October 2022

Greetings from Zadar, Croatia! 🇭🇷

I'm currently travelling through this seriously stunning country during the end of summer season (smaller crowds, lower prices, and good weather!).

During this last week, I've visited Dubrovnik (where they filmed most of Game of Thrones), took an absolutely amazing drive from Dubrovnik to Split (with breathtaking views of the coastline), and chilled out with old friends in Split (the second largest city in Croatia).

The food here, especially the seafood, has not disappointed! 🐟 Prices are relatively reasonable - much cheaper than Toronto since tax is included and tips are not expected.

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A post shared by Tom Qiao (@t.omq)

And now, let's get to the income report for October 2022.

Key Metrics

• Revenue: $1,693 (+42% MoM, +40% YoY)
• Sessions: 19,115 (+1% MoM)
• RPM: $88 (+40% MoM)
• Amazon Risk: 65% (up from 53% last month)

In October, revenue showed signs of recovery after a slump in August and September.

I believe this was driven by two main factors:

1. Higher Commission Rates for Amazon Associates: for Q4 only, Amazon has temporarily increased commission rates to boost holiday sales (Amazon has done this before, usually to promote Prime Day, but this is the first time they've done it for an entire quarter).
2. Higher Click-Through Rates for Lasso Displays: a few months ago, I decided to convert my existing content into Lasso displays (Lasso is a plugin that creates aesthetically pleasing product displays and helps you manage affiliate links). I officially started this process in September/October and I believe it's helped increase click-through rates.

Since I left my agency job, I've been able to focus a lot more on my business.

For example, one thing I started doing is studying the shopping patterns of my audience on Amazon to see if they're actually buying the products that I recommend.

This has helped me identify underperforming products (and high performing products), information that I now take into account when selecting products for a post.

Overall, now that I've seen the success of integrating Lasso displays into my content process, I feel more confident about hitting my revenue target of $2,500 by the end of this year.

However, my travel plans may cause me to reach my goals later than expected, but I'm okay with that as travel and creating experiences is just as important to me right now.

To Flexibility and Freedom,

Tom