Blogging Archives - Pale Ale Travel

Month Six of Earnings on Mediavine Journey [February 2025]

March 12, 2025March 12, 2025Blogging BigBody Leave a Comment

Well…that’s another month in the books and another month that left a lot to be desired. Traffic has stagnated for the last three-plus months and I’m not really sure what the situation with my site is. Regardless, I’m still enjoying writing as it serves as something to keep me busy in my neverending search for new clients.

I’m getting to a point where something has ‘gotta give’. A ‘take a dump or get off the pot’ type of deal. As you’ll see below, my earnings on Mediavine Journey just aren’t cutting it.

To be fair, I have not been publishing as frequently as I’d like to so I’ll own up to that.

If you want an idea of what my previous months’ earnings on Mediavine Journey look like, including key terms I use to describe my earnings, check out these past articles:

Here is how much Pale Ale Travel made using Mediavine Journey in January 2025.

My Fifth Month’s Earnings on Mediavine Journey [January 2025]

February 12, 2025March 12, 2025Blogging, Travel, Travel Tips, Tricks, & Resources BigBody Leave a Comment

Big Body here. Back with another monthly income report. I’ll keep this one short as not much seems to be moving at the moment, especially since I embarked on a 7-week self-imposed moratorium from Hong Kong and headed back home to New Hampshire.

It was much needed as I was somewhat throttled by Google’s December update and needed some time to recollect and re-strategize.

I’ve just returned to Hong Kong and am looking forward to getting back to a more regular publishing routine.

To get a picture of what my first months on Mediavine Journey looked like, including important terms I use to describe earnings, make sure to read these past articles:

So, here is exactly how much my travel blog earned on Mediavine Journey in January 2025.

My Fourth Month’s Earnings on Mediavine Journey to End the Year [December 2024]

January 6, 2025February 19, 2025Blogging, Travel, Travel Tips, Tricks, & Resources BigBody Leave a Comment

Well, that’s a wrap for the 2024 season of blogging. There were highs, there were lows, there were befuddlements, and there were lessons learned.

You can find the earnings reports for my previous three months on Mediavine Journey here:

Once again, I recommend checking out Part 1 (September) if you want a breakdown/easy explanation of the metrics and terms I use in every earnings report.

So, without further ado, here is exactly how much my travel blog earned in the month of December on Mediavine Journey.

My Third Month’s Earnings on Mediavine Journey [November 2024]

December 2, 2024February 19, 2025Blogging, Travel, Travel Tips, Tricks, & Resources BigBody Leave a Comment

Damn, Big Body! Back at it again with the white vans and another Mediavine Journey income report.

First, if you’re curious about my first two months on Mediavine’s newest ad management solution/product (Mediavine Journey), make sure to read Part 1 and Part 2.

Part 1 breaks down all of the important terms that are used to understand ad network earnings along with some key features of the Mediavine Journey dashboard. Make sure to reference that post if anything doesn’t make sense below.

Once again, to keep things concise – here is exactly how much my travel blog made for the month of November on Mediavine Journey.

Hint: I’m still eating canned beans and most of my socks have holes in them.

Beehiiv vs. WordPress.org For Blogging: an Honest Review [2025]

December 2, 2024February 19, 2025Blogging, Travel, Travel Tips, Tricks, & Resources BigBody Leave a Comment

In June 2024, after roughly five years of blogging on a traditional WordPress website – the one you’re reading right now – I decided to hedge my bets and branch out by launching a Beehiiv newsletter. This wasn’t because I was particularly passionate about newsletter creation, rather, I applied to Mediavine’s ad management network ‘Journey’ several months prior and still hadn’t heard back.

Frankly, I was a bit burnt out and frustrated with ‘traditional blogging’ and wanted to decouple from it. Google had also rolled out a handful of algorithm updates over the years that saw bloggers completely wiped off the face of search result pages and I knew it was time to stop putting all my eggs in one basket. A major professional shift in my life also meant that I could take content creation more seriously, in a more ‘full-time’ role. So, it seemed like a win-win to launch a new venture and continue with the old.

Since then, I’ve hit the ground running, blogging heavily on WordPress and publishing a weekly newsletter with Beehiiv. And it sure has been a blast. There have been countless learning curves for both but that has ultimately led to a somewhat sound understanding of each platform and how they fit into my content creation process and output.

I’ll be honest. I wrote roughly 1/3rd of this article in a way that was just too excessively complex – too complex for myself. I spent several hours just sitting and trying to make sense of what I wrote and if it was actually cohesive or not. Hint: it wasn’t.

While this may not be the most in-depth review of both WordPress and Beehiiv, it reflects my understanding of both and analyzes the features, strengths and weaknesses, and other bits that have been particularly relevant in my blogging (and newsletter) publishing tenure.

Consider this a launching point for novices unsure of what platform to use when beginning their upcoming blogging journey.

Pale Ale Travel Note: This post is comparing Beehiiv to WordPress.org NOT WordPress.com. The core difference between the two boils down to who is hosting your website. WordPress.com handles all hosting, while WordPress.org requires you to self-host/host your own website (ex. This is typically done through Bluehost, GoDaddy, and other third-party hosting platforms).

My Second Month of Earnings on Mediavine Journey [October 2024]

November 4, 2024February 19, 2025Blogging, Travel, Travel Tips, Tricks, & Resources BigBody Leave a Comment

I’ll aim to keep this one brief. My second month of earnings on Mediavine Journey just came in and increased by 40%…but still leaves quite a bit to be desired.

You can find my first (and previous) month’s write-up about getting started on Mediavine Journey and its earnings in this past article: ‘How Much My Travel Blog Made Its First Month on Mediavine Journey’. In that article, I explain some common terms that are important for understanding earnings and a little bit about the Mediavine Journey analytics dashboard.

In the interest of not repeating myself, I recommend checking that post out if anything below doesn’t make sense and/or you’re unsure what they mean.

Without further ado, here’s exactly how much my travel blog made my second month on Mediavine Journey.

Here’s How Much My Travel Blog Made Its First Month on Mediavine Journey

October 5, 2024February 19, 2025Blogging, Travel, Travel Tips, Tricks, & Resources BigBody Leave a Comment

September was a big month for Pale Ale Travel. Symbolically at least. I’ve held off monetizing the blog via a traditional ad network over the years as it wasn’t worth the pennies I’d be making.

However, in early 2024, Pale Ale Travel finally crossed a threshold traffic-wise (or at least we did) where it made sense to begin monetizing it. So I applied to Mediavine’s ‘Journey’ – an ad management solution for growing websites that didn’t quite qualify for their primary ad network solution (50,000 sessions).

Well..the first month’s earnings are in. Here’s a little bit about Mediavine Journey and its requirements and what my travel blog (Pale Ale Travel) earned in its first month.

Pale Ale Travel Tip: While waiting for approval from Mediavine Journey, I launched a newsletter that sends weekly travel destinations straight to your inbox. I also built out a secondary blog that tackles European destinations and blogging tips. You can find it here.