Γεια σου (Yassou / Hello) from Athens, Greece! 🇬🇷
Since early November, I've been traveling through Greece and I really enjoy the warm weather, great food, and amazing historical sites in this country.
While it's starting to get cold now, it still feels like a typical autumn day in Canada.
I've been staying in Athens for the most part, but I also took a beautiful road trip through the Peloponnese to visit historic cities like Corinth, Nafplio, Argos, and Sparta, idyllic places like Poros and Monemvasia, and random places along the way like Gytheio and Aigio.
Now, let's get into the business results.
Overall, November results were good - I was hoping to set a new revenue record, especially given the Black Friday weekend and higher commission rates for Amazon Associates, but in the end, revenue settled just above $1,800, making it the second highest month so far.
Revenue from Amazon Associates actually declined by 11% MoM due to lower affiliate link clicks, while non-Amazon revenue increased by 40% and AdSense revenue rose by 20%.
Looking at the profitability side, Earnings per Clicks (EPC) for Amazon hit a record $21.90 - driven by record conversion rates of 23.6% and commission rates of 5.1% (up from 3.55% in September).
As I mentioned in previous month's income reports, Amazon has been rolling out unprecedented commission rate increases (albeit, temporary) in an attempt to spur holiday sales, most likely due to concerns about weaker consumer spending amid a tough macro environment this year.
On the traffic side, I crossed an interesting milestone as well - my website now receives over 1 million impressions per month (October 2022 was 999,246 impressions).
With only 1 month left to go for the year, I am planning to spend more time on the business while I continue to travel / work remotely for the foreseeable future.
I'm continuing to add Lasso displays (Lasso is a third-party plugin that manages affiliate links) to my top performing content, and measuring the change in conversion rates after.
Further down the road, I plan to return to scaling/outsourcing efforts when I return to Canada and figure out the best way to turn my current activities into a repeatable process.
To Flexibility and Freedom,
Tom