Doctors of Running, Mid-2021 Financial Report
In an effort to be fully transparent about what we do, we decided to release our first ever financial report at Doctors of Running (DOR). This report will be done biannually to help showcase what we have going on and help us figure out where we are as a team every six months as we continue to grow.
This first financial report is admittedly going to be unique. Some truths about our past six months: after a long hiatus of issues, we only just got our Adsense back up and running around March - April for the website. Adsense makes a large portion of our finances right now. We'll talk more in detail there soon. We also just reached our first 1000 subscribers on YouTube around the end of January, which allowed us to start getting YouTube ad revenue (which also goes through Adsense). Finally, we have started at the very beginning of the year earning affiliate links through Running Warehouse. So in general, despite being around awhile we currently have only started getting any finances back this year.
In this report we'll not only break down how much we make and look at a few demographics. We hope this information is helpful for content creators in the running shoe game and useful for you the reader.
Background on Doctors of Running
Currently Doctors of Running's principal team consists of four people: Chief Editor and Founder Matt Klein, Chief Contributor/Company Relations Manager Nathan Brown, Chief Contributor David Salas, and Social Media Manager Bach Pham. The team works full-time jobs (teaching/physical therapy/communications) and works on Doctors of Running before and after hours. We currently have upwards of 15+ "partners" - companies that help seed Doctors of Running with footwear for the purpose of review.
We have not received any compensation from companies. We are not currently sponsored in any capacity by any companies. Our "partnerships" enable us to have access to shoes and in some cases relationships with developers to help better understand the products they release. From a shoe geek perspective, it's been truly amazing to have had the chance to sit down with some product managers to learn more about the shoes and help us be better reviewers and educators. It also has been an opportunity for companies to ask our feedback for future product development from a biomechanics and clinical perspective. This has not affected how we provide our opinions of shoes though. We have never been compensated for reviewing a shoe or have been asked to direct our reviews in any way.
We additionally purchase shoes and products annually for review if we cannot get access to it. Some purchases from 2021 thus far have include the Nike Pegasus 38, the Coros Apex 46mm, and the Hoka Torrent 2. We have several more purchases to be reviewed in the coming weeks and will identify those purchases in the review.
Adsense
On and off through DOR's history, we have primarily made any source of revenue through Adsense. We've had ongoing issues with it over the past year to the point where it was just out of commission for upwards of six months before we finally were able to stabilize it this past March as we folded our newly-grown YouTube and website Adsense together. This means we only started earning revenue again as of April.
April Revenue: $154.98
March Revenue (with first YouTube payment): $321.95
Total Adsense payout per Doctors of Running Staff for all of Mid-2021 (Jan 1 - June 28): $119.23
Our current goal is to work on growth and move on to a new ad revenue system which we hope will give us a little more support and grow the team. It is important to note that we also try our best to keep ads to a minimum, because we feel having readers see the content is more important than the financial aspects. For those familiar with Adsense, we currently have it set to "Auto Ads" which allows Adsense to place ads where it believes is most effective, but also have ads set to the lower end of the scale, with ads like bottom of the page banners turned off. This is not optimal in terms of profit, but a decision we hope to stick to if it means making the page as accessible as possible.
YouTube Adsense Breakdown
We reached 1000 subscribers, the minimal threshold to earn revenue on YouTube, around the end of January. The system did not allow us to officially start earning ads until mid-to-late February. Here's a look at the monthly breakdown:
Our peak YouTube performance was in March when we introduced the Metaspeed Sky and Magic Speed, earning our most views ever on a video. It currently sits at over 12,000 views on YouTube. In the last two months we have had to step back our video work to help balance work/life.
This is something we wanted to highlight and think harder on long term. Our demographic on YouTube currently has been astronomically male over the past year. This is a trend we're seeing with other reviewers as well. We hope to work on this via some important changes in the second half of 2021.
In general for earnings related to YouTube, it is definitely a slower stream of income as we’re still a relatively small account with less emphasis on video production. We’re interested in seeing where it goes though!
Affiliate Earnings
We currently have three affiliate link partnerships: Running Warehouse, Fleet Feet, and Amazon. The latter two we have only used sparsely and are still weighing how to best use them. Running Warehouse so far as been our biggest affiliate link partnership with most reviews containing at least one link. In our first quarter with them, we had been slow to grow and incorporate their products. We, however, were able to earn $77.83 between January through March (thank you!!). The bulk of the profits came in February ($66.12). We had not officially gotten any earnings in March at the time. We are awaiting our next quarterly earnings and are excited to see what that looks like as we've grown quite a bit.
Total Earnings
With Adsense being the majority of our earnings, we have earned $554.76 as a team of four so far in 2021. We realize that ultimately, we still have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be. At the same time, we all agree that we are in a unique position to test and try more shoes than most and talk about shoes in a way that few get the opportunity to. While more earnings would be amazing for helping growing the team and also support the time it takes to make Doctors of Running tick weekly, we're also trying to take some time to recognize that we've been really fortunate to be in the spot we are in to grow and look forward to what's ahead. This is not a full time job for our team, but it gets us excited doing what we do for Doctors of Running week in and week out. We hope the work we do is helpful to you the reader/runner as well.
Thanks so much for checking out our first financial report! If you are interested in working with Doctors of Running in any way or asking more about what we do, send us an email at doctorsofrunning@gmail.com.
Speaking of affiliates, please feel free to help us out by purchasing shoes through the use of the following Running Warehouse links:
Running Warehouse US | Running Warehouse EU | Running Warehouse Australia
Find us on Social Media
Facebook: Doctors of Running
Youtube Channel: Doctors of Running
Instagram: @doctorsofrunning
Strava Club: Doctors of Running
Podcast: Virtual Roundtable
Recently at Doctors of Running
Saucony Omni 20 Review - Guest reviewer Ryan Flugaur checked in on the latest premium stability model from Saucony!
Mizuno Wave Rider 25 Review - The Rider reaches a landmark year, now featuring soft full length Enerzy foam for a next generation ride
Adidas Boston 10 Review - Boston gets revolutionized as it leans into its racing sibling the Adios Pro 2 with Lightstrike Pro midsole and energy rods
Coros Apex 46mm Review - David Salas checks in on the Coros Apex which he's used extensively for track and trail running these past few months
Thanks for reading!
It means a lot that you take the time to swing by and check us out. Thank you.
- DOR Team
