Hello from 2023! I am unable to consider 2022 is already over; it certain did appear to zip by fairly shortly, did not it? If you need the total yr’s rundown, try my 2022 in evaluation submit. Otherwise, here is a glance again on the final two months of the yr.
I did not journey a lot in any respect on the finish of the yr, opting to stay near residence for the vacations to do all of the Christmassy issues in Cleveland, and to hang around with household and buddies. (My household and Elliot’s household had our first joint holidays in years!)
I did leap on a airplane on December twenty eighth, although, which you may learn extra about beneath.
November and December: The months in journey
- Countries visited: 1 – USA
- States visited: 1 – Washington state
- Flight taken (incl. connections): 2
- Days spent on the highway: 4
Travel highlights
Re-exploring Seattle – Seattle has at all times been one in every of my favourite cities within the US since my first go to there greater than a decade in the past. I hadn’t been in additional than 5 years, although, however was delighted to seek out that I nonetheless actually love the town. Since it was my journey buddy’s first time in Seattle, we did all of the touristy issues we might in a single short-on-daylight day: consuming/procuring at Pike Place Market, using the monorail, visiting the Chihuly glass museum, and going up the Space Needle.
Olympic National Park and Cape Flattery – From Seattle, we rented a automotive and headed west. We made a number of stops inside Olympic National Park (together with on the stunning Lake Crescent), and went all the best way out to Cape Flattery, essentially the most northwestern level within the contiguous US. We had glorious climate, and the views had been beautiful. We spent New Year’s Day in a special a part of the nationwide park – however I’ll save that for the subsequent round-up!
Travel lowlights
Thankfully I didn’t guide any of my flights on Southwest, and due to this fact haven’t any lowlights to report about my post-Christmas journey! (Things truly went actually easily.)
Non-travel highlights
I’m positively grateful that our households all stayed wholesome by way of the vacation season. It meant we had been in a position to have fun all collectively as soon as extra! I additionally had enjoyable capturing some Christmas portraits for my sister’s rising household. Photographing a toddler is a visit, however no less than we acquired a number of good photographs in the long run.
November and December on the weblog(s)
November and the primary 25 days of December are at all times tough on journey blogs. People are planning for the vacations, buying items, and – in 2022 particularly – worrying about end-of-year funds.
This yr was significantly dangerous on my important web site, however the after-Christmas site visitors bump occurred like standard, with a noticeable uptick in folks trying to find journey concepts once more beginning on December twenty sixth (it at all times amazes me how shortly that swap flips, but it surely at all times does!).
I truly managed to write down, publish, and replace quantity of content material within the final two months, and am hoping I can proceed this momentum into the brand new yr and claw a few of that misplaced site visitors again!
A Dangerous Business site visitors: 117,453 distinctive guests and 159,639 pageviews in November, and 127,954 distinctive guests and 178,326 pageviews in December
Most standard submit: At the Edge of the World: A Floe Edge Safari on Baffin Island – This submit may be very totally different to the content material I normally publish lately. It would not embrace very many suggestions in any respect, however slightly is a group of photographs and tales from my favourite, most memorable journey in 2022.
Other posts revealed:
Posts that I up to date/refreshed:
On my Cleveland area of interest web site, alternatively, the tip of the yr is the BEST time for me traffic-wise, since folks right here love the vacations! Traffic rose steadily by way of the tip of the yr, and whereas I did not fairly hit 100K guests, I did nonetheless have an amazing year-end on this web site.
Cleveland Traveler site visitors: 85,210 distinctive guests and 114,646 pageviews in November; and 90,518 distinctive guests and 131,710 pageviews in December
If you wish to see what I’ve been as much as on Cleveland Traveler these days, go to the location right here.
November and December on social media
On my @dangerousbiz accounts, I principally shared Ireland/Northern Ireland content material up till the vacations, after which took a little bit of a break (excluding posting my year-in-review Reel). On @clevelandtraveler, it was all vacation content material on a regular basis till Christmas hit, after which I additionally took a little bit break.
Most standard submit on Instagram (@dangerousbiz): These photographs from the Dark Hedges had been the preferred, and there was some good dialogue within the feedback about whether or not folks thought it was price visiting or not.
Most standard submit on Instagram (@clevelandtraveler): On this account, my Reel a couple of native Christmas attraction known as Castle Noel was positively the favourite!
November and December enterprise replace
Remember, I report my earnings after they hit my checking account, that means these promoting earnings are from August and September, and the affiliate earnings are principally from October/November journey.
Ad charges had been down fairly a bit within the second half of 2022 in comparison with 2021, however I made up for it with affiliate gross sales and getting paid from some journey campaigns earlier within the fall.
A Dangerous Business November revenue report:
- Advertising: $8,686.61
- Affiliates: $5,801.07
- Course/product gross sales: $167.88
- Travel campaigns: $7000
- Other: $204.38
A Dangerous Business December revenue report:
- Advertising: $7,607.95
- Affiliates: $5,289.18
- Course/product gross sales: $244.88
- Other: $1,281.25
(Note that that is my revenue earlier than deductions/bills and taxes.)
On Cleveland Traveler, issues have remained fairly regular, and my subsequent revenue report will see an enormous leap in advert earnings because of all of the pre-holiday site visitors!
Cleveland Traveler November revenue report:
- Advertising: $2,410.04
- Social media: $218.43
- Other: $69.77
Cleveland Traveler December revenue report:
- Advertising: $2,304
- Product gross sales: $75.19
(Note: A Dangerous Business was began in 2010, and has been monetized for greater than 10 years; Cleveland Traveler was began in 2019, and has been monetized for 3 years.)
Business highs
Cleveland Traveler development – This is absolutely extra of a yearly excessive slightly than one from the final two months of the yr, however I’m tremendous proud at how I’ve grown Cleveland Traveler this yr! Traffic was extra regular than in earlier years, and my revenue stored rising. It’s been nice to have this secondary web site with site visitors and revenue patterns that differ from my important web site. A very good/dangerous month on one web site is not essentially mirrored on the opposite, which is reassuring.
Business lows
Traffic/advert revenue loss – I feel the most important bummer in the long run of the yr was seeing my site visitors proceed to drop AND advert charges by no means attain the highs I used to be anticipating. (Ad charges for me had been down greater than 25% in December 2022 in comparison with 2021.) Higher advert charges on the finish of the yr can usually even out the site visitors downturn lots of journey websites see, but it surely did not actually occur this yr.
It’s not one thing I can management, after all, and I nonetheless had a extremely good yr general (not fairly nearly as good as 2021, however I’m satisfied 2021 was a fluke!), but it surely was nonetheless a slight downer to finish the yr on.
Upcoming this winter
At least I’ve some journey to stay up for!
January: Back to Scottsdale – I’ve visited Scottsdale a few instances now, and have talked the Arizona metropolis up a lot that Elliot actually needs to go! So we’ll be heading again for about 4 days in mid-January to take a look at some new spots and do numerous enjoyable outside issues.
January: NYC – I’ll be making my annual fast journey to New York City for the IMM journey media networking occasion. It’s at all times a whirlwind couple of days, but it surely’s the most effective instances to meet up with journey buddies and attempt to make some new enterprise connections.
February/March: Morocco and Portugal – After the Most Stressful Week of My Life in March 2020 during which I needed to determine to not go alone reader tour to Morocco (which was then subsequently canceled anyway), I wasn’t certain when/if I’d return to Morocco. But then my good friend Ashley (who was speculated to go on that ill-fated 2020 tour) talked about that she wished to lastly tick Morocco off her checklist in 2023, and I provided to go along with her. We’ve booked a tour with Intrepid Travel, and afterwards I feel I’ll re-visit some locations in Portugal, too.
Since my weblog content material is usually delayed, be sure you observe alongside on Instagram if you wish to see any of those journeys in real-time!