Since 2022, I’ve been publishing annual “state of the business” posts detailing how Frequent Miler has done in terms of blog readers, podcast listeners, revenue, etc. Now, once again, here’s your chance to see behind the curtain…
It’s not about the stats for me
Before we get to the part where I show statistics that measure how the Frequent Miler business is doing, I want to explain that I don’t actually use these statistics to drive business. Instead, my goal is to be a proud Frequent Miler. And I am! But there are always things we can do to improve our blog, podcast, YouTube channel, newsletters, Facebook group, etc. As long as we continue to deliver great content, continue to improve, and continue to have fun while doing it, I consider Frequent Miler a success. Growing revenue is nice, and growing our audience is nice, but neither defines success in my book.
Overview
This year’s income was as large as last year’s. For me, this is great news because we did very well last year. This is one of the many reasons I like owning a private company rather than being part of a publicly traded company. If Frequent Miler were a public corporation, the lack of year-over-year revenue growth would be seen as a major problem. But this is ridiculous! We love the work (it’s hard to even call it “work”!) and the business is making enough to pay good wages to the whole team and to save money so that we can continue to operate at full capacity if revenues ever drop precipitously.
Compared to last year, blog page views are down slightly, but blog advertising revenue actually increased slightly. The team at Boarding Area, who both host our blog and handle our blog ads, have done a great job optimizing ad delivery!
In addition to the blog, we publish podcast episodes and YouTube videos. Our audience on both of these mediums has grown tremendously year over year. This is probably due to the fact that we are creating more content for those platforms than ever before.
Team
I consider everyone on the team to be part of what Frequent Miler is all about. I love this team. We’re all dedicated to making Frequent Miler great, and we have a lot of fun. This is my #1 indicator of success. There is very little better in life than working towards a common goal with a team where everyone performs at their highest level and likes and respects the others. We have it!
In 2024, Nick, Tim and I were full-time, with Carrie working half-time and Stephen working quarter-time. In 2025, I am very happy to report this both Carrie and Stephen will double their Frequent Miler time! Carrie will be full time and Stephen will be part time. Both Carrie and Stephen do amazing work and I look forward to them spending even more time making Frequent Miler great.
Audience statistics
We do not do any advertising to grow our audience. Instead, we continue to publish informative and (hopefully) entertaining content. This year, blog readership dropped a bit, but our podcast and video audience grew a lot…
Blog page views
From 2015 to 2021, our blog readership was around 7 to 8 million page views per year. That was great, but in 2023 we saw nearly double that number with over 15.5 million page views. In 2024, our page views decreased slightly, and in the 12 months from December 1, 2023 to November 30, 2024, we had 15 million page views. This is still great, but a little less great than last year.
Podcast
As you can see above, our Frequent Miler on Air podcast audience has continued to grow rapidly. The chart is limited to US downloads because in 2021 and 2022 there were a suspiciously large number of downloads from abroad – it looks like bots were downloading the podcast for some reason. Regardless, the US market represents over 90% of our real audience.
The huge growth we saw this year is partly from acquiring new listeners, but my bet is that most of the growth is due to us posting a lot more often. In addition to the weekly Frequent Miler on Air episode, we’ve also published stand-alone “coffee break” and “card chat” episodes; and we started publishing our live Ask Us Anything streams as podcasts after the fact.
to YouTube
Our YouTube audience has continued to grow strongly. As with our podcast audience, our 2024 growth is probably largely due to us releasing a lot of videos. We started a new “How To” series, and also release new podcast episodes (Coffee Talk, Paper Chat, Ask Us Anything) as videos.
finances
Revenue was basically flat between 2023 and 2024. But that’s a good thing because 2023 was our best revenue year ever. The vast majority of Frequent Miler’s revenue (approximately 80%) comes from our credit card affiliate links. It’s impressive that our income has continued to be so strong despite the fact that we only feature the links that offer the best welcome bonuses even though this often means our affiliate links don’t feature at all.
Our second largest source of revenue is through advertisements displayed on our blog. In 2024, advertising revenue accounted for approximately 16% of our total revenue. Interestingly, advertising revenue increased slightly during 2023, despite having fewer page views this year.
Thank you!
We couldn’t do what we do without you. Thanks for reading, listening and watching. Thank you for recommending Frequent Miler to family and friends. Thanks for the comments, emails and Facebook group posts. Without you, we would not have been able to achieve this level of success. We appreciate your continued engagement and thank you for being part of our journey!
Previous “state of the business” posts:
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