Hello from 2023! I am unable to imagine 2022 is already over; it certain did appear to zip by fairly shortly, did not it? If you need the complete 12 months’s rundown, try my 2022 in evaluation put up. Otherwise, here is a glance again on the final two months of the 12 months.
I did not journey a lot in any respect on the finish of the 12 months, opting to stay near residence for the vacations to do all of the Christmassy issues in Cleveland, and to hang around with household and associates. (My household and Elliot’s household had our first joint holidays in years!)
I did bounce on a airplane on December twenty eighth, although, which you will learn extra about beneath.
November and December: The months in journey
- Countries visited: 1 – USA
- States visited: 1 – Washington state
- Flight taken (incl. connections):Â 2
- Days spent on the street:Â 4
Travel highlights
Re-exploring Seattle – Seattle has all the time been one in all 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 town. Since it was my journey buddy’s first time in Seattle, we did all of the touristy issues we may in a single short-on-daylight day: consuming/purchasing 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 just a few 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 following round-up!
Travel lowlights
Thankfully I didn’t ebook 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 via the vacation season. It meant we had been capable of have a good time all collectively as soon as extra! I additionally had enjoyable taking pictures some Christmas portraits for my sister’s rising household. Photographing a toddler is a visit, however not less than we obtained just a few good pictures in the long run.
November and December on the weblog(s)
November and the primary 25 days of December are all the time tough on journey blogs. People are planning for the vacations, buying presents, and – in 2022 particularly – worrying about end-of-year funds.
This 12 months was notably 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 all the time amazes me how shortly that swap flips, but it surely all the time does!).
I truly managed to jot 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 12 months and claw a few of that misplaced site visitors again!
A Dangerous Business site visitors:Â 117,453 distinctive guests and 159,639 pageviews in November, and 127,954 distinctive guests and 178,326 pageviews in December
Most well-liked put up: At the Edge of the World: A Floe Edge Safari on Baffin Island – This put up may be very totally different to the content material I often publish today. It would not embrace very many suggestions in any respect, however moderately is a group of pictures and tales from my favourite, most memorable journey in 2022.
Other posts printed:
Posts that I up to date/refreshed:
On my Cleveland area of interest web site, alternatively, the top of the 12 months is the BEST time for me traffic-wise, since folks right here love the vacations! Traffic rose steadily via the top of the 12 months, and whereas I did not fairly hit 100K guests, I did nonetheless have an ideal year-end on this web site.
Cleveland Traveler site visitors:Â 85,210 distinctive guests and 114,646 pageviews in November; and 90,518 distinctive guests and 131,710 pageviews in December
If you need to see what I’ve been as much as on Cleveland Traveler recently, go to the location right here.
November and December on social media
On my @dangerousbiz accounts, I largely shared Ireland/Northern Ireland content material up till the vacations, after which took a little bit of a break (aside from 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 just a little break.
Most well-liked put up on Instagram (@dangerousbiz): These pictures from the Dark Hedges had been the most well-liked, and there was some good dialogue within the feedback about whether or not folks thought it was price visiting or not.
Most well-liked put up 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, which means these promoting earnings are from August and September, and the affiliate earnings are largely 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 earnings 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 earnings report:
- Advertising: $7,607.95
- Affiliates: $5,289.18
- Course/product gross sales: $244.88
- Other: $1,281.25
(Note that that is my earnings earlier than deductions/bills and taxes.)
On Cleveland Traveler, issues have remained fairly regular, and my subsequent earnings report will see an enormous bounce in advert earnings because of all of the pre-holiday site visitors!
Cleveland Traveler November earnings report:
- Advertising: $2,410.04
- Social media: $218.43
- Other: $69.77
Cleveland Traveler December earnings 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 progress – This is actually extra of a yearly excessive moderately than one from the final two months of the 12 months, however I’m tremendous proud at how I’ve grown Cleveland Traveler this 12 months! Traffic was extra regular than in earlier years, and my earnings stored rising. It’s been nice to have this secondary web site with site visitors and earnings patterns that differ from my important web site. An excellent/dangerous month on one web site is not essentially mirrored on the opposite, which is reassuring.
Business lows
Traffic/advert earnings loss – I feel the most important bummer in the long run of the 12 months 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 12 months can typically even out the site visitors downturn lots of journey websites see, but it surely did not actually occur this 12 months.
It’s not one thing I can management, after all, and I nonetheless had a extremely good 12 months general (not fairly pretty much as good as 2021, however I’m satisfied 2021 was a fluke!), but it surely was nonetheless a slight downer to finish the 12 months on.
Upcoming this winter
At least I’ve some journey to sit 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 a number of 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 all the time a whirlwind couple of days, but it surely’s among the best instances to meet up with journey associates and attempt to make some new enterprise connections.
February/March: Morocco and Portugal – After the Most Stressful Week of My Life in March 2020 through which I needed to determine to not go by myself reader tour to Morocco (which was then subsequently canceled anyway), I wasn’t certain when/if I would return to Morocco. But then my pal Ashley (who was presupposed to go on that ill-fated 2020 tour) talked about that she needed to lastly tick Morocco off her listing 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, make sure you comply with alongside on Instagram if you wish to see any of those journeys in real-time!