We have kept this blog alive for 8 years and 8 month at the time of this posting, we have posted 820 individual updates, we have shared 16,108 pictures, we have had 109,553 individual visitors to our blog, we have had 298,075 different views on our blog, we have had 3084 comments on our blog since the beginning, we have spent $612 of our money to keep this blog online with Word Press (we even pay extra to help keep ad’s out of our blog o make it more enjoyable) and I can’t even begin to imagine how many hours have been invested in doing this blog, not only sitting in front of a computer screen but the countless hours spent thinking about how I want to present the next update, many of those hours spent lying in bed not able to sleep as my mind runs ramped.
As I’ve mentioned before we “I” started this blog for more than one reason, #1 simply to keep track of our adventures so we can look back on them as the years click by, #2 to share our experiences with our friends and other RVers who care to take a look and hopefully share something useful and entertaining at the same time and #3 to give back what others gave and shared while we were researching the possibilities of us going full time RVing. And I REALLY think we have done all of those things.
Now for the ugly selfish side, as I mentioned in a update a short while back I have watched for years fellow bloggers asking their readers and followers to help support their blogs in different ways, Go Fund Me accounts, donate to their Paypal accounts, purchase items with their logo’s on them such as cups and tee shirts or even pay a subscription to have access to different areas of their web page, or to simply use their link to Amazon to make purchases. And trust me, I’m not faulting them for doing any of those things, doing a blog for the most part is enjoyable but it IS time consuming and almost like work at times. And in our case work that WE pay to do LOL!!!
A short time back I made mention that we became affiliates with Amazon in hope that some of our followers and readers that just happen by might JUST MIGHT have enjoyed or found our blog useful enough over time that they might use the link we provide to Amazon to make any purchases they might be making anyway AT NO EXTRA COST, you pay the same price you would pay anyway. We are not asking anyone to go buy anything special or buy something you were not going to purchase anyway from Amazon, we are just asking you to think about and consider using the link we provide in our blog.
In full disclosure since joining the Amazon affiliate program we have had 123 clicks from our blog OR YouTube channel that generated 9 sales to the tune of $210 for Amazon of which we received a kick back of $8.55. So you see, we are not trying to get rich and the money does not pile up overnight. Like I mentioned in our previous update where we launched this hair brain idea, I would be happy to make enough from this affiliate program to cover the costs of keeping this blog alive online and maybe even our Amazon Prime membership, that would be shooting for he stars but hey, we can dream can’t we LOL!!!
Also in an effort to support our blog I have started a YouTube channel. I started it for a few reasons, #1 it’s something that takes me out of my comfort zone, #2 I find it challenging to learn some techy stuff that frustrates the heck out of me, #3 I find it interesting and #4 even though it’s a HUGE long shot but if we can achieve 1000 followers and jump through a few other hoop’s we could be monetized and make a few extra dollars that would also help offset the cost of our blog and Amazon Prime account.
OK, this may, well probably does all sound pretty petty and it is but I was a bean counter for way too many years and when I sit back looking at budgets I see the cost of keeping a blog and the growing cost of Amazon Prime a pile, even though a small pile a pile of beans none the less that really isn’t needed to be on the table so offsetting the cost has become a goal of mine.
I’m pretty accustomed to hitting my goals and I hope the affiliate program will achieve that for us because the next step would be to simply not renew with Word Press when the next renewal comes around. Hmmm, that almost sounds much simpler LOL!!!
Wow, this grew into a much longer update than I was thinking as I was lying in bed at 3:30 this morning thinking about this LOL!!
Ok that’s enough, thanks for allowing me the time to ramble on and wallow in the mud a bit.
So again, in the right side column you will find links to items we use and trust that you can click on and purchase from Amazon if you are in need of any of those items. AND there is a link in the right side column that will simply take you to Amazon where you can make purchases just like you would if you hadn’t clicked on our link.
And here is a link to our YouTube channel, we hope you will give it a look and subscribe. At this time we only have 149 subscribers so it will be a long long road to 1000 but we will see how that all pans out, here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWqRmO1rO4cu3rFANF1iG6Q
Our next updates we be on the lighter side, promise LOL!!!
Dave & Diane throwing caution to the wind 