the average lead value varies by region.
Official average lead value as quoted on the Hotels Combined website.
I know I need to do something about this. Commissions of USD 1-2 dollars a day have almost no value. There’s a huge value in these leads that is being under utilised. I really should be sending those leads through a squeeze page or something similar. The average commission direct from hotels can be anything from USD 50 a night at the top end through to USD 3 a lead at the bottom.
New Content on DYI
As I said earlier, June was a very slow month on Discover Your Indonesia. I published almost nothing on the blog in June. You can find the articles that I did publish below:
- 9 Exciting Things to do in Banyuwangi for an Unforgettable Holiday
- 15 Things to do in Surabaya for a Fun Filled Holiday
- My First Bamboo Eco Home: A Review of The Hideout in Bali
- 15 Things to do in Labuan Bajo. Don’t Miss No. 14
As you can see from the list of articles my publishing schedule is looking a bit like Trip Advisor. This will be a theme for the next few months as I try to provide lots of practical information for travellers through Discover Your Indonesia.
Plans For July
July will be a busy month for me personally. I will be traveling to Yogyakarta and Jakarta this month and there is the chance that I will be collaborating with the Indonesian Tourism Board. Yet even with my travel plans I still want to push forward with the blog, expanding the services that I offer through the site.
One thing I need to focus on in July is my email list. I haven’t tried to monetise my email list. Even worse than that my email list is on hold, because I grew tired of using Aweber (the service just doesn’t offer very much functionality). I have to find an alternative to Aweber.
Referrals on Discover Your Indonesia for Pinterest.
In addition to monetising my email list I also want to experiment more with Pinterest. I started an account in May and the social media service is already my number one source of referral traffic. While the last few days look disappointing I think I understand the basics of using Pinterest. If I continue to see growth from Pinterest using my current system then this is a service I feel I can offer to clients.
Final Thoughts
This is the third income report I’ve shared online. It’s nice looking back over the last two months to see that Discover Your Indonesia has been growing consistently and with it my ambitions. I have to pinch myself to remember that this is real. While June was exhausting I now have my first employee. I was paid to travel around Indonesia and I can’t wait to see what July brings.
How did your month go? Are you planning to make a change in your life?
If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I recommend using Hostgator. You can start a blog for just $5.95 a month. You will receive a free website worth $15 if you purchase through my affiliate link. While you can get free hosting, I really recommend self-hosting as it is more professional and there are more ways you can make money from your blog.
