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January 2021 Valerie & Valise Income Report
January, oh January. Normally, a month of celebration, with roaring traffic that makes up for typical income drops at the beginning of a new year. Two years ago, I wrote "I’m delighted to share that January was an all-time great month for the blog. So many of you are new readers, I received heart-warming comments and questions, and all the hard work in the past few months is starting to pay off. 2019 is lookin’ real good right now..."
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December 2020 Valerie & Valise Income Report
Here we are: the end of 2020. I can't say the end of the year because 2020 definitely felt like many years to me, including the Normal Time (January & February), the Quarantine Years (March, April, May), That Time I Planned a Pandemic Wedding (June & July), the One Month That Felt Like A Year (August), A Semblance of Normal (September & October), and The Precipice of A Dark Winter (November). Oh yeah, and this month...
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7 Components in My Travel Blog Strategy for 2021
I’ll be honest: I did not want to write this post at all. I wondered if anyone would read it, and looked at my traffic to determine that very few people saw my 2020 post on the same topic. But when it came time to sit down and organize my thoughts, I realized I had a lot I wanted to say.
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November 2020 Valerie & Valise Income Report
Ah, November. Normally I don't mind you, but this year, like each new month I'm glad to be closer to the end of this year. November 2020 brought us the election of Joe Biden, too – which hopefully signals a shift toward better pandemic management and a sooner recovery to the travel industry...
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October 2020 Valerie & Valise Income Report
Here we are, already in the final few months of the year. It's hard to believe how 2020 has all gone so far – and what's next. You don't have to agree, but I've been over here having a party about the outcome of the election 🍾🥂 It gives me hope that we'll soon be welcome around the world again – in part because of properly managing the Coronavirus pandemic, and in part because our political behavior will be worthy of respect again...
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7 To-Dos to Prep Your Blog for the December Traffic Bump
Here we are, in the early days of winter, as the darkness descends and we all feel a little bit down. If your blog is anything like mine, you’ve probably been feeling the squeeze of seasonality since school “started” in September. (You can see what I mean in my October recap too.) My traffic always goes down this time of year, and I’m left feeling a bit low...
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Valerie & Valise – 7 Years On: Celebrating My 7th Blogiversary 🥂
Well I’ll be! Today is the 7th anniversary of the first time I hit “Publish” on this wee little site. Since those early days (when this site was called “Valise Magazine”), it has been a rollercoaster: the early years were fun, the middle years were stressful and I thought I might quit, the past few years were fun again as I finally started to see success, … and then 2020 happened...
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September 2020 Valerie & Valise Income Report
It always happens in late September – I realize I'm just one month from my blogiversary and start to get all pensive about my blogging career so far and future path. It's just like in the final weeks leading up into your birthday or the new year, ya know? This year, I'm about as excited as I've ever been to be a blogger full-time...
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7 Essential Affiliate Programs for Travel Bloggers
As I approach my eighth year of travel blogging, I finally feel like I’ve really got the hang of this thing. In the past few years, I moved out of the early growth, frustrating phase of trying to figure out how to get traffic into the intermediate stage of trying to earn money from the traffic I’ve got. It’s been a challenge, to be sure, but also an exciting opportunity – figuring out what makes sense for me to promote that my readers also want to buy...
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August 2020 Valerie & Valise Income Report
Here we are: approaching the end of the summer. Can you tell from the leaves beginning to turn orange and brown in my photo above? Some people will lament this Lost Summer; as I look back on it, I feel fortunate that my perspective is about how life continues to surprise me, and I'm able to continue making memories even when it feels like we're living in the Upside Down from Stranger Things...
