Monday Shakeout: How Much Does Doctors of Running Make? Report #6

 

Happy Monday runners! Each year since 2022 we try to release two reports a year to share how much the team is making. We believe in transparency and want to highlight where our sources of income are coming from. In our sixth report, we recap our biggest six month period ever. This report is a bit late because we've been trying to sort some info out these months, but before we got to mid-2024, we wanted to get this out so we could share a bit about what's been going on for the team.

Monday Shakeout | How Much Does Doctors of Running Make? (Report #6)
By Social Media Wizard Bach Pham

Doctors of Running Financial Summary - Quick Look

July Revenue: $7,869
August Revenue: $7,589
September Revenue: $8,654
October Revenue: $11,169
November Revenue: $12,952
December Revenue: $9,232
Affiliate + Sponsorships: $4,323
Total for July - December 2023: $61,788
Prior six months: $30,606

WEBSITE AD REVENUE | RAPTIVE

We use Raptive (formerly Adthrive) as our revenue source for the website. Raptive is essentially an infinitely better Google AdSense for larger websites. It works with hundreds of brands to provide ads on our website. Once we grew to 100,000 page views a month, we were able to apply and graduate from Google Adsense to Raptive.

Raptive has been the biggest reason we've been able to grow and support our team and journey over the past three years. Not only has it helped improve revenue a good deal, but they've also been excellent to work with from a support side.

Here is our past six months of revenue we received monthly from Adthrive:

July: $7,519
August:  $7,239
September: $8,214
October: $10,669
November: $12,452
December: $8,707

There's definitely a lot of things that happened during this part of 2023. We grew significantly in readership during this time period, peaking at 860,000 readers in December. Comparatively, our prior six months we averaged around 500,000 readers. I'll get to more of this growth in the conclusion, but it definitely has been incredibly rewarding to see all our work be well-received. Doctors of Running is a 10+ year project now of our founder Matt Klein, and it's really amazing to see things come together and lead to where we are today as a six member team.

AFFILIATE REPORT | OUR SOURCES OF INCOME

We have four sources of income at Doctors of Running. Raptive, mentioned above, is our biggest source of income. Our other three sources are affiliate links through Running Warehouse, sponsorships through the podcast and our YouTube revenue.

We do not accept compensation for reviews and have no plans to ever do so. We often see a lot of comments about reviewers receiving compensation for reviews. For those who are curious, we have never, ever been offered compensation for reviews at Doctors of Running. We have been offered to join affiliate programs directly by some running footwear companies, but we do not accept those either (we do, however, work with Running Warehouse - more below). We do receive footwear for free from many companies, but do our best to not allow that to affect our final reviews. Our reviews are not provided to companies for review prior to release or altered based on expectations from companies. They are 100% our own thoughts and feelings on the shoe.

We have been offered opportunities to do some sponsored social media posts/videos in the past, but have not delved into that as of 2024. One of the biggest barriers for us is having our background as PTs. We try to be very careful about what we get behind and make sure to consider all the nuances of what a partnership with different products may mean when we're sharing it with the public. That internal conflict has made it fairly hard for us to say yes to partnership so far. However, if anyone works for Chewy and would like to sponsor our team's running cats, please email us at doctorsofrunning@gmail.com (look, I had to try okay?).

RUNNING WAREHOUSE AFFILIATE

In 2021, we began working with Running Warehouse, who have been the best in a lot of ways. Through affiliate link sales via our website and YouTube, this is how much money was generated from Running Warehouse in 2023:

(Q3) RW Affiliate Funds: $2,524
(Q4) RW Affiliate Funds: $1,798

As always, I want to be clear that it is not our mission to just go out and sell as many shoes as we can on a daily basis. Our mission has always been to give runners information to help make informed choices and hopefully learn a few lessons along the way that can help their running long term. Getting the right shoe for you is 100% the goal of ours at Doctors of Running. If you purchase using our affiliate links, that's amazing and we really appreciate the support. If you decide to go elsewhere or better yet, to your local run store to try and purchase the shoe, that's all the better in our eyes.

This is not 2023 related, but we are incredibly excited to share our new Doctors of Running Running Warehouse page which features the team's favorite apparel and running essentials. We worked with Running Warehouse this spring to come up with the concept and they did an incredible job of bringing it to life. Please check it out and let us know what you think!

YOUTUBE AD REVENUE

We started receiving our first YouTube ad revenue back in February of 2021 after we passed 1000 followers - the minimum to start earning on YouTube. The following is a rough estimate of each month. We had some discrepancy due to some issues with paperwork that remains an issue. Here's how we did during this timeframe:

Doctors of Running YouTube Revenue: July through December 2023
January YouTube Revenue: $350
February YouTube Revenue: $350
March YouTube Revenue: $440
April YouTube Revenue: $500
May YouTube Revenue: $500
June YouTube Revenue: $525

The second half of 2023 was a huge time for not just us with a lot of major releases on the table. In particular, the Asics Kayano and GT-2000 12 were very popular shoes that garnered a lot of questions for our team. We also swapped to a more structured weekly format with podcast releases each Sunday on YouTube and reviews throughout the week which we felt has been a good return for us that not only made life a lot easier to plan around, but also brought some stability (pun intended) for our page.

One of the things we are still working to figure out is really balancing what goes on the channel. We'd love to share everything and talk about every shoe, but there unfortunately is an algorithm to YouTube that doesn't seem to favor that strategy. With such limited time, it's hard to produce videos on every shoe when only a small portion of the audience sees it, so we've had to make some difficult decisions on what gets video vs. what is website-only.

We're always looking for thoughts and recommendations for growing the channel, so if you have any ideas feel free to send them our way.

REFLECTING ON DOR'S 2023 GROWTH

There's no doubt that this six month period was the biggest ever at Doctors of Running. Everything didn't just grow; it exploded from our readership to our viewership and even listener-ship. We felt like we really hit our stride and were doing a good job at finding a good rhythm. We added new segments to our work and just really brought everything together in a way that's felt right. The Monday Shakeout has been something we particularly have enjoyed just to give a space to talk about things that don't fit in the context of shoe reviews. We also during this time really honed in on what we felt made sense for us in terms of the podcast which really helped put much needed structure down for the team.

There's really nothing about 2023 we would have changed. We focused on what we did best and how to make it so that we could keep repeating it week to week. We also put together a system that felt more sustainable for the team week-in and week-out (Burnout is something we are always weary about, and something we still are working to avoid. Shoutout to individual content creators who manage to do what they do daily 365 days a year).

While we walked away from 2023 with a lot of success, it has made 2024 a new challenge of figuring out what the next phase of DOR looks like as we try to continue to grow. With deeply full-time jobs and expanding careers, finding ways to continue to evolve has not been an easy task, but we think we have a few exciting things ahead that will help us make that happen.

That's about it for our sixth summary report. Please shoot us an email to doctorsofrunning@gmail.com to let us know how we can continue to better serve you.


PAST MONDAY SHAKEOUTS

What Happens to Soles Over Time?
Do Super Shoes Reduce Muscle Soreness?
Chest Straps vs. Wrist Monitors for Heart Rate
Everything is Becoming Maximalist and Super
Do We Adapt to Shoes, or Do They Adapt to Us
Research on Finding Optimal Shoes and the RUN-CAT
About the 1st MTP and its Role in Running
What is Drop and Why It Doesn't Always Matter
The Science of Sole Width
Challenges with Large Toe Spring
Phases of the Swing Gait
Can Running Shoes Reduce Injuries?
The Best Shoes of 2023 for Highly Specific Reasons
Andrea's Favorite Shoes of 2023
David's Favorite Shoes of 2023
Matt's Favorite Shoes of 2023
My Favorite Flat Feet Shoes of 2023
ChatGPT Reviews a Shoe, Volume 2
How Forefoot Rockers Help Toe Mobility
Running with Backpacks
How Much Does Doctors of Running Make?
Changes We're Excited to See
Why Heel Bevels are Natural
Do Heavier Runners Need Different Shoes?
Shoe Rotations for Different Runners
Strength Training to Prevent Injury - A Case Study
On the Impacts of Different Stacked Shoes
The Importance of Heel Bevels in Shoe Design
Low vs. High Drop Shoes
Why is Proprioception Important to Runners?
Best Running Movie Scenes of All-Time, Part 2
Best Running Movie Scenes of All-Time, Part 1
What a Week at DOR is Like
Reflections on Saucony's Running Economy Study
Sustainable is Only Going to Work if It's Good
A Simple Guide to Footwear and Foot Health
Best Flat Feet Shoes by a Flat Feet Runner
How Long Do Shoes Last?

SUPPORT DOR

Check out Gear We Love! (As noted, the following links are affiliate links that help support Doctors of Running. Thanks so much!) 

Ultraspire Fitted Race Belt: The best way to carry your phone and goods on the run. No bounce and various sizes for waist. (Also recommend the Naked belt)
Saysky Running Gear: We were really taken aback by this Scandinavian company's ultra-thin, durable performance clothing
Skratch Recovery, Coffee Flavor: Mental and physical boost post run. Coffee flavor is excellent and goes great straight into a fresh brewed cup
goodr Sunglases: Run in style with goodr's super fun sunglasses.
Feetures Socks: Massively grippy socks that will make you feel more one with the shoe
Amphipod Hydraform Handheld Water Bottle: Perfect for long runs when you need hydration in the summer
Trigger Point Foam Roller: Help get those knots out post-run and feel better for tomorrow
Theragun Massager: This small version is great on the go for working tired legs
Ciele Hat: Our team's favorite running hat of choice!
Fractel Hats: Our team's wider fitting running hat of choice!

GUIDES AT DOCTORS OF RUNNING

Beginner's Guide to Running Shoes: Are you a brand new runner and unsure where to start? Visit this guide first to get started.
Stability Shoe Resource Page: Our comprehensive guide to stability shoes and alternatives for neutral runners as well
Carbon Fiber Plated Shoes Resource Page: Want to go as fast as possible for race day? Visit this page for all of our super shoe reviews
Guide to Walking Shoes: Featuring some science behind walking and the best running shoes for walking based on our everyday testing and clinical experience working with patients.
Getting the Right Fit: Unsure if your shoe fits? Visit this page to help you determine how to find the right shoe for your feet. Comfort is one of the most important things we emphasize at Doctors of Running before you get out the door and on the road. Sometimes the right shoe for you is not what works for many others. That is why it is important to try different shoes when you can to get a better understanding of works best for your needs.
Beginner's Guide to Nutrition/Hydration: Guest writer Jennifer Giles (Registered Dietitan/Nutritionist) helps bring a new guide for fueling to Doctors of Running as part of our summer hydration series.

Find all Shoe Reviews at Doctors of Running here.

Thanks for reading!

FOLLOW DOCTORS OF RUNNING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: Doctors of Running
Youtube Channel: Doctors of Running
Instagram: @doctorsofrunning
Twitter: @doctorsrunning
LinkedIn: Doctors of Running
Strava: Doctors of Running
Podcast: Virtual Roundtable
Pinterest: Doctors of Running

Please feel free to reach out, comment and ask questions!
Contact us at doctorsofrunning@gmail.com

NEXT: What Happens to Soles Over Time?