Since 2022 I’ve been publishing annual “state of the business” posts detailing how Frequent Miler has been doing in terms of blog readers, podcast listeners, revenue, etc. Now, once again, here’s your chance to peek behind the curtain…
It’s not about the stats for me
Before we get to the part where I show statistics measuring how the Frequent Miler business is doing, I want to explain that I don’t actually use these stats to drive the business. Instead, my goal is to be proud of Frequent Miler. And I am! But there are always things we can do to improve the blog, the podcast, our YouTube channel, our newsletters, our Facebook group, etc. As long as we continue to deliver great content, continue to improve, and keep having fun while doing it, I consider Frequent Miler to be successful. Growing revenue is nice, and growing our audience is nice, but neither one defines success in my book.
Overview
This year’s revenue was just as great as last year’s. To me, that’s awesome news because we did really well last year. This is one of many reasons I love owning a private company rather than being part of a publicly traded company. If Frequent Miler was a public corporation, the lack of year over year revenue growth would be seen as a big problem. But that’s ridiculous! We love the work (it’s hard to even call it “work”!) and the business is earning enough to pay good wages to the entire team and to save money so that we can continue to operate at full capacity if revenue ever drops precipitously.
Compared to last year, blog pageviews are down a bit, but revenue from blog advertising actually increased a bit. The team at Boarding Area, which both hosts our blog and handles our blog advertising, has clearly been doing a great job in optimizing ad delivery!
In addition to the blog, we publish podcast episodes and YouTube videos. Our audience in both of those mediums has grown tremendously year over year. This is probably due to the fact that we’ve been creating more content for those platforms than ever before.
The Team
I consider everyone on the team to be equally part of what “Frequent Miler” is. I love this team. We’re all committed to making Frequent Miler great, and we have lots of fun. This is my #1 measure of success. There’s very little in life better than working towards a common goal with a team where everyone performs at the highest level and likes and respects everyone else. We’ve got that!
In 2024, Nick, Tim and I were full time while Carrie worked half time and Stephen worked quarter time. In 2025, I’m very happy to report that both Carrie and Stephen will double their time with Frequent Miler! Carrie will be full time and Stephen will be half time. Both Carrie and Stephen do terrific work and so I’m eagerly looking forward to them spending even more time towards making Frequent Miler great.
Audience Stats
We don’t do any advertising to try to increase our audience. Instead, we just keep publishing informative and (hopefully) entertaining content. This year, blog readership was down slightly, but our podcast and video audience grew a lot…
Blog Pageviews
From 2015 to 2021, our blog readership had hovered around 7 to 8 million pageviews 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 dipped a bit and in the 12 months from December 1 2023 to November 30 2024, we had 15 million page views. That’s still awesome, but slightly less awesome than last year.
Podcast
As you can see above, our Frequent Miler on the Air podcast audience has continued to grow quickly. The chart is limited to USA downloads because in 2021 and 2022 there were a suspiciously large number of downloads from overseas — it seems that bots were downloading the podcast for some reason. Regardless, the USA market represents over 90% of our real audience.
The large growth we saw this year is partly from acquiring new listeners, but my bet is that the majority of the growth is due to us publishing much more often. In addition to the weekly Frequent Miler on the Air episode, we’ve also been publishing stand-alone “coffee break” and “card talk” episodes; and we began publishing our Ask Us Anything livestreams as podcasts after the fact.
YouTube
Our YouTube audience has continued strong growth. As with our podcast audience, our 2024 growth is probably largely due to us publishing many more videos. We started a new “How To” series, and also publish the new podcast episodes (Coffee Talk, Card Talk, Ask Us Anything) as videos.
Finances
Revenue was basically unchanged 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 is remarkable that our revenue has continued to be so strong despite the fact that we show only the links that offer the best welcome bonuses even though that often means that our affiliate links aren’t shown at all.
Our second biggest source of revenue is through ads shown on our blog. In 2024, ad revenue accounted for about 16% of our total revenue. It’s cool that ad revenue was up slightly over 2023 despite having fewer pageviews this year.
Thank You!
We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without you. Thank you for reading, listening, and watching. Thank you for recommending Frequent Miler to family and friends. Thank you for your comments, emails, and Facebook group posts. Without you, we would not have been able to reach 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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You guys are my favorite. I listen and read your site often (daily) and feel like you guys are family. I can always trust your straightforward, analytical take on travel without all the personal, nonsensical chitchat in the background. I really like the layout of the podcast where I know exactly what to expect. Keep up the good work!
Congratulations!!! Your guys are the best!
This is the first place I go everyday when scanning blogs. I appreciate the quality of content. Happy holidays!
On this government authorized holiday, may your non-denominational entity look fondly upon you.
Congrats on the success of the team. I appreciate that it’s privately owned with no self serving shareholders to pressure the team.
I only trust your team for guidance on this topic as most other sites seem like they’re pushing a particular product. Your team is genuine and truly has your audience’s best interest at heart.
Wish you continued success and satisfaction.
Congrats! This is such a fun site to follow. Looking forward to more Carrie and Stephen posts!!
Thank you for all that you guys do! My favorite travel-related website and podcast!
Thank you and keep up the good work.
Congrats on a great year. Love your products.
Everyone here knows FM is the best site(s) for points and miles content! FM has the best content, the most often published info, it’s interactive where you can actually comment on a post, send in a question ort ask something on the AMA monthly episodes. Plus the FM team is close-knit, and as Greg mentioned – they have fun doing this “work”.
I find it interesting that when a points & miles person in interviewed in publications or on one of the network morning shows, it’s always that “other” points guy whose site doesn’t allow interactivity and who, as we all know, sold out to corporate for a windfall. Why isn’t Greg more prominently featured?
Keep up the great effort. I’ll continue to read, listen and watch. And thx for all the info.
Ugh, I can’t even read that other site any longer. To borrow the line from the Blues Brothers, that site covers both kinds of travel, cruises AND Disney.
and their content is often inaccurate and/or incomplete
Thank you, FM Team! Just listened to the latest after dropping my cousins off at the airport at 4:45am. 🙂
Happy Holidays!
Frequent Miler is easily the best, most informative site of its kind, and I look forward to every fun podcast. What a great job you’ve done! Thanks for all the years.
Thank you for the great content on all platforms. I have learned so much from you guys and applied the knowledge to my own family travel. Because of your hard “work”, I can honestly say that my family was able to travel and experience more for less miles and money this year. I said it last year and it remains true this year – your passion in the points and miles world has true and positive impact in your readers in the real world. Thank you and happy holidays!!
You guys are my favorite.
Suggestion….have Stephen do his GC Galore work here at FM