It seems like the thing to do if you have a blog about making money online is to write reviews of other sites and charge them for your expert knowledge. I’m not sure about how much of an expert I am but I quite the like the whole idea of reviews because I think that everyone, not just the site’s owner, can benefit from a site review. I like seeing different points of view and it’s also interesting learning about other site’s stats, earnings and what the webmasters’ questions and concerns are.
So in the vein, I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon and do a (free) review. I’ve never done one before so the plan is to answer a few questions, say what’s on my mind, and give a few ideas of what I would do if it were my site. Maybe I’ll be spouting a load of rubbish or maybe I’ll come up with some useful advice… who knows!
GoBackpacking.com
I got an email the other week from Dave Lee, the guy behind Go Backpacking, with some questions about how to earn more money with his travel site and blog. He got in touch because he’d seen a post on my earnings and felt that his website should be doing better than it is. I’m not sure he realised at the time that I have more than one site to earn that amount, but I agree that his site should be able to earn as much as Travoholic.com which also focuses on the backpacking niche.
Site Background, Traffic and Earnings
Dave started his site back in 1999 and added a blog in 2007. He had a forum but disabled it a few months ago because he was sick of spammers. The site is PR4 and has an Alexa ranking of 119,000 and his Technorati ranking is 46,088. He gets 2,000 visits a month and 4,000 page views and has 113 RSS subscribers to his blog. He ranks really well across Google, Yahoo and MSN for the terms ‘backpacking around the world blog’ and ‘backpacking blog’.
His earnings were pretty bleak at first, bringing in about $130 over 10 months with Adsense which, at the time, was his only earner. He now earns about $150/month almost exclusively with Text Link Ads. I just thought I’d point out that Travoholic.com only earns $70/month with TLA and about $100/month with Adsense so already you’re not far off earning what I do. In the past I’ve sold a lot of links through Digital Point. If you’re looking for some extra cash, troll through their link sales forum looking for buyers or post an ad of your own. It can make your site look spammy but if you hide the links down in the footer it’s not so bad.
Dave’s Questions
Because I’ve never done a review before and need my hand held a bit I thought I’d get Dave to let me know some specific questions so here goes:
How appealing or unappealing is my theme (in particular, the light grey sidebars on the blog)?
I don’t really find the theme to be either appealing or unappealing. It doesn’t stand out to me as a great design but it looks organised and serves its purpose. More important is having a good navigation system that makes it easy to get all around the site. It took me awhile to find his categories section and without this, navigation is pretty difficult. I would move this drop down menu to the right hand column somewhere above the fold (probably above the fold) to make it easier to get around the site. The overall look is fine and everything seems to work although this latest post ‘GoBackpacking Needs Your Vote’ seems screwy with all the content being pushed way down to the bottom. I think it’s something to do with polls. It could probably stand to load a bit quicker, too.
As for the website part, this looks pretty old school and could probably use an overhaul at some point. The navigation could be better though. At first it seems like the links on the left (the ads) are your navigation menu which isn’t a good thing. Group things together into sections: travelogues, planning, articles etc.
Is the advertising (banner, text links, new “partners” page) too much, too little, or just right?
He mentioned that affiliate sales have been non existent so I would find another way to incorporate affiliate links into the site because what he’s doing now isn’t working. This is something I have yet to master but I can go so far as saying that the World Nomads ad on the left sidebar probably isn’t going to cut it. As for the ‘Partners’ page, we’d all love to think that readers will support us by remembering to come back to our site whenever they need to by something that’s on sale but in reality I don’t think this ever happens so I’m dubious about the point of pages like this.
Try to incorporate affiliate links into your posts but not in a way that looks like an obvious ad. Do it so that you’re adding valuable content. For example put reviews of gear that you’re using that has come from REI or talk about the benefits of World Nomads insurance in your own words and why you chose them over the others. Avoid sales speak and be honest.
What could I do to increase the stickiness of the site, and get people to stick around, comment, and come back for more?
Stickiness is something I used to obsess over. I wanted to start a great forum and create a wonderful community but I gave up. I came to the realisation that my sites have useful content that people need but once they find it, they move on. I get a lot of search engine traffic and my content doesn’t change that often so having repeat visitors isn’t that important because they’ll just bust me for being lazy and rarely updating.
For my blog, on the other hand, I love the sense of community and the instant feedback that comes in the form of comments. I want readers to keep coming back and the only way I can think of to do this is by writing stuff they want to read. It gets drilled into everyone’s heads and is annoying to hear all the time but writing great content is the best way to keep people coming back. Learn as much as you can about an area and people will keep returning to your site because they’ll see you as an expert. Become an authority on whatever subject you’re writing about.
But if you really have your heart set on creating a sticky site, try to think of useful online tools that will keep people coming back. I’ve had some success with this on my London site with a London prices tool and a photo area guide. Forums are great for getting people to come back to your site but they’re very difficult to get going and, in my experience, they’re more hassle than they’re worth. Blasting spam takes up loads of time and forums are not known for being good earners. I’ve tried allowing users to submit photos for one of my niche sites which created a bit of stickiness because their friends would come back and comment on them but it was short-lived.
What I Like
- I’m not too keen on asking for donations but I do like the idea of people getting you to do wacky things on the road and then contributing once you’ve completed their request. Making this a focus by giving the section it’s own page and more promotion is something that I think will make your blog stand out. The crazier the things you do the better. This concept has been done well over on The Savage Files and was something that I was considering adding to my travel blog when it’s up and running.
- I think the site has a lot of potential based on the real estate it’s sitting on alone. The domain name is fantastic and I have a hunch that, because it was created back in 1999, it should do well with Google. Try experimenting by writing some articles aimed at popular keywords and see how they do in the rankings.
- I like the incorporation of photos and videos. They add not only to the aesthetics of the site but are also relevant and well done. The written content is really good too.
What I Don’t Like
- In amongst the latest blog entries are posts about previous trips. These are entertaining but I find them a bit out of place in the blog area. I’d prefer to see these posts re-written into articles and placed on the main site. Or even take each trip and create an archive area to put them in chronological order, keeping them separate from recent posts.
- The site isn’t consistent from page to page. Sometimes the Google ads have different backgrounds, some pages still have a link to the message boards… stuff like that. Create a template that is the same across the entire site. If you can get it to look like your blog, even better.
So there ya go… everything you ever wanted to know about my opinion on GoBackpacking.com! I think it’s important to note that I neglected my site for a few years while I was travelling and only started to see results once I got back into it in a big way. That has meant hours of work each day but it has all started to pay off so it’s been worth it. Stick with it and try to get as much content up as you can on the original website before you start travelling and then focus on the blog once you hit the road. Good luck!
Does anyone else want to chuck in some comments for Dave or give me some feedback on the review itself so I can improve? I’ve enjoyed doing this so if anyone else has a travel-related site and wants a review done for the low, low cost of £0.00, drop me a line.
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